Sigh...so yeah no real info about the Clippper, I mean Lakers JV game. Lakers beat the little boys by 8. It was a pretty entertaining game though. Pretty close at the end, until the Lakers decided to stop toying with them and put them to sleep. Blake Griffen had a few dunks as always (yawn). But, he actually missed one. That's something new LOL. Now Ron " stick to the 3's" Artest attempted 3 dunks and missed 2 of them...BADLY. The bench roared in laughter as did the crows at the ESPN Zone. But, the best part of an otherwise uneventful hallway series was when Chris Kaman tried to beat up D Fish! D Fish comes up to like his waist and hes trying to punk him! Everyone knows..well Luis Scola surely knows..if you keep strong arming Fishy with those screens hes gonna get pissed and retaliate. He doesn't care how big or strong or ugly in Kamans case..you are. The ref separated the 2 and Kaman was hit with 2 techs and Fish was called for one. Here comes the funny part..as Kaman was being escorted off the court he gestured for Fish to meet him outside after the game!!! Its been reported that Matt Barnes asked Fish if he wanted him to walk out with him and watch his back should Kaman make real on his threats. Fisher said " no one is sacred of Kaman!" Barnes said " I just wanted to see if he had the guts to back up his talk and if so it was gon get handled." I LOVE IT!!!!! When Kobe was asked about the incident he said " Whats he gon do, shoot him with one of his bow and arrows?? Give me a break", he said rolling his eyes. I LOVE The fight in my team and how they have each others backs! Earlier when Matt Barnes was asked about the " rivalry" between the 2 he said " I think they need a few more wins before it becomes a rivalry." ***Dead***. And on that note..on to the next game...
The pesky " Westless" Hornets were in town trying to keep their head above water ( no pun intended) until the playoffs without their number one re bounder and sometimes the glue that holds their team together. David West tore his ACL and is out for the rest of the season. As expected the Lakers steamrolled the Hornets beating them by 18. To no surprise Kobe led the way with 30 points. He scored on former Laker Trevor Ariza in every way possible pushing him to 5 fouls. Poor Trevor, looking like merely a shell of a former champion. He doesn't even look like hes having fun anymore. If his agent isnt fired and  working at Target now he should be. Moving on, even with David West the Hornets still fall into the category of nearly every team in the NBA : they cant match the Lakers height. Some teams make up for it better than others. The Hornets didn't stand a chance. Okafur did get a double double, but made no real impact on the game. The Lakers game plan was to leave the 3 shooters, Ariza, Willie Green, and Belleneli open, while cutting off Chris Pauls driving lanes. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. The Hornets were 3-17 from beyond the arc.  Bynums numbers were fairly low in comparison to recent games mainly because he was off and on the bench with foul trouble. His 5th foul came with 9:37 left in the 4th quarter and Phil decided to leave him in the game. Instead of being timid and scared to foul out Bynum became more aggressive scoring 7 of the Lakers next 9 points, one of them being a monster dunk.  Bynum said " At that point I was like , well I might as well go hard, because If I get called for a foul its to be expected."  All wasn't lost because of foul trouble though. The Spaniard stepped up and had 23 points. He was doing it all. he ran the floor, had his mid range game going, and he hauled down 16 boards. Lamar Odum was expected to pick up some of the slack too (sigh). Maybe he was nervous or antsy due to the film crew being there. One of the first episodes for " Kloe and Lamar" was filmed last night. Whatever the reason Lamar played 26 minutes and only took 6 shots! Unacceptable. He also didn't help keep the Hornets off the glass. The Lakers as a whole gave up 17 offensive rebounds. Odashian wasn't the only disappointment off the bench. The rest of the mob were a woeful 7-20 from the field. Phil has not been quiet about the fact he isn't happy with the bench production. Sure we won the Suns game, but it only went to 3 OTs because we gave a up a 21 point lead. Phil has graded the bench as a " C to and F" as far as overall performance in recent games. They have been dribbling the ball way to much, swinging it around the perimeter, and waiting too long into the shot clock to throw it inside. With all that said the champs still found a way to win. Even with the bench playing sub par, Kobe being injured, Lamar looking like he has the Looney Tunes Theme Song going off in his head, Fisher being inconsistent, and Gasol being soft, the Lakers still come out on top. Kobe Bryant seems to be scoring more since his ankle injury in Dallas. He said to serve the league notice that hes in " Play off mode" now. YIKES! It seems as if all the Lakers are getting on that page slowly but surely.
As far as the standings go the Spurs lost their 3rd game in a row to Memphis last night. This could be a potential 1st round match up if the Spurs stay on top and Memphis stays at 8th. Memphis has actually beat  the Spurs twice this season. With Tim Duncan hurt and Ginobli probable for the next game the Spurs may have cause to worry. They don't have an easy schedule ahead either. They still have to play Boston, Portland, Phoenix twice and the Lakers. We will come head to head with them  on April 12 at Staples. As for today my boys have the day off for much much needed rest. They will head back to El Segundo tomorrow to get ready for the Dallas match up on Thursday. This will be a Western Conference showdown you don't want to miss. So, strap on your seat belts ladies and gents its gonna be a bumpy ride!! Until then....