The AP reports: With Kobe Bryant making everything from 3-pointers to a fadeaway jumper while falling on his backside, the Lakers ran away from the Utah Jazz on Monday night, winning 107-96 to finish the opening-round series in five games. Bryant scored 31 points and Lamar Odom had 26 points and 15 rebounds for the Lakers, who earned several days of rest before meeting the winner of the Portland-Houston series… Paul Millsap led Utah with 16 points while Andrei Kirilenko and Williams had 14 apiece. Gasol had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and Ariza 12 points for the Lakers.
Category: Los Angeles Lakers Blog
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Luke Walton injures ankle
Lakers forward Luke Walton, who suffered a sprained left ankle in Saturday night’s Game 3 at Utah, had an MRI exam this morning. Results of the test show a partial tear of the deltoid ligament.
Walton will be out indefinitely and his status will be re-evaluated in approximately one week.
Bryant huge, Lakers beat Jazz 108-94
The AP reports: It took Kobe Bryant only a few minutes to end his shooting slump. Bryant scored Los Angeles’ first 11 points and once his teammates joined in, the Lakers overwhelmed the Jazz 108-94 on Saturday night and moved within one game of advancing to the second round. “It was important for me to come out and be a little more assertive,” said Bryant, who scored 38 two nights after one of his worst shooting games in years. Bryant went 16-for-24, erasing any memories of his 5-for-24 night Thursday in the Lakers’ only loss of the series. “We never could get close enough to guard him,” Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. “I think he put everyone on his back and got them off to the way they wanted to play.” He scored in double figures in each of the first three quarters and more than doubled his scoring from Game 4.
Adam Morrison and Sasha vujacic get testy
The Los Angeles Times (Bill Plaschke) reports: Sasha Vujacic grabbed. Adam Morrison screamed. Vujacic grabbed harder, playing defense with handfuls of jersey. Morrison screamed louder, warning Vujacic to keep his hands to himself. Vujacic shrugged. Morrison surged. The team converged. The men were separated. During this final scrimmage of a Friday afternoon practice at EnergySolutions Arena, some Lakers were wincing. Sitting on the baseline, Kobe Bryant was smiling. “I wasn’t even going to move,” he said later. “A lot of meowing going on out there. The claws coming out. A good thing.”
The Orange County Register (Kevin Ding) reports (via blog): Vujacic and Morrison were guarding each other in the Lakers’ 4-on-4 halfcourt practice, and Morrison loudly and angrily told Vujacic that he was sick of Vujacic’s grabs and elbows. Vujacic argued that Morrison was the one who initiated the problem by wrongly using his knee. The two argued for several minutes despite teammates and coaches trying to intervene, and when play resumed the two continued to go at each other with Morrison grabbing Vujacic’s jersey and the arguments sparking anew several times later.
Boozer leads Jazz to 88-86 Game 3 win over Lakers
The AP reports: After struggling with his shot all night, Deron Williams found his touch just in time. Williams’ fadeaway jumper with 2.2 seconds left lifted Utah to an 88-86 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday night, getting the Jazz back in the first-round playoff series they opened with two losses. Williams took the shot instead of passing to Carlos Boozer on the Jazz’s staple pick-and-roll, hitting just his third field goal of the night and reviving Utah’s postseason hopes. “I just wanted to make up for it a little bit on that last shot,” said Williams, who finished with 13 points and nine assists. Boozer led the Jazz with 23 points and tied a franchise playoff record with 22 rebounds as Utah dominated the boards 55-40… The Jazz played again without Mehmet Okur, who has been out with a strained right hamstring, but survived without their second-leading scorer and outlasted the Lakers in a wild one.
InsideHoops.com notes: The Jazz shot 44.0%, the Lakers just 36.8%. Both teams were unimpressive from three-point range and awful from the free throw line… Utah had 55 rebounds, Los Angeles 40… For the Jazz, Carlos Boozer shot 9-of-17 for 23 points and 22 rebounds. Deron Williams was just 3-of-7 for 13 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists. Ronnie Brewer scored 12 but on 12 shots, plus 7 rebounds. Off the bench, Kyle Korver scored 11 (but on 13 shots) and Matt Harpring had 10… For the Lakers, Lamar Odom (10-of-17) had 21 points, 14 rebounds off the bench. Pau Gasol had 20 with 9 rebounds. Kobe Bryant shot a miserable 5-of-24 for 18 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
Playoffs: Jazz and Hornets in trouble
Detroit, New Orleans and Utah are in the unenviable position of trailing their best-of-seven series 2-0.
Not including this postseason, there have been 217 best-of-seven series in which a team has gone up 2-0. Only 14 times has the team trailing 2-0 came back to win the series. The last time this occurred was last year in the Western Conference semifinals when the San Antonio Spurs dropped the first two games against the New Orleans Hornets but recovered to win the series in seven games.
The Jazz’s attempt at joining that select comeback club begins tonight in Los Angeles (10:30 p.m. ET, TNT). Making the Jazz’s task that much more difficult is its opponent, the Lakers. When winning the first two games of a best-of-seven series, the Lakers are 37-1 all time; in franchise history, they are 56-37 in Game 3 of a best-of-seven series. And since moving to STAPLES Center in 1999, the Lakers have won 83 percent of their postseason games at home (55-11).
