Last night, your Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets, in Denver, by a final score of 93-89. This win was unusual for the Lakers in more ways than one: first off, they actually won a close game - even more unusual considering that it was a close game against a good team; also they won a road game, just their third of the season.

So, what did they do differently? Well, offensively, it almost appeared they combined the best aspects of both their last two games, contribution-wise. Whilst the big three all had decent games, Kobe's bad shooting notwithstanding, the Lakers still managed to gain good contributions from their supporting cast, with the non-big-three members combining for 36 points in total. Pretty mediocre by most team's standards, but hell it's progress for the Lakers.

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Tonight, your esteemed Los Angeles Lakers take on their crosstown rivals, the Los Angeles Clippers. Previously, such use of the word 'rival' would be laughable, with the Clippers being a League laughing stock for the last few years whilst the Lakers were consistently in Championship contention. However, now, courtesy of David Stern giving the Clippers Chris Paul after stealing him away from the Lakers, the notion of a 'rivalry' might have some sense to it. And, as Kobe Bryant said, it's about damn time.

This is the first match-up of these two teams this season, and thus since the Chris Paul debacle (barring the two preseason games, of course). It'll be interesting to see if the Lakers play with a chip on their shoulders, with some members of the media, always hungry for attention, being quick to label the Clippers the 'best team in LA' after the trade and earlier this season. Unlike other regular season match-ups in the past versus so-called 'rivals' like the James-era Cleveland Cavaliers and Miami Heat, the Lakers may actually come out with fire this time, considering both their somewhat renewed effort levels this season and the fact that it's the freaking Clippers people are proclaiming better than the Lakers.

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Tonight's game features the Los Angeles Lakers who, while not dominant, have been solid of late and are nursing a four-game winning streak taking on the Cleveland Cavaliers who have surprisingly been alright this season The Cavs are currently placed 8th in the Eastern Conference-- a far cry from their near-historical levels of suck last year.

The Cavaliers have done this by being, well, the definition of average. Their offensive and defensive efficiency ratings as per hoopdata.com are both ranked 15th in the League, both being 99.5 compared to League averages of 99.6 and 99.8 respectively. In terms of Four Factors, as officially introduced to SSR by Actuarially Sound, they're also right around the average. Their effective field goal percentage is right at the League Average, though they allow their opposition slightly better than this; and their Turnover rate is a tiny bit higher than the League Average whilst they allow their opponents pretty much on League Average. Their offensive rebound rate is slightly better than League Average whilst their opposition is held slightly lower, and their free throw rate is above League Average by a decent margin whilst their opposition is kept slightly below. As such, overall I don't think it's possible to get more average, which can only be viewed as a good thing in light of their catastrophic season last year.

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I don't have too much more to say after my editorial yesterday regarding my thoughts and observations on the Lakers; as nothing I saw last night against the Jazz really changed my mind about anything I said. The Lakers still did play rather similar to the Lakers of last season, albeit perhaps a better stretch of last season than whichever they channeled against the Kings; helped of course by the Jazz playing like, well, a young and inexperienced team which has played no NBA basketball in about 8 months. Thus, click through the jump for some random thoughts and musings on the back-to-back-to-back in dot point form.

But first:

Now that we've addressed the elephant in the room, we may proceed.

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Over the offseason much ado was made, rightly so, of the Lakers' attempts to completely blow up their core in an attempt to remake the team on the fly, and upon the failure of that of their decision to donate Lamar Odom to the defending champion Mavericks and attempt to replace his production with Troy Murphy and Josh McRoberts. Ultimately, the offseason left Lakers fans feeling as if the team was unfinished, that they were in the middle of a transition phase that still required one big move. With this move being yet to come, if indeed it ever does, nonetheless the feeling was one of change, that the Lakers, now Odom-less and Jackson-less, were a truly different team; whether for better or worse.

The Christmas Day season opener was reason for hope for Laker fans, with their vigour, effort, tough defense and solid contributions from fresh faces suggesting an altogether improved team, one that could once again compete, and indeed entertain whilst doing so. The youth and hustle were particularly refreshing, perhaps harking back to the days of the famed Bench Mob of '08. Then last night happened, and such optimistic assumptions needed revision; with lackluster effort, poor execution, terrible defense and general helplessness leading to an embarrassing loss to a simply inferior team. After the loss, Chris understandably made the assertion that the Lakers were indeed worse than last season, and that a championship was thus unlikely. I disagree. It seems to me that the Lakers are almost the same as last season.

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Hot off the heels of their last-minute heartbreaker against reigning League MVP Derrick Rose and his Chicago Bulls, the Lakers take the road tonight to face the relatively tame Sacramento Kings, Pacific Division neighbours and fringe Playoff contenders. Compared to the Championship-contender Bulls, they should be a cakewalk, but things are rarely so simple in the NBA, let alone Laker-land.

