kobe n gasol warming d benchno challenge i guess?
so yeah lakers have been thrasing ppl around dis days. n they needs a challenge.
as a laker fan, i guess i'll be looking forward to see their game sometime during hols. (cepat la cuti wehhhhhhhhhhh~!)
so here's d article on d rampaging lakers. note some of the funny phrases that actually reflects reality tho. =)
LOS ANGELES -- Attention to the 29 teams in the National Basketball Association that don't have Jack Nicholson sitting courtside at your home games: Can one of you please show up and give the Lakers a game?
Los Angeles is now 10-1 thanks to a 104-90 dismantling of a Nuggets team that was supposedly retooled, revamped and renewed thanks to the addition of Chauncey Billups.
Strange, it looked like the same old Denver team that lost 4-0 to L.A. in the First Round of last year's playoffs to me.
You remember that series, where the Lakers not just swept, but undressed the Nuggets in four games? L.A. averaged 114.75 points in that series, outscoring the Nuggets by an average of 13.25 points per game and giving Denver the title as the only 50-win team ever to exit the playoffs via the help of a broom in the First Round.
Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby and Carmelo Anthony's cornrows are gone from that squad, but the dejected Nuggets team that exited STAPLES Center on Friday looked nothing like the confident, 8-4 group that came in.
The Lakers have a way of doing that to you. Especially when Bryant is scoring 29 points on 12-for-18 shooting without playing a minute in the fourth quarter, Andrew Bynum is putting up 13 points, 13 rebounds and matching a career high with five assists and Trevor Ariza is beating the shotclock with a rainbow three-point heave in the fourth quarter to swell a 14-point lead into a 17-point drubbing.
"We just had a tough night," Billups (15 points, nine assists) said as he addressed the media while his teammate Anthony sat slumped over with his head in his hands for a good 20 minutes in the next locker over. "That team is just a really, really good team. They don't let you do what you want to do. That's what great teams do. They're long, they can play fast, they can play slow. We just had a rough night."
Anthony (5-for-19 shooting, 10 points, three turnovers) had the roughest night of all which Lakers head coach Phil Jackson attributed to his team's focus on the budding star. "[The key was] not giving him opportunities," Jackson said. "Getting a body on him when he has the basketball. Turning him to the baseline. Trying to keep him from the middle."
The Nuggets didn't look anything like the team that came into the game riding a four-game winning streak that included a road victory over the Celtics and was carrying a 7-1 mark with Billups at the point.
They looked more like the Blazers, Clippers or Rockets -- all of whom fell by double digits at the hands of L.A.'s dynamic defense and terrific triangle.
The only blemish on the Lakers' record is that 106-95 loss to Detroit that happened a week ago, but L.A. was able to block that out of its memory almost as soon as the final buzzer sounded, chalking up the outcome to "Detroit just got hot, you can't do anything about that" and pushing forward.
Baron Davis called the Lakers "a machine" earlier in the season and if L.A. was an Apple IIc back when Davis made the comment a couple weeks ago, it's become a Mac PowerBook G4 by now. The first time L.A. played Denver in just its third game of the season, the Lakers needed 14 points from Bryant in the fourth quarter to pull off the road win. On Friday the guys in purple and gold were already up by 21 points heading into the final quarter and thus no Bryant bailout was necessary.
The Lakers' 10-1 start matches the pace that of the record-setting 72-10 Chicago Bulls, who started 1995-96 with the same mark.
"They have a lot of weapons, they have their offensive weapons and they've turned themselves into a pretty good defensive team ... most of the games have been double digits and they're stream rolling the whole league right now," Nuggets coach George Karl said.
After not playing particularly sharp but still flattening the Suns on Thursday, the second night of a back-to-back on Friday was precise domination. The Lakers finished off the Nuggets worse than that turkey in the background of the Sarah Palin interview that has been making the rounds on the Internet.
It only seems to get easier for L.A. The Lakers next nine games against the Nets, Mavericks, Raptors, Pacers, Sixers, Wizards, Bucks and Kings (twice) are against teams with a combined record of 38-64 (.373) and none of them have a record better than .500 as of Nov. 21.
It's feasible that L.A. might not face a worthy adversary in its next 17 games remaining leading up to the highly-anticipated Finals rematch with Boston on Christmas day. Only four teams in that stretch have records above .500: the Suns, who L.A. easily disposed of on Thursday; the Knicks, who completely overhauled their roster today and will probably experience some growing pains finding their chemistry over the next couple weeks; the Hornets, who the Lakers already downed in New Orleans and who don't look as good as they were last season for whatever reason; and the Magic, who split their season series with the Lakers last year but don't have the bench that can match L.A.'s depth.
"We are just excited every time that we step on the floor, ready for the new challenge," Bryant said after the game.
Challenge? Really? Kobe, you guys led by 27 points in the first half on Friday. That's not a challenge, that's a charity.
I propose we get a time machine, go back to 1996 and get shaved Phil Jackson to coach against bearded Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan and the Bulls so that these Lakers can play against an opponent that actually presents a challenge.
Is that too much to ask?
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