Lakers Fall to the Celtics...

- In an epic rivalry game in L.A. that pitted two of the most elite franchises in the NBA on Sunday afternoon, the Lakers were beaten by their foes the Celtics 109-96. Paul Pierce for the Celtics had 32 points, and Kevin Garnett had 18 with 13 boards while sustaining a nasty cut to his head during the game. Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 41 points, going 16-29 shooting. Bryant also scored his 27,000th point during the game.

The Lakers who kept it close the majority of the game, trailed by only 4 points with about 5 minutes remaining in the game. It was then, that the Celtics took off, leaving the Lakers trailing big until the end of the game where the Lakers were down, and were just trying to do too much.

The Celtics outrebounded the Lakers 43 to 30, and had 34 assists where the Lakers only had 10. It was also a return of a major player of the former Los Angeles Lakers, Shaquille O'neal. He is now a center for the Celtics, but scored no points and was booed as he was introduced. He won 3 championships with the Lakers through 8 seasons.

Shaq and Kobe exchange words during the game

Los Angeles travel to Boston on Feb. 10 this season, and will hopefully pull off a road win vs. the Celtics. From what I saw in the game, the team has got to have a lot more ball movement and they can't rely on Kobe to do everything. He turned into a one man show in the second half of the game. But in order to get the 3-peat, they are going to have to play as an entire team.

Ron Artest playing good defense, puts his hand in Paul Pierce's face during the game Sunday

The Lakers so far this season....

Well so far this year, the Lakers record is 33-14 and they are 2nd place in the West only behind the Spurs. They are coming off a disappointing game last night where they lost to the Sacramento Kings 100-95.
What Coach Phil Jackson said about the loss according to nba.com, "We had poor purpose. I think we were forcing the ball. Perhaps, Kobe carried so much of the load in the first half that everyone else was kind of sitting back on their heels and looking for him the whole game."

The Lakers maybe aren't doing as well as they thought this year, and certainly not as well as they were this time last year. But Andrew Bynum has battled many injuries, they are a new team still working out how to gel together, and they are still trying to figure out new schemes with the new players on the team. They have acquired Steve Blake, Theo Ratliff, Matt Barnes (out hurt because of his knee), and a few potentially great rookies.

This is all because the team lost key players in the past few years such as Trevor Ariza, Adam Morrison, Sasha Vujajic, and Jordan Farmar.
Ultimately, this lead to the new team schemes and plans where players such as Lamar Odom, Shannon Brown, and even Luke Walton have had to step it up a bit.

Hopefully the team will continue to merge together and gel, so that they can start winning more games. The All-Star Break, which is in L.A., is coming upon the league soon. The Lakers will then start their second half run for the infamous 3-Peat.

Players on the 2010-2011 Team

Here are the players on the team, their position, college or high school, and years of NBA experience.
Just click on their name to go to their Wikipedia site to find out everything about them.

#15    Ron Artest            F - St. John's - 11 years
#9      Matt Barnes         F - UCLA - 7 years
#5      Steve Blake         G - Maryland - 7 years
#12    Shannon Brown    G - Michigan State - 4 years
#24    Kobe Bryant         G - Lower Merion HS (PA) - 14 years
#17    Andrew Bynum     C - St. Joseph HS (NJ) - 5 years
#45    Derrick Caracter    F - Texas-El Paso - Rookie
#3      David Ebanks       F - West Virginia - Rookie
#2      Derek Fisher        G - Arkansas-Little Rock - 14 years
#16    Pau Gasol            C - Barcelona, Spain - 9 years
#7      Lamar Odom        F - Rhode Island - 11 years
#50    Theo Ratliff           C - Wyoming - 15 years
#1      Joe Smith            C - Joe Smith - 15 years
#4      Luke Walton         F - Arizona - 7 years

Head Coach - Phil Jackson 

Some History

-- The Lakers franchise began in 1947 in Minneapolis, land of 10,000 Lakes
-- They moved to Los Angeles in 1960
-- The Lakers have had many high profile players throughout their franchise
+ Jerry West (the silhouette on the NBA logo)
+ Wilt Chamberlain
+ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
+ Magic Johnson
+ Shaquille O'neal
+ Kobe Bryant
-- Have been coached by many legends as well
+ Pat Riley
+ Bill Sharman
+ Jim Pollard
+ Phil Jackson
-- Major rival of the Boston Celtics
-- Since established in 1948, the team has missed the playoffs only five times
-- NBA Records the Lakers Own
+ Consecutive Games Won (33)
+ Consecutive Road Games Won (16)
+ Highest Field-Goal Percentage for a Season (54.5% in 1984-1985)
+ Most Wins All-Time (Constantly Changing, but well over 3,000)
+ Highest Winning Percentage (61.9%)
+ Most NBA Finals Appearances (31)
-- Out of the 31 appearances, the team has won 17 championships (16 NBA, 1 NBL)
-- The team has 21 Hall of Famers (15 players, 4 head coaches, 2 contributors)

Intro

     
This is my blog about the Los Angeles Lakers and their road to
their third straight NBA championship. I'm writing about this
because I am a huge Lakers fan since the torch has been handed
down to me by my dad who is from LA. They're the most iconic
sports team in history, why wouldn't you be interested in them?

Is it pertinent to the community? Probably not so much. But it
could still maybe show other NBA fans updates from games and
breaking news from the league. Hopefully it will even show
other fans of the game that this is the best team in the NBA
and they can be converted as well. Especially for those fans of
other teams in the West such as San Antonio, Denver, or....
Pheonix??!!

So this it. My blog about the Lakers aka the LAke Show.