Results tagged “lukewalton”

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.

I am a little confused right now.

Lakers 127, Nuggets 99 - Phil Jackson signed a $24 million contract extension for two years. Two hours later, his Lakers ripped apart the Nuggets. Good day. Heck, even Sasha Vujacic had 22 points -- 19 in the 4th quarter. Luke Walton had 14 points in just 27 minutes. Both were career highs. The Lakers are 9-6 and have recently had some pretty impressive performances. Ducks 4, Flames 1 - After getting yanked in Vancouver,...

He was a dominant force at Westchester High School. He was part of the first year of Ben Howland’s turnaround at UCLA. And now he is a Laker. Trevor Ariza has come home, bringing with him some amazing dunks, good defense and a high-energy game that should fit in well with the young core of the Lakers. He was traded for veterans Brian Cook and Mo Evans. Call us crazy, but this is the rare...

After years of pressure from stats geeks thoughtful mathematicians, the NBA has started keeping a new official statistic — the old plus/minus. It’s a simple idea that hockey has used for decades: How much does a team outscore its opponent (or get outscored) when a specific player is on the floor. It’s pretty simple.

Kobe Bryant has always seemed to me like a character out of Greek mythology or a classic novel -– his greatest strength is also the cause of his undoing. Sunday in game one against the Suns, it was part of the Lakers undoing.

Phil Jackson has a gift for getting his teams to play well at the end of the season. In his 15 seasons as an NBA coach, the worst one of his teams has done in the last 10 games heading into the playoffs is 6-4.

After a heartbreaking loss to the Houston Rockets on Friday night, the Lakers redeemed themselves by scorching the Sacramento Kings 126-103 at Staples Center on Sunday night. Kobe had a season-high 13 assists, while Maurice Evans and Luke Walton scored 21 and 18 respectively.

While Kobe had an “off night” when he put up 43 against Golden State on Sunday, breaking his streak of games scoring 50 or more at four, he could return to his high scoring ways tonight against Memphis. The same Memphis he dropped 60 on last week.

The big question last night was if Kobe would be the first Laker to score three 50+ games in a row since Elgin Baylor did it in 1962. And he did. And more. But the game wasn't all it was cracked up to be. There’s no reason why the Lakers shouldn't be able to shake the worst team in the league, especially when they made mincemeat out of Kevin Garnett and the Timberwolves last...

Nuggets 113, Lakers 86 - When Phil Jackson went to bed on Wednesday, he was probably looking forward to the day ahead. Things were set up nicely for a home game with Lamar Odom and Luke Walton both returning from injuries. Then his alarm clock rang. Within a few hours, the NBA dished out $100,000 in fines for his comments about a Kobe "witchhunt" and the Lakers lost for the seventh time in a row....

It seems as if the Lakers are inventing new ways to lose of late. Last night’s double overtime loss to Minnesota included some beauties –- including failing to throw the ball in bounds to the open man, something successfully pulled off by junior high teams. Laker veteran Aaron McKie couldn’t see Brian Cook waiting for the ball with a wide-open shot to win the game.

Maybe it’s time to call in a Shaman, or a voodoo priestess with a few live chickens, or go riding down a hill in a beat-up VW van with Hurley from Lost. The Lakers need to do something to break the curse that keeps raining injuries down on them the second half of this season. After two games where Lamar Odom finally started to look like the aggressive Odom the Lakers patiently have been...

There have been plenty of excuses: Luke Walton and Kwame Brown are out with injuries; Kobe Bryant had to miss a game because he can’t control his arms; Lamar Odom is not 100% from his knee problems; it was a long eight-game road trip to cold places; Mercury was retrograde so the stars were lined up against the Lakers.

The Lakers are halfway through the “Coldest places in North America during the dead of winter” road trip to the Midwest and East. So far: four games, two wins. Not a stellar outcome, but not bad considering they have two starters (Luke Walton and Kwame Brown) watching games in street clothes, plus had to play one without Kobe Bryant (for an infraction far less serious than what LeBron James got away with without a suspension,...

Lakers 123, Nuggets 104 - What could have been a match up of superstars became a showcase of supporting casts as Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson combined for only 24 points. While 11 players scored in double digits, Kobe was not one of them. He tallied a season low 8 and spent the 4th quarter icing his knees on the bench. We wanted to put up this photo of him holding hands with Iverson and...

Lakers 102, Rockets 94 - It wasn't supposed to be this hard. The Lakers were crushing Houston by 27 points in the fourth quarter. Luke Walton was still hot with 18 points and 7 assists. Kobe was icing his knees on the bench ("almost like Red Auerbach smoking the cigar" as he described it). Then the Lakers stoped scoring. The Rockets pulled within two points and Kobe went back in to ice something else:...

Lakers 106, Hawks 95 - The Lakers starting shooting guard had 22 points in 40 minutes. Not bad, considering he wasn't named Kobe. Maurice Evans had a carrer high while filling in for the injured star, who was still nursing a sprained ankle. Luke Walton contributed 25, a career high, and Justin Farmer had 15, also a career high. Spurs 111, Clippers 82 - San Antonio had five players score double digits, Manu Ginobili...

While most of the city’s sports fans were either celebrating or mourning, a few looked up from their beers last night to watch another cross-town rivalry played out at Staples Center, albeit one with a lot less on the line (at least this time around).

This past off-season, the Lakers spent $30 million of Jerry Buss’ poker winnings to convince Vladimir Radmanovic to cross the hall from the Clipper locker room to the Lakers’. It made sense: The Lakers needed a sharp-shooter from three-point range to spread opposing defenses, giving Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom room to work inside.

Just what do we know about this season’s Lakers after nine games? We know they can win with Kobe dragging one leg behind him (although he looked better Friday night against Toronto, to the point that Phil Jackson benched him for “imposing his will” on the game and ignoring teammates). We know that young guys like Andrew Bynum, Jordan Farmar and Ronny Turiaf can take on more than maybe we thought. We know Luke Walton is developing into quite a player.

Over the weekend the Lakers and Clippers opened their playoff runs against the Phoenix Suns and Denver Nuggets respectively. Its been a while since we have had TWO teams in the playoffs, mainly due to the Clippers past weakness... but this time around the higher seeded Clippers were the team that got it done.