The Lakers are coming off of a home game last night, meaning little time for recuperation or practise, and the fact that it was Christmas doesn't help. Thus, it remains to be seen if the effort they brought against the Bulls in the season opener will continue into their less-anticipated matchup against the Kings; though the answer to this question may provide an interesting insight into the character of this 2011-2012 Laker squad.

The Lakers of old would likely provide a snoozefest tonight, likely still to win, but not prettily, with little effort and execution, simply out-talenting their opposition. However, hopefully the infusion of new blood and youth combined with the extra motivation of their embarrassing playoff sweep last season have been impactful enough to change their character, in which case we should see a blowout.

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EDIT: The Odom-to-Dallas trade is yet to be official, with Marc Stein reporting only that "The Lakers informed the league-owned Hornets and the Rockets they were pulling out of the deal, sources said, because they had reached an agreement with the Dallas Mavericks to trade Lamar Odom to the reigning champions."
EDIT EDIT: Woj says it's happened, which is good enough for me.

It was said soon after the news of the new CBA that the ensuing condensed free agent period would be one of the craziest in history; and it has most definitely failed to disappoint. Obviously, the sheer ludicrousness of David Stern (egged on by his quivering lackeys) going Imperator on the Hornets has to take the cake, and the irony of signings such as that of Tyson Chandler's 4-year $56 million contract highlighting the ludicrousness in hindsight of the lockout is both frustrating and vindicating; however now this free agent period has moved into a new level of weirdness for us Laker fans as well.

The move to pull Chris Paul, whilst garnering some debate about its short-run basketball benefits, was characteristically Laker in nature: quick, shrewd, professional, and bringing in a star player of the type fans drool over. For all the criticism thrown at Jim Buss of late, the move seemed to indicate business as usual for the Lakers. Unfortunately, Stern decided to nix the deal in a pathetic display of sheer pettiness on the part of both him and owners such as embittered Dan Gilbert (funny that he has been named as one of the most vocal protestors against the deal, considering that it is likely that if he had made such nature of a deal when he was in Demps' situation, he could have salvaged the remnants of his team).

The vetoing of the deal was an epic display of crassness, bad faith and blatant dishonesty: the Hornets had been previously told the League would stay out of their basketball workings and that they were allowed to make a deal, only for this to be reversed as soon as a workable and, according to general consensus, solid deal was formed with the Lakers as the recipients of Mr. Paul. This cancellation of the deal conveniently occurred after the ratification of the new CBA, instead of such an issue being put to negotiation as other basketball related issues were. A dictatorial utilisation of executive power in order to enforce the 'have your cake and eat it too' mentality of the ownership and commissioner's office evident throughout CBA negotiations; this action doubtless decimated the internal workings of these teams, with Lamar Odom and Chris Paul not showing at training camp and Pau Gasol also voicing some extent of displeasure. However, this was not the fault of any of the teams involved, the blame lays solely at the feet of the Commissioner.

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In the doldrums of the NBA's long offseason, made longer than usual for Laker fans due to Los Angeles' unceremonious exit from the Playoffs; real news becomes scarce, something exacerbated this offseason courtesy of the lockout eliminating player movement for the timebeing. The combination of lack of games and lack of news make life hell for a hardcore fan, and may well turn a casual fan off the sport; thus reducing fan interest and potentially hurting future demand for the NBA product. Oh, and not to mention both the NBA and individual teams have already begun to lay off employees. But this lockout is meant to make the League more profitable, yeah? And the reason the NBA doesn't contract teams or shut down the WNBA is because of the jobs that would be lost? Sure.

As you may have been able to tell, I'm well in the player's corner of this labor spat. As the adage goes, nobody pays to see the owners; and I'd bet that it'd be easier to find 25-30 people/groups able and willing to own an NBA team than it would be to find a single Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki etc. This isn't the NFL, where the League literally ran replacement players during a lockout and it didn't hurt them too bad. The NBA is built on the marketability of the players moreso than the sport itself, and the owners need to recognise this.

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The next player up in our Player Report Card series is Rookie Power Forward Derrick Caracter. Caracter was perhaps the Lakers' most highly-touted Draft Pick of the prior season, despite being picked 58th overall, due to his size and potential; and indeed years back in high school he was on occasion ranked as highly as Andrew Bynum. However, there was obvious and gaping flaws in both his on-court potential and his character; whether it be his short stature, weight or his shaky record in college ball, there was definitely reason for him to have dropped into the Second Round of the NBA Draft.

