Lakers Ride Rollercoaster Through First Half of Season

The Los Angeles Lakers entered the 2023-24 season with championship aspirations clinging to LeBron James' weathered jersey. But instead of coasting on veteran savvy, their journey has been a turbulent one, riddled with injuries, inconsistency, and flashes of brilliance. While we are here at the All-Star break, let's dissect the Lakers' season thus far, a narrative oscillating between hope and frustration.

Early struggles defined the Lakers' opening act. Injuries sidelined Anthony Davis, their anchor, and LeBron battled Father Time. The team has had 2 separate 4 game losing streaks, and whispers of another lost season was swirling around Crypto.com Arena.

But then, the defiance began. LeBron, seemingly fueled by doubters, rediscovered his way. AD's return brought defensive stability, and others like Austin Reaves, D'Angelo Russell, and Rui Hachimura emerged as threats in scoring and playmaking. The Lakers clawed their way back, winning 6 of their last 7 games before the break, currently sitting at a respectable 30-26 record.

This resurgence, however, hasn't been without its blemishes. Chemistry remains a work in progress, with the new pieces still integrating into the Lakers' system. Defense, once their calling card, has been inconsistent, and LeBron's workload raises concerns about his late-season durability.

Questions abound. Can the Lakers maintain their winning pace with a demanding schedule ahead? Will AD stay healthy? Can they find a consistent supporting cast for LeBron? The answers will determine if this rollercoaster ride reaches its peak in the NBA Finals, or plummets towards another disappointing ending.

One thing's for sure: this Lakers team is far from boring. LeBron's nightly heroics, the youthful energy of their role players, and the ever-present potential for disaster make them must-watch TV. Whether they deliver a championship or another heartbreak, the drama at Crypto.com Arena is far from over. So buckle up, Lakers fans, the second half of this roller coaster ride promises to be just as thrilling.

This Day In History: Kobe Bryant Scores 81

Exactly 18 years ago today on January 22, 2006, Kobe Bryant would pull off one of the most amazing feats that any fan of basketball has ever seen. He would score an incredible 81 points. That game would always be a special moment to me. I still will always remember that game and the moments surrounding me. My grandpa was over visiting my family and I, and he was disappointed that the Lakers were losing. He fell asleep, and missed all of the action of the comeback and Kobe's record breaking game. He didn't wake up despite all of our cheering and yelling. He woke up after the game and was surprised about everything when we told him what happened. What an amazing comeback and performance this was by Kobe!

Expectations High With Bynum Back

At the beginning of last season for the Los Angeles Lakers, fans never would have thought that the team would make it all the way to the NBA Finals. It looked like another early playoff exit for the Lakers. But Andrew Bynum exceeded everyone's expectations and was a major part of the great start of the season. Then Bynum went down with a knee injury in January to end his season.

The Lakers needed help at the center position with Bynum out, and general manager Mitch Kupchak pulled off one of the biggest steals in NBA history by trading Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, Marc Gasol, and draft picks for Pau Gasol on the first day of February. Gasol would help the Lakers win 22 of 27 games with him in the lineup. The Lakers made it to the NBA Finals, but would fall short 4-2.

So with Bynum returning this season to pair up with Gasol to form a frontcourt that will be scary most teams to go against, the Lakers are the odds on favorites to win the 2009 championship. Bynum is excited to be back, even saying that he wants to make the All Star team. If Bynum is determined enough to make the All Star team, you know he will be a force to be reckoned with this season. And barring major injury to any Laker rotation players, the Lakers will be the 2009 NBA champions.

Kobe Bryant Vs. LeBron James

You know it's the dead of summer when there's absolutely no new Laker news. Haha. Anyway, there's a debate on Hoopsworld about who's better between Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, and I'd like to put my input on it out there.

The writer arguing LeBron's side, of course mentions the thing that you always hear when saying he's better: he's stronger and bigger. Oooh wow, size and strength automatically makes you better? If anything, that's another point for Kobe being better since he's working with less size and strength than LeBron.

