Los Angeles Lakers Rosters, Statistics, Records, News, and More!
What’s Up, Doc?
09.03.10
I used to respect Doc Rivers. He had a solid NBA playing career. He coached a championship team. Then he started saying Laker starting five haven’t beaten Celtic starting five. And I’m thinking we’ve got some revisionist history going on here. First of all, Kobe & Bynum, two of the five starting Lakers. had surgery in the off-season. So I wouldn’t exactly call them healthy for the playoffs. In addition, injuries are part of the game. When the Celtics beat the Lakers in the 2008 Finals, I didn’t go around saying the Lakers would have won if Bynum had played and Ariza had been healthier. Nor do I recall hearing anyone in the Laker organization making 
excuses. You play the 5 best players you can and you live with the results. Does Doc think the Celtics should be declared champions because Kendrick Perkins couldn’t play in one of the seven games played for the finals? (The math here is 3 Celtic losses with Perkins playing + 1 loss with him not playing = Lakers are True Champions)
Let’s review some NBA history.
In 2004, Karl Malone was the starting power forward for the Lakers, and he was injured prior to the finals match-up against the Detroit Pistons. Now as the Lakers lost in 5 games, I don’t believe they necessarily would have won had the Mailman been uninjured. I think the Lakers were highly dysfunctional that season, Shaq’s last as a Laker. But this is another example of a team losing with one started being hobbled. When the Lakers lost to the Pistons 15 years earlier in 1989, they had entered the finals undefeated before being swept. Now when your starting backcourt goes down with hamstring injuries, that’s gonna affect team play. And when one of those players is Magic Johnson – well, nuff said. But just as you can have injuries (or calls) work against you, sometimes it’s the other team that has misfortune. Such as the Celtics in 2010 or the Pistons in 1988, when Isaiah Thomas played on a sprained ankle. Even a couple of years earlier than that, I seem to remember Larry Bird suffering from some back problems.
So my point is that it balances out – some seasons your team is healthy and other years it’s the opposing team that’s in better shape.
It all has to do with how you respond to adversity. To the 2010 Celtics credit, they managed to build a 13 point lead on the road in game 7. They just couldn’t close it out. Thirty years ago, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, starting center for the Lakers, sprained his ankle in game 5. The Lakers next game was in Philadelphia, but the team didn’t get down. Magic Johnson came onto center court, jumped as center, and played perhaps the greatest game of his career (OK, it was his greatest game). Which is really how you always want you team to respond to a teammates injury, by pulling together and playing a little harder. I’m just surprised Doc doesn’t blame the refs, the commissioner or the weather for losing as well. What’s up, Doc? I’ll tell you what’s up. My blood pressure, from listening to you whine and make excuses about not winning. Here’s a challenge for you – make it to the finals this year and show everyone the Celtics weren’t just another one and done team.
The Countdown to 2010-11 Begins. Lakerstats Updated for New Season!
08.10.10
The NBA released its full 2010-2011 team schedules today, which means next season is getting closer as the Lakers go for a three in a row for the second time under Phil Jackson.
Coinciding with the schedules being released today, we of course updated our 2010-2011 Lakers schedule as well. We also updated the current team roster and added in Steve Blake, Matt Barnes, and Theo Ratliff and their respective player bios. All the other different yearly areas of the site have been updated for the new season as well. Of course there’s not much data in them yet.
We’ve also completely revamped large portions of the site, cleaning data up, and combining some sections as well. If you look around, you’ll see some new sections that we haven’t had before like the Uniforms page for example. We now break out individual playoff seasons and All-Star game numbers in all player bios. Before the playoff numbers were just totals and we never had the All-Star stats at all. We’ve also re-worked a bunch of areas to make them more user-friendly and easier to find stats and information. Some of them were just too hard to navigate, and that’s been simplified.
Lastly, we’ve gotten the entire Team Records section up to date, it had been a little outdated and wasn’t 100% accurate. It is complete now and will update automatically as the season goes on. So if you want to track say Kobe’s career point totals after every game, this is the place to come. We do have to re-work back in some of the individual game and miscellaneous records, but we will do that soon.
So that’s it, looking forward to a great season and continuing to keep Lakerstats living up to its namesake. Any questions or comments, you can send us an e-mail by clicking the “Contact Us” link at the bottom of the site. Thanks for your support.
Back-To-Back! Lakers Rally, Beat Celtics In 7 For 16th Title!
06.17.10
It wasn’t pretty, but it couldn’t have felt sweeter, as the Los Angeles Lakers won their 16th NBA Championship (2nd straight) 83-79 over the Boston Celtics Thursday night at the Staples Center, in a thrilling Game 7.
The Lakers, pushed to the brink of elimination just two days earlier, rallied from a 13-point second half deficit in Game 7, led by the hard-nosed play of Pau Gasol who scored 19 points and grabbed 18 rebounds, and Ron Artest who put in 20 points and recorded 5 steals.
Kobe Bryant struggled shooting the ball all night, going 6-24 from the field, but still managed to score 23 points and grab 15 rebounds. His 17-footer with just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter put the Lakers up 68-64, as they held on down the stretch for the win. Bryant was named the series MVP, averaging 28.6 points, 8 rebounds, and 3.9 assists, his second straight Finals MVP award, and his fifth title.
The game was ragged all night, with both teams struggling to find any rhythm offensively, as it seemed everyone was feeling the pressure of a seventh game. The Celtics built a 49-36 lead late in the third quarter before the Lakers chipped away and got it to 64-61 midway through the fourth, when Derek Fisher hit a high-arcing 3-pointer to tie the game. That play seemed to breath life into the Lakers as they took the lead on two Kobe Bryant free throws and never looked back. The title was Fisher’s fifth as well, as he once again showed his big game heroics.