This was effectively summed up back when he was drafted, where I wrote:

Undeniable talent. Understand this: he's considered to have an excellent post game, has a body perfect (if 2 inches short) for a low-post beast, and has plenty of skills in the post, yet simultaneously "Can grab a rebound, take the ball the length of the court, dribbling through defenders, and pull up on a dime and hit a three-pointer"? Excuse me, but that's fucking ridiculous. Why was this guy not a lottery pick? Oh, wait... he thinks he's even better than he really is. He stopped trying. His weight ballooned. He weighed 315 when he came to Louisville and then clashed with coach Rick Pitino when told he wouldn't be allowed to practice until he got back down to at least 265.

I think the worst of it was summed up by high-school coach Bill Barton:

He really wanted the N.B.A. lifestyle for the lifestyle and not the game itself.

He accepted 'gifts' from boosters and refused to try in class. He had been featured as a star since the 8th grade, he "was once hyped up to be the next great talent. At 15 years of age he had hype surrounding him similar to a young OJ Mayo or LeBron James.Unfortunately by the time he reached college, he had stopped working hard and his skills/game had suffered considerably."  A perfect quote from his sophomore year of high school:

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Although Kobe Bryant won't be earning any Bill Russel, Larry O'Brien or Maurice Podoloff trophies this year, he has still added a few individual trophies to his doubtless-overflowing cabinet of awards and trophies. Whilst Kobe did not win either the most important MVP award in the Russel trophy or the Regular Season MVP, he did take home the most frivolous most valuable player award, the All-Star Game MVP. With his dominant performance and acrobatic exhibitionism living up to the very nature of the All-Star Game, it's doubtless that that award, at least, was deserved.

However, his other recognitions, to the All-Defensive and All-NBA teams, have undergone more scrutiny. Is it justified to doubt the deservedness of these awards? Perhaps. Kobe is, after all, getting older, having already played over 40,000 minutes; and his minutes have gone down. It can be argued that his contribution and importance to his team is reducing over time, and will continue to do so. However, the merit of this argument is certainly up for debate.

To start, one must look at the two nominations seperately, and assess Kobe's merits and faults for the season in regards to each respective award. Let's start with his nomination to the NBA All-Defensive first team, the nomination which likely holds the least deservedness.

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With the first round now completed; in a manner that could be argued to either be significantly more difficult than predicted or just par for the course; the Lakers move on to the Western Conference Semi-Finals versus the Dallas Mavericks, a team with whom the Lakers have had some scrappy encounters in the past. The Lakers are one seed ahead of the Mavericks, and thus have Home Court for four out of the seven games in the series despite having an equal record. This series has been looked forward to by many; due to reasons such as Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki having never met in the postseason despite spending much of their careers in it, the teams' equal records, or the scrappy play of their last match-up. It's been particularly looked forward to by Laker fans as the Mavericks are arguably the Lakers' preferred matchup in the second round, with Oklahoma City being seen as the Lakers' biggest threat in the West whilst Memphis served to pose significant match-up issues in their frontline talent and excellent wing defense.

As part of Silver Screen and Roll tradition, here is the first of our series previews proper, our positional preview, following on from Dex's series intro yesterday and preceding tomorrow's statistical preview. Before I get down to breaking it down position-by position; here's an injury list for both teams:

LAKERS:
Kobe Bryant - sprained left ankle (will play Game One)
Pau Gasol - upper respiratory illness (will play Game One)
Also of note are players recovering from injury; namely Matt Barnes (knee surgery); with Andrew Bynum (bone bruise in knee) and Ron Artest (hyperextended knee) seemingly fully recovered from their prior injuries.
MAVERICKS:
Caron Butler - ruptured patellar tendon (out for series)
Also of note is Rodrigue Beaubois, who was activated for the Mavericks' last game following recovery from a sprained foot, but did not play. He has not played at all in the Playoffs and will likely be rusty.

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Prior to this series, many were predicting, with solid reason, a sweep in this series; primarily rooted in the fact that the Hornets simply don't have the size or firepower to run with the Lakers. These predictions were quickly thrown awry by an unfocused Laker team embarrassing themselves on their own home court versus a motivated and peppy  Hornets team led by a marvelous performance by Point Guard Chris Paul. Although the loss wasn't expected by many, neither did it truly surprise most ardent Laker fans - the Lakers had been playing mediocre ball for the last few weeks before the start of the Playoffs, and with New Orleans being their weakest playoff opponent in years on paper, it wasn't surprising the Lakers didn't get geared up for the game.

