Results tagged “losangeleslakers”

One of the crucial roles professional sports have is uniting a city in catharsis. In July 1967 the city of Detroit endured riots that claimed 43 lives and injured 467. In addition 7,231 people were arrested while damages estimated from $40 million to $80 million (not adjusted for inflation). In 1968 when the Detroit Tigers faced the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series, the city came together to cheer them on to victory.

Lakers Victory Parade and Rally. And that was how a victory parade should be. With the exception of a few knuckleheads outside the Coliseum, everyone was filled with joy cheering the Lakers. For all the detractors who said Los Angeles didn't deserve a parade after the actions of certain shiteaters Sunday night, tell me the thousands of people along the 2.2 miles of Figueroa Street between the Staples Center and the Coliseum and the 80,000 in the Coliseum itself didn't want some diversion from everyday struggles. Everything about this celebration was done exquisitely and served as a great dress rehearsal for November's parade. One last thing. For all you shitheads complaining about the cost burden of the city, what is $1 million more to a $500 million shortfall?

Phil Willion on the LA Times "LA Now" blog reports that the City of LA found enough private donors to cover their $1 million share of the Lakers parade Wednesday. Previously it was agreed between Staples Center owner Anschultz Entertainment Group would split the $2 million cost evenly with the city. There will be a news conference later this afternoon announcing this plan.

It really did seem inevitable, didn’t it? Oh yeah. I was steadfast in my belief that the Lakers would win the NBA title. Oh that blip after Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals was another person. Wasn’t me. I was possessed by TJ Simers! In all seriousness, watching the Magic steadfastly break apart the Cleveland Cavaliers while the Lakers were at that time having problems with the Denver Nuggets was cause for concern.

From the lows of that 131-92 game at Staples Center against the Boston Celtics a year ago, the Lakers defeated the Orlando Magic 99-86. This is the franchise's 15th championship and head coach Phil Jackson's 10th to surpass Red Auerbach. Kobe Bryant won the NBA Finals MVP for the first time. Comment away.

Here is the liveblog of Game 5 of the NBA. I assure you the Lakers will bring home the championship tonight.

The Orlando Magic are done. We all witnessed it Thursday night and saw them make many boneheaded plays in the last 30 seconds of regulation in Game 4 to cost them the game. Let’s break it down.

It took some scratching and clawing, but the Lakers defeated the Magic in overtime 99-91. The Lakers were off kilter to start off the game allowing Magic center Dwight Howard to grab 11 first quarter rebounds. Also all the Lakers bigs were in foul trouble at one point forcing the Lakers to play DJ Mbenga and Josh Powell. Thanks to Magic turnovers the Lakers were down by only four points despite not being able to shoot and. It would get worse for the Lakers in the second quarter where they couldn't defend worth squat and would trail at halftime by twelve.

After Game 1, I said that the Magic's outside shooters would not miss all of those shots again. Well the Lakers survived the Magic's improved shooting in Game 2 101-96 in overtime. After being non-factors in Game 1 Rashard Lewis and Hedu Turkoglu showed up in Game 2 knocking down 34 points and 17 points respectively. Lewis knocked down six three-pointers in the Magic's effort to steal one game on LA's home court. The effort would come up short.

LA Lakers defeat Orlando Magic 100-75. This certainly was not what I had in mind coming into this NBA Finals. The Lakers were led by Kobe Bryant scoring 40 points and getting eight rebounds and eight assists. This was the first time Kobe has scored 40 or more in the NBA Finals in his career. The game started out with both teams feeling each other out in the first quarter. The Magic took a five point lead at the end of the quarter. But in the second quarter despite surprisingly good play by Jameer Nelson, the Lakers started to pull away taking a 10 point lead into the half.

There's a reason it's taken me this long to talk about the NBA Finals. I have no idea how this will play out. When I made the proclamation last week that the Magic would win in five games if they faced the Lakers in the Finals, the Lakers didn't look to hot. They were in the middle of feeling out the Denver Nuggets tying the series two games a piece. But the Lakers brought down the hammer capped with a 27-point victory in the decisive Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, and everything changed right there.

In the most dominating fashion, the Lakers dismantled the Denver Nuggets 119-92 in Denver in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals. They now head to their 30th NBA Finals and look to atone for their collapse in last year's finals against the Boston Celtics.