Another mention is that LeBron has a higher scoring average, and more specifically, more points scored in the beginning of his career than Kobe does. Well, let's see, Kobe had high scoring teammates already like Shaq, Nick Van Exel, and Eddie Jones, so he obviously didn't get the playing time or have as much of a scoring responsibility as LeBron did at the beginning of his career. Let's take the top 4 scorers from each team (other than Kobe or LeBron) from their rookie seasons. For the Lakers in Kobe's rookie season (1996-97), we have Shaq with 26.2 points, Jones with 17.2, Van Exel with 15.3, and Elden Campbell with 14.9 for a total of 73.6 points. For the Cavaliers in LeBron's rookie season (2003-04), we have Carlos Boozer with 15.5 points, Zydrunas Ilgauskas with 15.3, Jeff McInnis with 11.7, and Eric Williams with 9.4 for a total of 51.9 points. Their sophomore seasons tell the same story, with the Lakers' top 4 (other than Kobe) scoring 71, and the Cavs' top 4 (other than LeBron) scoring 50.

Basically, what I'm trying to get across in the above paragraph is that of course LeBron is going to score more in his early seasons, LeBron didn't have as much talent on his team than Kobe did, so he had to score more and got more opportunities to score more than Kobe. Put Kobe on a team with less talent when he was in his early seasons, and he would have done the same. Which brings me to a related point. The LeBron supporters in the debate point to the fact that he started more games early in his career than Kobe did. LeBron started 79 games his rookie season and 80 his sophomore season. Kobe started 6 games his rookie season and 1 his sophomore season. Again, the reason Kobe's numbers are so low is because of all the talent that he had on his team, not the talent of Kobe himself.

There's no doubt in my mind that LeBron is talented (can you believe LeBron is only 23 years old?!), but it seems like the majority of the reasons given why he's better than Kobe have an asterisk by that given reason. LeBron will be better than Kobe someday in the future, but until LeBron wins the NBA Championship, improves his defense, and becomes more of a clutch shooter with a killer instinct, Kobe Bryant is a better player than LeBron James.

2008-09 Laker Games To Look Forward To

With Olympic basketball done (Team USA won the gold today!), we can get back to focusing on the NBA's offseason, and of course, the ongoing events with our Los Angeles Lakers. We're slightly over 2 months away from the start of the NBA season, and with the schedule released, here are the Laker games to look forward to in the 2008-09 season:

• Oct. 28, Lakers vs. Portland - This of course is opening night in the NBA, and with it, we get a great matchup of Andrew Bynum against Greg Oden. Both players are coming off of injuries, but will be ready for the matchup of the 2 young centers.
• Nov. 9, Lakers vs. Houston - The Lakers get their first look at the trio of Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, and the newly acquired Ron Artest. Artest was rumored to be heading to the Lakers, and he even thought that the team he was heading to when he heard about the trade was the Lakers. Expect a great game on this night.
• Nov. 30, Lakers. vs. Toronto - This offseason, the Raptors made a nice (and underrated, in my opinion) trade to acquire Jermaine O'Neal. O'Neal will pair up with Chris Bosh to make one of the best front lines in the NBA. Expect many blocked or altered shots when players try to drive into the paint.
• Dec. 3, Lakers @ Philadelphia - We'll see a lot of entertaining matchups for this game, as we'll see Kobe Bryant against Andre Iguodala, Pau Gasol against newly acquired Elton Brand, and Andrew Bynum against Samuel Dalembert.
• Dec. 25, Lakers vs. Boston - As we all expected, Lakers vs. Celtics is scheduled for Christmas. This is a rematch from the 2008 NBA finals, but with one big difference: Andrew Bynum will be playing. Bynum will need to show us what was missing from the finals matchup against the Celtics.
• Jan. 14, Lakers @ San Antonio - The Lakers meet the Spurs, who they knocked out of the playoffs in a surprisingly easy fashion in 5 games in the Western Conference finals. Though the Spurs are an old team, they are still one of the top teams in the NBA, and you can't underestimate them. The Lakers will need to play hard to win this game.
• Jan. 19, Lakers vs. Cleveland - As usual, this game will be heavily hyped. "Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James" is something that you will hear the announcers say plenty of times during this game, and you know that all eyes will be on them.
• Apr. 14, Lakers vs. Utah - This is a rematch of the Western Conference semifinals, which went to 6 games. Utah is a tough team to beat with the combination of Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer, but the Lakers have shown they can beat them. This is the last game of the season for the Lakers, which if this season is anything like last season, it could decide a higher (or lower) seeding in the playoffs.

