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Lakers Run Over Grizzlies 124-105
11.02.10
Pau Gasol dunks over Hasheem Thabeet of Memphis.
It was another short night for the starters, as the Lakers dominated from start to finish, and dispatched the Memphis Grizzlies 124-105 at Staples Center on Tuesday night.
For the second straight game, the Lakers bench saw extensive action as the contest was blowout by early in the second quarter. Kobe Bryant scored all of his team-high 23 points in the first half, and played just 25 minutes.
In the battle of the Gasol brothers, Pau, coming off his Western Conference Player-of-the-Week award, easily won this match-up scoring 21 points, grabbing 13 rebounds, and dishing out five assists. Marc managed 11 points and eight rebounds, but was a non-factor most of the night as the game got out of hand early.
The Lakers led 34-23 after one, and turned up the offense in the second quarter, led by Bryant’s 14 points in the period, to take a 73-46 lead into halftime. The Grizzlies never got closer than 14 points in the second half, and the Laker reserves maintained the cushion throughout, even briefly pushing the lead up to 32. Matt Barnes led three Lakers in double-figures off the bench with 16 points and 14 rebounds. Shannon Brown scored 13, including 3-3 from the 3-point line, and Steve Blake added 10. The Lakers’ bench outscored the Grizzlies’ 50-30.
Lamar Odom scored 17 on 6-7 shooting, including eight rebounds, six assists, and a steal. Odom is averaging over 16 points and 12 rebounds to start the season.
Memphis was led by Rudy Gay’s 30 points, 12-18 from the field, and 3-3 from behind the arc. Mike Conley had 16 points and eight assists after signing a 5-year/$45 million extension earlier in the day. O.J. Mayo struggled from the floor scoring only eight points, on 3-11 shooting. He also had his troubles with Bryant on the offensive end, which has been a familiar story for the third-year pro when he has played against the Lakers.
All-Star forward Zach Randolph again sat out for the Grizzlies with a sore back injured on opening night. Memphis definitely missed his presence offensively and on the glass, as they were outrebounded 59-36.
The Lakers shot 51.2% from the field, and 14-23 (60.9%) from the 3-point line for the game, but again turned the ball over far too many times with 19. They had 20 turnovers two nights earlier in a blowout win against Golden St.
The Lakers play their first back-to-back games of the season as they take on the Sacramento Kings in Sacramento tomorrow night. The Kings are playing well at 3-1, and are coming off a win over Toronto, where they rallied from a 17-point first quarter deficit on Monday at home.
LAKER ROSTER: Lamar Odom
09.23.10
Lamar Odom, a 6’10” 30 year old forward remains the most enigmatic of players. He may give you a double double in points and rebounds, or he may have so few as you can count them on one hand. I believe his inconsistent play frustrates fans, his teammates, coaches, and management. The double-edged sword here is that his potential, like Andrew Bynum’s, is great enough that every trade rumor features him, and his salary is great enough that you could envision the Lakers doing it. Growing up in New York, his favorite player was Magic Johnson. And in his youth, Odom was an AAU teammate of Elton Brand and Ron Artest; his friendship with Ron-Ron would be another reason to keep him a Laker. Lamar was drafted by the Clippers after playing at Rhode Island, then spent one year in Miami. He came to the Lakers with Brian Grant and Caron Butler when Shaq was traded to the Heat. This will be his 12th season in the NBA. He is the Lakers 6th man and his main role is back-up to Pau Gasol at power forward position. He’s also capable of playing minutes at the small forward. Last season, he played in all 82 games, 38 as a starter, and averaged 11 points and 10 rebounds. This summer he was a major contributor on the US Team that won the gold medal in Turkey. He also has a bronze medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics. In case you hadn’t heard, he’s married to Khloe Kardashian.
LAKER ROSTER: The Rookies
09.14.10
As rookies, Devin Ebanks and Derrick Caracter can count on spending a lot of time at the end of the bench during the regular season, if they’re not shipped off to the Developmental League. In either case, you can view the presence of the rookies as addition by subtraction, as they won’t have to do much of anything to match the output of Josh Powell and Adam Morrison. Plus the combined salaries are considerably lower. And they are young. Ebanks, a 6’9″ 215 lb small forward from West Virginia, is only 20. Caracter, a 6’9″ 265 lb power forward from Texas-El Paso, is 22. As second round draft picks, no one should suffer from super high expectations here. I would only expect to see them playing in the preseason and games that are routs (one way or the other). My hope is that they work hard in practice, learn the offense, and realize that their role, coming off the bench, is to preserve and build on any lead that the starters create. Last season It seemed to me the bench was keen on jacking up long distance shots when they didn’t turn the ball over, and letting the opposition drive to the basket without offering much resistance. In short, perfo
rming poorly both offensively and defensively.
Ebanks has been compared to Trevor Ariza, and if he’s as good defensively, that works for me. The Lakers are a little thin at the power forward position, so I believe Caracter will have more opportunities for playing time. There have been some comparisons to Shaq, as far as commitment to conditioning anyway. His contract has incentives for him not to balloon up in weight.
The Lakers are one of the more veteran teams, so I like having a little youth as well. Management was sufficiently impressed with their potential to sign them to contracts, so here’s hoping they contribute in some fashion to the Three-peat.
It’s a long season, so having players that the coach has enough faith in to play during the season, thereby allowing the starters to rest, is critically important.
The Derrick Caracter Weight-Loss Contract
09.07.10
So apparently the Lakers have a new way to motivate rookie forward Derrick Caracter to stay in shape, “keep your weight down, and we’ll pay you.”
According to a report on ProBasketballTalk.com,
Caracter has a $473,000 contract this year with $250,000 guaranteed. If Caracter weighs 275 pounds or less on Sept. 10, the contract becomes fully guaranteed.
There is a future for Caracter in “Laker Land,” especially with the team letting both DJ Mbenga and Josh Powell go this off season. If Caracter can keep himself in shape, there is some playing time to be had. And it seems the Lakers are willing to reward him financially for doing so.
This writer knows that for $177k, he’d surely keep himself under 275 pounds. Of course it would take two of him to equal that weight, but I digress.
Maybe the Lakers should have thought about employing this when Shaq still wore purple and gold.
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.
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