Lakers Thread

With four regular-season games remaining, Kobe Bryant said he's ready to lead his team into the postseason after missing the cut last year.

"I'm already there," said Bryant, who has been on a scoring tear, putting up at least 38 points in each of his last five games. "When the postseason comes around, obviously the intensity level rises tremendously and it's going to be exciting to see how guys respond."

The Lakers (41-37) will play Golden State tonight at Staples Center, followed by another home game against Portland on Friday.

On Monday, Coach Phil Jackson returned to basics and had the Lakers work on principles of the triangle offense with the help of assistant Tex Winter.

"Phil made it a point to go back to the very beginning," assistant Brian Shaw said. "We've been getting kind of sloppy and he wanted to tighten things up as we head down the stretch."

Although Bryant — four games away from this season's scoring title — has been taking a lot of shots, he's been shooting better than 50% (82 for 162) over the last five games.

"We have to win these games and I'm trying to lead by example," Bryant said. "My role on this team is to put the ball in the basket. So I go out there and try and do what I do best. Try and make it infectious for everybody else. Like for Kwame Brown to go out to be aggressive and effective defensively, and Lamar [Odom] to be the facilitator of our offense and playing with that type of intensity.

"We have a lot of guys who have never been in the playoffs. I'm looking forward to the challenge. The playoffs are a different game where you have an opportunity to break down an opponent. I'm excited."


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Since the NBA trade deadline in late February, Odom has grown into a more consistent force within the Lakers' offense.

"Just learning the triangle and being a lot more confident in the way I'm going to get my shots," said Odom, who has averaged nearly 18 points, 10 rebounds and four assists over his last four games. "It took me some time to really learn the offense."

Another factor for Odom has been his conditioning.

"Being in shape has also helped me," he said. "Although I'm tired, I'm at the point where I can push through anything right now."


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Shaw on Jackson's coaching this season: "When he first arrived here, he had a team full of veteran players. He had guys who had played against the triangle for years and as a group, we picked it up a lot quicker. This year, it's been a constant teaching session with the guys, which has shown me as a young coach how much patience you have to have with your team. Everybody's learning curve is a little different."

^^ In the spirit of the lakers making the postseason

Someone asked Laker Coach Phil Jackson before the game with the Clippers to evaluate the job he has done, and he tried to be humble, which shocked me too.

"I think I've cost our team a lot of games," and when he noticed me enthusiastically agreeing with him, he amended his remarks and said he cost the Lakers about four games.

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He said there were times when he didn't call a timeout, "which would have meant standing up," I said, and he must have been in an unusually good mood, because he didn't walk away.

There were times, he repeated, when he allowed his players to "dangle a little bit" on their own to teach them a lesson rather than call a timeout, and maybe do some coaching. As a result, it cost the Lakers about four games.

For the record, I continue to have confidence in the guy, and still believe one day Jackson will be a really good coach, but I checked the standings to see where the Lakers would be had he been willing to stand up more often.

Four more wins and the Lakers would be 45-33, tied with the Clippers and separated by only percentage points, but putting them in position to possibly play Denver in the first round — and because of some crazy NBA rule, earning the home-court advantage.

That's certainly better than placing seventh, as it appears they will, beginning the playoffs in Phoenix and getting waxed, and so the next question was pretty obvious: "Do you think you earned the $10 million Jerry Buss gave you?"

"Definitely," Jackson said, while ending the news conference.

"Now I've got to go attend to my Buss," he said while throwing an arm around Jeanie Buss, and I guess no matter how this season ends, Jackson will be OK.


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THE CLIPPERS, while already "backing" into a playoff spot, as Jackson sniped before the game, will finish fifth or sixth. Fifth, and they probably play Dallas and get run over. Sixth, and they play Denver and begin most likely at home.

"So how do you arrange it to finish sixth?" I asked Coach Mike Dunleavy.

"You are suggesting we throw games," Dunleavy said.

"Do you know for a fact Corey Maggette is home right now and really injured?" I said, and I was kidding, I think, but if you have the chance to make the playoffs for the first time in forever, and either start at home against Denver or travel to San Antonio or Dallas….

"The best thing for us is to win every game," Dunleavy said, and then the Clippers went out and lost to the Lakers, and I should've known they already had things under control.

^^ It'd be awesome if LA won their last four games of the season!

Last edited by Fresh8 on Wed Apr 12, 2006 9:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

You bastard! You double posted to get the 1000th post!

Both are nice reads.

edit: Sit you bastard.

You bastard! You double posted to get the 1000th post!

