Delete

essential1 · Jan 26, 2013

kobeoverbron said:
Thank God. I really like Trevor Clarkiza (bad attempt I know), he's not as good but he'll do.
Kobe!!!!!!!!!!! What a game from start to finish.

Actually if he keeps up his play he will be better than Ariza.

But nostalgia wise Ariza >

darthska · Jan 26, 2013

Hell yeah. :smokin

I see you, Kobe. :smokin

acbboyz84 · Jan 26, 2013

Earl Clark > Jordan Hill in term of moving laterally and offensively

What a hidden gem

JHill injury is a blessing in disguise. It's unfortunate that he's out for rest of season.

Is there any team out there who would take Ebanks and Blake?

sumrndmdude · Jan 26, 2013

earl clark=a betting man's lamar odom

licensed to ball · Jan 26, 2013

DarthSka said:
Hell yeah.

I see you, Kobe.

A performance so good even Ska teared up. :nthat:

gllahone84 · Jan 26, 2013

I'm not sold on it...we've seen this act before.

freeze · Jan 26, 2013

I'm happy we won, but I'm far from impressed. I need to see this consistently and on higher tier teams before I can get with the program. The Lakeshow has a severe habit of selling dreams.

00david00 · Jan 26, 2013

gllahone84 said:
I'm not sold on it...we've seen this act before.

yep

going to wait a few games to care .. maybe the jazz just had a bad day or something :lol:

CP1708 · Jan 26, 2013

I wish Hill was healthy. Would have liked to toy with a Dwight, Hill, Clark, Ebanks, Morris lineup. Switch in Kobe here and there when the offense bogs down.

There's the young legs you need for x amount of minutes per half.

kobeoverbron · Jan 26, 2013

OKC though... :smh:

mosk33toe · Jan 26, 2013

Darius Morris 1 Min

Great Success!

girlslovewaffles · Jan 26, 2013

Essential1 said:
kobeoverbron said:

Thank God. I really like Trevor Clarkiza (bad attempt I know), he's not as good but he'll do.
Kobe!!!!!!!!!!! What a game from start to finish.

Click to expand...

Actually if he keeps up his play he will be better than Ariza.

But nostalgia wise Ariza >

Playoff Ariza was SO appreciated :x :x :x :pimp:

mjgreatxii · Jan 26, 2013

Gasol was so :pimp:

darthdeezy · Jan 26, 2013

Meh.
OKC bout to bend the Lakers over and give it to em hard.
No vaseline.

rockstar · Jan 26, 2013

DarthDeezy said:
Meh.
OKC bout to bend the Lakers over and give it to em hard.
No vaseline.

Good God I thought last night the Lakers weren't using vaseline?

sb · Jan 26, 2013

a win is a win. if they can string a little winning streak before the all star break i think this team can turn it around.

pmatic · Jan 26, 2013

Kobe Bryant talks Lakers, Dwight Howard's future

There was a missing piece to the puzzle Kobe Bryant was putting together late Friday night.

Long after the Lakers had downed Utah 102-84 to break their four-game losing streak and remind the masses of the potential they still have, their resident ruler was explaining the confrontational nature of his team's culture and why it was a good thing that they were put together this way.

He mentioned how Metta World Peace jumped all over Darius Morris at one point of the game, and how even Steve Nash came right back at Bryant when he confronted him about not taking a particular shot. No nonsense. No pulled punches. No secrets.

"That's just how it should be," he had told reporters afterward. "Yeah, shoot the (expletive). What the (expletive) you doing? You know?...This is what it is, and this is how it should be and this is how it will be."

But five days after the team meeting that seemed to embody this candid and caustic style that Bryant has employed for so long, it was impossible not to notice the omission of Dwight Howard from the conversation.

The Lakers center doesn't fit into this part of the Lakers picture, his personality more passive-aggressive than direct and the question remaining about whether the free-agent-to-be is prepared to play this game with Bryant beyond this season.

Bryant doesn't know how this will end any more than anyone else, as Howard could be dealt before the Feb. 21 deadline if it turns out he has a wandering eye and the Lakers change their stance that's he's untouchable. But so long as he's here, Bryant made clear, this is the way his team will be led.

"It's a matter of learning (for Howard)," Bryant told USA TODAY Sports as he exited Staples Center. "What I try to tell him is that it's not necessarily about what you (want), how you are as a person, or what's comfortable for you. It's really about what's going to help elevate us.

"So for us to have a team that's confrontational and on edge brings out the competitive spirit of everybody else, you know what I'm saying? If everybody is just relaxed and happy go lucky and this that and the other, then that's the personality we'll have as a team. And then you run into a team that's a confrontational team, and it's like a bus."

Bryant wouldn't feel this way if he hadn't been run over a bus like that before.

