Lakers making their move....

[Watto]

The Lakers won their 7th straight game with a comfortable 90-73 over the second placed Minnesota. They blitzed them 28-12 in the 3rd quarter and never looked back. Bryant scored 35 points this time while Shaq enjoyed 22. Sprewell and Garnett combined for 35 for the losers.

Bryant now has 71 points in his last two games since he was in court. Amazing effort.

Good win following their easy flogging over the kings. Starting to really hit the straps now and I think that gives them 2nd spot now in the western conference and just 2 games behind the kings who have won just 3 of the last 8. Last couple of games the Lakers seem to be blowing the opposition away early rather than grinding it out like they had with previous games.

Looks like all the Laker haters are no where to be seen.

 

[jerry springer]

Originally posted by Watto

Looks like all the Laker haters are no where to be seen.

im still here

they are in good form,but we have seen what one injury can do to their chances.cant wait for this play-off series to start there is about 8 teams all with a ligitiment chance of winning it.

 

[mattyc2422]

If the Lakers remain focused and fully fit, they can undoubtedly win the championship.

But they won't.

 

[jod23]

Nobody was under any illusion that the Lakers were bad. Malone had missed 30 odd games, Shaq and Kobe have been in and out over the course of the year. But once all four are on court they are very good and deservedly so seen as they are 4 future HOFers.

But I still think that the Kings, Wolves, Spurs and Mavs have as much chance as the Lakers do of winning the title.

 

[Dingster]

No, if those four play the Lakers win. I liked Sac before Webber came back. It's not that Webber's a bad player, but I really think that going through him suits the Lakers and they would win any series.

Big statement week from LA this week. Jod, you should know from Phil's days at Chicago that his teams can cruise to a decent playoff possie, but they thrive in the big games. Don't really see this being any different.

 

[CURVE]

Reminiscent of 2001. Lakers played around until All-Stars, them played Championship basketball afterwards. 20-4 since the all-star break.

Go Lakers.

 

[jerry springer]

lakers imploding just before the play-offs.gunna be a interesting off season if they get knocked out of the play-offs early

love it

Harmony Is a Stretch for Bryant and Lakers
By CHRIS BROUSSARD

Published: April 14, 2004


t was quiet last Thursday at the Los Angeles Lakers' practice facility in El Segundo, Calif. Kobe Bryant had gone one on four to hit a short jump shot during a scrimmage, but no one raised an arm to offer a high-five or praised the effort. Amid silence that was awkward and telling, not a polite "nice shot" was heard.

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The episode illustrated how Bryant looms over his teammates like a circus tent. While Shaquille O'Neal owns the post, three Most Valuable Player awards in the N.B.A. finals and the unofficial title of the league's most dominant player, the Lakers have become Bryant's team this season, though for all the wrong reasons.

Los Angeles, built not only for a championship but for an easily achieved championship, is entering the playoffs in turmoil, most of it involving Bryant, its most dazzling player and its most puzzling personality. How and where Bryant chooses to lead the Lakers may determine whether they erase a regular season of discord with their fourth title in five seasons or collapse embarrassingly during the Western Conference playoffs.

"Kobe really could be the glue that holds us together," Coach Phil Jackson said after last Thursday's practice. "Or he could be the force that breaks us apart."

Bryant's disproportionate sway on this season began, of course, last July, when he was arrested in Colorado and subsequently charged with sexual assault. But while his pretrial hearings have occasionally conflicted with the Lakers' schedule, Bryant's influence on the Lakers' fate has more to do with his attitude and his play than his legal problems.

When Bryant chooses to conform to Jackson's triangle offense, involves his teammates (particularly O'Neal) and wisely picks when to dominate individually, the Lakers are nearly unbeatable. The record bears that out. Bryant averaged 27 points and, perhaps more important, 6.1 assists to lead the Lakers to 21 victories in the 23 games he played from Feb. 17 to April 2.

"I've been doing it for four years, so I think I'm pretty good at knowing when to do it," Bryant said last week, explaining how he decides when to assert himself on offense. "Sometimes I just feel it on my own, other times my teammates come to me and say, `Take over.' It depends on the moment."

But at the moment the Lakers appeared to be jelling, having routed Sacramento and Minnesota in late March, Bryant decided to buck the system. Over the next three games he launched 72 shots, nearly 7 more than his average, and the Lakers looked horrible in losing two of three games.

Karl Malone, often open on the wing while Bryant shot over two and three defenders, bristled. Gary Payton, uncomfortable in the triangle and unhappy with his playing time, seemed to grow more indifferent with every forced shot by Bryant. O'Neal had only 26 shots in the consecutive losses to San Antonio and Portland, and the Lakers' role players tried unsuccessfully to fit in around Bryant's adventurous forays to the basket.

With the Lakers speaking in code — meaning they would not mention Bryant by name — their frustration with Bryant's highlight-seeking, high-degree-of-difficulty shots was evident.

"We've just got to believe in each other," Malone said last Friday after the Lakers rallied from a 19-point deficit to end their losing streak against injury-plagued Memphis. "If two or three guys are on you, that means somebody's open.

"We make this game very hard and it shouldn't be, because sometimes we have the mind-set where certain guys on the floor want to do it by themselves, and that's not what the game should be about. It's simple. We make it complicated, like it's surgery or something. It ain't surgery, it's simple."

Two days later, in the biggest game of the season, a rematch with Sacramento that had the Pacific Division title riding on the outcome, Bryant did an about-face. Aware of his teammates' discontent with his recent shot selection, he appeared to thumb his nose at them, attempting only one shot — and that one to avoid a shot-clock violation — as the Kings stomped the Lakers in the first half.

 

[bacon buster]

and yet, we may still get the 2nd seed

 

[bacon buster]

kobe is the ****in man, wish i could have seen that game.

 

[jod23]

Loving it