To be expected…
L.A. Times: Defense-minded forward Ira Newble was signed for the rest of the season for about $110,000. Newble, 33, who has two points in four minutes of game action with the Lakers, is eligible for the playoffs. The Lakers picked Newble up after Seattle waived him in February.
Jackson put them through a meditation session at Sunday’s shoot-around, and that night they ended two-game skid. Coincidence?
L.A. Times: The Lakers are back on a winning track. Maybe there will be more deep breathing and introspection at their practices.
In an effort to stop the team’s hemorrhaging after home losses to Charlotte and Memphis — with a combined road record of 15-59 — Coach Phil Jackson put the Lakers through a meditation session at Sunday morning’s shoot-around, as he sometimes does during the season.
Several hours later, the Lakers beat Washington, 126-120, in a frenetic overtime game.
Apparently, something had changed in them. “We were all nice and centered,” Luke Walton said with a smile.
It would behoove them to stay that way, with the top five teams in the Western Conference separated by less than two games in the standings.
Last week was supposed to be the start of the friendly part of the Lakers’ schedule, an end-of-season reward for their historically long nine-game trip and a more recent road venture to face four playoff hopefuls in the West.
But they might have lost a fourth consecutive home game if not for Walton’s noteworthy rebound of a missed free throw and Sasha Vujacic’s equally clutch free throws late in overtime against the Wizards.
Don’t look now, but their schedule continues to be undemanding the rest of this week, at least on paper.
L.A. Times: Technically speaking, the Lakers are in trouble, and not just because they’re in a three-way logjam for second place in the Western Conference.
Kobe Bryant is collecting technical fouls in a flurry and will be automatically suspended by the league for one game if he picks up one more technical in the Lakers’ last 10 regular-season games.
He has 15 technical fouls after receiving two in Wednesday’s embarrassing 108-95 home loss to Charlotte.
Bryant had only four technical fouls through Jan. 12, but has since gone on a virtual one-a-week spree, collecting 11 in the last 11 weeks.
It has been an uncomfortable issue for the Lakers at the end of the last few seasons. Bryant had 14 technical fouls last season and 15 in 2005-06.
In addition, he has racked up $22,500 in fines associated with technical fouls this season. He was sent a warning letter by the NBA after he picked up his 12th technical foul earlier this month.
If Bryant received his 16th technical in the last game of the regular season, against Sacramento on April 15, he would be suspended for the first game of the playoffs.
Bryant left without talking to reporters after Thursday’s practice.
Continue reading ‘Kobe already fined for his Technical Fouls’
Title: Welcome Home Pau
Created By: LD2k (Editing) | Flo’z (Music/Performer)
Length: 2:54
Size: 56MB
Type: MPEG-4
Play With: You can use Quicktime or the VLC Player.
Download Links:
- Sendspace
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Description: The long awaited debut collaboration between LD2k & Flo’z has finally arrived. Teaming up to bring you one of the first Pau Gasol videos, this collab reminds us all how valuable Gasol is to our team and really showcases our love for him. Welcome home Pau, you’re truly at home in the land of L.A.
Post All Your Comments Here…
For those of you who didn’t know who Nick Young was, now you do. The rookie out of USC seemingly made every shot down the stretch to turn what should have been an easy night for the Lakers into an overtime thriller.
You would think the Lakers had the better three point shooting night if I told you they went 14-27. Not tonight! The Wizards made 17 of 30, behind 8 from Stevenson. This team will be scary from outside when Gilbert comes back.
Anyways, the Lakers shot well tonight, scoring 126 points on 49% shooting. They had 35 assists to only 8 turnovers! They also had 7 players score double figures. The problem tonight was the defense. You can’t give up 120 points at home to a team without a point guard on the roster after Daniels went down 3 minutes into the game. Hopefully the Lakers snap out of this funk and get some quality wins!
Now, the bests of the night…
Thanks to Ajay Virk for e-mailing us this article that he found on the net. Again, if you find an article that you think deserves to be on TLN, please e-mail it to us at Articles@theLakersNation.com.
AsiaGolfOnline.com: Golf Star Tiger Woods will be joined in by Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao and NBA Superstar Kobe Bryant in one explosive commercial for a sports shoe and apparel company that gathers together the three world sports icon in few seconds of TV ads.