"That's what happened to us in 2008," he continued. "Everything was really easy for us, real smooth and this that and the other. Everybody liked each other. And then we got to the Finals (against Boston), and we ran into a bus. The Celtics – those (expletives) just beat the (expletive) out of us (in six games)."

This is the root of the Bryant-Howard quandary. Independent of personality and based solely on talent, they have all the makings of a dynamic duo that could win titles together just like Bryant did with Shaquille O'Neal. Add in Pau Gasol, Nash, and World Peace, and some of the brightest minds in the game were convinced entering the season that they were shoe-ins to win it all.

But Bryant is one of the fiercest and least-forgiving players in the game, the conviction of his beliefs based not only on the five championships that still give him the final say in these parts but also the failures that shaped him. Howard is notoriously benign and constantly conflicted, more now than ever because the familiar voices in his complicated camp are speaking up yet again about the chaos that surrounds him.

They are The Odd Couple without the punchlines or the laugh track, though Bryant doesn't see their pairing as problematic. Asked if he still believed he could win a championship with Howard, he said, "Yeah, for sure." Unrelenting and sure as always, he's trying to teach Howard a lesson he may not want to learn.

"It's a process for him," Bryant said. "He wants to be one of the greats of all time, and to do that you have to learn from the greats of all time – be it Bill Russell, be it Shaq. I mean Shaq was a moody, temperamental dude. So if you watch all the big men who have come before, you start to see a common denominator.

"Wilt (Chamberlain), God bless him, was phenomenal, but he didn't have (the same edge). Russell and (those) guys win repetitive – (Michael) Jordan, Magic (Johnson), myself. You've got a little (expletive) in you. I want (Howard) to be great, so I'm trying to push him."

He did just that in the Monday meeting, though it's unclear to what degree. While Bryant acknowledged that the meeting took place, he disputed his part in it.

"I never asked him (if he disliked playing alongside Bryant)," Bryant said. "I never asked him that."

So, Bryant was asked, what did he say?

"It's private; it's private," he said. "But I never asked him that, so I'm not quite sure where that came from. That's not in my personality to ask somebody that (laughs).

"It was nothing of that sort. If you talk to Dwight, ask Pau, ask Steve Nash and those guys – I never said that. I'm too old to be lying about that type of (expletive). I don't give a (expletive)."

He does care about saving this season, though, and the Lakers (18-25) may still survive considering they're just four games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Yet beyond the clash of cultures and the conversation about what Howard must do to meet this moment, Friday's win offered a glimpse of how these Lakers might look from here on out.

A concerted effort to feed Howard in the paint early paid off on both ends throughout, as he finished with 17 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks and one turnover after returning from the shoulder injury that took him out of Wednesday's loss at Memphis. Bryant – who had shot just 35.3% in the previous four games while averaging 25.5 shots – hit seven of 10 while turning in his most well-rounded night of the season (14 points, a season-high 14 assists and nine rebounds).

For a night, this purple-and-gold puzzle became a picture. And Howard, Bryant insisted, remained in it.

"I don' t know what the future holds," Bryant said. "I don't know if (Howard will be traded)…But I know that as long as he's here, I'm going to continue to help him, mentor him, help him be great. That's all I can do. I'm a problem solver. I try to figure things out, come hell or high water."

Link

Mike D'Antoni talks Lakers: 'I'm trying to do my job'

The smile on Mike D'Antoni's face Friday morning seemed genuine, which is saying something considering everything the Los Angeles Lakers coach faces at the moment.

As he stood some 50 feet away from that spot inside the team's practice facility where he was introduced to so much fanfare and frivolity in mid-November, back when Mike Brown had been deemed the problem and D'Antoni the solution, he discussed the topic of his own uncertain future that doesn't typically spark a smirk. Only he knows is if this is the laugh-so-you-don't-cry approach to professional sanity, but D'Antoni — whose team broke through Friday night for a 102-84 win vs. the Utah Jazz after losing 10 of their previous 12 games — had a peace about him that belied the situation at hand.

There are pundits and fans calling for his head now, rumors swirling about how he may be in trouble and claims that his coaching style is threatening the future of free agent-to-be Dwight Howard in Laker Land. No one seems to care about the other factors involved here, from the egos of every shape and size that are still getting in the Lakers' way to the evergreen evidence that Kobe Bryant — ageless and tremendous though he may be — is one of the toughest stars to share a locker room with and coach that the game has ever seen. D'Antoni, who came here on a three-year, $12 million contract that he'll be paid whether or not he's able to see this job through, is going to grin his way through it and see where this purple-and-gold roller coaster takes him.

