Official Los Angeles Lakers Thread

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11/4/03 update: Lakers 113, Bucks 107, in a Kobe breakout game for 2003!!

Lakers got off to another good 1st quarter start, with a 28-17 start; but the Bucks took advantage in the 2nd quarter, as they started to heat up, esp. Michael Redd.

Lakers led by 3 at halftime as Kobe drove the baseline with a few seconds to go, all 5 Bucks players collapsed on Kobe, and he swung the ball out to Payton for a 3-pointer.

In the 3rd quarter, it was all Michael Redd, who hit jump shots, three pointers, and driving layups, all for 18 points in the 3rd quarter and ended the quarter with a 3-point Bucks lead.

Then came the 4th, and Terry Porter -- first year head coach -- inexplicably left Redd on the bench until there was only about 4 minutes left to go.

WHY?!?!? Did Redd need 8 minutes of game time (not to mention timeouts, and TV timeouts) for rest? It's not like Redd was injured, or hurt, or old.....heck, he was shooting lights out on the Lakers.

With not much offense for the Bucks, the Lakers tightened up the defense, and Kobe took over late in the game, with 2 treys and a jump shot.

And the sweetest play of the game: Lakers stole the ball on defense, Payton drove through the lane, dished it off to Kobe, who gave it to Shaq for the MONSTER JAM, and a foul, which he converted!!

Karl Malone had a sub-par game, missing a bunch of shots, but still ended up with 13+ points

Shaq had a HORRIFIC free throw shooting, missing something like 9 of 14 free throws; but he made 9 of 15 FG

Payton wasn't too bad.

And Devean had double digits points; the first time all starters got double digits scoring since 1995

But, this was all Kobe, with tremendous clutch shooting, not to mention 2 blocks, and 8 assists.

Lakers now 4-0 and head to San Antonio Thursday to play a Tim Duncan-less team. Should be an easy win..but then again, Lakers have lost 3 out of 4 games vs the Bulls these past two seasons, and the Bulls were as bad as bad could get.

Duncan is out 2-4 weeks on a severely sprained ankle.

Friday is a back-to-back game at New Orleans, against my UCLA Alumni Baron Davis (a TREMENDOUS player while at UCLA, unfortunately, he was there 2 years and left)

[LakersFan]

i really enjoy the breakdown of the game as I missed the begining the only comment i have towards it is the Lakers starters have all scored double digits in every game this year.

I know once I turned it on the game did look sloppy. Lakers had 10 turnovers and missed alot of easy shots but my team pulled it out in the end.

Im ready for the Spurs game and remember not only is Duncan out so is Parker.

Go Lakers!!

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what a shame -- we go to San Antonio for the first time this year, and both of their big stars are out.

This should translate to a 10+ win for us.

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11/6/03 update: Lakers beat Spurs 120-117 in double OT

despite not having Duncan and Parker, the Spurs put up a tremendous fight against Kobe, Shaq and the Lakers.

if it were the other way around, I am not sure the Lakers could've done as well

GREAT game by:

GINOBILI, the Spur who had a career high 33 points, but tired at the end of the ballgame, as he missed a jump shot with 0.7 seconds left in the first OT

and pretty much the entire Spurs team, which lead most of the way during the regular session.

Kobe was dominant, and while he says he's not going to be at full strength until December, the last 3 games shows that he's back. Tonight, he had 37 points, playing 49 minutes

Shaq was dominant, with 35 points, 20 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots in his 50 minutes. And he even made 11 of 15 free throws, including clutch ones in OT!

Payton had an average game, playing 40+ minutes, with 16 points, 6 assists and 7 rebounds

Malone had a SUB-PAR game, missing 3-4 shots as badly as I would miss them if I were playing. But he still scooped up 19 rebounds with 15 points

George had 5 points and fouled out, breaking 4 straight games where all 5 starters were in double digits.

Fisher scored 11 points, but boy, did he force some shots. He is a good set shooter, but a terrible penetrator, stop and pop.

Nice game for the Lakers........but at what price? They barely beat a Spurs team missing 2 of its key starters and now play in New Orleans Friday, without much rest.

Lakers win for first time at SBC Center in 7 tries, and are 5-0

Next up is 4-1 New Orleans with my fellow UCLA alumni Baron Davis

Lakers are going to have some dead legs tomorrow!

[skyracer3]

Im gonna start paying more attention to Ginobili. He played like a stud. For the first time he was consistenly the go-to guy, and he proved he can handle the role. This was a really exciting game. I was at home standing on my feet the whole OT periods. haha

-Harris-

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He's a good pick for fantasy play -- can score ,get steals, assists, rebounds

very versatile

boy, Spurs with Duncan, Parker and Duncan along with defensive whiz Bowen look like they will be a force to contend with

but right now, they're 3-3....and won't get Duncan back for 1-3 weeks. Paker comes back next week.

They better not fall too far behind.

a 0.500 record in the West eliminates you from the playoffs

a 0.500 record in the East and you might wind up with the #4 seed and homecourt advantage in 1st round, lol

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11/7/03 update: Hornets thoroughly THUMPED the Lakers by 19 points!!

after a double OT game last night, with the starters playing 42+ minutes or more, the Lakers just had nothing and played like it.

the defense tonight was as horrible as you can possibly play --- hell, I could've scored!!

Not only were the Hornets wide open on many of their jump shots, but they hit a ton of them, including a whopping 70% of their FG attempts in the 3rd quarter.

Lakers had a lead once, at 67-66 on a Kobe 3-pointer, but then the Hornets ran off a 28-4 score, and that was the ball game

Lakers were missing layups left and right, including 2 by Kobe in the 1st quarter.

Shaq had 21, Kobe 11, and Payton and Malone about 11 or so.

It was a terrible game, but the Hornets played well!! Give them credit, esp. my fellow UCLA alumnus, Baron Davis, who torched Kobe for 23 (lopsided score, didn't much of 4th quarter)

oh well, we're 5-1
Sacramento lost their 2nd game, to the Knicks
Timberwolves blasted T-mac and the Magic by 29
Seattle is now the only undefeated team, 3-0.

but it's Sac and SA that I am afraid of, and both have 2 and 3 losses respectively

Next game, at Memphis this Monday, so you assume the Lakers will be fresh and ready

[LakersFan]

thanks for the great breakdown of the game I missed it with other obligations so only caught highlights on ESPN. I knew the Lakers would have problems after the double OT game and then having to travel from SA to NO. Now we got a loss out the way so maybe we can start on a roll again.

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wayne, I saw the NO Hornets play Chicago tonight (on superstation cable WGN)

and they played as pathetic tonight as the Lakers did last night.

so, I am slightly relieved that we lost in part b/c our legs just gave out after double OT the night before.

in the hornets vs bulls games, the hornets were doing exactly what the Lakers did vs the honers --- missing layups, careless turnovers, missed open shots, bad defense.

You know when Chicago goes over 100 points in a game that your defense stinks!

hopefullly, Lakers won't do so badly on the back end of back-to-back games

in 2002, they did horribly, and won only 5-8 games of the 2nd game of back-to-back

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11/10 update: Lakers get mauled by Grizzlies (title stolen from LA Times article for tomorrow, lolol), 105-95

I was at work; had to work OT

so taped the game -- it wasn't pretty (although not as bad as at New Orleans)

we need to work on our defense!

the only good thing is Kings have 3 losses; so do Spurs

we have 2 losses

next up: home against Toronto (will Kobe play -- he has to be in Colorado Thursday) Wednesday