The Lakers Nation

Alvin Gentry calls Kobe best closer in NBA history

Marwan Marzina — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:08:48 +0000

The greatest of all compliments comes from Alvin Gentry. Good to see Kobe getting the respect he deserves.

AZ Central: How much respect does Suns coach Alvin Gentry have for Lakers star Kobe Bryant?

At his team’s morning shootaround, Gentry said that if Friday night’s game at US Airways Center came down to a final possession for the Lakers, Bryant would have to shoot “over three guys.”

But by about an hour before tipoff, Gentry had upgraded, saying Bryant “will have to make a shot over four guys.”

“He’s the best closer in the history of the game if you ask me,” Gentry said. “Yeah, that is including Michael Jordan. I just think what he’s done this year, to have six game-winning shots that come on the last possession of the game, I don’t know if anybody has ever done that.

“If that’s the case, we have to try to make somebody else be that closer. That’s not to say that he’ll give it up. I’ve seen him make it over three guys, too. But as far as we’re concerned, we have to try to get the ball out of his hands some kind of way.”

Gentry noted that Bryant was on the floor at 4:45 p.m. putting up shots – and it turned out he actually had gotten out there about a half-hour earlier.

“I tell our guys, ‘You want to be great?’ That’s how you become great,” Gentry said.

Continue reading ‘Alvin Gentry calls Kobe best closer in NBA history’

Bryant measures his leadership of Lakers

Chris Manning — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:50:55 +0000

A fantastic article on Kobe Bryant and his leadership.

Yahoo! Sports: Privately, people wonder: How many more passes does Kobe Bryant give Pau Gasol for speaking so boldly about him? How long until Bryant’s public and private reprisal comes with a ferocity that could bring a 7-footer to his knees? All season, Gasol has been a relentlessly consistent, if not passively aggressive, critic of the franchise star’s shooting habits, of an offense that doesn’t deliver him the ball with the frequency that he wants.

“I believe in what I believe,” Gasol said.

Hours before Friday night’s victory over the Phoenix Suns, chatting on a chair inside U.S. Airways Center, Bryant let out a laugh and insisted there will be no public rebuttals. “I’m not touching that,” Bryant said with a smile and shrug.

Bryant could come out and say that Gasol had never won a playoff game until arriving to the Lakers. He could tell Gasol that the Lakers still had the NBA’s best record without him for a month to start the season. He could tell him to make a free throw in the last minutes of tough games, tell him to toughen up.

Truth be told, Kobe Bryant could tell Pau Gasol to simply shut the bleep up.

Only, Bryant doesn’t do it. Tempted? Well, of course. Yet, the reason for such restraint is simple: The Lakers desperately need Gasol, and a public chastising of him would almost assuredly reduce his fragile psyche to rubble, costing Bryant the player he needs to catch Michael Jordan and his six championship rings.

Bryant responds with polite, processed reason: He isn’t playing differently this season, he insists.

Perhaps circumstances have changed, but not him.

Continue reading ‘Bryant measures his leadership of Lakers’

TLN’s Postgame Report: Lakers @ Suns — Regaining Some Ground

Anna Gonda — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:14:07 +0000

The Lakers have been a topic of conversation in the NBA lately, and not because of anything they’re doing right; mostly because of everything they’re doing wrong. The Lakers have been criticized often for being soft, apathetic or lacking effort on defense, but the one area they’ve always been able to fall back on to squeak out a win is their prolific offense.

The last few games, however, paint a different picture, and though they shot 51% in the loss to Miami and 49.4% tonight against Phoenix, they shot just 36.2% in Charlotte and 37.5% in Orlando.

One bad shooting night is not unheard of in the NBA. It’s a long season after all, but to have two brick-tossing games in a row in the year they are defending a title? Unacceptable. Is the stagnant offense dumbfounding and a bit concerning? Yes. Is it irreparable? No.

Kobe Bryant, reported to have arrived more than two hours before the game to shoot around, scored 21 points from only 16 attempted shots. Playing against the highest-scoring team in the NBA, the Lakers needed to pull out every scoring weapon they had in the armory and Kobe, their sharpest shooter, had to be on point.

Scoring first in the game on a turnaround followed by an and-1, Kobe’s game face was just as it was after his game-winning shot against Toronto — focused and very businesslike.