After the game, Lamar Odom contended that the loss was a good thing, as it was a humbling experience. An odd statement, to be sure - of all the games this season, all the embarrassments, this was hardly the most humiliating; and it didn't seem the Lakers all necessarily mirrored Odom's sentiment, winning Game Two in a ho-hum affair featuring better execution than the series opener, but nothing displaying true resolve on the Lakers' part. 

Then the series moved to Game Three; which the Lakers won in solid fashion, but hardly the blowout they're capable of. Now, with the Lakers leading 2-1, and winning the last two games without 100% effort, the series is starting to fit the prescribed storyline better. The Lakers are still working out a lot of kinks, yet to have had a truly dominant all-round team performance; with either their bench or members of their core disappointing in each game. The Hornets are putting up a fight to the best of their ability, but can't match up with the Lakers, with or without their leading scorer David West. Hardly the manner of exciting series going on elsewhere in the Playoffs.

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Arguably the greatest strength of this Laker squad is their ability to trot out two All-Star caliber big men together at any given time in the game. It means that the vast majority of the time the Lakers have a crushing advantage in the paint over their opponent; and when the offense isn't clicking there's generally at least one big man who can still be relied upon to get buckets, meaning that the 'bail-out' responsibility isn't solely on Kobe's shoulders. It also leads to a great number of easy points, whether it be through offensive rebounds or open dunks given due to double teams on Kobe. Undeniably, the presence of Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum on the Los Angeles Lakers is a boon 29 other teams would kill for.

However, it can sometimes be difficult for a coach in dividing minutes up between the three. During the Regular Season, it's a total non-issue, as getting the stars rest and reducing their minutes is considered a good thing (though, with Phil Jackson's propensity to leave Pau Gasol in during the fourth quarter of blowouts, it could be argued he doesn't place as much value on this as most coaches). During the Playoffs, however, it's literally a case of having too many weapons to choose from.

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Tonight's matchup is the Lakers' first chance to redeem themselves for a Game One stink-fest in which nobody except Kobe Bryant and Ron Artest can be proud of the way in which they played. The game featured mediocre to poor execution of the offense; namely due to the pivotal player in the Triangle (pun not intended), Pau Gasol, playing like a roll of Charmin double-ply; and failing to assert himself whatsoever; coupled with sloppy passing, particularly in the first quarter where it resulted in five turnovers. However, the offense was running beautifully compared to the defense, which was just pathetic. Once again catalyzed by Pau Gasol's ineffectiveness in guarding the paint; but with plenty of significant contributions in the negative from other players; particularly a lack of effort by guards in fighting through screens; and poor execution of defensive sets in general; the Lakers were outscored in the paint and allowed the Hornets to score an obscene 1.21 points per possession.

Credit must go to the Hornets, who executed their offensive with as close to perfection as humanly possible, led by Chris Paul's gargantuan 33-point, 14-assist, 7-rebound performance and highlighted by a grand total of three team turnovers for the entire game for the Hornets. However; it goes without saying  they owe much of this to the Lakers, who failed to effectively pressure ball-handlers and were completely ineffective in protecting the paint, allowing an unheard of 52 points in the paint for the rather undersized Hornets.

Looking at the past game, it seems relatively easy to start calling 'outlier' on many of these numbers. Sure, the Hornets are unlikely to continue to score nearly half their points in the paint for the entire series. Sure, Aaron Gray isn't often going to outplay Pau Gasol. Chris Paul probably won't average 33/14/7/4 for the entire series (though he does have the will, and does have the talent peak to do so, it's just near-impossible to do consistently). But that's all on the Lakers. They allowed Chris Paul to effortlessly cut through their paltry attempts at 'defense', they allowed him to orchestrate a mediocre (19th in the League in Offensive Rating, according to basketball-reference.com) offensive squad missing its leading scorer into scoring 1.21 points per possession with only three turnovers to boot. Pau Gasol allowed Aaron Gray to outplay him. The Lakers, as a team, collectively crapped the bed.

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With the "real" season upon us, it's time once again to start our previewage of the playoffs, starting with SSR's traditional Playoff Positional Preview for Round One of the 2011 NBA Playoffs, featuring the Los Angeles Lakers versus the New Orleans Hornets. The Lakers really lucked out in terms of matchups for the first round, in that the Grizzlies tanked the end of the season (or, alternatively, you could follow ESPN's explanation of events) to avoid the Lakers, and as such, despite not having the number one seed in the conference, the Lakers begin their 2011 postseason run with the easiest playoff opponent in the West.

The Hornets had trouble matching up with the Lakers in the regular season, losing all four meetings between the two teams primarily because of their not being able to deal with the Lakers' length and the mysterious lack of aggression on the part of franchise MVP Chris Paul. With the David West injury, things look even more dire for New Orleans, who lack even the slightest punter's chance of toppling the defending champion Lakers in a seven-game series (provided, of course, Steve Blake's chicken pox doesn't spread to the entire team). There is only a single position in which the Hornets possess an advantage over the Lakers, and Chris Paul hasn't seemed either willing or able to exploit this in the teams' prior meetings.

