The Los Angeles Lakers hoped to see a sign of hope for the future after drafting D’Angelo Russell with the second overall pick, seeing the return of last season’s lottery pick Julius Randle from injury, the development of Jordan Clarkson, and of course, the return of a healthy Kobe Bryant. [Read more…]
The Lakers have started a season 0-3 for only the third time in the last 50 years. Why are the Lakers struggling? [Read more…]
It’s go time. The NBA season finally opens up tonight and it has snuck up on me more than any season I can remember. Anyway, here are my over/under picks for the win totals for each team based on the numbers set at Pinnacle Sports. Atlanta Hawks, 49.5 wins: UNDER This team was simply lights out against the spread last season, and they’ll be a solid team again, but I’m projecting them to fall slightly under 49 wins. Boston Celtics, 45.5 wins: UNDER I love Brad
As the Los Angeles Lakers slowly and painfully transition away from the Kobe Bryant era, the franchise actually did the right thing in bottoming out last season. The Lakers went a franchise-worst 21-61 last season under first-year coach Byron Scott, losing 29 games by double digits. Forward Julius Randle was lost for the season with a foot injury in the opener, and everything went pretty much downhill from there. Los Angeles had the second-worst defensive rating and scoring defense while finishing 24th
It’s not easy to take an 11-hour flight, but that’s what former NBA player and current Maccabi Tel Aviv point guard Jordan Farmar was getting ready for on Sunday afternoon as he slowly got dressed in the locker room inside Madison Square Garden. After a two-city tour in NBA arenas, Farmar and his teammates were about to head back to Israel, traveling even further away from his native Los Angeles. Farmar, 28, was born in Los Angeles and went to high
What would it take for Kobe Bryant to win the 2015-2016 NBA MVP award? As we handicap the MVP race for the 2015-2016 season, we’ll take a look at last season’s top five finishers— Stephen Curry, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis and LeBron James— along with Kevin Durant. But a question many Angelenos and basketball fans around the world have is what kind of numbers would Bryant have to put up in his age-37 season to take home the crown? To
Once upon a time, Jason Kidd’s son, T.J., dressed up as Brian Scalabrine for Halloween. This was back when T.J. was smallish, the Jason-Joumana marriage was rock solid, and the Nets played in the dreary confines of the Meadowlands, where T.J. had his own locker. I only got to make a brief reference to that small piece of Scalabrine history this morning in an interview on Sirius-XM NBA radio, partly because Scalabrine was busy predicting that Kobe Bryant will shoot 37
Best wishes to the Mamba. Here, courtesy of former ESPN researcher Peter Newmann, are a few fast facts on the player we have seen too little of over the past two seasons. (Although yesterday, Saturday, he finally put up some shots for the first time since his rotator cuff surgery). [Read more…]