With 17 games left before the playoffs, and with two teams hovering over their first place seat in the Western Conference, Kobe is done having his fun and some of his teammates seemed to follow suit.

Andrew Bynum, coming off a 22-point game against the Raptors, was as active on both sides of the court as he’s ever been. On one Suns’ possession, he forced Steve Nash baseline, and upon his pass to a cutting Amar’e Stoudemire, Andrew, alert, rotated quickly to alter the shot attempt. Suns miss. Laker ball.

Offensively, Andrew may have only scored 18 points on 8-12 shooting (dwarfing compared to his higher-scoring feats in the past), but it was his way of scoring that was comforting. He went after offensive rebounds (5 of his 9 boards), he dunked on every opportunity he could, and hit his hook shots when they were available to him. Never one to create aesthetically pleasing shot attempts, Andrew scored definitively and we can only hope that this is not another teaser into the “what could be when he gets older,” but a taste of “what he WILL be” come mid-April.

All the starters scored in double figures tonight, with Derek Fisher and Ron Artest contributing a combined six shots from downtown. Pau had a good all-around game, but there is still something lacking in his play, both offensively and defensively.

At one point in the game, Pau met Amar’e on the other side and was called for a blocking foul, which resulted in a 3-point play for the Suns. Andrew was seen raising his arms up, either frustrated with the call or frustrated with Pau for not knowing any better. If you’re not going to take the charge, then contest the shot and make Amar’e earn two points from the free throw line.

Where Andrew is not interested in good-looking field goal attempts, Pau is the opposite, often choosing lay-ups and short-distance jump shots even when a higher-percentage dunk and a possible and-1 is available to him. Pau doesn’t need to be a defensive or offensive powerhouse or genius, but he can’t cower the way he did so often tonight to the likes of Amundson, who continually beat him to rebounds and flew by for quick lay-ups and putbacks. Amundson, who averages 4.5 rpg and 4.2 ppg, but got 10 and 11 tonight on Pau’s watch.

This 102-96 win was much needed for the Lakers, especially considering how well Phoenix plays on their home court. On a night where Alvin Gentry’s ejection (and for understandable reason as Pau’s hard foul might’ve been considered a flagrant) could have fueled a Suns win, and where six players struggled through hand injuries, the Lakers got the victory, and there was no need for Kobe’s last second keenness.

From where they stand, there is no time to monitor how well Dallas or Denver is playing. The Lakers are the masters of only their own fate. How far into the spring and summer they play is entirely up to them, because HOW they play from this late in the regular season will be a good indication of their effort and intensity when the real season begins.

Pre-game Thoughts: 0-3 in the previous road trip. Hopefully this next one starts out on a more positive note.

Half-time Thoughts: Great 20-6 run to end the first half! Hopefully it’s something they’ll build on.

Most Thoughtless Player(s) of the Game: Yes he got his 15 points on 7-11 shooting, along with eight rebounds, four blocks, three assists and two steals, and yes that hard foul on Amundson to prevent an easy two points was kind of a pleasant surprise from someone so mild-mannered, but something’s not right with Pau these days. He has appeared lazy on D, slow to rotate to his man, and no lift whatsoever. Hmmm…

Most Thought-filled Player(s) of the Game: Kobe Bryant, and not because of any buzzer beaters. He led in practically every stat – most points (21 points on 7-16), most rebounds (10), most assists (8) and highest +/- (+15) Mamba came to play tonight!

Kobe’s numbers in crunch time

Marwan Marzina — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:15:45 +0000

The numbers behind the clutch shooting and no surprise, Kobe leads.

ESPN: Through the years, there have been many different sets of data about clutch shooting. Any which way I have ever seen it sliced (last five minutes of close games to last ten seconds), as I have written on TrueHoop before, it has looked like Kobe Bryant has been a guy who shoots a ton in crunch time, and hits at a pretty good, but not elite, rate.

I’m open to the idea that he could still be the best clutch player in the NBA. At that time of the game, there’s value in being able to create scoring opportunities. Bryant may shoot those difficult fallaways that often miss, but he’d be a far worse player if he couldn’t get a shot off at all. And that’s the situation some lesser players would find themselves in.

