112-57

No, that score is not a typo. That was last night's final. A rather historical night to say the least.

Most lopsided win in Laker history: 55 points; third most in NBA history.

Fewest points allowed by Lakers in shot-clock era.

Fewest points ever scored by Cavs.

Had Lakers scored just one point in second half, they would have still won 58-57.

Ouch!

Hope they saved room for the Warriors tonight...

Back in the Saddle Again

Ron-Ron setting the tone early with a P.J. Carlesimo-like hand-to-the-neck move, check.

Stellar defense shutting down prolific offense, check.

Bynum with his best game of the season, check.

"What can Brown do for you?" with the exclamation point three-pointer and dunk, check.

Rout of the Knicks, check.

Four-game winning streak, check.

And That, My Friends...

Is a winning streak! Three in a row.

So Much For That

Another ugly loss last night to Memphis. Horrible effort all around. Very disappointing.

Breaking News?

Lakers snapped their three-game skid last night with a 103-88 win in New Orleans. Well, that was easy.

Awful

Merry Christmas to you too, Lakers. What a horrible game, effort, performance, whatever... you name it.

Bastards...

Trade

The Lakers have agreed to trade Sasha "The Machine" Vujacic to New Jersey in a three-team deal that would net the Lakers Joe Smith from Houston. Because Smith can't be traded until tomorrow, the 15th, the deal can't become official until then. Houston will get Terrence Williams from Jersey in the deal, which could include other elements once the deal is completed.

The Lakers are probably making this deal for two reasons: one, to rid themselves of Sasha's contract, and two, they're probably concern enough about Theo Ratliff's injury that they felt they needed to add more depth in the middle.

Meanwhile, Andrew Bynum made his season debut tonight in the Lakers win in Washington after a long recovery from a knee injury he suffered in the middle of last season. Bynum didn't start tonight, and he will probably be eased slowly back into the rotation.

New Season

It's been a relatively busy four months for the Lakers since they won their second consecutive NBA title and their 16th overall. Here's a little recap of the off-season and a brief look ahead to the new 2010-2011 season as the Lakers begin to defend their title again tomorrow night against Houston when they raise that 16th banner to the rafters in Staples Center.

The Lakers drafted Devin Ebanks and Derrick Caracter, waved goodbye to Jordan Farmar, Josh Powell, DJ Mbenga, and Adam Morrison, who all left via free agency, and welcomed Steve Blake, Matt Barnes and Theo Ratliff. Derek Fisher and Shannon Brown also re-signed with the team, as well.

Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum are still nursing and recovering from last season's injuries. Both players had off-season surgery and while Kobe is ready to go tomorrow night, Bynum is still not completely healed and will start the season inactive. He is not expected to be ready until at least Thanksgiving, if not later.

Meanwhile, both Sasha Vujacic and Luke Walton are dealing with new injuries. Vujacic is out indefinitely while he recovers from a concussion after getting an inadvertent elbow to the head by teammate Lamar Odom during practice recently. And Walton suffered a groin injury in a pre-season game over the weekend, and is also out indefinitely.

As for Odom, he went to the FIBA World Championships with Team USA and came home with a Gold Medal.

Apparently, only Pau Gasol and Ron Artest had relatively quiet off-seasons and pre-seasons.

The Lakers are expected to be a favorite to repeat as champions again heading into the season. Out West, their main competition will be the usual suspects, such as San Antontio, Dallas, Phoenix, Utah and Oklahoma City. However, there has been a shift in the East, and the Lakers will no doubt have another team to be concerned about besides Boston and Orlando.

The Miami Heat completely revamped their roster in the off-season when they not only re-signed Dwayne Wade, but added LeBron James and Chris Bosh as free agents. Add to the mix the likes of Mike Miller, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Udonis Haslem, the Miami Heat have suddenly become not only relevant again, but the favorites in the East.

The Celtics were able to re-sign Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, and add Jermaine and Shaquille O'Neal, but their age, along with Kevin Garnett's recent injury history, has to still be of concern to Celtics. Injuries are already beginning to mount in Boston and the season hasn't even started yet.

