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Author Archive for Jim Murdoc

Lakers can win with subpar Kobe Bryant

Published by Jim Murdoc on November 27, 2008 in Kobe Watch. 5 Comments

L.A. Times: It was cause for dejection in past Lakers locker rooms, a poor shooting night by Kobe Bryant often leading to a loss.

Not so much this season.

Bryant’s production is down across the board, but the Lakers are off to a 12-1 start, beating teams by a league-high average of 14.3 points a game.

The Lakers continue to win with ease, even when Bryant has poor shooting nights.

He was five for 17 against New Jersey on Tuesday, but the Lakers won by 27 points. He was eight for 23 against Phoenix, but the Lakers won by 13. He was five for 15 at New Orleans, and the Lakers won by “only” seven. He went eight for 21 against the Clippers, and the Lakers won by 18.

Coach Phil Jackson indicated Bryant would continue to be the obvious focal point of the Lakers’ offense, but it was an important development to win when Bryant wasn’t hitting.

“We have to have the confidence,” Jackson said. “And he has to have the understanding that, ‘Hey, if it’s not my night, I’ll just help other guys go.’ ”

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Fisher is reminded of 2001-02 season

Published by Jim Murdoc on November 27, 2008 in Articles. 4 Comments

Inside The Lakers: Not expecting any news because of the Thanksgiving holiday. But here’s a copy of the story I just filed (unedited) to the desk. There’s some interesting stuff from Derek Fisher comparing the Lakers’ start this season to their start in 2001-02, when they won their last NBA championship.

Fisher remembers the Lakers’ 16-1 record to start the 2001-02 season. He also remembers how they could not maintain their early-season excellence, stumbling now and then en route to a good but hardly great 58-24 record.

But what Fisher recalls most of all when he thinks back to that season was how the Lakers completed it by winning their third consecutive NBA championship. Nothing else really matters where the 2001-02 season is concerned.

So, when Fisher answers a question asking him to compare the Lakers’ 12-1 start this season with their 16-1 start in 2001-02, the thing he stresses is that the 2008-09 team has accomplished nothing special so far.

“As quickly as you can win 12 out of 13 or be 16-1, you go through a stretch where things get away from you,” he said earlier this week. “It seems like things snowball from there and all the bad stuff comes out from under the rug.

“What I do remember most from that (2001-02) team was that we completed the end mission, which was to win a title. No matter how you start, it’s how you finish that matters.”

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Jerry Buss interview

Published by Jim Murdoc on November 27, 2008 in Kobe Watch. 1 Comment

You can hear this interview at our AM570 Lakers Audio portal in our sidebar…

Inside The Lakers: Lakers owner Jerry Buss just did an interview on AM 570 that I found pretty interesting.

Here’s what he had to say about Kobe Bryant’s future with the Lakers. The question was whether Kobe could play until he’s 40 years old? Whether Kobe might want to play that long to try and break Kareem’s all-time scoring record, or win a bunch of championship titles.

“You know he’s such a tough guy, he probably could do pretty much whatever he wanted to do,” Buss said. “But at the same time I can’t imagine Kobe would want to do that. There’s been so much wear and tear on the body, I think he would probably not want to do that.”

It’s Thanksgiving Day!

Published by Jim Murdoc on November 27, 2008 in Our Take. 3 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here at the Lakers Nation, we wouldn’t be around much if it wasn’t for you guys supporting what we do. So, we are thankful for that.

While you’re at the dinner table with your familia, be sure to find time to express your gratitude to your Los Angeles Lakers. ;)

Lakers are good, but we still don’t know how good

Published by Jim Murdoc on November 26, 2008 in Articles. 8 Comments

L.A. Times: It has definitely been an amazing season around here. Well, an amazing four weeks anyway.

Not that there hasn’t been a disappointment or two for hard-core fans, who hoped the Lakers could be unbeaten going into the Christmas game against the Boston Celtics.

Now even Vic the Brick understands the Lakers aren’t likely to get 80 wins.

For one thing, there’s that Feb. 5 game in Boston . . . and the one three days later in Cleveland.

They also have two games at Houston. Of course, aside from that, there doesn’t appear to be anyone on the schedule the Lakers can’t handle.