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The Lakers' stretch of post All-Star break play tempted many, myself included, into believing that the Lakers were indeed a changed team, one that was not only capable of playing just well enough to win a championship, but one that could go above and beyond that, one that could utilise their collective potential to its maximum output and truly make history with what would be a classic storybook ending to Phil Jackson's (supposed) last three-peat; by putting on a display of historical dominance with a degree of consistency completely alien to these Lakers on their way to the championship.

Alas, we were fooled, as these hopes quickly came crashing down in the form of a four-game losing streak. How things change - a few months ago a four-game losing streak was cause for panic amongst many, with concerns creeping up amongst some that perhaps these Lakers truly didn't have it in them to win another championship. Perhaps they were too old, too slow. Maybe they just didn't want it enough. Maybe they just weren't good enough. Just as those doubters were quelled then, now too have those who dared to believe these Lakers would ever consistently play to their true potential. Indeed, this four-game losing streak on the back of a 17-1 stretch bears a hot-and-cold pattern that is classically Laker - they exerted just enough effort to prove that they could indeed win, felt satisfied with doing so and thus returned to simply playing out the preseason waiting for the games to actually count.

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When I was watching this game, I was already thinking of potential angles for this piece. One theme quickly emerged early in the first half: The Lakers were playing 'bully ball'. After a hot start by Dallas, the Lakers seemed to literally decide to simply quite literally pound the Mavericks into submission. Shoves abounded; whether it be in attempts to get steals, or fighting for rebounds. Hell, even Pau Gasol mixed it up a little in the first half. And it got to Dallas, it was evident in the way that nobody except Dirk found ways to score, it was evident in the fact that early on they made little attempt to fight back; with the closest thing to such coming when Barea took exception to a hard foul and started jawing, but even that didn't get anywhere.

Eventually, the Mavericks did fight back, even if it seemed borne more of frustration than a desire to actually attempt to intimidate Los Angeles. Jason Terry shoved the smallest, seemingly most timid (at least in the way he plays) player on the Lakers to the floor after a foul, in a manner both cheap and dangerous (I'm guessing nobody mentioned to Terry that Steve Blake does MMA in the offseason, as a casual hobby to keep fit). What Jet didn't account on was this normally laid-back, veteran, and supposedly soft Laker squad responding in the manner that it did, with Barnes jumping in straight away to provide retaliation, and no backing down on the part of any Laker.

Now, plenty of people will argue that the whole near 'brawl' was unnecessary and that Steve Blake should have just got up and shot his free throws, but I can't agree. In the end, as much as we may try to hide it, much of pro sports is essentially a display of machismo. 'Soft' is a label many players truly despise, and tonight the Lakers, or at least the Lakers' bench, totally dispelled any notions of the Lakers' supposed softness lingering from '08.

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Tonight the Lakers face the Phoenix Suns, topped only by the Golden State Warriors in ineptitude on the boards. With Andrew Bynum, this instantly becomes an easy game as one could bank on him gobbling up all the spare boards and leaving Phoenix no chance of winning. Without Andrew, it's still an easier game than most on the difficult tail-end of the Lakers' schedule, but the Suns' still-effective offense does pose concern.

It'll be interesting to see how the Lakers respond to facing a respectable offensive squad, particularly without their defensive anchor. Perhaps the Lakers will continue their streak of excellent post-All Star Break defense without Bynum (they certainly did so last game against Portland) and limit the Suns in a way which allows them to win with relative comfort. Or perhaps they will simply utilise the more free-flowing offense introduced when Lamar Odom enters the starting line-up effectively enough to outscore the Suns. Or perhaps they'll do neither, and lose. That's why they play the games, after all.

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Tonight the esteemed Los Angeles Lakers play the uh, less-than-esteemed Minnesota Timberwolves in chilly Minnesota. I'll just cut to the chase here and point out the Wolves are bad. Like, really really bad. Indeed, if not for the cursed historically bad Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota would be the worst team in the League in terms of standings. Even advanced metrics such as point differential or the more relevant efficiency differential cannot hide the fact; ranking Minnesota 25th and 27th, respectively. They are on pace to win 19 games this season, and, somewhat amazingly, that is actually an improvement from last season's win total of 15.