The 2010-2011 season should be one of the more exciting seasons in recent years with so many players on new teams, and the emergence of new teams as serious contenders. But in the end, it would be foolish to pick against the Lakers to repeat for a third straight year. It won't be as easy this year for the Lakers, but the title is theirs until someone takes it from them.

Sweet 16!

It's been two weeks since the Lakers clinched their 16th NBA title against Boston in seven games. Kobe earned his second straight NBA Finals MVP. The L.A. riots were in full force that night, as if right on cue. The parade has already come and gone. Phil Jackson has already announced he'll be back for one more year. And the free agency drama is already in full swing.

The Finals were certainly very entertaining, that is, if you enjoy watching the refs control them. But still, it was very entertaining. It was a see-saw battle throughout. The Lakers won Game One at home, then got beat in Game Two. The series shifted to Boston and Derek Fisher took over in Game three. The Celtics won the next two games in Boston, playing solid defense to stifle the Lakers. But Lakers returned the favor in the final two games back in L.A. with two insane defensive efforts to keep the Celtics at bay, at win their 16th NBA title, second most in NBA history behind Boston's 17, second in a row, and third win over the Celtics in their last four meetings head-to-head.

With all that behind them, the Lakers are looking forward to next season. The off-season drama began with the annual Phil Jackson watch. After meeting with doctors, he was cleared to resume his coaching duties, and elected to return for one more final year.

As for the players, Shannon Brown opted out of his contract, and Fisher, Jordan Farmar and Adam Morrison all became free agents, as well. They've already agreed to a four-year deal with guard Steve Blake, essentially marking the end of Farmar's Laker stay, at the very least. Blake can officially sign his contract on July 8th.

The Lakers and Fisher would like to continue their relationship, but Fisher wants a multi-year deal worth about $5MM per year, while the Lakers are only willing to go as high as $2.5 or $3MM per year. Is their a compromise somewhere in the middle? Sure. I'm pretty sure both would like to find some sort of resolution to this sooner rather than later.

The Lakers had been linked to guard-forward Mike Miller the day before signing Blake, but Blake's signing all but takes the Lakers out of the running for Miller. A sign-and-trade is always possible, but highly unlikely. Earlier in the off-season, it had been reported that the Lakers were very interested in guard Raja Bell, and they could very well still be interested. Bell has stated his first choice is Miami, so this is still in a wait-and-see mode until all the other top free agents find homes.

Aside from Fisher, the starting lineup figures to remain intact, assuming they don't trade Andrew Bynum. The bench appears to have been thinned out, and depending on how they fill out the bottom end of the roster, Sasha Vujacic and Luke Walton will probably be given more playing time next year than this. Both struggled immensely this season off the bench, Walton in large part due to an injury-plagued season, and Vujacic also battled nagging ailments, as well.

At least one of the Lakers draft picks this year is likely to make the roster. West Virginia small forward Devin Ebanks has a very good chance of not only making the team, but of becoming an key bench player for the Lakers. His biggest upside is his defense, and that's why the Lakers drafted him.

At this point regardless of how the off-season plays out for everyone, Lakers included, it would be foolish and hard-pressed to bet against the Lakers winning their third NBA title in a row next season. With so many key players on the market right now, and teams such as Miami, Chicago, New York, New Jersey and Cleveland all in play to not only bring back their key players, but also to add to them, it's still too early to tell who the Lakers primary opposition will be.

But one thing is for certain, the Lakers are the back-to-back defending NBA Champions!!

It's Been a While... Again

Sometimes, life just gets in the way of being able to keep this space up-to-date, but with the holiday weekend upon us and the NBA season down to two teams after an interesting first three rounds of playoff hoops, It's time to get back down to business.

When we last spoke here, Kobe had just inked his three-extension and the Lakers were preparing for the playoffs. Since then, the Lakers have rolled through three rounds, though it was interesting for a while.

As the top seed in the West, they drew a very good eight-seed in Oklahoma City. The Thunder won two games in the series, and pushed the Lakers in a couple of the other games. But in the end, it was just too much Kobe, and too much Laker experience for the Thunder.