This season will be an interesting one with the ultra-competitive Western Conference teams all fighting for the 8 playoff spots. The return of Andrew Bynum will make the Lakers an even better team than last season. We've been waiting to see the extremely tall frontcourt of Bynum, Pau Gasol, and Lamar Odom, and we will get our first look at them October 28 when the regular season starts.

I've listed games that I look forward to above, but do you have any others that you look forward to seeing this season? Sound off in the comments if there's a game that you are excited to see.

The Lakers 2008-09 Schedule Breakdown

As I had posted on this post, the full 2008-09 schedule for the Los Angeles Lakers is available, and I wanted to take a look in detail about it, so here's a breakdown of the schedule:

• Oct./Nov. : 10 home, 5 away. A home-heavy schedule for the beginning of the season, including one away game against the Clippers. Only 3 back-to-backs. A moderate difficulty level in terms of the competition played.
• Dec. : 7 home, 8 away. Just about even between home and away games. 4 back-to-backs. An easy month against the competition.
• Jan. : 10 home, 6 away. Another home-heavy month, including an away game against the Clippers. 4 back-to-backs. Fairly tough month against the competition.
• Feb. : 4 home, 9 away. Here's the first road-heavy month for the Lakers. 4 back-to-backs. Another fairly tough month in difficulty.
• Mar. : 5 home, 10 away. The second straight road-heavy month for Los Angeles. Only 2 back-to-backs (plus first half of one leading into April). Very tough competition this month.
• Apr. : 5 home, 3 away. Slightly more home games at the end of the regular season. Only 1 back-to-back (plus the second half of the back-to-back starting at the end of March). Fairly easy month against the competition.

The Lakers have a total of 19 back-to-back games this season. We don't have that many big breaks, which is good since teams are usually cold after not playing for a while. We have 3 times where we have 3 straight games off, all in November, 4 straight games off between December and January, and 5 straight games off for the All Star break in February.

As Laker fans know, Tuesdays are always a common day for Laker games, and this season is no exception. Tuesday leads the Laker season with 20 games. Sunday and Friday each have 16 games. Wednesday is next with 13 games this season. 9 Thursdays have Laker games. Mondays and Saturdays have the least amount of Laker games with only 4 each.

With Fisher Returning, Different Role Awaits

Derek Fisher returns to the Lakers this season after a three season hiatus. But things will be different from his last appearance with the Lakers. Fisher will no longer see the familiar faces of such players as Robert Horry, Rick Fox, and Shaquille O'Neal. Horry and O'Neal are now with the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat respectively, and Fox is retired. Instead, he'll see a team that hasn't made it out of the first round of the playoffs the last two seasons.

Fisher probably won't be as big of a scorer as he was last time with the Lakers, but he still has the ability to knock down the big shots which he has done many times. Laker fans will never forget the huge, game-winning buzzer beater that Fisher hit in the 2004 NBA Playoffs against the Spurs. This will give the Lakers another option besides Kobe Bryant to hit big shots when needed. And Fisher is a big upgrade over Smush Parker, who was very inconsistent. The Lakers will have a more stable force at point guard, which will help the team in the long run.

Lakers Training Camp Preview

Training camp starts today for the Lakers, the official end to the offseason. The position depth chart for the preseason looks like this:

PG: Derek Fisher/Jordan Farmar/Javaris Crittenton

SG: Kobe Bryant/Mo Evans/Sasha Vujacic/Coby Karl

SF: Luke Walton/Vladimir Radmanovic/Andre Patterson

PF: Lamar Odom/Ronny Turiaf/Brian Cook/Elton Brown

C: Kwame Brown/Andrew Bynum/Chris Mihm/Larry Turner

There are 14 players with guaranteed contracts, leaving Karl, Patterson, Brown, and Turner to fight for the last roster spot. Out of the 4, Karl is the most likely to get the last roster spot.