– NBA News
Game 3 is often must-win
Memo to San Antonio and Dallas, Portland and Houston, Boston and Chicago, Orlando and Philadelphia, and Atlanta and Miami: If you plan on advancing to the semifinals, winning Game 3 of your tied series is No. 1 on your to-do list.
All time in NBA postseason play, a best-of-seven series has been tied after the first two games 161 times. The winner of Game 3 has gone on to win the series 76 percent of the time (122-39). The home team’s record in Game 3 with series tied 1-1 is 89-72 (.553).
There are two Game 3s tonight that fall into this category. The Bulls host the Celtics (8 p.m. ET, TNT) and the Spurs visit the Mavericks (8:30 p.m. ET, TNT). At home, the Bulls hold an all-time postseason record of 105-34 (.755) – first among existing NBA franchises. Dallas is 41-26 (.612) at home in the playoffs. San Antonio (59-81, .421) and Boston (100-144, .410) have the second and third, respectively, best road winning percentages in the playoffs.
– NBA News
Lakers 2009-10 preseason schedule
The Los Angeles Lakers have announced the preseason schedule for the 2009-10 season along with ticket purchase information. The preseason line-up includes games against the Denver Nuggets, the Golden State Warriors, the Sacramento Kings and the Charlotte Bobcats.
The Lakers will kick off the 2009 preseason on October 7 when they take on the Warriors at the Honda Center in Anaheim. The Pacific Division opponents will face each other again on October 20 at the Citizens Bank Arena in Ontario. Los Angeles will travel to Las Vegas on October 15 where they will play the Sacramento Kings at the Thomas and Mack Center.
The Lakers will host their annual shoot-out at STAPLES Center on October 17 and 18. In addition to Los Angeles, teams scheduled to participate in the shoot-out are the Charlotte Bobcats, the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Lakers will wrap up their preseason when they face the Northwest Division champion Denver Nuggets in back-to-back games on October 22 at the Honda Center in Anaheim and October 23 at the San Diego Sports Arena in San Diego.
Below is the complete 2009 Los Angeles Lakers preseason schedule:
DATE OPPONENT LOCATION TIME
Oct. 7 Golden State Warriors Anaheim, CA (Honda Center) 7:00 pm
Oct. 15 Sacramento Kings Las Vegas, NV (Thomas and Mack) 7:00 pm
Oct. 17 Charlotte Bobcats Los Angeles, CA (STAPLES Center) 7:30pm
Oct. 18 LAC or Utah Los Angeles, CA (STAPLES Center) 7:30pm
Oct. 20 Golden State Warriors Ontario, CA (Citizens Bank Arena) 7:00 pm
Oct. 22 Denver Nuggets Anaheim, CA (Honda Center) 7:00 pm
Oct. 23 Denver Nuggets San Diego, CA (Sports Arena) 7:00 pm
Lakers defeat Jazz 119-109 to take 2-0 series lead
The AP reports: The Utah Jazz played better and it still didn’t matter. Kobe Bryant scored 26 points, Pau Gasol added 22 and Lamar Odom had 19 off the bench in the Lakers’ 119-109 victory over the Jazz on Tuesday night, giving Los Angeles a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 first-round Western Conference playoff series… Deron Williams scored a career playoff-high 35 points and Carlos Boozer had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Jazz, who head home for Game 3 on Thursday. They again played without injured center Mehmet Okur… The Lakers stretched their lead to 96-81 early in the fourth. The Jazz relied mostly on Williams, and he scored six in a row to get his team to 105-99 with 5:22 remaining.
Dwight Howard named Defensive Player of Year
Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic is the recipient of the 2008-09 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, the NBA announced today.
The 6-11 center led the NBA in rebounds and blocks, averaging 13.8 boards and 2.92 blocks. He also averaged 20.6 points on .572 shooting from the floor. Howard recorded nine 20-point/20-rebound games while leading the team in scoring 39 times and in rebounds on 69 occasions.
Howard, a three-time NBA All-Star, helped the Magic to its second consecutive Southeast Division title (59-23), including a 32-9 record at home. The Magic held opponents under 100 points 54 times this season — compiling a 43-11 record — including a season-low 68 points allowed by New Orleans on Dec. 25. Orlando allowed 94.4 ppg (7,737 points), which ranked sixth in the NBA, and overall the team was in the NBA’s top 10 in seven defensive categories.
Howard became the fifth player in NBA history to finish the season leading the league in rebounding and blocks (1973-74 was the first season blocks were kept as an official statistic). The select group includes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (L.A. Lakers, 1975-76), Bill Walton (Portland Trail Blazers, 1976-77), Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston, 1989-90) and Ben Wallace (Detroit, 2001-02).
Howard received 542 points, including 105 first-place votes, from a panel of 119 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Cleveland’s LeBron James finished second with 148 points and Miami’s Dwyane Wade finished third with 90 points. Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote received.
Finishing fourth was Shane Battier, fifth was Ron Artest, sixth was Chris Paul, seventh was Kobe Bryant, eighth was Kevin Garnett, ninth was Chris Andersen and 10th was Rajon Rondo.