Quite honestly, I think the real way to crown a crunch time king would be with video. Somebody should make a TV special where they string together every crunch time touch of the handful of elite end-game players (Bryant, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony etc.) If we want to tell the world that somebody is the most likely to succeed in a certain setting, let’s take an honest and complete look at how they do in that setting. Show me the turnovers, the misses and all that. Let everyone watch all of that video — not just the makes! — and at the end of that I think we’ll end up with a good sense of who’s the best.

A lot of sports fans think it’s crazy talk to even consider candidates other than Bryant. And they’re especially vocal right now, when Bryant seems to be hitting game-winners just about every night.

So, how’s it going?

Continue reading ‘Kobe’s numbers in crunch time’

TLN’s Game Report: Lakers @ Suns

Jeff Little — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:36:08 +0000

The (47-18) Los Angeles Lakers are in the desert to face the (40-25) Phoenix Suns the first of a three-game road trip. Tonight’s game will be the last meeting of the regular season; the Lakers leads the season series two games to one.

The Lakers were able to snap their three-game losing streak with a much-needed win against the Toronto Raptors, but it took a last second shot by Kobe Bryant again; his seventh of the season. Seeing the ‘Black Mamba’ do his thing never gets old, but the fact of the matter is that the game should not have been that close.

The Lakers are still struggling to get their game back on track. The reality is that the Lakers have played a lot of games at a high level basketball in the last three years; the team is taking their opponents best shot and not dealing out their own or responding for that matter.

The above statement isn’t being mentioned as an excuse; teams will always get up for the Lakers, it is the uniform and years of success. They are a team that plays with a lot of confidence that is currently making several uncharacteristic mental mistakes.

There are 17 games remaining in the regular season, and 10 of them are on the road. This is not the time to start and point fingers, this is a time to start to get to work. The task at hand is taking everyone serious and competing as if every opponent is the best there is. They need to play every game like a must-win game.

The Lakers have to take on an ‘us against the world’ mentality, play with a sense of urgency at a high energy level on both sides of the court.

The only real change has been replacing Trevor Ariza with Ron Artest; it is evident that Trevor was content with spotting up behind the arc and shooting timely three point shots or slashing to the basket. Consequently, Ron Artest is more comfortable with a back to the basket game. Don’t get me wrong, he isn’t solely responsible for the teams poor play; I like the addition of Artest on the team both offensively and defensively. Ron Artest offensively just needs to make quicker decisions with the ball.

Against the Suns, the Lakers have to slow down Steve Nash. He is getting the job done at age 36. He isn’t blowing by his opponents with an explosive first step, but what he is doing is being unpredictable and changing speeds. The Lakers have to defend him as a team and make sure he doesn’t engage two defenders at the same time. The backcourt will initially have to stop his dribble penetration. The Suns want to get out in transition and run, the Lakers have to play solid defense and control the tempo.

Lakers need to establish both Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol on the inside the Suns don’t the size to slow them down.

The Purple and Gold have to use excellent ball movement and excellent player movement, making sure the swing the ball to both sides of the floor forcing the Suns to defend in the half court set. They have to play better defense, get back in transition, eliminate the turnovers, out-rebound the Sun, rotate out to open shooters, and do a better job of chasing opponents off of the three-point line.

Tip-off: 6:00 PM PST

Television -

Los Angeles: KCAL 9 (Joel Myers & Stu Lantz)
Phoenix: My45 KUTP(Gary Bender & Eddie Johnson)

Radio -

Los Angeles: 710 ESPN (Spero Dedes & Mychal Thompson)
Phoenix: KTAR 620 AM (Al McCoy & Tim Kempton)

Injuries -

Lakers:

Kobe Bryant (Avulsion fracture of right index finger, elbow & back)
Sasha Vujacic (Sprained Right Shoulder) Out
Luke Walton (Back) Out
Ron Artest (Sprained Left Thumb)
Shannon Brown (Sprained Right Thumb)

Suns:

SG Leandro Barbosa (Wrist Injury) Out
PG Steve Nash (Lower Abdomen) Listed as Day-to-Day
PG Goran Dragic (Sprained Ankle) Listed as Day-to-Day

Podcast: Voice of the Nation – Episode #73

Jaime Quintanilla — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:58:08 +0000

The Lakers may be slipping, but Voice of the Nation never does, as it returns to bring you more exclusive Lakers coverage.

G-Small and D-Bricks break down the Lakers recent slide in play and intensity, and look ahead to the final 17 games of the season.

