The Lakers were not the only team in the NBA last night to give up 30+ points in the fourth quarter. Every team that did lost, including the Toronto Raptors who gave up 30+ in EVERY quarter.

 I have said that for the Lakers to show the world that they are serious title contenders they should win this game (among others). I still stand by that statement.

For all the strides the Lakers made during the course of last season culminating in the trade that brought Pau Gasol over from the Memphis Grizzlies, the one thing that kept them from an NBA Championship was defense.

That sore spot reared its ugly head again last night in Indiana, giving up a 15 point lead and an ungodly 32 points in the last frame.

Indiana still needed to a tip in at the buzzer to win, but if you're going to claim you're ready to hoist another banner you can't- repeat:

Continue reading "Lakers 4th Quarter Proves Jury Still Out"

It's true that a win is a win and in the end it probably doesn't matter how a team gets one.

However, lately I've been writing about whether or not this Lakers team is for real and looking for evidence that come June, I won't be facing another heartbreaking situation like last year.

Suffering their only second loss of the season two nights ago is not a big deal in the scope of trying to make the playoffs. How they lost is another story.

In Philadelphia last night, they were comfortably ahead after three quarters. They still won by a double-digit margin, yet there's something nagging me about the box score.

It's the number '33'.

That's the number of points the Sixers scored, and therefore Los Angeles gave up, in the fourth quarter. The Lakers were fortunate they were able to score 29 themselves in the frame to stop the bleeding.

Continue reading "Lakers Rebound In Philly, But...."

The Los Angeles Lakers play the best three periods of any team in the league.

Too bad there's four in an NBA game.

I don't know how necessary it is to really explain myself again regarding how the fourth quarter defense- or, rather, lack thereof- is tell-tale sign that any ordering of purple and gold confetti for the Staples Center in June might be premature.

Once again, the stage was set to shut me up. Playing in Washington, a team who to put it nicely has struggled to find it's identity since Carter was in office, this should have been a game where I had to struggle to find something to write about.

But nooooooo, the Lakers comply and let the Wizards hang a 32 spot on them in the final frame.

The most frustrating part? Coach Phil Jackson's remark after the game that apparently the second unit can't handle a fourth quarter on the road.

Continue reading "Lakers Are The Best Hockey Team In The NBA"

I waited almost 24 hours before writing this entry. I had to wait that long for nausea to stop.

The Milwaukee Bucks are from contenders. It would be a stretch to call them pretenders. In fact, they don't 'tend' to do much of anything, especially play defense.

Which made them the perfect dance partners for the Los Angeles Lakers last night since they don't like to play defense either.

More than that though, was just how utterly painful to watch this game was. It wasn't a matter of who wanted to win. It was more a matter of who stunk up the joint least.

Missed layups, bad passes, and ill advised shots made up the myriad of images flowing through my mind. And that's without thinking about the 38 points they gave up in the fourth quarter.

The best way to describe this game is like watching my two year old daughter color a picture in her coloring book. By the time she's done sure the picture is finished, but no one except her father is going to want to show it off.

Continue reading "A Long December"