LA Lakers defeat Denver Nuggets 103-94. Lakers players not named Kobe Bryant or Pau Gasol made an appearance in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals. Most notably Lamar Odom became the beast everyone knew he could be scoring 19 points, grabbing 14 boards and blocking four shots. To open the fourth quarter Odom was everywhere defensively and offensively helping the Lakers go on a 11-0 run to start the fourth. Meanwhile when the Lakers looked a bit lethargic in the third quarter, Shannon Brown came into the game and made an emphatic dunk over Chris "Birdman" Anderson. The game was tight throughout being tied after the first, second and third quarters. But the Lakers were active on defense in the fourth quarter and summarily was able to pull out the game. By the way, Kobe Bryant scored only 22 points.

I still say the Lakers will defeat the Denver Nuggets in six games. But it's not this series that I'm finding all that compelling. Out in the east, we are witnessing an Orlando Magic team that is tearing apart the Cleveland Cavaliers. Aside from the Magic's 10-point victory in game three, all games have been close: one point margins in games one and two and a two point victory by the Magic in game four.

I don't get it. In Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals Pau Gasol got nine field goal attempts. In Game 2 he got eight. In these two games, Gasol has less attempts than he did in Game 7 of the Houston Rockets series.

Denver Nuggets defeat LA Lakers 106-103. Just as the Denver led by double digits in Game 1 and gave the Lakers the victory, the Lakers did the same in Game 2. Down the stretch the Lakers could not snag defensive rebounds giving the Nuggets second chance opportunities. Meanwhile the Nuggets played the Lakers very well defensively by clogging the lanes and forcing the Lakers to take contested jumpers. The Lakers came out on fire taking the ball to the rim and opening a 14 point lead, however on defense they did allow the Nuggets to penetrate. The Lakers started to play sloppy in the end of the second quarter allowing the Nuggets to go on a 14-2 to close the half with a one point deficit. The game would remain close throughout as the teams went back and forth trading punches. While the referees blew some calls, none of that should detract from the fact that the Lakers gave up a 14 point lead. But what's good for the goose is good for the ganders. The series now shifts to Denver on Saturday for Game 3.

LA Dodgers defeat New York Mets 2-1. Neither the Mets nor the Dodgers did anything offensively, but Russell Martin did just enough to drive in the winning run in the eighth inning. The Mets went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position while the Dodgers went 1-for-9, that one on Russell Martin's single in the bottom of the eighth that scored Orlando Hudson from second base. Livan Hernandez pitched seven innings giving up only one run in the first inning for the Mets. Jeff Weaver pitched five innings giving up one run on four hits and two walks. Ronald Belisario came in to pitch in the top of the eighth and gave up two walks and a David Wright fly ball to center field that advanced the runners to second and third. Brent Leach came in and induced two weak grounders that kept the runners from scoring. With the Dodgers scoring in the bottom of that frame it gave him the win. Jonathan Broxton came in and got his 11th save out of 13 chances. The Dodgers have the day off Thursday.

LA Lakers defeat Denver Nuggets 105-103. ESPN is awful. Their announcing teams are unlistenable and their analysts are even worse. Magic Johnson said the Lakers bench played horribly in the first half. Um, the Lakers bench outscored the Nuggets bench 20-2. In fact it was the Lakers bench that helped the Lakers overcome that 13 point deficit. True the Lakers didn't play that well. They came out shooting cold and had lapses on defense. But it's the playoffs and they played well enough to put the dagger in the hearts of the Nuggets. Kobe Bryant scored 40 points while Derek Fisher scored 13 including the three pointer at the end of the first half to give the Lakers a one-point lead.

That had to be one of the most frustrating Lakers playoff series in recent memory. The undermanned Houston Rockets team sans Tracy McGrady, Dikembe Mutombo and as of game three Yao Ming had no business being in that series. That should have been at worst a five-game series. But the Lakers sometime lackadaisical play kept the Rockets in the series making superstars out of Luis Scola, Shane Battier and Aaron Brooks.

I really don't know what's wrong with the Lakers. If anyone did surely it would be head coach Phil Jackson and his coaching staff. Then Lakers fans wouldn't be sitting in a pit of 780.7, the ICM-9 code for malaise.

Houston Rockets defeat LA Lakers 95-80. You've got to be fucking kidding me. Let's take a look at the box score. The Lakers attempted 23 threes in this loss. In game five the Lakers attempted 13. While the Lakers were trailing by 15 in the second quarter it was very frustrating to see them settle for jump shots rather than take it to the hole. In the third quarter they responded well and cut the deficit to two, but then their defense fell apart. They made Luis Scola look like James Worthy while Pau Gasol looked like a big stiff. So let's review. No Tracy McGrady. No Yao Ming. No wins against the Lakers in the regular season. And now we're going to a game seven?