The Lakers then got a match-up with the Utah Jazz, and promptly swept them right out of round two. They manhandled the Phoenix Suns in the first two games at Staples in the Conference Finals, but looked lost in games three and four in Phoenix. With the series tied 2-2 in Game Five, the Lakers looked like they were on their way to another home blowout against the Suns. Instead, the Suns erased an 18-point deficit and with the score tied with 3.5 seconds left, the Lakers got some more of the playoff magic.

Ron Artest continued his hot streak in Game Six at Phoenix last night, and although the Lakers nearly blew another large lead, they hung on for an eight-point win and a third straight trip to the NBA Finals.

The Lakers will get a rematch, and home court, against the Boston Celtics. They split the season series 1-1, with each team winning on the road by one point. But the C's have the Lakers number when it comes to the Finals. In the previous 11 match-ups, the Lakers are just 2-9 overall against Boston in the Finals, including a six-game thumping by the Celtics in 2008. You can bet the Lakers are looking for revenge.

And for what it's worth, the Lakers are making their league-high 31st appearance in the Finals to go with their 15 titles, second most in the league behind Boston, who have 18 titles in just 21 total appearances in the Finals.

It should be a fun series.

More to come as it closer to Game One on Thursday night at Staples.

Lakers Extend Kobe

Just days after completing a very disappointing 2-3 road trip as they prepare for the playoffs, the Lakers announced today they have inked Kobe Bryant to a three-year max extension, likely to be around $90MM.

Think it's a coincidence that Kobe's extension, Pau's extension and Ron Artest's contract all run through the 2013-2014 season? I think not. The Lakers have all but assured themselves they will be one of the top teams in the league through that season.

Ouch! That Hurt...

After the Lakers struggled some, and looked relatively inconsistent in the initial couple weeks after Kobe's return from his ankle injury, they ran off seven straight wins. The first couple of those seven games weren't pretty, but they were wins. They started to play well again, as a team, and consistently enough that they reeled off seven straight wins.

Then they ran into a buzzsaw.

I didn't see any of last night's game, but I have to imagine from some of the score updates I saw that it was ugly. The score after three quarters was 80-47. In favor of Oklahoma City.

And for a change, Kobe had a lot to do with the 91-75 loss. He turned the ball over eight times. Seriously.

And it doesn't get any easier tonight. The Lakers are back at in the second of back-to-back games in Houston. Let's hope they don't have to call in any problems.

This team better get its act together when the playoffs arrive otherwise there won't be another parade through L.A. in June.

**********

A quick update: Andrew Bynum is expected to be back in action late next week after suffering a strained Achilles last week. And Luke Walton is inching closer to his return, as well.

And So It Goes...

Kobe returns after a five-game injury absence in which the Lakers went 4-1 without him, only to look listless and effortless for two-plus games since. You kind of had to think this would happen. Their "main man" goes down and the other 11 guys suddenly feel a sense of urgency and play out of their minds for five games. Then the guy comes back and the rest of the team takes a deep breathe and a sigh of relief and they wait for something to happen through four games in which they looked dreadful in two-plus of them.

In any case, Kobe's back and hopefully the last 18 minutes of Sunday's win over Denver is a sign of things to come.

In the meantime, I stumbled across this little ditty of a rumor early this morning. In a nutshell, the rumor suggests Lebron James is quietly campaigning to join the Lakers in the off-season after his contract with Cleveland expires.

Now, as the article suggests, a lot would have to happen for this to ever come to fruition. The Lakers would have to shrug Kobe off to the sidelines and end all possible contract extension negotiations. Would they dare do that to the franchise's all-time leading scorer and the second most popular player in franchise history?

I just don't see it happening, but it does make for a fun little conversation.

Celtics Barely Escape Kobe-less Lakers

Lakers lose by one, 87-86. They had several chances to take the lead in the last two minutes of the game but came up empty. Pau Gasol had 22 points for the Lakers in the loss.

