It would seem that much has changed since the Celtics and Lakers met in the 2008 NBA championship series. Now the two teams meet again in the 2010 NBA Finals, and a lot of folks think the Lakers are ready to win a second straight title.
On the good side for the Lakers, they’re older and [...]
Phil Jackson is the master of match-ups. He knows that factor singularly rules the order of succession, not just in the playoffs, but on a nightly basis in the NBA.
It’s just that the match-up issues are more profound in the playoffs.
So now we have a fresh four-team tournament before us, the NBA’s version of a [...]
Thirty minutes, 28 seconds.
Twelve rebounds.
Four blocks. Four blocks!
Thirteen points on six of 10 shooting.
Two fouls. Two fouls!
Then there’s the sheer size. Somehow you can never quite fit Andrew Bynum’s size into a box score. His long reach and anchoring presence were so obviously, stupendously important Sunday.
The big cat of a Lakers center came right off [...]
Of all the situations spawned by the internal division of the Los Angeles Lakers, the dealings with Andrew Bynum seem the weirdest.
That was Tex Winter’s description of the coaching staff’s relationship with Bynum. Not mine. And that was almost two years ago, well before Winter suffered a debilitating stroke.
At the time, the Lakers were nursing [...]
Don’t cry for the Los Angeles Lakers just yet, but new forward Ron Artest has slowed up the team’s use of its famed triangle offense. That’s nothing new really. It always takes months, even years, for new players to find a comfort level in the controlled offense.
The Lakers knew that last summer when they signed [...]
I should respond to Jeanie Buss’s recent comments about my hoopshype column. She implied that I fabricated something about the internal conflicts of the Lakers. http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/lakers/post/_/id/3878/new-k-bros-podkast-jeanie-buss
Is there conflict in the Los Angeles Lakers’ inner sanctum? Of course.
Is it wise for Jeanie Buss to play down such conflict? Yes. In fact, it’s important that they resolve it, [...]
It’s time for another “manhood” check for Phil Jackson’s Lakers team.
Yes, they beat the Celtics in Los Angeles on Christmas day. That has helped Jackson’s young players in dealing with their profound embarrassments of the 2008 championship series against Boston.
But those bad memories linger and will continue to do so.
Here’s the hard part: The Lakers [...]
If you’re a Lakers fan, you’re in a deep funk about Andrew Bynum’s injury. No, Chris Mihm isn’t going to be Andrew Bynum, an immensely promising young center.
But Lakers guru Tex Winter was much impressed by Mihm’s progress at the end of last season in coming back from injuries of his own that had derailed [...]
