Lakers are early risers in the West
The Lakers are on to something here, stockpiling away an armful of early-season victories and defending their home court with aplomb and assurance.
Their games aren’t always attractive, but they are victories, period, the Lakers now standing at 7-3 and off to a better start than just about anybody would have predicted.
Exactly a month ago, they played an exhibition game without eight injured players, an event that engendered plenty of doubt. Now they are 6-1 at Staples Center after an 82-72 victory Sunday over the Chicago Bulls.
Lamar Odom was assertive, Andrew Bynum stood up to the always intimidating Ben Wallace, and the Lakers can now peek ahead to their toughest test to date -- Tuesday against the Clippers -- to be followed Friday by another challenging game at Western Conference leader Utah.
“For us it’s not much, but being that there’s a lot of hype around the game, we can’t help but respond to it,” Kobe Bryant said of Tuesday’s game. “We just have to continue to keep this thing going, continue to improve.”
Odom scored 15 of his 23 points in the second half. Bryant, still more of a facilitator than a scorer, had 18 points and four assists. Bynum carried the night and continued an upward trajectory with 12 points, 13 rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots.
“Andrew does a great job of protecting our basket,” Odom said. “He’s learned how to be intimidating. Guys are thinking, ‘Where’s he at?’ It used to be layups against our team. Now there’s deflections.”
And victories, although it became obvious Coach Phil Jackson wasn’t thrilled almost as soon as he settled into his chair for his postgame news conference. Even though the Bulls made only 27 of 80 shots (33.8%), Jackson reached for the sarcasm button, declining to credit the Lakers’ defense.
“One of the things about a game like that, it gives your team a lot of opportunities to chase down rebounds, get loose balls, cover up for each other defensively,” Jackson said. “I’d like to say our defense really improved, but I don’t know if it did or not. I thought that [Chicago] had some good looks but didn’t shoot the ball well.”
Even though this one won’t be embedded into the year-end highlight DVD, it had some entertaining plays.
Smush Parker elevated and dunked over Wallace midway through the first quarter, and Kwame Brown executed a thunderous dunk off a Bryant feed with 6:33 left to play to give the Lakers 71-63 lead.
Bynum also provided a public update on his present-day status, stuffing Wallace’s shot attempt 22 seconds into the game. He also blocked Chris Duhon’s attempt later in the quarter and two shots by Luol Deng in the second quarter.
“I thought perhaps a game ball should go to Lamar, but Andrew did a lot of good things in there -- changing shots, covering up for guys that missed cutters, getting some blocks and rebounding the ball in there,” Jackson said.
Another unique moment came when Jackson could be seen scribbling the Bulls’ tendencies on the whiteboard in the locker room, a duty usually reserved for an assistant coach.
Jackson selects one team every season for which he is in charge of charting and scouting, and the assistants divvy up the rest. Jackson’s team this season was the Bulls. (He has chosen Golden State and Seattle in recent seasons.)
The Bulls are now 0-4 on their annual “circus trip,” in which they leave Chicago for two weeks to allow the circus to take root at United Center. They are now 4-45 on such trips since 1999, but had pledged to do better this year, Wallace telling the Chicago Tribune beforehand that “we’re not going to let the trip intimidate us.”
The circus isn’t particularly intimidating, and neither was the Bulls’ offense in the fourth quarter -- 13 points on four-for-18 shooting.
“I think most people around the league would say that there’s not another team in the league that plays with the same intensity,” Jackson said. “Sometimes there’s more froth than substance, kind of like a latte -- there’s not much there. I didn’t mean to make that as an insult. They have trouble scoring, but they really will push you to the extreme.”
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KEYS TO THE GAME
* Andrew Bynum was active at both ends, collecting a career-best four blocked shots, along with 12 points and 13 rebounds.
* The Lakers decisively out-rebounded the Bulls, 51-42.
* Only two players on the Bulls scored in double figures -- Andres Nocioni had 30 points and Luol Deng had 13.
-- MIKE BRESNAHAN
All things Lakers, all the time.
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