The main position battles will be at center and point guard. The starting center position is up for grabs, and anyone can get it. With the exception of Larry Turner, who is a camp invitee, all of the centers have held the starting position at one time or another. For the starting point guard spot, Derek Fisher is almost a lock to start, but it will be a battle between Farmar and Crittenton to be the second point guard off the bench. Farmar started at the end of last season, but Crittenton has impressed the team from his summer league play.

The Lakers will hopefully start the season as well as they did last season, and keep it up. Injuries derailed the Lakers' nice start last season, so the Lakers will hopefully have an injury-free season and get a favorable matchup in the playoffs.

Odom To The Suns For Marion?

The Lakers and the Suns are discussing a trade that would bring Shawn Marion to the Lakers, while sending back Lamar Odom and filler (most likely Brian Cook to make the salaries work) to the Phoenix Suns. The Suns are unwilling to give Marion a contract extension, which is part of why he wouldn't mind leaving the Suns. The source says:

"One sticking point with the Suns is that Marion was told that if he does opt out, he will not be re-signed. Another goes back to before the draft, when the Suns had a deal in place to send Marion to the Celtics -- Boston had agreed to extend his contract if the trade went through. 'I didn't like that,' Marion said. 'It was like they were trying to force my hand by taking the Boston deal. I have been with this team my whole career. I was like, wow.'

I asked if the team's refusal to give him an extension played into his unhappiness with the team. 'It was part of it,' Marion said. 'It's not like that was the last straw or anything. It was just part of everything that has gone on. People have made assumptions about me, but I don't think all those people know everything that has gone on.'"

The trade helps both teams. The Suns get the better all-around player in Odom. Odom adds more height than Marion, and Odom is a better playmaker, helping to relieve Steve Nash. The Lakers get a more consistent player in Marion. Marion is more high energy, and plays better defense, which the Lakers definitely need. The deal is being called a 50/50 chance of going down. If this deal goes down, both teams get help that they are looking for.

Lakers Ranked 13th In West In Offseason Moves

The Lakers didn't meet up to the high expectations that fans had this offseason. Because of that, they were ranked 13th in the Western Conference for offseason moves. Laker fans were crossing their fingers that Kevin Garnett would force his way to the Lakers after hearing him say that he likes L.A. and has a house in the area, but Garnett would end up going to the Boston Celtics. When Jermaine O'Neal said he was open to a trade, fans hoped it would be to the Lakers. The Lakers still have a standing offer from the Indiana Pacers to get O'Neal for Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum, but the Lakers aren't willing to give up that much.

The Lakers did get Derek Fisher back, which was very unexpected. The Lakers also made a very nice draft pick in the first round with Javaris Crittenton, also picking Sun Yue and Marc Gasol to keep overseas for at least a year. Luke Walton and Chris Mihm were also resigned. These moves will improve the Lakers marginally, but with the West also improving and being the tougher conference of the two, there needed to be bigger moves done by the Lakers to improve.

Also, while it's not an official move yet, a team insider says that coach Phil Jackson is leaning toward signing an extension that will add two more seasons to his career after this season. If this does happen, this would come as a relief since Jackson recently said that this could be his last season coaching.

Will Kirilenko Get Traded To The Lakers?

Andrei Kirilenko of the Utah Jazz has asked for a trade. This of course, has the Laker fans wondering if he will get traded to the Lakers. It seems like there have been a lot of big name players asking for trades this offseason, and this always perks up the ears of Laker fans wondering if we can get them. After all, we are still waiting for the big move that the Lakers front office promised us this offseason.

Unfortunately, the chances probably aren't good. If the Lakers did make a move for Kirilenko, they would be taking on a 4 year, $63 million contract. The most simple deal that the two teams could do would be Kirilenko for Lamar Odom straight up without any other players involved. Both make about $13 million a year, so the salaries match up to make the deal. Odom is the better all-around player, but Kirilenko is the better defender. Because Kirilenko doesn't have a contract opt out, Utah holds all of the leverage in the deal, and probably wouldn't make the deal.

A Fallback Plan?

With the plans that the Lakers had of getting at least another star player to play beside Kobe Bryant close to being shut or shut down already, the Lakers possibly have another plan to fall back on. A trade with the Milwaukee Bucks would send Yi Jianlian, who doesn't want to report to the Bucks, and Bobby Simmons to the Lakers in return for Kwame Brown, Jordan Farmar, and a future first round pick with Sasha Vujacic or Maurice Evans being thrown in the deal if needed.

