First Three Down..All in a Good Way!

Kobe pulls up for the game tying shot with
4.7 seconds remaining against Portland
sending it into overtime.



Andrew Bynum coming up big Defensively,
he had 16 and 11 on the night against the
Clippers



As the season comes to its critical second half, teams in the NBA with a chance for the playoffs are all in and ready for the final push. The Los Angeles Lakers who went into the All-Star struggling and losing to a team the likes of the Cavaliers, is in the same boat pushing towards the playoffs. The first week for the Lakers looked tough on paper with teams such as, the Hawks, Trail Blazers, Clippers, and Thunder. The Lakers though seem to of had one hell of a break winning the first three games of the second half. A commanding 24 points win against Atlanta seem to of sparked interest in the team. Then traveling to Portland where the Lakers had lost eight of their last nine games, they would win in a comeback fashion 106-101 as Kobe Bryant scored 28 of his 37 points in the second half (eight in overtime). Ron Artest also had his best night of the year scoring 24 points. Winning in Portland meant a lot to the team and the fans and would hopefully go a long way in gaining some confidence. Next for the Lakers, they would play their fellow Staples Center friends, the Clippers in a Thursday night showdown of L.A. In a game where the scarest moment that could happen, happened. Kobe Byrant left the game in the second quarter. The funny thing was, he was hit on his funny bone. Bryant was able to come out in the second half scoring 18 of his 24 points in the third quarter alone as the Lakers cruised past the Clippers 108-95. With a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder Sunday, the Lakers hope to make it a clean sweep for the first week of the second half. The Lakers are now (41-19) for the season with a 10 game lead in the Pacific Division and a game and a half behind Dallas for second place.

25 Games to Get it Right!



Kobe getting one of his 14
rebounds in the All-Star Game.
Courtesy of NBA.com

Joe Johnson is a pure scorer, and played
pretty good Defense on Kobe in the
All-Star game.
Courtesy of NBA.com



Surprisingly there is other talk in the NBA besides the Carmelo Anthony. There's talk in Miami about how the team is gelling, talk in Boston about how well the Celtics are playing at their age. There's even talk about how the Spurs are holding such a commanding lead in the league with their age. The Lakers are also a subject of talk these days, maybe much more than they want. The two-time defending champions seem to be acting like they don't want it anymore. The problem is not the loss to the NBA's worst team, the Cavaliers, it's more internal, there is something more going on. With 25 games remaining in the season the Lakers are sitting at third in the West and with something to prove. The second half starts off with a bang as the Atlanta Hawks (34-21) come to play tonight, and should be a test for the Lakers. Wednesday L.A. travels to play the Portland Trailblazers (32-24) and then the Clippers (21-35) and Thunder (35-19) to end the week. So the Lakeshow has to wake up and wake up fast as they play such a tough line up in the first week back. One positive sign is that Kobe Bryant looked well in the All-Star game as he scored 37 points and 14 rebounds and took home the MVP in front of the home crowd. With the trade dead-line over on Thursday of this week, coach Phil Jackson doesn't believe that the Lakers will make any moves. It will be an interesting second half for the Lakers. Matt Barnes is set to come back sometime next week and Theo Ratliff should return soon as well. In my opinion, if the Lakers are going to make a move by Thursday, it has to be at the point guard position.

Matt Barnes is set to come back
sometime next week.
Courtesy of Sportsnewscaster.com

All-Star Weekend Hosted by Staples Center

All-Star weekend in the NBA is off to a good start this week with the Celebrity All-Star and Rookie Challenge already taken place. Staples Center is playing host this year to the event. With all the best players in the league in attendence for the different events it has always been a spectacle and hopefully will continue to be.

Celebrity All-Star game MVP Justin Bieber and

West Coach Magic Johnson

Courtesy of NBA.com



In the Celebrity All-Star game the East team won 54-49 against the West with Justin Bieber taking in the MVP honors friday night. He scored 8 points on (3-11) shooting but with some big time 3-pointers made.

Blake Griffin goes up for the Dunk.

Courtesy of NBA.com



The much talked about Carmelo Anthony dressed to
 impress at the Rookie Challenge

In the Rookie Challenge on the other hand, the points were much easier to come by with the Rookies defeating the Sophmores 148-140. Rookie John Wall won MVP of the game with his 22 assists for the night breaking Chris Paul's All-Star record of 17 assists. Fellow Rookie and ex-Kentucky Wildcat teammate of Wall's, DeMarcus Cousins had 33 points and 14 rebounds, while fellow power-forward Rookie Blake Griffin contributed with 14 points. For the Sophmores Los Angeles home grown talent James Harden had 30 points while DeJuan Blair scored 28 points and had 15 rebounds.

With the weekend in full effect, the rest of the activities should be just as good as friday night. Saturday night Staples Center will host the Skills Competition, Three-Point contest, and the much publicized Slam Dunk Contest.

Grammy Road Trip goes from Gold to Bronze

Starting off 4-0 on their popular Grammy Road Trip the Los Angeles Lakers have lost two in a row. With signature road wins against the Celtics and Knicks on back-to-back nights, people were starting to believe more in the Lakers. The next two games would be more of the usual to the fans. The Lakers lost to the Orlando Magic and the Charlotte Bobcats by 20 points. To end their Grammy Road Trip the Lakers play the Cavaliers in Cleveland Ohio tonight at 7:30 eastern time. The Cavaliers are the leagues worst team with a record of (9-46) and just recently erasing their widely known 26 games losing streak. Many feel confident that the (38-18) Lakers will win the game finishing their trip with a (5-2) record. Most teams would be content with that road trip but in Los Angeles, the mind set is "what have you done for me lately?"