A SPAMMING Laker fans got to do what a SPAMMING Laker fans got to do!

did u guys hear about Bynum.....hes grew 1 inch..hes 7' 1'' now.....couple more years he might turn into Shaq Jr. for Kobe...........

Lakers on a roll in the third period... Lamar, Kwame doing excellent jobs for the team!

Lamar got his TD and Kwame and Smush have played very well.. Kobe 31 in 20 mins, nuff said. Lakers winning 95-77, so i think the reserves will be getting a bit of time in the fourth.

That was an awesome no-look pass by Kobe to Kwame. I was scared when Kobe was hurt. Good thing he's tough.

It took him about four-tenths of a second to find it.

It was Sunday, about 2 a.m., in the Bay Area home of a Los Angeles son.

Derek Fisher had just returned from an eighth consecutive loss with his Golden State Warriors, a team beneath all hope, a team beyond all relevance, a champion out of his mind.

What happened? Those three rings, where did they go? Where did he go?

"I was really down," Fisher said. "I really needed to appreciate some of the things I had done."

He knew just where to look.

In his office, on the wall above his desk, there is a blown-up photo of his game-winning shot for the Los Angeles Lakers with 0.4 of a second remaining in the 2004 Western Conference semifinals against the San Antonio Spurs.

It was a shot that will live forever in T-shirts and testaments and wherever they are talking Lakers. It was one of the two biggest shots in the biggest era in team history.

Fisher sank into his desk chair and soaked it all in.

The feeling lasted only as long as that shot.

Thirty-seven million dollars doesn't buy what it used to.

He turned to his wife, Candace.

"Losing stinks," he said.

It was corny, but it's spring, and it's the Lakers, and I couldn't help it.

When I shook Derek Fisher's hand during another return visit to Staples Center on Tuesday night, it just spilled out like one of those loose balls he was always grabbing.

"I miss you," I told him.

"Thanks," he said, laughing. "I get that a lot."

Especially now, during playoff time, when the shadowed Laker became the strongest Laker.

For all of Fisher's eight years here, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were the headlines, but he was the heart, a steady beat that often kept the locker room from imploding and games from disintegrating.

That heart popped out to his sleeve when he sank that game-winning jumper that essentially finished the Spurs and sent the Lakers toward the NBA finals two seasons ago.

And then, nearly as quick, Fisher was gone.

With the sports world crowded around the Laker front door to watch the departing O'Neal and Phil Jackson, Fisher slipped out the back while nobody was looking.

On the same day Kobe Bryant shouted he was staying, Fisher whispered that he was leaving.

Bryant phoned Fisher immediately after his news conference to beg him to stay.

"But a couple of hours earlier, I had just told Golden State that I was coming there," Fisher said.

If he wonders what would have happened if Bryant had reached him earlier, he won't say.

But you know he does.

What if Bryant's muscle could have convinced the Lakers to increase their three-year, $16.5 million offer? What if Bryant could have talked the Lakers into making Fisher the starting point guard, a position that wound up going to Chucky Atkins?

As it was, Fisher said he had no choice.

The Warriors not only offered him an astounding six-year, $37 million contract but also promised that he would be the starter.

"I know people aren't going to believe this when you write it, but the main thing wasn't the money, it was the change in my role," Fisher said. "I had spent eight years jumping back and forth from the bench. I was ready to run a team. The Warriors were going to give me that chance."

The Lakers saw Fisher differently. They saw him as the consummate role player. He wasn't the rhinestones, he was the glue. And, while an invaluable ingredient in today's NBA, glue doesn't sell for $37 million.

"It's hard for me to say, but Derek did the right thing," said Mitch Kupchak, Laker general manager. "When a player gets an offer like that, you have to take it."

And then, as often happens in these cases, the offer took him.

The offer grabbed Derek Fisher around the neck and dragged him through two years of losing like he has never lost, plopped back on a bench he thought he had escaped, placed him in front of a TV set during playoffs that always included him.

Speedy Claxton, then newly acquired Baron Davis, supplanted him as the full-time starter. He is averaging a career-high 13.2 points this season, but he's also probably leading the league in sleepless nights, once not leaving the locker room until 12:30 a.m., another time tossing in his hotel room until 6 a.m.

"I'm not looking back, this is an important experience to me as a man, learning more about myself, learning how to deal with a different kind of adversity," Fisher said Tuesday evening, flashing his trademark smile.

And for four-tenths of a second, you almost believed him.

- Sucks to be Fish, I wish he never left... he was good player but a great man/teammate!

Triple double for Lamar, 15 pts and 15 rbs for Kwame, 18 pts for Smush....yup, good game guys.


Of course Kobe had an off night with 31 points.


I hope the Lakers can stay focused and really make some noise come playoff time. I'm excited now, 'I can taste it'.

an off night with 31 points.