Normally, I don't think the Bucks would take the deal, but if Yi still refuses to play for them, they might be forced to take the deal if they get no other deals that fit what they are looking for. Still, the Bucks would get a nice up and coming point guard in Farmar, a decent post defender in Brown, and a first round pick to help in the future. The Lakers get someone who has been said to have a lot of potential in Yi (the Lakers were one of the few teams to work out with Yi, and were said to be impressed), and get a good defender in Simmons, which the Lakers definitely can use any defenders that they can get. Everything depends on what Yi ends up deciding to do.

A Trade Between Co-tenants?

With the injury to Elton Brand, the Clippers lost a major player from their team for at least part of the season. They will need someone to step up at the power forward position, or trade for a power forward. It has been suggested that the Clippers trade Corey Maggette and filler (to make salaries match) to the Lakers for Kwame Brown. This trade gives the Clippers a short term fix for the power forward position, giving them a decent post defender who is on the last year of his contract, and gives the Lakers another scorer to go along with Kobe Bryant.

Question is, would both teams want this deal? For Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak, absolutely! He would be out of his mind not to take this deal if it was offered. The Lakers would be getting a very good player and getting rid of someone who is not very good at all. For Clippers GM Elgin Baylor, I would highly doubt that he would take this deal, even with the Elton Brand injury. Kwame has a horrible time even catching the ball, let alone scoring, and would not help the Clippers very much. So even though Laker fans would definitely want this deal to go down, unfortunately, there's no way that this deal happens.

Jermaine O'Neal Trade Commentary And Suggestion

Jermaine O'Neal recently said that his top two destinations are to the Los Angeles Lakers or to the New Jersey Nets, with the Lakers getting the nod over the Nets. Indiana has said that they want Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum for O'Neal. That is too much talent to give up, so the Lakers have not made that deal.

Larry Bird knows that the Lakers are desperate to get Kobe help, and that this is the Lakers' best opportunity available since Kevin Garnett is unavailable after going to Boston. With that said, Bird wants both the multi-faceted talent of Odom and the potential upside of Bynum if he is going to give up his star player.

What Bird needs to look at is the fact that O'Neal may start losing value as time goes on. O'Neal may be a star, but it takes one injury to significantly lower his value, causing any chance of trading away O'Neal to be pulled of the table. Then what? O'Neal walks away at the end of his contract with the Pacers not getting anything in return. It doesn't even have to be during the season that O'Neal gets hurt. We just recently heard about Elton Brand rupturing his Achilles tendon during a routine workout. If a similar injury happens to O'Neal, the Pacers are left with nothing.

The Lakers won't budge on giving up both Odom and Bynum. The Pacers will have to recognize that fact, and take what they can get. What do I suggest for a trade that is fair for both sides? The Pacers get Andrew Bynum, Kwame Brown, Vladimir Radmanovic, and Jordan Farmar for Jermaine O'Neal. With this deal, the Pacers still get Bynum that they wanted, an expiring contract with Brown, a good shooter in Radmanovic who will definitely do a lot better this season than last season since he was injured, and a nice young point guard in Farmar.

Are the Lakers giving up a lot? Yes, but in the end, it's worth it to get a great player like O'Neal, plus being able to keep Odom. A trio of Kobe, Odom, and O'Neal would be a very solid team, and would definitely help the Lakers get a higher seed in the tough Western Conference than they have in the past few years, maybe even getting the Lakers to the NBA Finals, and getting the Lakers and Kobe the next championship that they have been waiting for.

The On Again, Off Again O'Neal Story

We keep hearing about Jermaine O'Neal first wanting to be traded to the Lakers, then saying that he didn't say that. Whatever it is, at least two people think that it will actually happen. From Hoopsworld:

"Right now Jermaine O'Neal is a Pacer. However any decent general manager knows you don't want guys on your team who want to be traded. Simple as that. I expect him to go to the Lakers when he's moved. One reason is Kobe Bryant has yet to see the Lakes make a move to better the team now. New Jersey is a long shot. He's in the same conference as the Nets. Can't see that happening. They don't want to lose to the Nets in the playoffs with O'Neal killing them on the inside. He'd have to go out West."

