Photo by Harry How | Getty Images

The (4-3) Los Angeles Lakers are on the road tonight to face the (4-1) Portland Trail Blazers, at their personal house of horrors, the Rose Garden. Portland’s Rose Gardens are world renown for housing a diverse and expansive collection of rare, unique and beautiful roses.

The tenants of the Rose Garden house a tough, young, athletic team ranked 4^th in league in points scored (102.0), 2^nd in rebounding (47.2), and 10th in assists (21.8) and 11^th in points allowed (94.0).

The Blazers added a talented member to their backcourt in Raymond Felton this off-season. Felton is solid point guard who pushes the pace, a very capable penetrator who can finish, reliable outside shooter, solid defender and an upgrade over Andre Miller.

The key player for the Lakers to slow down is LaMarcus Aldridge who is coming off a career year. Aldridge is an elite low post scorer with an unblockable turnaround jumper. Aldridge runs the floor well, possesses a good mid-range game and excels at spinning out of post for lob passes at the rim.

The purple and gold beat the Rockets last night behind a solid effort from their big three; Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol posted a 72-point, 38-rebound night. Highlighted by Kobe Bryant’s 37 point, eight rebounds, 6 assists & one blocked shot and Andrew Bynum’s first 20/20 night scoring 21 points, grabbing 22 rebounds and blocking three shots.

For the Lakers, playing at the Rose Garden has been difficult. The Lakers won last season’s series (3-1), which marked their first season series victory over the Trail Blazers since 2004-2005. It was just the third time since 1989 (2004-2005: 2-1 and 1992-1993: 3-2).

The Lakers are 5-5 against the Trail Blazers in their last 10 games overall. Despite being able to snap a 9-game losing streak at the Rose Garden on 2/6/2010, their first since 2/23/2005, the Lakers are just 4-16 in their last 20 regular season games including a 2-8 mark in their last 10.

Check out the latest colorway of Kobe’s Nike Zoom Kobe VII signature shoe to hit the net. Part of Kobe’s predator pack, the Zoom Kobe VII Great White Shark features an upper that gives off a deep blue ocean vibe and features a shark logo on the heel. Look for the predator pack to release in March.

What do you think of the Great White Shark colorway of the Kobe VII?

(Via Solecollector)

Getty Images | Stephen Dunn

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 (sorry, J.J. Barea) and more recently doing the “running in the hallways” equivalent and getting a speeding ticket for it. In his third game of the season, however, Bynum showed quite a bit of maturation on the court. His game tonight, as Mark Jackson would say, was a grown man game.

Along with another huge offensive night from Kobe Bryant, Bynum and the Lakers defeated a very scrappy and very able Houston Rockets team with whom, no matter the line-up, they always seem to encounter issues. There are still quite a few problems to address for future games, but in the meantime, the Lakers can revel in all the good they did to get this win.

He’s done this before, and he is sure to do it again.

With 9:38 left in the first quarter Kobe Bryant had the ball at the top of the key, drove, pumped fake at the free-throw line, and then assisted himself off the backboard:

Kobe finished the game with 37 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists on 14-29 shooting.

The Big 3 (Bryant, Bynum, and Gasol) for the Lakers combined for some great numbers. They combined for 72 Points (29-55 FG/53%) , and 38 Rebounds.

AP Photo | File

Now with basketball back in action, Laker Nation has decided to continue to take you back through Laker history to recap important games, record-breaking performances and memorable news from the past 64 years of the franchise.

JANUARY 3, 1962
PHILADELPHIA WARRIORS 123 – LA LAKERS 124
WEST, LAKERS OVERCOME BAYLOR’S ABSENCE, DEFEAT WARRIORS AFTER CHAMBERLAIN’S EJECTION

What was supposed to be a star-studded affair at the Los Angeles Sports Arena between the Philadelphia Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers had turned into a game of who could keep their stars in. With the Lakers’ Elgin Baylor out with a knee injury and the Warriors’ Tom Gola out with a wrist injury, that left each team with one superstar: the Lakers with second-year player Jerry West, and the Philadelphia Warriors with the unstoppable Wilt Chamberlain.