The reasons for Minnesota's seemingly pathetically bad level of play despite featuring the killer forward frontline of 20-point-per-game scorer Michael Beasley and beastly Power Forward Kevin Love are numerous and well-known. It starts with GM David Kahn; known for comically bad draft decisions (drafting four point guards in one draft, with the lowest pick, which he traded away, ending up the best), terrible trades, and head-scratching free agent signings (followed by even more head-scratching comments, such as comparing Darko Milicic to Chris Webber). It is then reinforced by the hiring of a coach, ex-Laker player and assistant coach Kurt Rambis; who specialises in running the Triangle Offense, an offensive system completely unsuitable for a point guard like Jonny Flynn. It's then completed by overloading on Point Guards and Small Forwards, with the icing on the cake being employing the grossly inefficient (51.5%TS) Michael Beasley as the primary scoring option (leading them in scoring per-36). Charming.

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The Lakers' annual 'Grammys' Road Trip is often seen as a proving ground for the Lakers; a long trip to test their resolve and ability to win. Coach Phil Jackson considers it perhaps the most important stretch of the Regular Season for the team. A 7-game, 13-day road trip is always imposing (never mind that the Lakers already had one of the such in December this season, if you want to count a Clippers 'road' game); and this year's lineup does nothing to counteract that statement: New Orleans, Memphis, Boston, New York, Orlando, Charlotte and Cleveland. Out of those teams, only the last two are below .500; and Boston, Orlando and to a lesser extent even New York have been considered as championship contenders during this season.

The last two games of this trip can be considered as 'trap games'  due to being on the tail-end of the most grueling trip of the year as well as directly succeeding what could perhaps be considered the toughest 3-game stretch of the year; road games against Boston, New York and Orlando in the span of four days. Discounting those two games as deceptively easy, we find 5 geniunely tough games. New Orleans, a strong contender in the Western Conference; Memphis, who are two games over .500, just short of the 8-seed in the West (but would rank 6th in the East), and known to give the Lakers problems due to their strong frontline; archrival Boston, fast-paced supposed 'contender' New York featuring a supposed MVP candidate in Amare Stoudemire; and Championship contender Orlando.

A tough stretch no doubt, with seemingly no weak team featured. But, disregarding mainstream media's East Coast bias, it quickly becomes evident that New York, in fact, is far from a contender. They've been praised as a broadway version of the Phoenix Suns, but realistically they're nowhere near. Whilst the Phoenix Suns consistently had one of the best records on the League during the Regular Season and ranked well on top in offensive efficiency; the Knicks are an above-average offensive team at best whilst being as deficient as the Suns on the defensive end. The result of this is a record that would have them barely scraping in the 10th spot if they played in the Western Conference, yet they're being viewed as a good basketball team. Paper tigers, indeed.

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Today our Los Angeles Lakers take on their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, for the second time in less than a fortnight. Since the first matchup, an embarrassing double-digit loss for the purple and gold, the Lakers have finally shown some grit, winning an overtime game against the Rockets with solid defense in the extra period, losing a heartbreaker to the league-leading San Antonio Spurs on a last-second tip-in after a nine-point fourth quarter near-comeback and getting a solid win against the playoff-caliber New Orleans Hornets and a good defensive-minded win over the Memphis Grizzlies. The Celtics, meanwhile, have only had a .500-record since then, losing a close game against the Mavericks due to a lack of defense and falling to the Charlotte Bobcats on a night when they put up an ugly 0.94 points per possession, while beating the Sacramento Kings and posting an impressive win against the Orlando Magic.

This season really has been a role-reversal for the Lakers and Celtics. While at this point last season, the Lakers still had one of the best records in the league and, Cleveland hype aside, were viewed as clear championship favorites, the Celtics were plodding along and written off by many. Now everything has flipped. While San Antonio has had the league's best record so far, some feel that Boston has played the best basketball for much of this season. The Lakers, meanwhile, though posting a better won-loss record than the Celtics had at a similar point last season, have failed to impress, and have indeed troubled many with their inability to beat good teams and their multiple losing streaks.

We know how things ended up last year. The Lakers slowed down considerably post-All Star Break, until the playoffs. They nonetheless went through the West without serious trouble and met a Boston team that had shocked the world by beating contenders Cleveland and Orlando in convincing fashion. Hell, the Celtics at one point last season even considered blowing up their core. Similarly, the Lakers this season have publicly floated the possibility of a trade, with a Bynum-for-Melo deal considered and multiple trade scenarios involving Pau Gasol proposed by myself (for after Phil Jackson's departure, not for now). Last year's Finals provided some ugly basketball and a far cry from the Lakers-Cavs matchup that ESPN so desperately wanted. But at the same time it was gloriously beautiful, evenly matched and toughly fought. In the end, results are all that matter, and the Celtics lost. Right now, the Lakers are where the Celtics were last year. Unsettling? Slightly.