Also, Fox Sports gives its take on the whole situation.

Lakers Schedule

The NBA posted the 2007-08 schedule today for all 30 teams. The full Lakers schedule is at the end of this post, and some of the important games include:

• Oct. 30, Lakers vs. Houston - This is the opening night of the season, which will mark the debut of Javaris Crittenton, the return of Derek Fisher in a Laker jersey, and Kobe Bryant's first game back after asking to be traded.
• Nov. 2, Lakers @ Phoenix - The Lakers' first away game, this is also the first time that the Lakers will play the Suns since losing 4-1 in last season's playoffs to Phoenix.
• Nov. 13, Lakers @ San Antonio - The Lakers actually won the season series against the Spurs last season 2-1, with the only loss coming from a Michael Finley three pointer that was the game winner in overtime on Jan. 28. It will interesting to see if the Lakers will still match up as well as they did last season against the Spurs.
• Nov. 27, Lakers vs. Seattle - Kevin Durant plays in his first game against Kobe. This will definitely be interesting to watch.
• Jan. 25, Lakers @ Dallas - This is an intriguing game, as Dallas and the Lakers playing each other almost always makes for an entertaining matchup.
• Feb. 26, Lakers vs. Portland - We have to wait quite a while to see Greg Oden. I really am looking forward to see Andrew Bynum match up with Oden.

I have a few other thoughts about the schedule. About the Christmas game, finally not a Christmas matchup of Lakers vs. Heat! Three times in a row was not cool. Instead, we get an interesting and entertaining game between the Suns and Lakers.

Has anyone noticed that we have played the Sacramento Kings towards the end of the season for quite a while now? We play the Kings the last game this coming season, and we played the Kings on the last game this past season, and the seasons before that I can always remember playing the Kings in the last games of the season. Or at least it seems like it.

Our schedule seems balanced for the most part as far as clusters of home and away games. We do have a big 9 game road trip this year starting Jan. 31 in Detroit, and ending Feb. 13 in Minnesota. Luckily, the majority of the teams that they will play aren't too hard to win. Our longest homestand is 5 games, which we have a couple sets of. We are at home for 5 games from Christmas to Jan. 6, and also from Mar. 26 to Apr. 4. We also end the season with 3 games at home, so looks pretty good, which always helps. Let's hope that it gets us a higher seed in the playoffs this year!

