Your thoughts on the Phoenix game

Christmas is merry in laker-nation!!! Yea! that was the “statement win” I was talking about!!! Some thoughts on the game:

-it seems kobe has rcovered from his groin injury. as evidenced by that cross over-hesitation-reverse jam and overall great game

-The PG play of fisher and farmar is SOLID! its a full 48-minute solid performance of offense, defense, hustle and leadership. I long for jason kidd but i think they should find a way of keeping farmar in case the trade goes thru

-baby bynum is now Andrew “the Beast” Bynum. what a great coming out party for him. monster monster game! I’m kinda pissed he’s not even being considered for the most improved award

-Ariza may be the missing link of this team. in a couple of seasons, he will be our ron artest (but more athletic). give him a few more starts and he will fit in nicely. With his great promise (especially as the lockdown defender), I think luke will have to go. (keep vlad for his shooting)

-Odom thrives as the “third option”. Did anyone notice his double double? I feel he plays his best when he is not the focal point or even the second option. Much like Marion. Lets accept him for who he is. i think Bynum will easily fit in as the second banana

-50 wins, here we come!!!

What do you think?

We really looked better than Phoenix, tonight (which we did without the help of Kwame and Chris). Andrew and Farmar are really coming out of their shells. This team is no longer Kobe + scrubs. We were really lucky to get Fisher back, who tonight and so far, has played solid along with stability.

Our starting 5 looked great out there, with more athleticism and pounded the ball inside. Ariza did really well in the starting 5. He was the real difference in the game, with his athletic abilities and wasn't afraid of either sides of the court.

If we played in another 7 game series with the Suns, I really think we could beat them. Our defense has improved so much. Replace Smush with Fisher and add in an improved Farmar, and we have ourselves some actual PGs that aren't affraid of the spotlight.

we wouldve lost if smush was playing lol

I think Bynum is so reliable now, but I worry that he isn't a playmaker. He finishes so well on all the alley oops and inside passes, but hasn't perfected (still developing) one on one play. If, and when he does that, we will have 0 weaknesses on this team.

Our only weakness, I repeat, our only weakness on this team is a go to 2nd scorer. I'm fine with Andrew's progress, but I think I'm on the same page with Kobe, that he will fully embrace this team when

a)Lamar puts up a consistent 14, 10, 6 a game and doesn't dissappear weeks on end.

b) Radmanovich explodes 4 times a month for 20+ when he's feeling it.

c) Most important, Bynum shows zero fatigue on the court and proves his one on one skills. (screw the defense, he already plays better d than the likes of all but 3 centers in the NBA).

That said, this game was a huge mental stepping block for a very young team and a wake up call to the league that Boston-LA could be very real. . . this season.

Go Lakers!

This was a very good game...this shows that with Odom as the third option he's great...I saw him get a bunch of rebounds, one dunk, & one three...that's it...I didn't really even notice him...he was a sleeper out there on the floor...he ended up with what...15 points, 14 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, & 2 steals...an all-around game...a consistent Odom should put up 15/10/4...maybe 16 points...it's hard for anybody on our team to get 5 assists per game...I think that our leader in assists is Kobe and he is averaging...umm...4.9 assists per game...yet we are still 5th in the league in assists per game with 23.3...that's not that bad...that means that we have alot of players on our team who are assisting one another...other that J-Crit & Mihm everybody else is averaging atleast one assist... Radman to go for four 20+ games a month is alot...but it's not too much...if he stands in the corner he will always get an open three...when teams play zone against us he should always get open threes...I think his wrist has been bothering him and that's why he hasn't been shooting too much... Now for Bynum I wanna see what he can do in a one-on-one situation...like lakerfan8 said..."Most important, Bynum shows zero fatigue on the court and proves his one on one skills"...that's true...today he played some pretty big minutes...41:59, so he played 42 minutes...that's most likely what he wants...now is his time to prove that he can play those minutes...he's shown that he has the post moves to get his shot...but he needs to do it all the time...now part of the reason why he can't is because he doesn't get the ball that much in the post...he can get the offensive rebounds and spin then dunk or lay it in, but I wanna....

I think that we don't need a second scorer. You know why? Because Kobe is the first and second option on offense. What's good about our team is that we have 3 third options on scoring. 3A is Lamar, 3B is Andrew and 3C is Fish. I think this not only lessens the pressure for a second option, but this relieves the offense because everybody is there to contribute.

I like the way on how our team is playing and I hope that we continue this and get the 4th or 5th seed in the playoffs.

i was at the game

thot they played amazing

really exciting atmosphere. im also going to celtci game the 30th!

Aren't you the one with the Fisher story? Did he end up buying your house??

yeah im him

nah he didnt end up buying it which sucks

At least you met him and stuff. lol.

It was an awsome win we have great cofidence that we can match up with anybody , And we got to see a awsome dunk thank you ariza.

Lakers just played awesome basketball. All of our starters played really well, and all of them were in double figures.

man ive been saying that since the season started lol

It will give the Suns something to think about. The Suns are what they are and will be what they are. The Lakers are going to get better. A lot better came playoff time. So the Lakers will know what to expect out of the Suns but the Suns have know idea what is coming to them.

Excellent game.

we need to work pick and roll defense.

kobe was awsome.

Bynum destroyed amare.

as the season advance lakers will get better, suns won't. thats the big diference.

The Lake show played a good team game and won, but it’s only one game and they did not overwhelm Phoneix, plus they were at home court. So far this year “potential” is no longer how they are judged, it’s school time for playoffs �" and they still have a long ways to go, they need to be challenged so they don’t slump, especially like they tend to do in the 4th. That will not do against playoff level teams. I will be more impressed if they go back to Phoenix for game 3 and win again. And again. (I just love seeing DAntoni’s cheesy grin smeared off his face!). Bynum has come along well, but he needs to face the best over and over to improve. His defense is better, but still needs a lot of work, and time, effort and his team working with him will make that happen. Someone suggested dumping Luke in favor of Arriza �" What? Et tu Brute? Arriza is talented, but we need rotations to face different teams and Luke, while having a bad ankle, has real value to this team. Arrize is showing real talent, and I like what I see, but let's see it for a while. The real differences so far are the improvement at point guard (Fish and Farmar), the improvement in Bynum, and the benefit of last years experience with the triangle for the team as a whole. Not to mention that everyone is keeping sharp because they don’t want to see Kobe leave. Throughout the season, we will see injuries and that’s why we need every single man on the team, to fill those gaps. Last year we looked good too, mostly because of Kobe. This year, similar record but vastly different and improved team performance, and kudo’s to the....

I think everyone is jumping the gun too soon on the Lakers, yes they are a better team, but we've seen this last year also. I think the term beats is used to easily with Bynum, he's catching a lot of lobs and gets shots inside due to teammates penetration. Once we can feed him down low and he can just score on a consistent basis is when we should label him a beast.

There are no second or third option on this team. It's a matter of opportunitioes presenting itself within the offense. So saying Lamar looks better as a third option doesn't seem right to me, no doubt in my mind that Lamar is still the second best player on this team even though BYum is emerging. A big test for us is tonight against Utah and how we guard Boozer and Deron, but hopefully we can pull this one out also against a struggling Jazz squad.