Pre-season Winding Down...

Opening night is just three days away. Championship banner number 15 will be raised to the Staples Center rafters that night, against their in-house, in-town rival Clippers, with number one pick Blake Griffin making his official pro debut for the Clippers.

So many storylines heading into the 2009-2010 season.

For the Lakers, the big question is, can they repeat? Many people they can, and a lot of people think they will. Some don't think Ron Artest will make them anymore better than Trevor Ariza, and those same people don't think they can repeat. Either way, it won't be easy. And it looks like they'll have to start their quest to repeat without the services of Pau Gasol, who is still nursing a nagging hamstring injury that has kept him out of the last six pre-season games.

Back to the task at hand: repeating.

The West is loaded again. Denver still appears to be their biggest challengers, but Utah is still there, Dallas has gotten better with the addition of Shawn Marion, Portland is a year older and experienced, San Antonio is another year older but added Richard Jefferson, and just to throw them into the mix, the Clippers might contend for a playoff spot if they stay healthy.

The East still has its three beasts: The Celtics, who are a year older but added Rasheed Wallace to the mix, the Cavs, who added Shaq, and Orlando. All three teams have 60 wins written all over them.

All but the Clippers are serious contenders, and any one of them (minus the Clippers) can dethrone the Lakers. But really, the only team that can really beat the Lakers, is the Lakers. They've got to stay healthy. Artest has to be on his best behavior. (He's been seeing a sports psychologist for the past year to work on his anger management issues front he past.) Lamar Odom needs to stay focused and be accept his role off the bench. If all that happens, there's no reason the Lakers won't repeat.

The roster is virtually the same with the exception of Artest. And you can't help but think that the former Defensive Player of the Year and four-time All-Defensive Team can only help. And not to mention his 17-point career average is a little more intriguing than Ariza's eight-point average.

So let's get the banner up and defend that title.

Lakers Spoil Marion's Heat Debut

That was a fun game to watch today, wasn't it? Lakers get a nice win, 104-94, as Kobe bested D-Wade 33-19 in the scoring department. Kobe also added 5 assists to Wade's 9, and Lamar Odom added 15 points and 18 boards. Shawn Marion finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds in his Heat debut as Miami falls to a league-worse 9-40. The Lakers, meanwhile, continue to roll on the road trip and improve to 33-17 overall, and leapfrog San Antonio by 1/2 game into the 5th spot in the Western Conference. San Antonio lost in Boston earlier in the day, 98-90.

The Lakers head to Charlotte on Monday night before finishing up the long 9-game trip in Minnesota on Wednesday night as they head into the All-Star break this coming weekend. If all goes well, the Lakers should finish the trip an impressive 7-2 with wins in Charlotte and Minnesota.

Lakers Rockin' 'n' Rollin' Again

Since acquiring Pau Gasol, the Lakers have gone an impressive 4-1 on the road trip (4-2 overall on the trip with three more to play), including an impressive 117-113 win tonight in Orlando. How impressive you might ask? Well, in two of the games, Kobe scored a total of 17 points (he injured a finger on his shooting hand against Jersey when he jammed the finger trying to steal the ball from Jason Kidd in the second quarter of that 105-90 win on Tuesday night, the first of those two games), and tonight, the Lakers gave up 44 points in the first quarter, and were down 11 after the quarter, and led by one at the half and by 11 after three quarters.

What's really surprising me is how quickly the team has turned it around after its little funk with Kwame Brown playing the bulk of the minutes at center before last week's trade. Even more amazing is the production the Lakers continue to get from the bench. One night it's Turiaf; another night it's Farmar; another night it's Radmanovic (when he isn't starting). Tonight, as it has been on several occassions, it was Sasha Vujacic, who scored 10 points off the bench. The bulk of tonight's scoring came from the starters, though. Kobe led the way with 36 while adding 11 boards and 6 assists. Pau added 30 and 9 boards and D-Fish, Odom and Radmanovic had 14 (and 7 assists), 12 and 10, respectively.

Next up for the Lakers is Miami on Sunday, an intriguing match-up for a couple of reasons. Two nights ago, the Heat and Phoenix Suns pulled off the second stunning trade in the league in a week when Miami sent former Laker superstar center Shaquille O'Neal to the Suns in exchange for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. My reaction? Why, Phoenix, why? They had the best record in the West. Everything was hunky-dory in Phoenix. Why mess with something if it isn't broken? Shaq is a soon-to-be 36-year old over-the-hill, overweight log who can't run anymore, isn't very mobile anymore, still can't shoot free throws and he can barely get his feet off the floor when he jumps. Oh, not too mention he's injury-prone. And let's not forget... Phoenix LOVES to run! So basically they just traded arguably their most athletic player and pure scorer in Marion, for an aging guy who can't get up and down the floor anymore in a run-and-gun offense. Good luck Phoenix!