October

Tue 30 vs Houston 7:30pm

November

Fri 2 @ Phoenix 7:30pm

Sun 4 vs Utah 6:30pm

Tue 6 vs New Orleans 7:30pm

Fri 9 vs Minnesota 7:30pm

Tue 13 @ San Antonio 5:30pm

Wed 14 @ Houston 6:00pm

Fri 16 vs Detroit 7:30pm

Sun 18 vs Chicago 6:30pm

Tue 20 @ Indiana 4:00pm

Wed 21 @ Milwaukee 5:00pm

Fri 23 @ Boston 4:30pm

Sun 25 vs New Jersey 6:30pm

Tue 27 vs Seattle 7:30pm

Thu 29 vs Denver 7:30pm

Fri 30 @ Utah 6:00pm

December

Sun 2 vs Orlando 6:30pm

Tue 4 @ Minnesota 5:00pm

Wed 5 @ Denver 6:00pm

Sun 9 vs Golden State 6:30pm

Thu 13 vs San Antonio 7:30pm

Fri 14 @ Golden State 7:30pm

Sun 16 vs LA Clippers 6:30pm

Tue 18 @ Chicago 5:30pm

Thu 20 @ Cleveland 5:00pm

Fri 21 @ Philadelphia 4:00pm

Sun 23 @ New York 9:00am

Tue 25 vs Phoenix 2:00pm

Fri 28 vs Utah 7:30pm

Sun 30 vs Boston 6:30pm

January

Fri 4 vs Philadelphia 7:30pm

Sun 6 vs Indiana 6:30pm

Tue 8 @ Memphis 5:00pm

Wed 9 @ New Orleans 5:00pm

Fri 11 vs Milwaukee 7:30pm

Sun 13 vs Memphis 6:30pm

Mon 14 @ Seattle 7:00pm

Thu 17 vs Phoenix 7:30pm

Mon 21 vs Denver 7:30pm

Wed 23 @ San Antonio 6:00pm

Fri 25 @ Dallas 5:30pm

Sun 27 vs Cleveland 12:30pm

Tue 29 vs New York 7:30pm

Thu 31 @ Detroit 4:30pm

February

Fri 1 @ Toronto 4:00pm

Sun 3 @ Washington 9:00am

Tue 5 @ New Jersey 4:30pm

Wed 6 @ Atlanta 4:00pm

Fri 8 @ Orlando 4:00pm

Sun 10 @ Miami 12:30pm

Mon 11 @ Charlotte 4:00pm

Wed 13 @ Minnesota 5:00pm

Tue 19 vs Atlanta 7:30pm

Wed 20 @ Phoenix 6:00pm

Sat 23 @ LA Clippers 7:30pm

Sun 24 @ Seattle 6:00pm

Tue 26 vs Portland 7:30pm

Thu 28 vs Miami 7:30pm

Fri 29 @ Portland 7:30pm

March

Sun 2 vs Dallas 12:30pm

Tue 4 @ Sacramento 7:00pm

Fri 7 vs LA Clippers 7:30pm

Sun 9 vs Sacramento 6:30pm

Tue 11 vs Toronto 7:30pm

Fri 14 @ New Orleans 5:00pm

Sun 16 @ Houston 4:00pm

Tue 18 @ Dallas 5:30pm

Thu 20 @ Utah 7:30pm

Fri 21 vs Seattle 7:30pm

Sun 23 vs Golden State 6:30pm

Mon 24 @ Golden State 7:30pm

Wed 26 vs Charlotte 7:30pm

Fri 28 vs Memphis 7:30pm

Sun 30 vs Washington 6:30pm

April

Wed 2 vs Portland 7:30pm

Fri 4 vs Dallas 7:30pm

Sun 6 @ Sacramento 6:00pm

Tue 8 @ Portland 7:00pm

Thu 10 @ LA Clippers 7:30pm

Fri 11 vs New Orleans 7:30pm

Sun 13 vs San Antonio 12:30pm

Tue 15 vs Sacramento 7:30pm

Derek Fisher's 0.4 Second Buzzer Beater

I thought in honor of Derek Fisher signing back to the Lakers, I would post his miracle shot that beat the buzzer for the win in the 2004 NBA playoffs against the Spurs. I still remember the moment quite easily like it was yesterday.

Kobe Bryant hits a jumper to give the Lakers the lead. Then Tim Duncan hits an extremely tough shot with 0.4 seconds left to give the Spurs the one point lead. I still remember how tough it was to watch that shot go through the hoop with that little time left on the clock. But I still kept hope that the Lakers could still win the game because I have seen some crazy things happen in Laker games, and any time left on the clock meant that the Lakers still had a chance.

The last play was very nerve-wrecking to watch. The Spurs defense was all over the Lakers. Kobe, who was obviously going to be the first option with the numerous game winners and buzzer beaters he has hit, was being double teamed and couldn't get open. Fisher got open enough to catch the inbounds pass, turned and shot all in one motion with Manu Ginobili on him, and the shot dropped through the net to give the Lakers the win. Fisher went running and the Lakers went crazy, while the Spurs were deflated from the buzzer beater, and the Spurs lost the series to the Lakers 4-2. This shot is one of my top favorite memories of the Lakers, and something that I will never forget.

Three Way Deal Including Odom Fell Through

According to Yahoo Sports, a three way deal among the Lakers, Bobcats, and Nets fell through when Bobcats owner Michael Jordan pulled out of the deal. The Bobcats would have received Richard Jefferson from the Nets, the Nets would have received Lamar Odom from the Lakers, and the Lakers would have received Gerald Wallace from the Bobcats.

In my opinion, this would have been just a lateral move for every team, and it wouldn't have helped or hurt any of them. All of them have similar stats and skills, so the trade wouldn't have pushed any team over the top. From Jordan's perspective, it seems like he felt the same way and didn't want to make a trade just to make a move unless it would help his team, which is of course what any owner or GM should think about when making a trade.