Chamberlain, who would finish the 1961-62 season with the video game stat line of 50 points/25 rebounds for the season, could only be shut down by two people during the season: the Celtics Bill Russell and himself, as Chamberlain learned that Wednesday night.

Photo by Jeff Gross | Getty Images

The (3-3) Los Angeles Lakers are at the Staples Center to host the (2-2) Houston Rockets. The purple and gold are seeking to bounce back from a frustrating road loss and take their record above the .500 mark.

Several people have focused on Kobe Bryant’s 6-28 shooting performance, questioned his shot selection and number of shots, but the team as a whole shot 39.8% from the field. Kobe is a warrior who appears to play through anything; the best thing is that Bryant plays his game without excuses. There is no shame in splitting two games in 48 hours. The Lakers will return to Denver in February to exact some revenge.

Kobe Bryant passed the captain, Kareem Abdul-Jabber, to become the youngest player to reach 28,000 points in his career. The next hurdle for the Black Mamba to clear in his assault on the NBA All-Time Points leaders; Shaquille O’Neal at 28,596.

Kobe can achieve the feat by scoring 10 points per game for the rest of the season, however at his season average of 24 points per game that mark will fall in late February against the Suns, Trailblazers or Mavericks.

Photo by Ezra Shaw | Getty Images

In back-to-back games against the Denver Nuggets Kobe Bryant shot the ball poor from the field.

The Lakers won one game, and lost one game against Denver over the weekend, while Bryant shot 26% from the field.

However, when you consider that Bryant was averaging 27.8 points on 48.1 percent shooting through the Lakers’ first four games maybe he just had a couple of off shooting nights.

According to TMZ.com, his wrist may have more to do with his recent poor shooting then he is admitting:

Sources connected to the team tell TMZ … the pain has been excruciating.  Our sources say he’s gotten a numbing shot before each game since the injury, and as a result the pain was tolerable during play.  But we’re told the shot did almost nothing Sunday night, and as one source put it, “It was a miracle that he even played.”

Our Lakers sources tell us … in addition to the numbing shots, Kobe’s regimen is now to play with a cast, get physical therapy after each game and wear a flexible cast at all times off the court.

Coach Mike Brown also told ESPNLA that Bryant’s wrist, which still causes Bryant’s right hand to swell up significantly two weeks after he sustained the injury, could be hurting Bryant more than he is letting on.

The Lakers play tonight against the Houston Rockets at 7:30pm PST. Bryant is fully expected to play.

Brian Bahr | Getty Images

Now with basketball back in action, Laker Nation has decided to continue to take you back through Laker history to recap important games, record-breaking performances and memorable news from the past 64 years of the franchise.

JANUARY 2, 2005
DENVER NUGGETS 91 – LA LAKERS 99
BRYANT BREAKS 40+ POINTS FOR THIRD STRAIGHT GAME AS LAKERS DEFEAT EX-LAKER COOPER’S NUGGETS

Following the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, the Lakers roster in 2004-05 was a complete shell of itself compared to the previous seven years. Derek Fisher? Gone, replaced by Chucky Atkins. Shaq? In Miami, replaced by Chris Mihm. Heat castoffs Caron Butler, Lamar Odom and Brian Grant were all starters or significant bench players. Heck, players like Jumaine Jones and Tierre Brown were getting significant minutes with the Lakers Replacements squad.

When the Replacement Lakers walked into Staples Center to play the Denver Nuggets on a Sunday night seven years ago, Michael Cooper, who had played 12 seasons with the Lakers during the Showtime era, had assumed the interim head coaching slot for the Nuggets after Jeff Bzdelik’s departure from the club. Cooper had previously won two WNBA titles with the Los Angeles Sparks, and his short-time as an assistant for the Nuggets, along with his coaching acument with the Sparks, had bumped him up quickly to the head coaching spot.