And Lucas III & Watson. And they were all VERY important. The Bulls strength last year was their depth. That is gone now. Plus, all those guys could play defense.

Look who replaced them. Bellinelli & Radmonovic?

The current team is not as good as Miami, NYK, BRK, Boston, and Philly. Probably not as good as Indiana neither

 

They got Mohammed, Radmanovic and Hinrich.

The Knicks are gonna be out in the first round (as always), Boston is too old to go further than the 2nd round and I'll be surprised if Brooklyn even makes the playoffs. The Nets won only 22 games last year (and had 44 loses); I don't see how adding Joe Johnson and 36% FG shooter CJ Watson is gonna make them so good.
Philadelphia might be a surprise ...

Either way, the Bulls are gonna play the eastern finals vs the Heat.

 

I guess we'll have to wait and see Zoran, because you and I are not even in the same ballpark when it comes to our opinions on this.

Just like old times eh?

 

Another game, and another loss for the Lakers. I missed the first half tonight while babysitting my sister. But is there any point to going back on my DVR? Nothing has changed since the first two games. Turnovers and no second or 3rd effort on defense numerous times.

Notables:

The Good:
-The Black Mamba shows he's still got plenty left. Dropping 40 pts

The Bad:
-Foul trouble for Dwight
-Sub par game from Pau
-No aggressive bench threat
-20 turnovers again

Steve Nash was sidelined with an injury, but is expected to play on Sunday

 

Finally! The word that's on every Lakers fan's mind after tonight's game. The Lakers won a game they were supposed to win in a blow out with Nash watching in a suit. The Lakers went inside early and often, and DH12 and Pau delivered. The Lakers also cut down on turnovers when the game was still in contention. They'll play again on the road in Utah on Wednesday. Hopefully they can continue to grow.

Notables:

The Good:
-Dominant on the inside all night. Dwight looks to be getting better timing, although he says he's a "step and a half slow."
-Another efficient night from the Bean. We take this guy for granted
-Turnovers were kept to a minimum
-One game closer to Nash returning

The Bad:
-The starters were brought back in the 4th. Ideally, you'd like to see Kobe completely iced by then. Especially with his injured foot.
-Still need an aggressive scorer off the bench. Morris looked good in stretches tonight.

 

Missed the game last night (Wednesday games will be hard for me to catch due to my schedule), but just from looking at the box score....Too many turnovers, no scoring from the bench.

Nash can't get back soon enough..

 

weak!

 

Pretty much everything that I have said on the previous page has became true.

Lakers are too old. I watched them against Utah Jazz last night. They simply cannot keep the tempo for 48 minutes. Older guys, like Gasol and Artest, can't play for more than ~25 minutes on the top level and even Kobe can't play for more than 35 minutes or so on his well known level.
Howard still can't hit free throws (currently shooting 50% for the season).
Defense is horrible, Lakers allowed 100+ points in 3 of 5 games they have played so far (and in other two they allowed 95 and 99). And that's not gonna get better when Nash returns, since he's well known for not playing defense.
And bench doesn't exist.

 

For now. And one thing you're forgetting is health. Nash is not even there. Kobe still not 100 and neither is Dwight.

There's no denying this team is struggling right now. Do I expect it to last all season? No.

 

Some things will change, but I don't see how further down the season things might improve a lot.
Artest and Gasol aren't gonna get any younger, Nash is not gonna start playing defense all of the sudden at the age of 38, Howard is not gonna start hitting free throws (he never did in his career) and bench is still gonna suck unless Lakers make some moves.

Kobe will get better and Nash might help a little bit (his minutes will still be limited due to his age), but that's not enough for a championship or even NBA finals.

 

because the problem of "youth" that affects the Lakers most is transition defense. Used to hurt us offensively too because we couldn't get easy buckets in transition, but the Princeton mitigates A LOT of that.

The Lakers aren't helping themselve by averaging 20 turnovers. Limit the turnovers, limit the fast breaks for the opposition, they score less points, defense looks better, etc.

Nash and the team gelling will help tremendously in this area. And there will be a trade for bench help if the bench continues to play poorly.

 

Coach Brown fired!!

 

Should be interesting to see who replaces him. And if there are any personnel changes to go along with it

 

I still don't get why Lakers got Brown in the first place ...

Instead of spending $100+ million a year on players salaries (the most in the NBA), the Lakers should've used some of that money to re-sign Phil Jackson.

I always thought he's was the main reason why Lakers won all those championships - not Kobe or Shaq.

 

He's a huge part of why they won, no doubt. But he had health issues.

 

The funny thing is - Kings currently have more wins than the Lakers.

 

You bastard LOL!!! I'm confident that will change. But no doubt there is LOTS of drama in Hollywood right now.

 

Are you guys brothers

 

True, but nobody really expects anything from the Kings. So when they lose, hardly anyone will notice that.

And every Lakers loss is the start of the World War III.

No pressure ...

 

No but we have a LONG history of arguing with each other over BBall stuff.

It stemmed from the Lakers-Kings rivalry of the early 2000s.

Think Dodgers-Giants rivalry except we were actually playing each other in the playoffs. It was pretty well known at that time the western conference champs would win the finals

Don't I know it!! That's how it is and I wouldn't have it any other way LOL.