NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog
NBA Blog: The NBA basketball news blog section of Inside Hoops
Lakers blog – Los Angeles Lakers blog
 |
In a sign that the torn plantar fascia in his right foot has somewhat healed, Lakers forward Pau Gasol revealed in a tweet Tuesday that he’s no longer nursing crutches.
Gasol injured his foot in the Lakers’ win Feb. 8 over the Brooklyn Nets and was declared out for a minimum of six to eight weeks. Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni suggested that it’s possible Gasol won’t return until the Lakers will know their playoff aspirations.
— Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Blog)
|
|
As if the Lakers can absorb more bad news.
Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni suggested Pau Gasol won’t return in the regular season after nursing torn plantar fascia in his right foot for the past three weeks.
“By the time he gets back, we’ll be in or out,” D’Antoni said. “His impact will be in the playoffs if we get there.”
The Lakers (28-29) have 25 games remaining before the regular season ends April 17 against the Houston Rockets. After their 103-99 victory Sunday over the Dallas Mavericks, the Lakers remain 2 games behind the Houston Rockets (31-27) for the eighth playoff spot.
“I don’t think anyone on this team is counting the days for Pau to come back because we don’t have time,” Lakers guard Steve Nash said. “Although we’d welcome him back this instance, we have to move on and try to win games without him.”
Gasol originally was expected to miss at least four to six weeks after suffering the injury in the final minutes of the Lakers’ win Feb. 5 against the Brooklyn Nets. He expressed optimism last week he soon would walk without crutches.
— Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News
|
Kobe Bryant had 38 points to win a scoring duel with Dirk Nowitzki, and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Dallas Mavericks 103-99 Sunday in a matchup of teams fighting to get in the playoff race.
With chants of MVP from a strong contingent of Lakers fans, Bryant scored 14 in the fourth, including seven in the final 3 minutes to hold off a spirited Dallas effort.
Nowitzki finished with 30 points and 13 rebounds for the Mavericks, who had a chance to pull virtually even with the Lakers for ninth place in the Western Conference. Houston is in eighth, with a cushion of several games.
Bryant, who also had 12 rebounds and seven assists, was playing in Mark Cuban’s building two days after the outspoken Dallas owner suggested in a radio interview that the Lakers might have to consider dumping the five-time NBA champion through the amnesty clause.
Steve Nash had 13 of his 20 in the second half against his former team in a game that neither team led by more than six.
— Reported by Schuyler Dixon of the Associated Press
|
The Los Angeles Lakers already have lost more games this season (29) than they have in any full season since 2007, and big man Dwight Howard says he knows his inconsistent energy and struggles with conditioning have cost his team some of them.
“You’ve got to have energy and I want to bring that energy every night,” Howard said in a revealing interview Saturday afternoon. “That’s my job. They count on me to be that guy. I just know how much more effective I will be when I’m in better shape. And, unfortunately, it’s cost us a lot of games.”
Howard said his conditioning has improved throughout the season, but he’s still “not even close” to where he wants to be, and where he once was before undergoing back surgery in the offseason.
“I knew that would be a process. The better shape I’m in, the more active I can be and the more I’m able to do on the floor,” he said. “But it was a struggle at first because I just didn’t have it in the tank, especially on defense.”
— Reported by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles
Kobe Bryant scored 40 points, Dwight Howard had 19 points and 16 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers capped a trying week with a gritty 111-107 victory over the slumping Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night.
Hours after longtime Lakers owner Jerry Buss was buried, and a day after a moving memorial service punctuated by eulogies from Bryant and other franchise greats, the team got back to basketball with a much-needed victory at Staples Center.
Bryant scored 11 points in the final 5 1/2 minutes and the Lakers won for the seventh time in 10 games. They remained ninth in the Western Conference playoff race, 3 1/2 games behind Houston for the final spot with 26 remaining. Portland trails Los Angeles by 1 1/2 games.
Howard, looking for his sixth rebounding title in seven seasons, came in averaging an NBA-best and 11.8 boards per game. The Lakers are 19-12 when he gets double digits in rebounds, and 11 of those losses have come on nights when he grabbed 14 or more. They wasted 26 boards in a home loss to Denver on Jan. 6, and 20 in a Dec. 11 loss at Cleveland.
Antawn Jamison scored 16 points off the bench, helping to hand Portland its season-worst seventh straight loss. The Trail Blazers have lost five straight road games and 10 of their last 11 away from the Rose Garden.
J.J. Hickson had 22 points and 11 rebounds for Portland, and Nicolas Batum also scored 22. Two-time All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge finished with 15 points in 34 foul-plagued minutes after picking up his fifth personal with 8 minutes remaining.
Damian Lillard added 19 points. All of Portland’s starters scored in double figures, while the bench produced just 14 points.
— Reported by Joe Resnick of the Associated Press
|
Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace put on his Cookie Monster pajamas and came to the rescue of his nephew and brother who had been detained by police outside his condo complex earlier this week, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Unknown to World Peace, three men working for his Artest Media Group were shooting a scene about life on the streets and were staging a shootout with fake guns when the police showed up.