LA Lakers defeat Houston Rockets 118-78. The start of the game was very touch and go. The Rockets were setting good screens and moving the ball crisply. The was tied 18-18 at the 5:20 mark in the first quarter when the Lakers dropped the hammer. They took advantage of every Houston turnover making this game a complete laugher in the second quarter with the Lakers leading by 25 points at the half. The question would remain whether the Lakers had the killer instinct, and they answered it by going up by 40 points by the end of the third quarter.

Laker's guard Derek Fisher has been suspended by the NBA for Friday's game 3 against the Houston Rockets at Houston. He bodychecked Rockets forward Luis Scola in the waning minutes of the third quarter that was a ruled a flagrant-two foul resulting in an ejection. Kobe Bryant's elbow to Ron Artest in the fourth quarter was upgraded to a flagrant-one foul and will not result in any suspension.

LA Lakers defeat Houston Rockets 111-98. For a while there I was expecting a penalty box to be set up. Derek Fisher was thrown out of the game for a flagrant two on a hard body check to Luis Scola. Ron Artest was thrown out of the game after yelling at the refs for calling a foul on him against Kobe Bryant in the fourth. Bryant got a technical for jawing to Shane Battier saying, "You still can't guard me." Von Wafer was thrown out of the game by his head coach Rick Adelman before the fourth quarter started. Even Jack Nicholson got in on the action giving the refs a lovely gesture. All that said, the Lakers finally looked like they understood that these playoff games are the road to their NBA championship. Bryant led all scorers with 40 points while Pau Gasol was strong with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Yao Ming was in foul trouble getting only 12 points in 26 minutes played for the Rockets. While game one was physical who knew it would be a prelude to this game? This has officially become a series, and it will be a great one to watch. And I'll issue a mea culpa now: I have underestimated the Rockets. Meanwhile it remains to be seen if Fisher gets suspended for his hit.

In game one the Lakers tried to be physical but ended up being pretenders. The Rockets despite being the ones battered and bloodied got the first knock out. Shane Battier’s bloodied face and Yao Ming’s bumped knee wouldn’t detract the Rockets into getting away from their game plan. They just stuck with it while the Lakers just took shots in hopes of getting something to stick.

Houston Rockets defeat LA Lakers 100-92. Well that didn't go as planned did it? The Lakers were outplayed by the Rockets from tip off and never seemed to wake up. With Houston getting battered with Shane Battier getting stitches on his forehead thanks to Sasha Vujacic in the first quarter and Yao Ming going down after bumping knees with Kobe Bryant in the fourth, they kept with their game plan making the Lakers uncomfortable. The Lakers helped out taking awful shots going 2-for-18 from three-point land. Lamar Odom played pretty well but never seemed to have the ball scoring nine points with five rebounds. Kobe Bryant scored 32 points on 14-for-31 shooting. I wasn't counting on this one being the game the Lakers lost when I predicted the Lakers to win by five. Hopefully there will be no repeat of this game.

A week after the Lakers sent the Utah Jazz packing, they embark on the second round of the playoffs against the Houston Rockets.

LA Lakers defeat Utah Jazz 107-96. When the Lakers led by 22 points, it really did look like the Lakers would shut the door on the Jazz. But it wouldn't be a Laker win without the opponent making a comeback, wouldn't it? The Jazz's second unit made a strong comeback in the fourth quarter cutting it down to six points late the in quarter mostly due to the effort of backup guard Ronnie Price. Well that and the Lakers refusal to play defense down the stretch. But once the starters came back in with five minutes left in the game, they clamped down a gave the Lakers the victory. Kobe Bryant was his usual self with 31 points and Lamar Odom was a complete beast with 26 points and 15 rebounds. The Lakers win the series four games to one and will face the winner of the Houston Rockets - Portland Trail Blazers series.

Utah Jazz defeat LA Lakers 88-86. Everyone knew it was going to be ugly, and boy was it. The Lakers couldn't score in the first quarter, and Carlos Boozer just ate up rebounds. In fact Boozer tied a franchise playoff record getting 22 rebounds. Trailing by as many as 10 in the first quarter the Lakers came back to trail by only four at the half. But the third quarter was all Lakers as they came back and led by as many as 13. But the Jazz started to chip away trading the lead with the Lakers in the final minutes. The Lakers would tie the game leaving 11 seconds on the clock which would give Deron Williams plenty of time to make the winning jumper with two seconds. Andrew Bynum who came into the game complaining about pain in his knee would foul out in the third quarter scoring only four points in seven minutes. Kobe Bryant started out ice cold but would eventually score 18 points while Lamar Odom was a monster posting a double-double with 21 points and 14 rebounds. I expected the Lakers to lose this game, but they will rebound on Saturday to win game four.