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Well with the recent news about Mitch Kupchak stating that he was 'looking into' making some moves; and Magic's agreement; as well as Ron's bizarre scenario; we seem to have had an influx of random fanposts and discussions popping up about trads all over the place. Whether or not I, or anybody else, actually thinks Kupchak was serious with his statements, or Stein was accurate with his report about Ron; isn't going to stop trade discussions from popping up, particularly with the Lakers' play of late; so I figured it would be better to limit all the trade discussion to one post instead of it being all over the place, hence this thread.

Couple of rules:

• Do your homework: Make sure the trade you're proposing is legit under the Cap. ESPN's NBA Trade Machine works well for testing this
• Be realistic: Joking is fine, but if you seriously think we can pick up Blake Griffin for Luke Walton, put the bong down.
• Don't flame: There will undoubtedly be stupid suggestions, and obviously it's fine to disagree - just keep it civil and do NOT engage in personal attacks.
• Don't take it seriously: Let me clear something up for you: I'm making this thread to keep the fanposts section from getting clogged with individual posts, it's not like I've been contacted by Mitch Kupchak asking to make a suggestion thread for him to peruse. The Lakers don't give a shit about my, yours, or anybody else here's suggestions. They in all likelihood will never hear of it. 

With the creation of this thread, all other new trade suggestion Fanposts will be deleted (existing ones will be allowed to stay), and the poster instructed to bring his suggestion here. Obviously, this only applies for hypotheticals; and if a legit rumour surfaces from a credible source, that's separate news in and of itself.

Please rec this so it stays up the top of the fanpost section; and have fun.

In an 82-game regular season, much debate exists about the length of the season causing unnecessary injuries and the like, but one factor that gets overlooked by most (except fans of your Los Angeles Lakers) is malaise. Teams get bored, teams get unhappy. Teams just don't want to play. This generally occurs with bottom-rung teams that are sick of losing, but also occurs with veteran playoff squads that often view the regular season as totally meaningless. Utah is neither of these, they are a moderate playoff contender in the West, but recently, with a horrific skid involving losing three games by double-digits to sub-500 teams, Utah has been playing like a bottom-feeder. As such, Utah did not want to play in that game last night. It's that simple.

Maybe the first two minutes or so they actually tried to win the game, but when the Lakers ended the first quarter with a double-digit lead, it was obvious the Jazz wanted no part of this game. Granted, the Jazz have a reputation as a 'comeback' team, and the Lakers have a reputation for needlessly letting up leads, but the Jazz's body language gave off the visible aura of a team beat.

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Well folks, the NBA All-Star game is less than a month away, and later this week the NBA will be announcing the starters for this annual exhibition, hosted in the Lakers' (and Clippers', I guess) home town of Los Angeles, California. As such, I figured now is as good a team as any to discuss people's picks for the All-Star Game - who we chose, and why we chose them; as well as thoughts and opinions on the All-Star Game (and All-Star Weekend) in general.

For those who don't know, the All-Star Weekend consists of a Skills Challenge (essentially a dribble-and-shoot course), three-point shootout, dunk contest, Celebrity Game, Rookie-Sophomore game to show off the young talent of the League, and the main event, the Sunday NBA All-Star Game.

Dunk Contest participants are already well-known, and barring a Shannon Brown-esque choke job from Blake Grifffin, the winner is also known. As for the rest of the events, contestants are still a mystery.

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C.A Clark in his preview for last night's game said it would be a 'test of resolve', something the Lakers evidently passed with flying colours. While the fact that the Lakers chose a Regular Season game against the worst team in the NBA to put on such a display of basketball brilliance is doubtless surprising, to say the least, the Lakers' capability for such a performance likely surprised none who've watched this team over the last few years - the issue is consistently of effort. The Lakers, often happy with having put out one statement game, will then relax and resume playing like the Sacramento Kings for a large stretch of games, before putting out another statement game; then rinsing and repeating that pattern. Those are the Lakers we know. The Lakers we know have never held a team to 57 points in a game.

Will the Lakers put up their third straight dominant performance in a row? Or will they come out slow, relaxed after making history, dig themselves a hole and get down by double digits before waking up late and barely scraping out with a win? Will they wake up too late and lose a close one? Or will they decline to show any effort whatsoever and get blown out? I doubt anybody has the slightest  clue as to the outcome of this game, but it is our job here to preview it, and preview it we shall.

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Unless you're on meds or something, in which case WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING SURFING THE WEB? Get to a doctor, man, safety first yeah? Anyways, it's perfectly understandable why one may second-guess their state of sanity/sobriety upon glancing at that score; but I assure you, last night's game did in fact occur and the Cleveland Cavaliers did indeed lose by 55 points to our Los Angeles Lakers (and LeBron James indeed does remain a jackass).