“I’m in my underwear, and my son says, ‘Hey Dad, there’s police at the door,'” World Peace told the Times on Wednesday. “So I jump out. I’m nervous. I see these police with rifles and scopes. I’m like, ‘What happened?’ I don’t know what’s going on at this point. ‘What happened, what happened?’ And then the police was like, ‘The building is being taken over by guys downstairs.'”
World Peace’s nephew and younger brother Isaiah had already tried to straighten out the situation but weren’t carrying identification, so they were detained by police. The men asked officers to verify their story with World Peace.
— Reported by ESPN Los Angeles
|
|
The recent All-Star break afforded him a rare amount of rest for his sore body stemmed from 10-month-old back surgery and an aggravated labrum in his right shoulder. That four-day stretch also coincided with Howard working with the Lakers’ training staff on various conditioning drills to improve his explosiveness and timing.
“It’s been tough because of the injuries,” Howard said. “But we’re just going to try to bust it out. I’m going to try to get into the best shape I can. The better shape I’m in, the more active I can be.”
But it’s not just about effort. It’s about execution.
The Lakers spent plenty of time during Tuesday’s practice ironing out how Nash and Howard would play the pick-and-roll. Nash often lamented the lack of time together. Howard often griped about how they couldn’t read the opposing team’s defenses. The Lakers’ coaches wished Howard would show a stronger effort and will to overcome such variables.
— Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times (Blog)
|
|
Despite all that has gone wrong in Dwight Howard’s first season with the Los Angeles Lakers, general manager Mitch Kupchak says the team is still hitching its wagon to the All-Star center.
“Dwight is our future,” Kupchak told “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” on ESPN Radio on Wednesday. “Kobe [Bryant] has one more year on his deal [this year, plus one]. That’s all I can bank on or this organization can bank on. I have no idea if he wants to continue to play beyond next year. As of now, we’re looking at a two-year window, [and that] plays to the urgency of the situation and how we build the team. … This team’s window to win is this year and next year.”
Kupchak reiterated his public stance that the 27-year old Howard is off the market with the NBA trade deadline looming Thursday at 3 p.m. ET.
“We’ve been very consistent,” Kupchak said. “We’re not trading Dwight Howard. … He will not be traded and there’s nothing that anybody can do today to call me today and ask me, ‘Would you do this?’ and get a positive result.”
Kupchak called Howard the best center in the league and expressed how difficult it is to acquire talent like that, especially with the restrictions in place since the league’s new collective bargaining agreement was ratified.
— Reported by Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles
|
Kobe Bryant quotes on the late Jerry Buss
Q: On the impact Dr. Buss had on him and if he finds it ironic the Lakers will be facing the team he most wanted to beat the most on Wednesday (Boston):
Bryant: Yeah, I do. To me, personally, he obviously believed in me since Day 1 being a 17-year-old kid to where I am now. His competitive spirit, his vision where this organization should be and how it should go beyond basketball with the global outreach that he had on his mind. We talked quite a bit about that and we talked about the old times. He’s obviously had a profound impact on me, to say the least.
Q: On Dr. Buss having an influence in him staying with the Lakers:
Bryant: Of course. I think in 2007 was really the big one. I had to make a choice and believing in him, which wasn’t very hard to do once I took a step back and see everything that he accomplished. I had a chance to sit down with him and we talked about what his vision was and his vision for rebuilding this team and rebuilding this team quickly. It was easy for me because I was a Lakers fan growing up, so I saw how many championships he’d been able to win and see how many times he was able to rebuild. It was a pretty easy call for me.
Q: On his talk with Dr. Buss about rebuilding the team:
Bryant: He went into a little bit of the salary cap, free agents and all this other stuff, which, his memory was pretty remarkable in terms of what he was able to remember, the space he had available, who was available and how he was going to put it all together. When somebody has that kind of detail, it’s pretty easy to roll with.
Q: On if he’s concerned about the future of the organization:
Bryant: It’s tough. It’s tough to follow in those shoes. I think the important thing to do is to take the lessons he’s taught – and I’m sure there are many – and things that they’ve learned from him, and try to carry it on to the future.
— Reported by Trevor Wong of the Lakers.com Blog
|
|
Pau Gasol slowly but surely made his way to the interview table.
That’s because he’s used crutches ever since tearing the plantar fascia of his right foot during the Lakers’ win two weeks ago against Brooklyn, an injury that will keep him out for at least an additional four to six weeks.
Such a timetable means Gasol could return as early as March 22 when the Lakers host the Washington Wizards at Staples Center. At that point, the Lakers would have 13 games remaining on their schedule.
How optimistic does Gasol feel that he could return before the season ends?
“I hope,” Gasol said. “It’s a thing you take one day at a time and you go with the symptoms and see how well they go and quick the body is able to heal with a simple injury. It varies from different individuals.”
— Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Blog)