It was Pacquiao who broke the information to Philippine media, although he was earlier criticized for allegedly snubbing a shoot with Kobe Bryant while he was preparing for the fight against Juan Manuel Marquez.
Although Woods lost to Geoff Ogilvy in the recent CA Championship in Doral, he remains to be the world’s golf icon while LA Laker’s Kobe Bryant has become one of basketball’s superstars.
The schedule of release for the Nike commercial has not been set yet but insiders revealed it should be in the next few weeks.
Center will accompany team on upcoming trip. Gasol probably won’t play Sunday.
L.A. Lakers: After gruesome home losses to Charlotte and Memphis, some mildly pleasant news awaited the Lakers on Saturday.
Pau Gasol participated in a brief scrimmage and Andrew Bynum was told by Coach Phil Jackson he would accompany the team on a two-game trip next week, though he wouldn’t necessarily play.
Bynum was doing “really well” in his recovery after working his way through some patellar tendinitis in his injured left knee, Jackson said.
“It’s not really connected to his injury per se. It was just the amount of work that he’s started to be able to do, which is impressive,” Jackson said. “I told him to expect to go on the trip to Sacramento [next Sunday] and Portland [on April 8]. Whether he can play or not, it may not be that time, but he’s going to go through the workouts and practices and the pregame and whatever we have.”
The Lakers have four regular-season games left after that trip.
Gasol, who has sat out eight games because of a sprained left ankle, took part in a five-minute scrimmage at the team’s training facility, but probably won’t play tonight against Washington. He could run straight ahead Saturday without any pain but still had trouble planting and cutting, he said.
Continue reading ‘Bynum/Gasol could be back with Lakers soon’
O.C. Register: It has pained Pau Gasol to watch his team the past two games. Unfortunately, he won’t be able to help until the pain subsides in his sprained left ankle.
That might be next week rather than tonight after he tested it Saturday at the team’s practice facility.
“It’s still pretty sore,” Gasol said. “I don’t know. It’s still doubtful. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow. Hopefully it will get better tomorrow. If not, maybe take a couple of days in between and go for Wednesday.”
Gasol will see how it responds today before the Lakers play Washington tonight. Their next game after that is Wednesday against Portland.
Gasol did some half-court work and ran in a straight line, but he still has pain and soreness when he turns and does other basketball moves. The club might be best suited to use the extra two days and target Wednesday for his return.
“I’m trying to get the pain under control and be able to handle it well, because it’s going to be painful for a while,” he said. “I just want to be effective out there. I don’t want to be out there just to be out there.”
Continue reading ‘Persistent pain likely to delay Gasol’s return’
ESPN: Rudy Gay led five players in double figures with 28 points and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Los Angeles Lakers 114-111 despite 53 points by Kobe Bryant against the NBA’s worst road team Friday night.
The Lakers lost their second in a row to another of the NBA’s lesser teams, having been beaten by Charlotte on Wednesday night. The latest loss kept them from joining New Orleans and San Antonio in a three-way tie for the Western Conference lead.
Bryant scored 50 or more points for the 23rd time and the second this month. He had 52 against Dallas on March 2. The Lakers fell to 16-7 when he goes for that many.
He was limited to six points in the fourth quarter, when the Lakers nearly erased all of a 10-point deficit. He had 10 rebounds and one assist while taking 37 of the Lakers’ 94 shots. They attempted a franchise record 45 3-pointers, making 15.
Darko Milicic had 22 points and 12 rebounds, Hakim Warrick 16 points, Kyle Lowry 11 and Mike Miller 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who are 6-30 on the road and 2-20 away from home against Western Conference teams.
The Grizzlies led by 10 early in the fourth, their largest lead of the game.
Sasha Vujacic hit a 3-pointer to cut the Lakers’ deficit to 109-106 with 3:03 remaining. Miller missed a 3-pointer, but the Lakers couldn’t convert on their end despite four attempts on the same possession, including one by Bryant.
Continue reading ‘Kobe pours in 53, but hurt Lakers still fall to Grizz’
TheLakersNation.com has learned Chris Mihm will dress in uniform tonight! Whether or not he plays is up to Phil! One down, one up I guess.
Welcome back, Chris!
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