Strange, isn't it. 30 is considered an off night. Meanwhile, f Nash scores thirty suddenly it's "Z0MG n45h 4 MVP!!!!! h3 r0xxorz!!!!111!!!!"

Kobe has raised the bar for himself in relation to his scoring it's not funny... if he scores 30, its usually considered that he does it with ease and it's nothing huge. If he averages 30 instead of 35 next season, people better not start saying, "Kobe's gonna retire soon' or something.

You guys are able to make an issue out of something that's totally non exsistant. Expect no less from the bunch of you though.

Nash scores thirty suddenly it's "Z0MG n45h 4 MVP!!!!! h3 r0xxorz!!!!111!!!!"

Now you understand why some people hate Kobe fans this much? You guys did that exact thing you've grown to hate about Nash fans, everytime Kobe scored 30.

Of course Kobe had an off night with 31 points.

Triple double for Lamar, 15 pts and 15 rbs for Kwame, 18 pts for Smush

A drop in scoring is bound to happen when you finally have three teammates score in double figures at the same time.
Stop posting while your drunk dadamafia.

You meant he had an off night?
He had 30 by halftime, and as the Lakers blew it out in the third quater, he was just being in the offense and then didnt play the 4th.

He let his teammates play in the third quarter. And the reserves came in in the fourth quarter.

so what do u think the lakers will play first round....mavs,spurs or suns.....it all depends if lakers win or not...and how well the spurs can keep #1 spot before mavs can get it.....

Hoping Clips lose 4th straight! Im aiming for Denver in first round haha

Clips losing 4 straight? lol I wish.

Me too! but its possible!

Seems like tanking games is a necessity now for playoff bound teams. Damn that retarded seeding system.

Maybe what the Lakers need is a little incentive as they play their final three regular-season games and head into the NBA playoffs seeded No. 7 or 8 in the Western Conference.

Maybe what they need is for someone of certain prominence to say they have no shot at going very far in the playoffs and give them a "we'll-show-you" attitude.

Who better to do that than TNT commentator and new Hall of Fame member Charles Barkley? He was more than happy to oblige in a phone conversation Thursday from Atlanta, where he was preparing for that night's "Inside the NBA" studio show.

The first question: If the Lakers somehow beat the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the playoffs, could they possibly go any further?

Barkley said it's possible for the Lakers to beat the Suns, but added, "That's as far as they could go. They'd [probably] be playing San Antonio or Dallas in the second round.

"And in the playoffs, you're going up against a good team for a week. Kobe [Bryant] would have to be spectacular every night, and I don't think he can do that in a seven-game series."

So what's wrong with the Lakers?

"They're lacking in a lot of areas, to be honest," Barkley said.

Are they a player or two away from again being a championship contender?

"Yeah, if those players are Magic [Johnson] and Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar]," he said.

"We're talking about [possibly] a No. 8 seed. A No. 8 seed is a long way from being a championship contender."

Seems like tanking games is a necessity now for playoff bound teams. Damn that retarded seeding system.

Makes me think of the Cavs and how they got Lebron sitting. Supposedly he is resting a minor injury but for a guy preparing for his first playoff appearance he should be logging some minutes since he isnt really an experienced vet who has proven to play well in the playoffs that way. I may be wrong but oh well.




Btw Kobe's numbers were down last game mainly cuz he didnt play as much minutes as usual. There have been many game where other guys had solid numbers while he also did.

You may still be right about the drunk part, since lately there has been alotta booze laying around the place and I cant resist.

Btw Kobe's numbers were down last game mainly cuz he didnt play as much minutes as usual. There have been many game where other guys had solid numbers while he also did.

He had 30 by the half and LA didnt need him in the 2nd half... so in theory he could have scored 50 if LA wanted him to in that game.

Btw Kobe's numbers were down last game mainly cuz he didnt play as much minutes as usual. There have been many game where other guys had solid numbers while he also did.

He had 30 by the half and LA didnt need him in the 2nd half... so in theory he could have scored 50 if LA wanted him to in that game.

See I crapped myself when i saw the box score, cause at half time he had thirty and i was getting ready to see one huge score by the end, i check the next morning and he's finished with 31. I don't check any further til i actually watch the game, he falls awkward and im thinking 'great he got injured so bad he can't score, we're screwed'. The relief i got from seeing him getting benched was on par with losing my virginity when drunk and waking up to discover it wasn't a fat chick.

peace

Games kinda close, Lakers leading 88-83.
Kobe with 39.
Lamar with another triple double. Now this is what I like to see.

edit:Kobe hit the big 5 0. Theres like a minute left.