Los Angeles Lakers Blog – Page 73 – NBA Blog

Metta World Peace out at least six weeks after knee injury

The Los Angeles Lakers are fighting to make the playoffs in the West, but their chances just took a hit.

Lakers forward Metta World Peace, who injured his left knee in Monday night’s game against the Warriors in Oakland, will have surgery tomorrow for a torn lateral meniscus.

The surgery will be performed by team doctors Steve Lombardo and Dan Kharrazi of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Group in Los Angeles.

World Peace, who has averaged 12.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.70 steals in 70 games (64 starts) this season, is expected to be out a minimum of six weeks.

Even if the Lakers do make the playoffs, they’ll be a lower seed and will face a very tough first-round opponent, which is now an even harder task without the services of World Peace.

Dwight Howard annoyed by elbow from David Lee

The Lakers center hardly sounded in a good mood for plenty of reasons. The Lakers’ 109-103 loss Monday to the Golden State Warriors marked the team’s third consecutive loss. The Lakers (36-35) only have a one-game lead over the Utah Jazz (35-36) for the eighth playoff spot. Howard’s 11 points on 4 of 8 shooting only featured only two field-goal attempts in the second half.

But Howard remained largely upset over taking an elbow from Golden State Warriors forward David Lee in the second quarter, a sequence that prompted Howard both to foul him and draw a technical with 3:15 left in the second quarter after jawing with him.

“He got away with a shot,” Howard said. “I’ll remember this game.”

— Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Blog)

Dwight Howard trying to expand shooting range

The doors opened near the end of the Lakers’ shoot-around, revealing the surprise of the day: Dwight Howard shooting mid-range jumpers.

From 14 feet, 16, and a few from 18 feet.

He needs to keep working on it.

His 16-foot bank shot was too hard off the backboard early in Monday’s game against Golden State. His 15-footer from the left elbow was way off the mark a minute later.

He finished with 11 points on four-for-eight shooting in the Lakers’ 109-103 loss.

“We want to just expand his game all over,” Lakers Coach Mike D’Antoni said beforehand. “If he’s going to dominate the game, which he’s young enough and he can, then you can’t play within a four-foot box. He shoots the ball well and we want to keep developing that.”

— Reported by Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times

Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol expected to play Friday

Kobe Bryant participated in a five-on-five scrimmage Thursday. So did Pau Gasol.

Bryant left a little early because his sprained left ankle stiffened a bit, but Lakers Coach Mike D’Antoni wasn’t concerned about his availability Friday against Washington.

“He’ll be ready,” D’Antoni said.

Gasol missed 20 games because of a tear inside the bottom of his right foot. He will play limited minutes Friday while simultaneously trying to get in shape.

“It’s not good,” Gasol said of his conditioning. “But I’ll continue to work on it and it’ll continue to get better.”

— Reported by Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times

Injuries have forced Lakers to use tight rotation

Did Coach Mike D’Antoni run his players into the ground with heavy minutes on back-to-back nights?

Sure, but did that have anything to do with the loss in Phoenix on Monday night?

“We’ve been playing a seven-man rotation, and I think it caught up with us,” said Steve Nash after the game.

It’s not like D’Antoni had any other choice. He could have tried to work in Robert Sacre, Darius Morris, Chris Duhon or Devin Ebanks, but D’Antoni would have certainly preferred Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol or even Jordan Hill — but none was available.

Injuries have been the reality for the Lakers all season. D’Antoni won’t get a full roster for his entire initial season with the team. It hasn’t happened and it won’t with Hill out for the year (hip).

— Reported by Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Blog)

Dwight Howard leaves business manager after 9 years

Dwight Howard is growing all on his own, single-mindedly focused on who he wants to be, and he has taken another major step forward in his career by leaving the business manager who has been Howard’s primary advisor his entire career, Kevin Samples.

“We had nine great years together,” Howard told me late Monday night. “Just time to go separate ways.”

For all the intangible growth Howard has discovered recently, breaking away from Samples is a concrete gesture that the past is the past – and Howard is confident in calling his own shots in the future.

“I know what I want to accomplish,” Howard said. “I’ve always written down my goals and everything I want, and I want to make sure I get ’em. Everything I’ve lost, everything that’s gone away, I’m going to get it back.”

Samples came to Los Angeles with Howard after the trade to the Lakers, and it was hard to envision him not being around considering they’re actually first cousins – and Howard’s parents dispatched Samples to live with Howard in Orlando right after the 2004 NBA draft as a big brother/guidance counselor/business manager.

— Reported by Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register

Suns beat banged-up Lakers 99-76

A worn-out Los Angeles Lakers team without Kobe Bryant fell apart in the fourth quarter in Phoenix.

Luis Scola scored all 14 of his points, including his second 3-pointer of the season, and grabbed eight of his nine rebounds in the fourth quarter Monday night and the Suns pulled away for a 99-76 rout of the Lakers, without Bryant for the second night in a row.