I could summarise or recap this game in an in-depth manner, but I'm fairly sure that could lead to me being prosecuted for promoting violence and torture, so I'll let this play sum up the game:

Yep, that was an NBA Game, folks, not the And-1 Mixtape Tour.

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Update - I forgot about Shaquille O'Neal, so I added him in, and I briefly addressed the age vs. experience debate when it comes to Kobe - Saurav

"Kobe Bryant is the greatest 15-year player to ever play the game" - Philadelphia 76ers colour commentator, during the Lakers - Sixers game last Friday. He then went on to clarify that he did not mean that Kobe Bryant was the proverbial G.O.A.T, but that no player had played as well in their 15th season in the League as Kobe Bryant was then (and, by extension, is now). At a glance, this might come across as hyperbole as Kobe's numbers this season seem to be average (for him, anyway) at a glance, but with deeper examination the numbers present a compelling argument.

Before examining how Kobe performs against other All-Time Greats on the downside of their careers, one must first analyse how Kobe is performing compared to his own career peak and arc, to see if he is truly on the downside of his career or still in peak form. Now, averages of 25.7 points, 5 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game may not seem like much at first, by Kobe's standards, and may lead one to believe that he is having a subpar season overall, but one must acknowledge that Kobe Bryant is only playing 32.9 minutes per game - his lowest since his sophomore season, 12 years ago. 

Thus, a more accurate picture of Kobe's performance this season can be illustrated using his per-36 totals, which is just calculating how his performance would look over 36 minutes using basic calculations. Per-36, Kobe is putting up an impressive 28.1 ppg (second-highest in his career), 5 assists (equal-third highest in his career), and 5.5 rebounds (third-highest in his career), on a True Shooting clip of 54.5%, just 1.2% below his career-average. His steals and blocks are subpar for him, likely a product of him exerting less effort on defense, and his turnovers are slightly up (0.2 above his career per-36 average), but other than that Kobe is having an excellent season by his standards.

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Quick question: if, at any point last season, I told you Phil Jackson would play his bench unit for a period of roughly 12 minutes spanning the latter half of the third and early fourth quarters, in a game far from decided where the opponent was evidently playing with superlative effort, how high would you rank the Lakers' chances of winning? 25%? 30%? How high would you rate the bench's chances of not only holding their ground, but expanding the lead and keeping it steady? We have to be moving into the single-figures here, don't we?

Well say hello to the Killer B's, with special guest Andrew Bynum. From the 4:37 mark of the third to around that point in the fourth, the bench took a five-point lead that the starters were valiantly doing all within their power to lose, showing off an impressive variety of turnovers and amateur offense in the face of Toronto's zone defense, and expanded it into a nine-point lead with 4:37 to go in the fourth (amazing symmetry - I actually double-checked that to make sure it wasn't a typo) before bringing Kobe, Fish and Pau back in to team up with Barnes and the earlier-inserted Odom, expanding the lead out to double-digits.

Andrew Bynum, Shannon Brown, Matt Barnes, Steve Blake - hell, even Luke Walton got in on the fact (provided you ignore his nasty four turnovers) - combined to score nearly half the Lakers' total points, as Wondah mentioned yesterday, and played with an energy that matched that of the Raptors, allowing the Lakers' superior talent to win out after it seemed clear the Laker starters wanted no part of the Raptors' hustle and effort.

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Hmmm... sooo... what's this odd feeling pervading throughout Lakerland at the moment? Is it... a sense of... losing? Multiple games in a row!? *checks ESPN*

Yep, we seem to be on a three-game losing streak, only the second of the Kobe Bryant-Pau Gasol era. Feels strange, doesn't it? Unfortunately, that's what happens when a team misreads their schedule (as I did yesterday - sorry for the lack of previewage for Memphis, folks), and decides to go on holiday about... seven months too early? Thankfully, a three-game losing streak isn't anything new for the Los Angeles Lakers. They experienced one last year, and went on to win a championship. And hey, at least we're not Miami fans, right?

The Lakers' uninspired play of late is hardly anything new for somebody who didn't just jump on the bandwagon this season, expecting the Lakers to win every game because TEH NBA IZ RIGGED!!!11!; and thus Lakerdom's alert status should still be somewhere around amber. As I said, a three-game losing streak is nothing extraordinary, not even for the defending back-to-back champs. A four-game losing streak, however, would seem more worrying, no matter how arbitrary the extra one game may appear.

Aaaannddd that brings us to our mortal nemesis for the night; ladies and gentlemen, yooouuuurrrr Houston Rockets!

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