they'll be better off with Gasol in the starting lineup. A 7 footer who passes well out of the post. That was a huge part of their offense last season. I mean bynum is showing improvement, but come on, he is not a 2nd option on the team. And the bench isn't going to step up until Pau comes back. Why is that so hard to believe for people? The only person worthwhile on that bench is shannon. Once Pau comes back, it moves LO back to the 6th man role. Which is what gives them versatility. A 6'11" point guard coming off the bench.

That depends on which Lamar shows up. Although his numbers didn't look too bad last night, he did miss his first 7 or 8 shots. A few bad Lamar performances are due any time soon.

Onto some other worries about this team, and please, do not use the "we're missing Gasol" excuse - how the hell did we get outrebounded by a bunch of midgets???? The Rockets are missing their 1st and 2nd option and they, for the most part of the night, outplayed us. We still seem to have the same defensive inadequecies as we did last year, our bench is just pitiful right now and it looks like Bynum just cannot seem to stay completely injury free.

No excuse for the Dallas loss, but I'm hoping that the Lakers, much like last year are just playing down to their opponents. Oklahoma and an undermanned and undersized Rockets would appear to be easy prey for us, so with a team of more significance, I'm hoping they will make it a "better" win.

Your right. I admit I have been saying "When Pau gets back...". We should not have had to battle this hard against the Rockets.

I mean bynum is showing improvement, but come on, he is not a 2nd option on the team.

Didn't a crippled, undersized Rockets take us to seven games last year in the playoffs, with Pau playing and without Ming?



No, actually, while Pau is out, Drew should be the second option. His shooting percentage dictates this. Once again, egos had a large part in making this game tougher than it should have been. Drew killed the Rockets on the boards and he could have killed them scoring too, if the other players had sublimated their egos and fed the post. But you can see this won't happen and consequently things will be harder than they should, as it was last night. That is the consequence of playing 'stupid ball.' This was not the sole reason things were hard for us, but it was a big one. Until Kobe and company start to utilize Drew more and understand he can score at a very efficient percentage, then 'stupid ball' will continue to prevail and wins will come harder than they should.

Drew should be fed early and often down low. So should Pau. This is really a low post team that won't accept that fact as it should and adjust accordingly. That is both Phil's fault and the players fault.

How can Phil solve a problem that I think he is a part of? Phil did this exact same thing for Mike and he does it for Kobe. In the game against Oklahoma I became irritated with the constant Kobe feeding because in my opinion I felt Artest needed some shots, the guy was smoking hot and the Laker team pretty much cooled him off.

However if we look at other teams, they do the exact same thing. Wade gets the ball, Lebron gets the ball, Gilbert gets the ball, these guys all gte the ball force fed to them in crunch time.

Didn't a crippled, undersized Rockets take us to seven games last year in the playoffs, with Pau playing and without Ming?



No, actually, while Pau is out, Drew should be the second option. His shooting percentage dictates this. Once again, egos had a large part in making this game tougher than it should have been. Drew killed the Rockets on the boards and he could have killed them scoring too, if the other players had sublimated their egos and fed the post. But you can see this won't happen and consequently things will be harder than they should, as it was last night. That is the consequence of playing 'stupid ball.' This was not the sole reason things were hard for us, but it was a big one. Until Kobe and company start to utilize Drew more and understand he can score at a very efficient percentage, then 'stupid ball' will continue to prevail and wins will come harder than they should.

Drew should be fed early and often down low. So should Pau. This is really a low post team that won't accept that fact as it should and adjust accordingly. That is both Phil's fault and the players fault.

Also, people think when Pau gets back he will pick up where he left off. He won't. He will be back at the forward spot and won't be putting up his old pivot numbers of last year or having that kind of effect that he did...unless he gets considerable time playing center with the second team.

Soo true! This is a test of Kobe's leadership ability, if a young guy comes in and begins to display offensive dominance give him the dang rock man and save your energy! If it's credit he's looking, He can get it easily for getting Bynum easy baskets and allowing Him to be the focal point.

You could not be more right with your comments. I was screaming at the TV to go into the post. I probably do it every game, but last night especially. Chuck Hayes is like 6"6'. They should have run him right out of the game last night giving it to Bynum. At worse they would have had to double team and then other things open up.

he Center position is so weak in the league, particularly the western conference, that Drew should have a field day scoring against opposing centers on most nights. It's simple logic, and while I'm happy to see Drew averaging 20 points per game, anyone who watches the Lakers can clearly see that he could and would be averaging even more points if his teammates would simply give him the d@mn rock.

personally, i'd like to see Kobe feeding Bynum down low. He can up his assists big time by giving Bynum the rock and can still score around 25 points. I think the key to this season for the Lakers, because of how much talent this team has, is equality and balance. I want to see Bynum and Kobe going for 25 ish points, followed by Gasol, LO, and Ron Ron. I'd like to see Kobe with a higher number of assists.

Bynum draws a lot of criticism and many feel he hasn't lived up to his potential. I see it a bit differently: in my opinion, Bynum could/would be posting phenomenal numbers if he were playing with a team oriented and more skilled at distributing the ball. I sometimes wonder what he would be doing if he was playing with Nash or Chris Paul.

Here's another thought and worry: No Bynum AND No Gasol tonight.

Didn't a crippled, undersized Rockets take us to seven games last year in the playoffs, with Pau playing and without Ming?



No, actually, while Pau is out, Drew should be the second option. His shooting percentage dictates this. Once again, egos had a large part in making this game tougher than it should have been. Drew killed the Rockets on the boards and he could have killed them scoring too, if the other players had sublimated their egos and fed the post. But you can see this won't happen and consequently things will be harder than they should, as it was last night. That is the consequence of playing 'stupid ball.' This was not the sole reason things were hard for us, but it was a big one. Until Kobe and company start to utilize Drew more and understand he can score at a very efficient percentage, then 'stupid ball' will continue to prevail and wins will come harder than they should.

Drew should be fed early and often down low. So should Pau. This is really a low post team that won't accept that fact as it should and adjust accordingly. That is both Phil's fault and the players fault.

Also, people think when Pau gets back he will pick up where he left off. He won't. He will be back at the forward spot and won't be putting up his old pivot numbers of last year or having that kind of effect that he did...unless he gets considerable time playing center with the second team.

SPQR: Here is the only thing I can say in Kobe's defense. He is conditioned that way. Even when Shaq was the man here in LA, the ball was in Kobe's hand's at the end of games, not to thed degree it is now, but it was in his hands. Phil has allowed Kobe the freedom of this type of play late in games for almost his whole career, it won't change. Phil allowed the same thing with Mike, so I just don't see things changing. The reason it won't change is because of Kobe's confidence, he feels that every shot he takes will go in, or if it doesn't the next one will. I'm just thankful that the shots he is taking are of the mid range variety and not the three pointers he has taken in the past. I just dislike seeing mismatches not being taken advantage of, I have seen Artest asking for the ball, which is good in my opinion. We need soeone else on this team who wants the ball and feels he will take advantage of his man. I think Kobe respects players like that, players who want the ball and who will deliver.

I agree that this will be a very tough game to win. For some reason or other a lot of Laker fans under estimate the Grizz, but they are not that bad of a team. They have a lot of young talent that could be dangerous and will give the short handed Lakers a lot of problem. Kobe and Artest are going to be the main scorers tonight. Lamar and Mbenga will have their hands full with Marc Gasol. Hope the Lakers can pull it off.