In other Lakers' news, starting in the 2012-2013 NBA season the Lakers will not be shown for free over the air in the Los Angeles region. A 20 year deal with Time Warner Cable will be in effect and will wipe out the free games for all Lakers fans in the area. There will be a few free games that will be aired, but they will only be the national ABC aired games that usually take place on Sunday afternoons. According to the L.A. Times, 620,000 homes in the area do not pay for TV. In my opinion that is a big chunk of fans for the Lakers, but the deal is already in place and it is kind of odd, since the Lakers grew most of their popularity from using this grass root approach to raise fan-ship.

Finally....Lakers..Finally!

The Los Angeles Lakers finally come with a win against one of the top contenders in the NBA thursday night as they come from 15 points down to steal a win in Boston 92-86. The Lakers found themselves down by 15 late in the second quarter by a score of 45-30. They would then close out the half well and bring out the same intensity in the second half as they went on a 24-5 run to take the lead. Boston then would play catch up and at a couple moments take the lead. In a night that Ray Allen passed Reggie Miller for the all-time 3-pointers made in NBA history, Kobe Bryant was quiet in the first half. Coming out as a facilitater, he tried to get his teammates involved. With only three points in the first half, Kobe would not do the same in the second half. Kobe turned into his alternate ego, "Black Mamba" and went off scoring 12 points in the third quarter alone, giving the Lakers the lead going into the forth, where he again would close the game out scoring eight points. Kobe's biggest shot of the night was over the foul-proned Ray Allen under a minute to go, giving the Lakers an eight point lead and icing the game. Kobe would finish with 23 points and still give that persona as the GAME'S best closer. Offense was not just the answer though in L.A.'s win over Boston, defense was the answer for this win. The Lakers were able to totally shift the game in the second half as they held the Celtics to (30.2%) shooting (13-43). The Lakers played the Celtics at their own game for a change and it showed success. Also the bigs game up well in the game. Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum combined for 40 points and 19 rebounds and the Lakers as a whole outscored the Celtics in the paint also. Up next for the Lakers on the second day of a back-to-back, the New York Knicks. After the win the Lakers improve to (37-16) and (3-0) on the "Grammy" road trip.


Bynum in the post.
courtesy of NBA.com

Ray Allen for a 3-pointer to pass Reggie Miller for the all-time record of 2,561, he finished with 20 points

for the night.

courtesy of NBA.com

Lakers open up 7-Game Road Trip with Success

Kobe flips a shot past Mark Gasol
courtesy of L.A. Times

The Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Spurs last thursday on a last second despiration tip in as the clock expired. With the loss to the San Antonio Spurs the Lakers began a seven game road trip in New Orleans saturday night against the Hornets. Lately in the media, the Lakers have been criticized for being to soft, especially the bigs inside. Well with Kobe Bryant in the ear of his bigs, Pau Gasol answered with a larger physical game saturday. In the 101-95 win he tallied 34 points on (13-17) shooting along with 10 assists, 3 rebounds and a block. Kobe Bryant also got in the mix with 32 points himself followed by 9 rebounds and 5 assists. It was the first time the two stars scored 30 points in a game together since march of 2009. With the win the Lake-Show started the road trip on a positive start. Next up, the Lakers played the Memphis Grizzlies who have won the last two games in the series this season. The Lakers lost by 19 points in their last meeting at Staples Center last month, so they were looking for a little personal revenge. The Lakers were able to win their second game in a row by a score of 93-84 over the Grizzlies. Kobe Bryant finished with 19 points and Pau Gasol played well and scored 17 points. The Lakers were able to control much of the game as the Grizzlies were playing catch up. Mid way throught the fourth quarter Memphis was able to get within two points, but the Lakers went on a 11-0 run to handle business. Next up for the Lakers is a trip to their most hated rivals, the Boston Celtics on thursday night. After losing last week to the Celtics the Lakers are looking to right their ship, and get the media monkey off their back. The Lakers have improved their record to (36-16) on the season and (2-0) with five games remaining on the Grammy road trip and move back into second place in the Western Conference only behind the San Antonio Spurs.

 The Gasol brothers going at it.
courtesy of L.A. Times

Bryant driving to the basket. He finished with 19 points
Courtesy of L.A. Times



An Overtime Clutch Shot from Bryant Lifts Lakers past Rockets and Stops the Bleeding....or Does it?

With the 114-106 win tuesday night, the Lakers were able to stop the losing skid at two games, but the win had to come in overtime against the Houston Rockets. Many Lakers supporters including myself believe this game should of been a lot easier, but as the Rockets proved in the opening game of the season, they would be another tough opponent. Andrew Bynum sat out the game with a bone bruise to his left knee that is not very serious. Kobe Bryant was able to errupt again with a team high 32 points and 11 assist's as he moved into another milestone. He became only the seventh player to amass at least 25,000 points and 5,000 assist's in a career. Pau Gasol added a great night with 26 points and 16 boards while Lamar Odom got his 32nd start this season and had a field day with 20 points and 20 rebounds. Next up for the Lakers on thursday night, the San Antonio Spurs come into town with the best record in the league (40-9) and following a loss on the road to Portland. The Lakers now improve to (34-15) on the season.

Kobe with 2 of his 32pts on the night
courtesy of Nba.com

Kobe with the Assist in the 1st got him #5000 for his career. Bryant is only the 7th player to amass 25000 pts and 5000 ast's
courtesy of L.A. Times

Kobe with the basket at 39.1 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Lakers a 110-106 lead.
courtesy of L.A. Times

Rockets guard Kevin Martin drives to the lane. Martin had 30 pts
courtesy of Nba.com

The Many Cliche's of Kobe

Kobe Without Regard for Human Life




Momma There Goes that MAN




The Black MAMBA!



MR. 81!



Half Man, Half Amazing