But just to let everyone know, the Lakers will be donating $100,000 in relief of the 2008 Wildlife fires. Also, the proceeds from the Staples Center in-arena silent auctions over the duration of the next six November games (tonight's included) will accompany this donation. Plus, those in attendance during tonight's game can- for a minimum five dollar donation- head down to the court after the action and get some face time and autographs with the Laker Girls. All for a good cause, the latter two sources being funneled through the Lakers Youth Foundation. For information about tonight's Laker Girl offering, go to the concourse level behind section 112.
Also, an exchange between a writer and Phil Jackson in regards to Vlad Radmanovic's starting status:
Writer: How entrenched is Vladdy as that fifth
starter?
Phil Jackson: I'm not going to answer that question.
W: Because?
PJ: I don't want to answer it. I don't want to
talk about it either positively or negatively, and I don't want him to hear
about it.
I've seen about seven seconds of Chicago basketball this season, so my reservoir of pregame thoughts before tonight's tilt is extremely shallow. Not to say there isn't anything interesting to watch for tonight. First, the Bulls have waived someone named Demetris Nichols- no reaction yet from Vegas- and second, Staples gets a look at #1 pick Derrick Rose, who has been pretty damn good so far this season.
It ought to be a fun game, but one with advantages for the home team. LA has far more size, and while Chicago is stacked with talent on the wings and in the backcourt (including the dreaded "penetrating guard"), the Lakers aren't devoid of talent there, either. Overall, it's a nice opportunity for them to bounce back, especially defensively against a team that attacks from outside in.
Hey folks. So the Facebook page for the blog is ready to go. Click here to find it. If that doesn't work, do a search on Facebook for Kamenetzky Brothers, and go from there. The goal here is to help those of you in our incredibly vibrant blog community communicate better with each other, swap emails, build friendships, etc. We'll try to post blog news there, as well as any other cool stuff we can find.
Friend up the page!
BK
(P.S.- As a courtesy to us- and at the risk of being presumptuous- if you could hold off on friend requests to our personal pages, we'd appreciate it. Not that we don't like you, but the hope is our page centering around the blogs could get pretty big, and as some Facebookers have their personal pages set to notify them of changes with anyone in their friend network, Andy and I don't want to bog down our non-blog friends with info from people they've never heard of. Thanks. BK)
Our good friend Ross Siler, who used to cover the Lakers for the Daily News and now is on the Jazz beat (very John Coltrane) once said covering the Lakers is like experiencing 82 Super Bowls a year, where rationality occasionally goes the way of these technologies. With the deservedly high expectations for the '08-'09 purple and gold, this year won't be any different, but since our local hardwood heroes had to attend a mandatory Player's
Association meeting after practice Monday afternoon in El Segundo,
there wasn't a whole lot of fresh dish served this afternoon. That meant more
talk of Detroit. How can the Lakers bounce back from the loss?
What they can learn? What went wrong? Where do they go from here?
I get the impression that the team finds this "What now?" breathlessness a little silly. "That's what you guys do," Kobe said with a smile, referencing the assembled talking/writing heads. "That's what makes the season exciting. You have these runs where it looks like you're unbeatable, you might go 82-0, then you lose one and you're fighting for the eighth seed."
A loss? Not a problem. What will scare Lakers fans, though, is the how. The Eastern Conference Pistons broke down LA's defense, and pushed them around on the block-- more than enough to create a sense of deja vu (and set up today's QOTD), writes the LAT's Bill Plaschke. Which begs the (aforementioned) question: How much did last night's loss concern you? After a good night's sleep, did you shake it off, or is it lingering like a 2:30 am run to Benito's?
It was a long shot for sure, an 82-0 campaign for the purple and gold, but aren't the biggest dreams also the most pure? The most worthy?
Hopefully not, because the Lakers were treated to a healthy dose of reality Friday night at Staples, finding themselves on the wrong end of a final score for the first time in the 2008-09 season, losing 106-95 to the Pistons. It took eight games, but the Lakers were finally outplayed from start to finish. No second half comeback, no fourth quarter push. Detroit came out hot (making their first six shots) and stayed that way, shooting 56% in the first half. Some of that was porous Lakers D- Allen Iverson and his back court compatriots might as well have been toasting marshmallows over an open fire for all the time they spent camped in the lane- some of it was red hot shooting. By the time Rasheed Wallace hit a miracle rainbow three off the backboard with Pau Gasol's gangly arm in his face as the shot clock expired- did I mention it drew glass?- with just under five minutes left in the third, it was pretty clear this wasn't going to end well for the locals.
It wasn't pretty, but in some ways it was inevitable. The hope, of course, is that the Lakers prove nights like this will come few and far between. Click below for the breakdown.
Hey folks. Still playing around with the most efficient way to do these, maximizing usability but still making the thing readable while allowing us to clear comments and still actually watch the game at the same time. So tonight, we're going old school home game live blog. Feel free to weigh in, either in the comments or at kambrothers@yahoo.com. We can't promise anything, but we're always open to your opinion.
Anyway, you're not gonna believe this, but Kwame got booed in the pregame introductions. Go figure.
BK with the first quarter.
FIRST QUARTER:
11:00- Think the Lakers have the scouting report on Kwame? On the offensive end, they pressure him with the ball and force a TO, then pull him away from the basket on defense and run the screen and roll with Bynum for the hoop.
he os come back and score on Detroit's next trip though. This despite getting booed every time he touches the ball. Can't say I blame people, but at the same time, he's a nice guy. Oh well.
9:22- Lakers off to a slow start offensively, and Detroit is on fire. Iverson hits another three, and the Pistons are up 10-2.
This week's edition, with special guest (and newest LAT colleague!) Broderick Turner.
Regarding the game:
I'm excited to see in person how the dynamic of Rip Hamilton and AI works. Iverson and 'Melo was a bomb, and what I've seen from the new arrangement in Detroit shows it'll take a while for Hamilton and Iverson to get themselves on the same page. Still, both are incredibly active players, Iverson with the ball, Hamilton away from it, and if it clicks, the combo could be fun to watch.
I think we all know the formula, but just in case: Kwame Brown is the anti-Sundance Kid. He is not better when he moves.
The Pistons have some good depth in Amir Johnson, Rodney Stuckey (expected to play), Will Bynum, Jason Maxiell,and Arron Afflalo. They're physical, young and move well. The matchup of second units is always an intriguing one with the Lakers, and the Pistons should provide LA's reserves one of their better challenges.
The Pistons move the ball and themselves well, they have a penetrating guard, and can knock down shots from outside. Thus defensive discipline is a high priority for the Lakers. In the fourth quarter Wednesday night, we saw what happens when there isn't appropriate attention to detail. Iverson isn't the distributor that CP3 is, but is still plenty dangerous.
Andrew and Brian Kamenetzky are contributing writers to ESPN The
Magazine and ESPN.com, and co-authored Fishing on the Edge, the autobiography of 2003 Bassmaster Classic champion Mike Iaconelli, bass fishing's bad boy. While both grew up in St. Louis without NBA
basketball, Andrew became a die hard Lakers fanatic after moving to L.A. to attend USC. That he managed to find a job requiring him to obsess over his favorite team, the same activity that prompted him to waste time while working other jobs, is pretty incredible. As for Brian, his baptism into pro hoops fandom has been provided by the "All Lakers, All The Time" citizens of Los Angeles. Beats the hell out of covering the Bucks.