"I don't care (about the increased scrutiny that surrounds him)," D'Antoni told USA TODAY Sports after the morning shoot-a-round. "I'm trying to do my job the best I can do it, and I'm trying to go as hard as I can. If (Lakers general manager) Mitch (Kupchak) and management ask me to (step down), then they can do that. That's their job. That's not my job.

"That's a decision that the head guys have to make. When that day happens, it happens. But up until then, I'm going to coach as hard as I can coach to try to get it right."

Lakers officials and D'Antoni confidantes alike say there's no indication he's on his way out or that it's even being considered. And according to the Los Angeles Times, D'Antoni was given a vote of confidence from management in a meeting that took place not long after he discussed the prospect of being fired.

The truth is that they're all in trouble of various kinds, and — as Howard noted numerous times Friday — being four games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the West means this is no time for any of them to reach for the white flag.

But this notion that Howard could bolt because of D'Antoni's style is oversimplified and strategically placed. There is a blueprint in these Dwight-mares that was exposed during the Orlando chapter and that we're starting to see again, with the behind-the-scenes politicking and executing of various agendas making it hard to know what's real or contrived and what may or may not come next.

This much, however, is clear: As evidenced by the Monday team meeting first reported by the Los Angeles Times, the dynamic between the polar-opposite Howard and Bryant that so many assumed would be problematic has clearly become so. The Times report, which quoted an unnamed witness and was not disputed by D'Antoni, said Bryant asked if Howard enjoyed playing with him, to which Howard didn't respond.

Bryant's status as the sometimes-ruthless king of this castle was known to concern Howard about coming here in the first place. Now Howard finds himself pondering his future in this unsettling setting, with the Los Angeles scene everything he hoped for when it came to his hopes of being a global star but - with the ageless Bryant claiming he'll retire after next season but looking capable of playing into his 40s – the basketball component hardly meeting expectations.

Yet for all the interest in developments off the court, Howard and the Lakers may be destined for a divorce if the on-floor problems don't get fixed first. And if the Lakers don't want to run the risk of Howard bolting this summer, they must help him feel like more of a focal point on the offensive end.

While D'Antoni said Howard has had more touches in the painted area than every player in the league other than Utah's Al Jefferson, Howard is surely focused on the fact that he's fourth on the team in field goal attempts (at 10.3 a game) behind Bryant (22.1), Pau Gasol (11.3), and Metta World Peace (11.1). Howard showed in a most-immature way on Monday how obsessed he can become over the box score, as he reportedly showed news reporters how few shots he finished with in a loss at the Chicago Bulls.

Howard's tendency to get stripped while plotting post moves plays a part, but an offensive shift was expected to start in the Jazz game. Per the internal plan, Howard was a focal point early (eight first quarter shots) and he got off to an active start as a result (six first quarter rebounds en route to a 17-point, 13-rebound, one turnover outing). Howard played despite aggravating his right shoulder injury in the first quarter of Wednesday's loss at the Memphis Grizzlies.

D'Antoni, for his part, has been puzzled by this idea that there's some problem between him and Howard. He referred to the All-Star several times as a "friend" and said he is well aware that he needs to find a solution.

"I think it's good (between him and Howard)," D'Antoni said. "I'm going to coach him and try to coach him the best I can. My job is to coach the Lakers and try to help us win. Whatever happens after that? I can't control the destiny or the future. I try to be true, and (Howard) wants the same thing I want. He wants to win, for him to be a dominant factor offensively and defensively. And we've got to get there. Now if that's not enough, then they'll determine that. And I'm cool with that. I can't change anything about this summer."

What D'Antoni can change, however, is the way in which his team plays. Yet as was the case when he was with the New York Knicks, he finds himself facing fair criticism that he's far too stubborn to mold the system around the players rather than the other way around. His recent decision to bring Gasol off the bench has sparked plenty of head scratching from his coaching peers, as the Spaniard still is considered one of the best big men on the planet, and using him as a reserve seems — to many — inexplicable. D'Antoni, who faces a rock-and-a-hard-place problem considering Gasol's demotion helps his ability to satisfy Howard, doesn't agree.

"I don't know anything (with) the system where the system says, 'You know what? The system really indicates to take bad shots, or don't move the ball, or let's post five guys up in the paint,'" D'Antoni told news reporters at the shoot-around. "I don't understand that. It's just playing basketball.

"Where I'm having a hard time is, the ball doesn't move. We need to move the ball. And that's the biggest thing. ... We're trying to get Pau in the low post, but we can't get him in the low post (when) we've got three other guys in there also. So it's trying to get everybody on the same page, trying to be comfortable with it, and trying to play hard all the time because you're comfortable."

Part of that, if possible, is to make Howard comfortable, too.

"If you get him comfortable, that would help (the chances of him re-signing)," D'Antoni said. "And win. And that's what we're trying to do. Yeah, we're trying to (pay attention to) the big picture, because we want him here."