Life without Kobe Bryant for the Los Angeles Lakers began Sunday night, and it wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was pretty good. With Dwight Howard having a big game and Steve Blake somehow outplaying Tony Parker, the Lakers defeated the suddenly struggling San Antonio Spurs and need just one more win to clinch a playoff berth. [Read more…]
Magic Johnson believes the Lakers would defeat the Spurs in the first round. Mark Heisler’s opinion: “Spurs. Easy.” So what we have here is a difference of opinion, and Heisler goes on to explain why San Antonio would pick the Lakers apart with speed, precision and 3-point shooting. [Read more…]
Maybe it’s just me, but folks sure seem a little too certain that the Los Angeles Lakers are going to make the playoffs. Yes, they control their own destiny. But they still, in all likelihood, will need to win out in their final three games to get the job done — and those three wins are far from sure things. The opponents are Golden State, San Antonio and Houston, all of which are still playing for something. Golden State (1-2 against Los Angeles
So here is how things stand going into the last week of the season … The Lakers control their own destiny after getting yet another yeoman’s performance Wednesday night from Kobe Bryant, who played all 48 minutes and led them to their first victory of the season of the second night of a back-to-back. Yes, you read that correctly: Their first win on the second night of a back-to-back. They had been 0-15. [Read more…]
The most impressive thing about Carmelo Anthony’s 36-point outing in the Knicks’ 12th consecutive victory Sunday was the way he got his points. Unlike the night when he went for 50 against the Miami Heat while shooting almost nothing but jump shots, Anthony displayed a power game in the low post and a tenacity on the offensive glass. He now holds a slight lead over Kevin Durant for the NBA scoring lead, and he is the only one standing in the
Carmelo Anthony goes into Friday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks trailing Kevin Durant for the NBA scoring lead by just two-tenths of a percentage point — 28.3 to 28.1. Going for 50 and then 40 will do that for you, and Anthony has a chance to become the first player in three years not named Durant to capture the NBA scoring title. Perhaps that is some added incentive for the two of them to go at each other a little harder
The Lakers retired Shaquille O’Neal’s number last night at Staples Center before going out and clobbering the Dallas Mavericks, putting some separation between themselves and one of their pursuers in the Western Conference playoff race. It is a new era now at the Staples Center, nearly a decade removed from when Shaq was the alpha dog of the Lakers. [Read more…]
We have already covered this topic in detail in our latest around-the-NBA column, and it bears repeating here: Everybody who is an NBA fan — and that includes you, too, Celtics Nation — should be hoping the Milwaukee Bucks can catch the Celtics and finish in a tie, at the very least, for seventh place in the Eastern Conference. [Read more…]