Their are more NBA players talking smack to the Lakers on Twitter, and is the fall off due to the decline of Kobe Bryant?

Tune into Voice of the Nation #73!

Audio -
Jay-Z – Paper Chase
Notorious B.I.G. – Unbelievable

Additional Audio -
Phil Jackson, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum – Lakers Post-Game

Subscribe: RSS | iTunes

Download Link: Voice of the Nation – Episode #73

Barkley: Kobe Not In The Same Conversation As Jordan

Chris Manning — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:16:20 +0000

Kobe not even in the same conversation as Jordan?

Sports Illustrated: Barkley had interesting comments on Kobe Bryant’s penchant for last-second shots. He said that some of Kobe Bryant’s game-winners are lucky. What are you going to do when he hits a 20-foot fade-away jumper? Barkley said that the Raptors played good defense against Bryant earlier this week but he hit the game-winner any way.

Barkley said that Bryant isn’t in the conversation with Michael Jordan as the greatest ever. Barkley said that the Lakers “play with no sense of urgency” and only won the title because they had more talent then everyone else. Barkley said that Bryant’s Lakers wouldn’t have a chance against the great Bulls teams.

– Barkley has been very impressed with the Dallas Mavericks. “They’re in the conversation with the Denver Nuggets against the Lakers,” Barkley said. “Clearly the Lakers are the favorite. But Denver and Dallas are right there.”

The Bay To L.A.: And We Have Miles To Go Before We Sleep

Max Mann — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:19:24 +0000

The NBA season is a long arduous marathon, and perhaps the Lakers recent run of poor play is just another blip on the radar.

True they broke their three game skid, but it took yet another Kobe game winner to pull it out.

In the grand scheme of things playing like “garbage” against the Raptors probably doesn’t mean a whole lot.

It’s sort of routine for a Championship caliber team to lay up some stinkers against inferior opponents (we’ve definitely made an annoying habit of this though).

And losing three in a row doesn’t necessarily mean that much either, especially if you consider many of this decade’s NBA Champions did, at one point, lose three in a row.

But what is perhaps troubling is that only three teams this decade lost three in a row, after the month of March, and went on to win the NBA Finals. (Spurs in ‘05, ‘07, and Heat in ‘06). Of course this really means that the other seven NBA Finals’ losers all lost three in a row after March.

Maybe this is a bad sign for the Lakers, and maybe it’s not, but clearly we are not playing as well as we could; or should be.

Anyway, that’s just something to think about, but while we’re at it, why don’t we also think about some other items of importance?

Cleveland Cavaliers -

This team is scary right now, and LeBron isn’t even what really scares me about them.

What’s scary is that they have the two things that give the Lakers the most trouble: a quick PG who can score, and physical interior play.

Every single team knows that Pau, Bynum, and Odom have major issues when teams put bodies on them, and play physical. And every single contending team seems to be able to do that effectively, and the Cavaliers are no different.

Also, there’s the added factor that every team who plays like this against us seems to get rewarded for it. Isn’t it odd that in the ‘04/’08 Finals, Detroit and Boston, played “good tough” physical defense, and somehow go to the line way more times? Isn’t it also odd that Cleveland got a gazillion more foul shots in the two games we played against them this year? Basically, if we play Cleveland in the Finals, expect us to play two teams: the referees and the Cavaliers.

Oh yeah! This team also has LeBron. It’s going to be interesting to see how “post weight loss” Ron Artest does against King James. Ron clearly struggles with quicker players like Wade, and he was completely unable to even stay close to LeBron in the previous two meetings. Let’s hope the weight loss will give him a chance this time around.

The West -

Two months ago if you would’ve asked me if I thought there was anyway for the Lakers to lose before the Finals, I would’ve said, “Hell NO!”

Yeah, about that…

We’re 3-4 against Dallas and Denver, and all four of those losses have been by double-digits. Only one of those wins — against Dallas at home — was a double digit win, the other two were by a combined eleven points.

Does anybody else feel reassured?

Also, both of these teams have also added multiple players that they can throw at Kobe. I don’t think theirs any way that Aaron Afflalo, J.R. Smith, DeShawn Stevenson, or Caron Butler can stop Kobe for a series, but they have all shown that they can at least make it tough for Kobe to score. If we do get past Denver and Dallas, how much will Kobe have left in the tank for the Finals?

