Archive for December, 2008
With trade rumors floating around, Chris Mihm lets us know where he wants to be…
DailyNews: “I’m happy here,” he said. “I’ve been through a lot in the last five years (with the Lakers), and I feel like we’re on the track to something special here. It’s something I want to be a part of. I’m nine years in (the league); I want to win a title.
“Hopefully, it’s just a rumor like most of this stuff is,” Mihm said. “I’m happy here knowing that we’re trying for something special. I know there are places I could be playing, but I understand my role here
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Yahoo! Sports: Kobe Bryant scored 31 points, Derek Fisher added 19 and the Los Angeles Lakers rolled to a 130-113 victory over the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night.
There was no letdown by the Lakers after their intense Christmas Day victory over Boston in the teams’ first meeting since the NBA finals last summer, won by the Celtics.
The night following the 92-83 loss in Los Angeles that ended their 19-game win streak, the Celtics fell to the Warriors 99-89 in San Francisco. It was the first time this season Boston had lost two in a row.
The Lakers, who hadn’t played since Thursday, breezed to a relatively easy victory over the Warriors, who have won just twice in 19 games against them at Staples Center.
Sasha Vujacic had 17 points, Pau Gasol had 13 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and Andrew Bynum chipped in with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Jamal Crawford returned to the Warriors’ lineup after missing two games with a groin strain and scored 22 points. Marco Belinelli and Brandan Wright had 14 points apiece, and Andris Biedrins had eight points and 17 rebounds.
Bryant and most of both teams’ regulars sat out the fourth quarter.
Continue reading ‘Lakers follow win over Celts with blowout win’
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Hoopsworld: This has been making its way around the popular message boards over the past 24 hours, and while our initial response after checking a few sources was simply not to comment on it, it does seem to be growing.
A widespread rumor as the Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks working on a three-team deal that would essentially send out Luther Head and Carl Landry from Houston, Chris Mihm heads out of LA and Tyronn Lue and Charlie Villanueva depart Milwaukee. There are several versions of this out there, with multiple papers now reporting it on their websites.
Depending on which you believe, the Rockets could end up with Villanueva and Mihm, Lue goes to the Lakers, and Landry and/or Head land in Milwaukee.
Other details are varied and, at times, nonsensical.
The reason this rumor is so popular is because it does address some needs. We’ve seen numerous reports that the Lakers might have interest in Lue to replace the injured Jordan Farmar. The Rockets recently unloaded Steve Francis to open up a roster spot, and it’s widely believed they’ll use that spot to sign a back-up center – likely Dikembe Mutombo. As for the Bucks, Villanueva’s name just seems to come up any time someone wants to talk about the Bucks.
Continue reading ‘Rockets, Lakers, Bucks 3-Way?’
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The Lakers hit the hardwood, after exacting a little revenge by beating the Boston Celtics in their highly anticipated Christmas day match-up, to battle the Golden State Warriors. The Lakers can’t have a let down or allow their intensity level to decrease because they’re facing a team that just acquired their ninth win.
In the Warriors win, they beat those same Celtics by ten points on Friday December 26th. The Celtics could’ve been spent, could’ve simply ran out of gas after going 19-1 traveling cross country but at the end of the day Boston took a loss and had to drag another ‘L’ off of the court.
+Continue Reading
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L.A. Times: Pau Gasol rocked back and forth on his giant feet, smiling, pleasant, distracted.
“You have somewhere else to be?” I said.
“After this interview, yes,” he said.
“Where?” I said.
“The weight room,” he said.
I gasped. I froze. I could not have more shocked had Pau Gasol told me he was going to a barbershop.
Weights? Him? When?
“Two or three times a week, since the start of training camp,” he said. “I’ve never really done it before, but I’ve got to do it now.”
Oh. So he heard.
He heard last spring’s cries of “Gasoft.” He heard Lakers fans accusing him of disappearing under the weight of Garnett and green. He heard himself being blamed for the NBA Finals loss to the Boston Celtics.
He stopped rocking and stared down at me, his soft eyes quickly turning hard.
“I heard it a lot,” he said, his voice rising. “I heard it too much.”
Continue reading ‘Gasol tries to flex for success’
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L.A. Times: They came, they saw, for once they didn’t conquer.
By the time the Celtics arrived last week, the Lakers had worked themselves into such a state of indignation, complaints included not only Boston fans’ rocking their bus in the playoffs, but Ray Allen’s ringing insult as he accepted the team’s ESPY at the summer awards show here:
“Another win in L.A!”
If that was an insult, the Lakers are lucky to ever make it out of town anywhere they go, with Phil Jackson zinging everyone in sight, like last spring’s lighthearted jibe at Paul Pierce’s dramatic return in the NBA Finals after leaving the court in a wheelchair.
“We were just having a good time,” Allen said before the Christmas game. “It wasn’t trash talking. It wasn’t anything.
“The game is going to be the game for what it is today. They’re a good team, they’re one of the best teams in the NBA, we’re one of the best teams in the NBA.
“I don’t think they, nor we, need motivation to play this game.”
That’s how different the teams are.
Continue reading ‘Celtics are the worst 27-4 team ever’
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Our very own podcaster, G-Small, will be a guest today on AM570’s Joe Grande’s Weekend BBQ during the 3-4PM block.
Be sure tune in, and like always, you can listen to the show online by visiting AM570Radio.com!
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Interesting article on Kupchak’s vision of our next point guard due to Farmar’s absence…
Daily News: Derek Fisher says he can keep playing extended minutes for as long as the team needs him to. Sasha Vujacic says he loves playing point guard, even though his role on the team is as a shooter.
Right now, that’s how the Lakers have been coping with the knee injury to backup Jordan Farmar that’s expected to keep him out for up to eight weeks.
Over the weekend, general manager Mitch Kupchak said that the Lakers’ brain trust will “reconvene” preliminary discussions on whether they need to bring in additional help.
“I can’t put a percentage on it,” Kupchak said. “But I don’t think we’re looking for a practice player. If we’re going to sign someone, it has to be a player we feel we can put in the game. If we can’t find that player, we should probably do nothing.”
With Farmar out, the Lakers have two players with the ability to facilitate the triangle offense: Lamar Odom and Vujacic. They also have rookie Sun Yue, but he’s made one official appearance in an NBA regular season game and is considered a long-term project.
Kupchak declined to comment on which players the Lakers would look at, if they were to decide to add another point guard, but it’s a fair assumption that familiarity with the Lakers’ system would be a plus for any candidate.
Kupchak added the team is mostly concerned by losing Farmar at the defensive end of the court.
“I think from an offensive point of view, we have players that can facilitate the offense,” Kupchak said. “From a defensive perspective, we have to look at it and say, `Can we adequately defend the small guards in this league with only one small guard on our roster in Derek Fisher?”‘
Continue reading ‘Kupchak evaluates point guard position’
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I like Luke. In fact, he played very well since going into that starting roll. That being said, here is a little experpt from an article that claims Luke could be involved in a trade…
ESPN: Even the mighty Lakers aren’t averse to cutting payroll. That would explain the occasional rumblings I’ve heard this season about Luke Walton, one of Phil Jackson’s longstanding favorites in L.A., being made available to interested trade parties.
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Sorry to post this news late, we get a bit lazy here in the TLN offices during the Holiday season. 
L.A. Times: Lakers backup point guard Jordan Farmar had successful surgery today to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee and is expected to miss the next eight weeks of the season, the team announced this afternoon.
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