Phil Jackson, who may retire this offseason, won his 11th title as a coach, putting him now two ahead of Red Auerbach all-time. His teams are now an amazing 48-0 when winning the first game of any series.
The win marked the first time the Lakers have beaten the Celtics in a Game 7, they previously were 0-4 in such situations against the men in green. The Lakers franchise now sits just one title behind Boston (17-16) for the most all-time. Before the 80’s, the lead was 13-6 in favor of the Celtics.
With the core of the team returning next season, there is no reason why the Lakers can’t get their first 3-peat since 2000-2002. But for now, all is right with the world, the Lakers are champs….again!!
Purple Reign!! Lakers Win 2009 NBA Championship!
06.15.09
The Los Angeles Lakers took home the 2009 NBA Championship defeating the Orlando Magic 99-86 Sunday night in Orlando.
The title marked a whirlwind year for Lakers, who rebounded from last year’s crushing defeat in Boston in Game 6 of the Finals, to a convincing 4-1 series win over Orlando this year. Kobe Bryant was named the Finals MVP, averaging 32.4 points and 7.4 assists for the five games. It also marked the first time Kobe has won the award, and he now has four NBA titles, his first since 2002.
Phil Jackson also set a milestone with the win, giving him 10 titles as a coach, finally passing the Celtics’ legendary Red Auerbach. It was Jackson’s first championship in seven years, ending the longest title-less stretch of his career. He was won 10 titles in his 19 years as a head coach, six with the Bulls and now four with the Lakers.
The win also gives the Laker franchise it’s 15th world title, second all-time in league history, and once again only two behind the Boston Celtics. They’ve now won 10 titles in Los Angeles, and Jerry Buss has nine as owner.
Besides Kobe’s heroics, the Lakers can also thank Derek Fisher for hitting two clutch 3-pointers in Game 4 that helped propel the team to a 3-1 series lead, and ultimately the title in Game 5. For the popular Fisher, he now joins Kobe with four titles, bringing his career full circle after returning to the Lakers in 2007.
Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom both rebounded from a sub-par Finals against the Celtics last year to help the Lakers dominate inside and control the Magic’s All-Star center Dwight Howard, who had trouble get untracked offensively for most of the series. It was the ultimate victory for the two players, who took their share of off-season criticism they were “too soft” to lead the Lakers up front to a title. How untrue that statement turned out to be.
Congrats to Laker fans everywhere! A parade celebrating the Lakers win will be on Wednesday, June 17 starting at 11 AM near Staples Center.
Quotables: Lakers Trounce Raptors 112-99
12.01.08
Here is a collection of quotes following the Lakers 112-99 win over the Toronto Raptors at Staples Center, to run their record to an NBA-best 14-1.
Lakers Coach Phil Jackson
On Kobe Bryant:
“He’s looking to pass the ball. I thought he stayed aggressive in the things that we had to have.”
On Team:
“I think 10-5 would have been great with us, but we’ve been playing well enough to get that momentum. Now we’re just playing on momentum most of the time.”
“It’s human nature to get lackadaisical and for us to believe that things are going to go right for us because they have in the past. But we are only successful in the moment. And you have to prove it again and again, especially in sports.”
On Andrew Bynum and his injury:
“There’s going to be a period of adjustment he has to go through. He’s going to have to find a way to get through this. And if he does, then we’re going to feel pretty good until the next incident happens—and then we’ll have to deal with that at that time. But unless this moves around in his foot, we’re in pretty good shape if he can adjust his play to accommodate that.”
Lakers Guard Kobe Bryant
On needing 38 points to become the youngest to 22,000 points:
“To be honest, I don’t follow anything of that sort. I just go out there and do what I do, I don’t care about that stuff. You guys got me all wrong. I just play. I play hard, and I play the same way all the time. I never concern myself with milestones or anything like that.”
“We’re just playing well, playing in rhythm. We understand each other. We’ve been together for a while.”
“The first quarter was a little bit of a slow start for us defensively, but then we were able to dig our heels in and get used to the rhythm. We tried to corral Bosh a little bit. They had some double-digit deficits and the rhythm of the game was kind of getting away from them a little bit. They were looking to take some 3-point shots in transition and kind of got away from going to him a little bit.”
Lakers Forward Pau Gasol
“We expect to win every night. We have great expectations. Fourteen-and-one doesn’t surprise me with the team we have.”
Lakers Center Andrew Bynum
“Our rebounding was big. They weren’t very impressive inside with J.O. (Jermaine O’Neal) out and we were able to take advantage of it.”
Lakers Forward Trevor Ariza
“We have the versatility to play any kind of way. The way the NBA is, that’s a good thing because we can slow the ball down, we can run up and down the court, we can do whatever.”
On putting inferior teams away early:
“Honestly, I don’t know what it is. We’re not doing it on purpose. Everybody in the NBA is a pretty good team. Most of the time, we can’t just beat them in the first quarter.”
Raptors Coach Sam Mitchell
“I saw a lot of good things. We showed a level of toughness. I thought we boxed out. We just couldn’t get any rebounds. We got some good looks, but didn’t make them all.”
Raptors Forward Chris Bosh
“I know that good teams are not going to let me just get off offensively. They did a great job of trapping and their rotations were really good. I didn’t get too many good shots all night and I made some costly turnovers.”
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