The Lakers are off until next Tuesday when they begin a short two game trip in Memphis, followed by a stop in Dallas. Hopefully the extra off days between games will be plenty for Kobe to get back into a game. Lakers are 4-1 now without him, 42-14 overall.

No Kobe, No Problem!

The Lakers are 4-0 with Kobe sitting out the past four games due to a bad ankle. One had to wonder if the Lakers would go into a panic mode not knowing how long Kobe would be out and make a trade before today's deadline, but it came and went and the Lakers stood pat.

The Lakers were tied to several trade rumors, including one that would have netted them Chicago's Kirk Hinrich. The sticking point to that potential deal, and frankly, any deal, was their inability to find a taker for Sasha Vujacic. The Lakers have grown more and more weary of Sasha's inconsistencies in recent weeks and started shopping him several weeks ago. But the Lakers were not looking to add any more payroll, so in order to take on the remaining two years, $17MM of Hinrich's contract, it had to be offset with a similar contract going the other way, and that contract was Vujacic. So the beat goes on. Hinrich is still in Chicago, and Vujacic in L.A.

The Lakers have beaten Portland, Utah and Golden State on the road, three teams that give the Lakers trouble in their buildings, and San Antonio at home without Kobe. Andrew Bynum missed the first three of those games, but Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol have stepped up nicely in all four games, and Bynum had a solid game on Tuesday in Golden State while playing in pain. Shannon Brown has played well in Kobe's absence, as well.

So the Lakers forward with the same team they've had all season as they host the Celtics tonight at Staples. And once again, Kobe will not play. There's no telling when he'll play, but if the rest of the team continues to step and play with the sense of urgency they've had over the past four games, they have a legit chance tonight. And it will give Kobe even more time for his ankle to heal.

Bynum's Injury

It's a hip contusion he suffered in the first half. No word on how serious the injury is or whether he'll play Monday.

Kobe Sits, but Lakers Win Anyway

The Lakers looked dreadful last night in the second half, losing big at home to Denver, 126-113, Kobe scored 33 points on a bum ankle after re-aggravating it in their win Wednesday night against Charlotte.

But after last night's game, the Laker's finally decided today that Kobe needed a rest, so he was given a night off tonight in Portland. Well, benching Kobe against a team they usually don't play well against in their building didn't seem like the right thing to do, and the odds were certainly stacked against the Lakers for a win, but lo and behold, they buckled down, and others stepped up in Kobe's absence, and the Lakers took care of business at the Rose Garden tonight, winning 99-82.

Lamar Odom, starting in Kobe's place, scored just 10 points but grabbed a whopping 22 boards. Ron Artest led the Lakers with 21 points and Shannon Brown added 19 off the bench.

I didn't get to see any of the game here, and there is no recap posted on the ol' www yet, so I am curious as to why Andrew Bynum only played 9½ minutes tonight.

Regardless, this was a much needed "team" victory. Hopefully they can use this win without Kobe as motivation because they'll need all the help they can get if Kobe doesn't play Monday when they host the Spurs.

More Laker History

This time, with the 99-97 win tonight against Charlotte, Phil Jackson became the winningest coach in Laker history, passing Pat Riley with his 534th career win as a Laker.

The Passing

Here's the video of Kobe passing Jerry West as the Lakers all-time leading scorer...

And Then They Lose...

95-93 in Memphis. Clearly they were exhausted from playing the day before in Boston, but the Lakers notoriously don't play well in Memphis anyway. Kobe finished his record-setting night tying a season-high with 44 points.

They finish the road trip 5-3, and head back to L.A. with a 37-12 mark, and host Charlotte for a rare Wednesday night game at Staples.

Kobe is King Laker

He needed 29 points to pass Jerry West as the team's all-time leading scorer and he's got 34 with about six and a half minutes left in the game in Memphis.

Congrats, Kobe!

533 and 2

So you might be wondering what the two numbers mean. Well, the first one is pretty simple. Phil Jackson tied Pat Riley yesterday with 533 wins on the all-time Lakers win list for coaches in the Lakers 90-89 win at Boston. And Kobe was it again with yet another game-winner.