I learned all this in my last visit to the rubber room where they keep radio’s Loose Cannons, from either Vic or

Mychal Thompson. Everyone yells so much, it’s hard to tell which of them has lost it at any given time.

In the real world, there’s an interesting question:

What would this Lakers team be like if it was really playing well?

In the first 13 games, they played well in a handful: The first two against Portland and the Clippers; the 111-82 rout of Houston; the win in New Orleans in which they led by 21 points at halftime; the wipeout in Phoenix in which Kobe Bryant was eight for 23 and they still ran up an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter.

Continue reading ‘Lakers are good, but we still don’t know how good’

Phil Jackson understands the angst

Published by Jim Murdoc on November 26, 2008 in News. 3 Comments

L.A. Times: The headlines scream from the pages.

Luke Walton can’t get any playing time. Sasha Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovic aren’t making their three-point shots. The Lakers’ defense was unacceptable against Sacramento. Sun Yue is probably going down to the Development League.

OK, maybe the headlines are sometimes more whispers than screams, but the Lakers are 12-1 and still facing some questions and shrugs from reporters.

Not that Coach Phil Jackson is complaining.

“You couldn’t write everything positive, could you? It wouldn’t be any fun. No fun,” he said, smiling.

In fact, Jackson tends to be more critical than complimentary in video sessions before practice.

“I have to,” he said. “That’s what coaching’s about.”

Jackson acknowledged there was even some nitpicking in stories during the Chicago Bulls’ record-setting 72-10 season in 1995-96.

“I’m sure there was [criticism]: ‘ Luc Longley couldn’t run the court, we didn’t have a post-up game,’ those kind of things,” Jackson said. “You have to keep people interested, right?”

Sun working to find his place in NBA, Lakers

Published by Jim Murdoc on November 25, 2008 in Articles. 12 Comments

Great Q & A with Sun Yue…

NBA.com: By now, Yao is a household name and Yi is emerging into the collective conscious of the basketball realm, the question remains: Who is Yue?

Sun Yue, a lithe 6-foot-9, 205-pound guard selected with the 40th pick in the 2007 Draft by the Lakers, joins Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian as the third member of the Chinese national team playing in the NBA.

After averaging 6.8 points and 2.5 assists during China’s run in the Olympics this past summer, Yue came to America despite no guarantee that he would make the roster as a second-round pick.

Yue (whose name is pronounced SAHN YOU) edged out Dwayne Mitchell, Joe Crawford and Coby Karl in training camp to become L.A.’s 15th man for 2008-09.

Prior to cementing his spot on the Lakers, Yue played for the Beijing Aoshen Olympians of the American Basketball Association for the past three seasons. Sun, 23, was named First Team All-ABA in both 2007 and 2008 while earning Second-Team All-ABA honors in 2006.

He has yet to play a minute during the regular season and you can find him racking and fetching all the balls that rolled around the gym after practice as part of his rookie treatment, but that doesn’t change Yue’s enthusiasm about being in the NBA.

NBA.com’s Dave McMenamin caught up with Yue after a recent Lakers practice to talk about his journey to the league.

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Hollinger’s PER Diem: Mighty Lakers

Published by Jim Murdoc on November 25, 2008 in Articles. 5 Comments

ESPN: So, can anyone touch L.A.?

The Lakers juggernaut kept rolling with a win over Sacramento last night to improve to 11-1. L.A. now rates as having an 89.4 percent chance of earning the West’s top seed for the playoffs, and a 57.2 percent chance of representing the West come June, according to today’s Playoff Odds.

Phoenix looked to be among the most qualified challengers, sporting a huge frontline that was built partly with the idea of matching up against Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, and posting some solid results in the early going. But the Suns were clearly outclassed by L.A. on Thursday, more so than the 105-92 final indicated — in fact, that’s probably why both coaches took the unusual step of emptying their benches as early as you’ll ever see (with three minutes left in a 13-point game).

And if not Phoenix, who?

As of today, no other Western team projects to win 51 games, and only one is within eight points of The Juggernaut in the Power Rankings. That team, surprisingly, is Portland, and while the Blazers are certainly young, exciting and ready to claim a playoff berth, they’re also suspect defensively and reliant on jump shooting; at this stage they’re also likely being overly rewarded for a 42-point win over Chicago.

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