Laker Nation

Derrick Caracter is still recovering from off-season surgery. Josh McRoberts is still nursing a sprained toe. Troy Murphy has the stomach flu. Jason Kapono is at home with his family, enjoying the company of his newborn twin girls. They probably could’ve used Shannon Brown actually, if he weren’t wearing a Suns uniform, because were the Lakers shorthanded? Yes. Did they [...]

Let’s just get one thing over with – Phew! Andrew Bynum survived a Memphis Grizzlies game in January! Okay, now about tonight’s game… The Lakers are 10 games into the season, and tonight’s game has been their best collective effort yet. Led by Kobe Bryant, five Lakers scored in double figures, three had double-doubles and, despite the monstrosity under the [...]

Kobe Bryant looked over his shoulder, his left hand dribbling and his right hand pointing and seemingly directing. Pau Gasol took notice, took the direction and caught a pass from Bryant as he cut to the basket. Score! As they ran back on defense, Bryant pointed his right index and middle fingers at his eyes, mouthing something we can’t hear [...]

It was only the end of the THIRD quarter, but Jamal Crawford’s might-as-well-have-been-at-halfcourt three was the dagger. A dagger with 12 more minutes left in the game – that’s life at the Rose Garden for the Lakers. They were down by just 10 manageable points going into the fourth, but it might as well have been 20 or 30 because, [...]

There it was – that huge child-like smile that comes from having done well on a test at school. In many ways, “child-like” has been a fitting term for Andrew Bynum the last few seasons; having thrown a few tantrums on the court after not getting fouls called in his favor, bullying smaller kids when things aren’t going his way [...]

4 points – that’s all Kobe Bryant needed to reach his 28,000th point milestone. Two baskets, four free throws, one basket and two free throws – the permutations to get those four points are quick and finite, yet it took two quarters and two minutes of the third for Bryant to get there. It’s true – the 15-year veteran has [...]

Derek Fisher received the ball late in the fourth quarter, with the shot clock down to the last few seconds. He threw up a long, and contested three but hit nothing but backboard and rim. The ball bounced back and who should race after it but Denver’s young point guard, Ty Lawson and the Lakers’ resident senior, Derek Fisher. With [...]

Steve Blake passed inside to Metta World Peace. MWP tried to muscle up a shot and was fouled. He kissed his biceps and headed to the Laker bench where Coach Mike Brown was waiting, calling out for Blake as MWP approached. Brown addressed MWP while pointing at Blake, “Did you tell him, ‘Thank you?’” he asked the new Laker sixth [...]

They were due. Completely and utterly due. After the sweep in the second round, the two losses to the new and vastly improved Clippers in the preseason, and the two losses to open this season, the Lakers were in need of a win; and not just any win. They needed a convincing, quarter by quarter, end to end, everybody-in type [...]

Kobe Bryant subbed out of the game with 22.5 left in the fourth quarter and the Lakers heading for their second straight loss of this season. Bryant sat on the bench and stared blankly at the floor before him. 29 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals, he must have been thinking, and it still wasn’t enough. And he [...]

A Laker game on Christmas Day usually means little to even the Lakers themselves. But with a shortened, not to mention accelerated, NBA season, every game, every victory and certainly every loss, counts. Tonight the Lakers started counting down from 66, beginning with their first official loss. Though fans know not to expect much from the Lakers during holidays, especially [...]

Kobe Bryant’s right wrist was wrapped and secured by a brace, but even a torn ligament in his shooting hand couldn’t keep him from pumping his fist into the air at the sight of teammate, Andrew Bynum catching a lob from Derek Fisher (7 points, 8 assists) and dunking with some authority. Without Bryant on the floor, there is always [...]

Well, no one said change would be easy; the Lakers least of all. After an embarrassing elimination in the second round of the playoffs against the Dallas Mavericks, there was the long lockout, then the Chris Paul / Pau Gasol / Lamar Odom deal that went south, then the exits of Odom and Shannon Brown, a new coaching staff, a [...]

We waited…and waited…and waited some more, but the miracles never came. We truly believed that Kobe Bryant’s hot start could shoulder this heavy burden, but inside we all knew that those back to back championships weren’t one-man shows. We had faith that despite his struggles in these playoffs, and whatever was going on inside of him, that Pau Gasol would [...]