The number two might be a bit more difficult to decipher without a Laker "Number Translator."

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the Pau Gasol trade to the Lakers. In the process, they unloaded some dead weight on the team, most notably Kwame Brown, Marc Gasol, his little brother, and Javaris Crittenton, who was recently suspended for the remainder of the season by the NBA for taking part in the Dirty Harry weapon-draw incident with teammate Gilbert Arenas last month.

But it's become pretty obvious how valuable Gasol has become to the Lakers over the last two years. The Lakers have been in the last two Finals since the trade. And here's some irony for you:

On the two-year anniversary of the trade, the Lakers continue their eight-game road trip tonight in of all places, Memphis, where Gasol came to the Lakers from. So you can imagine that even as Gasol has become a mainstay and fan-favorite in L.A., and he has grown to love it there, he will have some mixed emotions as he takes the floor tonight to take on his old team.

And Yet Another Laker Milestone

And this one has nothing to do with Kobe.

Phil Jackson is just one win shy of tying Pat Riley atop the Lakers all-time wins list for coaches with 533 wins. Riles has a better win percentage with the Lakers with his 533-194 mark. Phil has 253 losses.

*****

Also forgot to congratulate Kobe on his All-Star selection, as well. He was voted in by the fans as a starter, and will be joined by teammate Pau Gasol, selected as a reserve on the West team. The All-Star game is next Sunday on Valentine's Day in Arlington at Cowboys Stadium. So far, more than 85,000 seats have been sold for this game, with an additional 15,000 standing-room only tickets expected to be sold. The 100,000 plus in attendance for the game would demolish the all-time attendance record for any basketball game anywhere.

Lebron Loses His Cool

This is another reason he has a lot of growing up to do. You never saw/see Magic, MJ or Kobe have temper-tantrums like this when they don't get a call go their way...

Approaching Another Milestone

As the Lakers continue their swing through the East Coast, Kobe continues his push towards another milestone. The team has won their last three games at Washington, Indiana and Philly last night in pretty convincing fashion since their loss in Toronto last Sunday, but Kobe is about to make Laker history.

After reaching 25,000 career points at the start of the trip last week in Cleveland, Kobe is now just 48 points shy of surpassing Laker legend Jerry West as the all-time leading scorer in Laker history. And all this hoopla over Kobe has started a whole new debate in L.A. over who the greatest player is in Laker history.

There are a few who believe it is Jerry West, but the real debate is between Kobe and Magic. Having grown up watching Magic do things no other guard in the history of the game has ever done, and being in awe watching him do it, and then having the honor as an adult to see Kobe do what he does, it's a very tough decision. They both certainly can make a great argument for this honor, but my vote goes to Magic, for several reasons.

While Kobe is a pure scorer, and arguably one of the most clutch players in the history of the game, Magic was the one who wowed and awed players and fans with his knack for making players around him better. Kobe's getting better at that, but Magic was great at it. He always knew where everyone on the floor was. He was an amazing passer. He was an amazing "quarterback" on the court.

Magic also had his share of game-winning shots, and you could make an argument that his game-winners are more memorable than Kobe's because of the conditions. There's the "baby sky hook" in Boston in the Finals in 1987. That one is probably his greatest shot ever. It's the most memorable. He had another clutch shot in Boston earlier that season the beat the Celtics at the buzzer.

Take a look...

And let's not forget his performance in the 1980 Finals against Philly, when Kareem couldn't go in Game Six because of a badly sprained ankle. Magic stepped in as the center and promptly led the Lakers to their first of five titles in the 80s while picking up the slack in Kareem's absence.

But Magic's fame and glory came for making players around him better. No one could read or see the court better than Magic. He did things on the court and with the ball that no one has ever done or been able to do. He knew exactly where every player was on the court at all times. He was the only player who had eyes on the back of his head as well as the front. Magic mesmerized teammates, opponents and fans alike.

Magic was not only a five-time champion, but he was a three-time MVP winner. Sure, Kobe is closing in as a four-time champion, and has an MVP of his own, but Magic will always be... the Magicman.