Laker Nation

John Ireland was interviewing Derek Fisher after the game as an excited group of teammates lingered behind him. Assistant coach, Brian Shaw, stood in the background with the biggest smile on his face and his arms in the air. Steve Blake, on his way off the court, couldn’t help but stop to place a hand on either side of Fisher’s [...]

This game could have ended in the third quarter. The starters could have been resting comfortably on the bench, with ice wrapped around their knees, cheering on the reserves as they dove in for the final kill in the last 12 minutes of play. Alas, three starters subbed out late in that third quarter and suddenly, that 19-point lead turned [...]

All streaks must come to an end…and thank goodness for that! That four-game skid couldn’t come to a quicker halt and frankly it doesn’t matter that it came at the expense of the hapless, defenseless Sacramento Kings. A win is a win, friends, and tonight the Lakers got it right from beginning to end and after the way they’ve begun [...]

I know what you’re thinking, fellow Laker fans… [expletive] [expletive] [expletive] Where to begin the recap? Should we start with the monster game of Lamar Odom (25 points on 11-16, 11 rebounds)? How about the 12-point lead the Lakers lost in the last two minutes of the second quarter? Maybe we should talk about the efficient and hustle-filled evening of [...]

112-118 loss at Denver. 116-121 loss versus Phoenix. 96-102 loss at Utah. 92-95 loss versus Indiana. 96-98 loss at Memphis. Five losses with an average point margin of 4.4 and a scoring average of 102.4. One could look at these Lakers losses thus far and claim that a) They’ve never been blown out and b) They’ve still managed to score [...]

It was an all-too-familiar scene, and we’ve witnessed it in the last two games – the Lakers unable to get anything going offensively so it turns into a whole lot of Kobe Bryant and very little of everyone else. When that has to happen, the end result is not always a favorable one for the Lakers and tonight was no [...]

The shot clocks at Energy Solutions Arena weren’t the only things broken in this game. Number one in the league from 3PT, the Lakers shot just 4-15 from behind the arc tonight, scored 33 points on 68% shooting in the first quarter but got outscored 29-17 in the second and shot just 42% for the game. The Laker bench couldn’t [...]

Enough with the double-digit blowouts. Enough with the perfect games. Enough with the starters sitting out the fourth quarter. If Laker fans and NBA analysts were waiting for the Lakers to be truly tested, tonight was definitely the night. The young Chicago Bulls, led by future All-Star point guard Derrick Rose (30 points, eight assists), and coached by former Celtics [...]

Kobe Bryant didn’t make a move to the other side of the court. He merely toss an underhanded pass to Lamar Odom who was already halfway to the Laker basket – dunk. Odom grabbed a rebound, threw a cross-court pass to Steve Blake, who passed it to a running Shannon Brown – layup. A few minutes later, Luke Walton grabbed [...]

Kobe Bryant’s arms lay on the backs of the seats on either side of him as the final minutes of the fourth quarter waned. Matt Barnes sat on his right, elbows resting on his knees and a towel wrapped around his back. Both looked on, the end of their 3-game road trip coming to a perfect 3-0 close. A season [...]

Four minutes and 59 seconds into the game, Rip Hamilton was called for fouling Kobe Bryant. Clearly frustrated (or perhaps not), the Detroit Piston veteran continued to jaw at NBA official Derrick Stafford until he was forced to hand Hamilton two consecutive technicals, resulting in his early game ejection. Hamilton took off his faceguard, took off his headband, untucked his jersey, [...]

For a moment, it was like déjà vu. Three pointers raining in from everywhere, it seemed – from Brandon Jennings’ hands, Earl Boykins, Drew freakin’ Gooden. Milwaukee Bucks? Looked like the Phoenix Suns for minute there. The only difference was that after hitting 6-10 from downtown in the first half, the Bucks actually went cold, going 3-14 the rest of [...]

Live by the three, die by the three. Tonight, the Phoenix Suns lived behind the arc and the defending champs’ chances of avoiding a two-game losing streak died because of it. The Lakers shot a satisfactory 49% from the field, assisted on 30 of their 47 makes, outscored Phoenix in the paint 68-28 and outrebounded the visitors 49-32. But the [...]

Well they had to lose SOME TIME, right? But did they have to lose this way, after a 38-point second quarter and a double digit lead established in the third? Did it have to happen on another Kobe Bryant milestone day, in which he became the youngest player to score 26,000+ points? Did it have to happen on a night [...]