Let’s just say that April 8th, at Denver will be huge game! It’s a road game, it’s against maybe our biggest threat to repeat, and it’s when we should start to peak.

If we lose that game… You know what? I’m not even going to talk about losing that game. It’s a must win!

Derek Fisher -

Great guy, yes.

Clutch, yes.

Washed up?

YES!

Can somebody explain to me what exactly we are getting out of Fisher right now? Sure, he knocks down the occasional big shot, but would we even need those damn shots if he wasn’t the biggest defensive liability in the league at the PG position?

Look, you can argue that Shannon and Farmar aren’t quite ready for prime time, or crunch time, or whatever you want to call it, but we’re never going to know with Fisher playing the bulk of the minutes.

Fish’ is also one of the worst passing PG in the league (2.5 apg), and he’s lost his fastball (.358 from deep is hardly “knock down”).

I really really don’t know if the Lakers can win it all with Fish’ starting.

Of course I was saying the same thing last year — and I was saying it all year too — and he came up pretty big. I don’t know if he has anything left in that well of his, but let’s just hope so.

The Finals -

“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.
But I have promises to keep.
And miles to go before I sleep.” - Robert Frost

The Lakers dark deep woods, are only lovely if they keep their promise, which is an NBA Title. Indeed we do have miles to go before we sleep, but at least we have miles.

Improvement can still be made defensively, offensively, mentally, and physically. Some of the greatest teams have peaked late in the season, like our ‘00-’01 squad.

Let’s hope that our well traveled team is able to keep their promises when they’re out of the woods, and they finally lay down to sleep.

Odom willing to make statement, disprove “soft” title

Chris Manning — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:13:07 +0000

Odom had some really encouraging words regarding the Lakers and them being considered, “soft.”

O.C. Register: “Got dudes on the Raptors talking (bleep),” Odom said. “They ain’t done (bleep), You know what I mean? As a team, as individuals.”

“Our disposition as a team gives like some of these dudes, they feel like they have the right,” Odom said about the Raptors. “The way we’re playing as a unit, they got dudes on their team that are talking …. They are like .500. “But our aura comes off like ‘soft’. This was the second game I almost got thrown out. So I see one coming. I’m just going to take one, like, ‘hold up?’ Our energy, we are so laid back right now that these teams are like…

“That … that [Orlando's] Matt Barnes pulled, that ain’t never going to happen again,” Odom said. “He’s lucky it was a close game.”

…

Odom indicated he’s inclined to take flagrant fouls or even draw a one-game suspension to make clear that the Lakers must be determined and forceful to move forward in this season.

Continue reading ‘Odom willing to make statement, disprove “soft” title’

TLN’s Postgame Report: Lakers vs. Raptors

Steve Avery — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:53:14 +0000

The Lakers snapped their 3 game losing streak at home Tuesday night against the Raptors. All it took was a fourth quarter comeback capped by a game winner from none other than Kobe Bryant.

After Bosh hit a three in the closing seconds, Kobe answered with a fadeaway jumper with just over a second remaining to give the Lakers a 109-107 victory.

The Lakers simply didn’t play hard in the first half, giving up 58 points to Toronto and couldn’t hit a shot from downtown ending 3 of 15.

While it was an ugly win, it was much needed. The Lakers need to get some wins with Denver creeping up on them in the standings.

The starting Laker bigs offensively did well with 39 points combined, but did a poor job on the glass as the Lakers only got 40 rebounds as a team, allowing 11 offensive boards.

Now, the bests of the day…

Top 3 Laker Performers -

1) Kobe had 32, 6 and 6 with a game winner!

2) Bynum had 22 points on 8 of 12 shooting.

3) Lamar had 10, 8 and 5 off the bench. Another solid game.

Lakers Smush of the Day (Note: STD denotes the Laker that played the poorest): Shannon shot 2 of 9 and just didn’t have it tonight.

Play of the Night: What do you think?

What to Look for Next Game: The Lakers travel to Phoenix Friday night after a few days rest. Look for a W.

Ticket Info: Next home game is a week from Friday vs. the Timberwolves. E-Mail me at Steve@AveryTickets.com or call 213-221-7681 for info. on how to lock these tickets up today!

Go Lakers!