”I thought the game was kind of on the line,” Scola said, ”and I was just trying to be aggressive.”

Steve Nash scored 19 against his former team, but was just 6 of 17 from the field as the Lakers shot 33 percent for the game.

”We just hit the wall,” Nash said, ”our ninth game in 14 days in seven cities and you could just kind of see the wheels fall off. Especially lately, with some guys being injured, we’ve been playing a seven-man rotation and I think it caught up with us a little bit. Our legs just came undone.”

The Suns, blown out at Washington 127-105 two nights earlier, outscored the Lakers 28-10 in the fourth quarter to snap a four-game losing streak…

Dwight Howard had 16 points and 11 rebounds, but was just 6 of 18 from the field for the Lakers, still without injured Pau Gasol.

Wesley Johnson added 14 points for the Suns, who beat the Lakers in Phoenix for the fourth time in a row…

Goran Dragic had 12 points and 10 assists for the Suns, who had six players in double figures. Jared Dudley scored 13, Kendall Marshall 11 and Michael Beasley 10 for Phoenix.

— Reported by Bob Baum of the Associated Press

Andrew Bynum will have surgery on both knees, and not play this season

Philadelphia 76ers center Andrew Bynum will undergo arthroscopic surgery on both knees tomorrow, which will cause him to miss the remainder of the season.

“After many months of rehabilitation and consulting with numerous doctors, Andrew and the doctors treating him determined that this is the best course of action at this point,” Sixers General Manager Tony DiLeo said. “We will continue to monitor and evaluate his status moving forward.”

The arthroscopic surgery will be performed by Dr. David Altchek of the Hospital of Special Surgery in New York. The primary focus of the procedure is to clean out loose bodies from within the knees in an attempt to alleviate pain and swelling.

Bynum has not yet played a single minute for the 76ers, who are having a rough season. With a 25-40 record, the team is 10th in the East, but nowhere near catching up to the 8th seed.

George Hill annoyed by lack of Indiana fan support in Lakers at Pacers game

Pacers guard George Hill was bothered by how many Lakers fans took over an Indiana home game Friday night.

“They always say your fans are your sixth man and you feed off that energy,” Hill told Mike Wells of IndyStar.com. “Energy is down and we turn the ball over and we’re hearing cheers. We’re missing shots and we’re hearing cheers.”

The Lakers pulled out a 99-93 victory at Indianapolis despite Kobe Bryant going scoreless in only 12 minutes with a sprained ankle.

“It was like 70/30 out there,” said Hill of the Lakers-to-Pacers fans ratio. “These are the same people that want autographs after the game. We’re out there in the community. We’re doing our job, doing what we’re supposed to do on and off the court. Something has to change.”

— Reported by Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Blog)

George Hill: “It sucks. It was 70 (Lakers fans) – 30 (Pacers fans) out there. These are the same people that wants autographs after the game. We’re out there in the community. We’re doing our job, doing what we’re supposed to do on and off the court. Something has to change. I tip my hat to this team. We’ve been trouble free. Been out in the community shaking hands, we’re winning. It shouldn’t feel like an away game, especially with an important like this. Tonight, that’s what it felt like.”

George Hill: “They always say your fans are your sixth man and you feed off that energy. Energy is down and we turn the ball over and we’re hearing cheers. We’re missing shots and we’re hearing cheers. That kind of brings your head down cause you know you’re at home. It shouldn’t be like that. Now we see how it is. We have to move forward, don’t worry about. Stay focus on what’s in this locker room and don’t worry about the rest.”

— Reported by Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star (Blog)

Bryant leaves early, but Lakers beat Pacers

When Kobe Bryant couldn’t be the tough guy on the court Friday night, he resorted to being an MVP coach.

After hobbling around on a severely sprained left ankle for 12 minutes, Bryant retreated to the bench, where he spent the rest of the night contesting calls, waving teammates into the right spots and even drawing something up on a clipboard for Dwight Howard to see.

He wasn’t going to let up – or let his teammates down.

So on a night Bryant was held scoreless for only the 15th time in his 17-year NBA career, Howard finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and delivered a tiebreaking three-point play with 90 seconds left that sent the Los Angeles Lakers past Indiana, 99-93.

”It really just continued to swell and I couldn’t put any weight on it, so I called it a night,” Bryant said after getting more treatment on the sore ankle in the training room. ”I told them before the game, ‘I don’t know how much I have, but whatever I have, I’ll give you.”’ …

Metta World Peace finished with 19 points and seven rebounds, Steve Blake made five 3-pointers and finished with 18 points, and Antawn Jamison added 17 points with four 3s…

George Hill scored 27 points, Paul George had 20 points and Lance Stephenson finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and five assists. But Indiana shot only 37.4 percent from the field and couldn’t make a serious run at Los Angeles after Howard’s big play, primarily because the defense couldn’t stop the Lakers from outside.

— Reported by Michael Marot of the Associated Press