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Former LA Lakers coach Phil Jackson has finally popped the question to his longtime girlfriend Jeanie Buss — after 12 years of dating — but the real question … could this affect the Zen Master’s possible coaching gig with the Brooklyn Nets?
Our Lakers source tells us the engagement went down on Christmas day, but Jeanie — daughter of Lakers owner Jerry Buss — didn’t reveal the ring until moments ago.
— Reported by TMZ.com
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Dwight Howard sat sullenly in front of his locker Tuesday night and tried to explain what is wrong with the Lakers. Like how can they one night can beat a team by 17 points and the next fall to the Philadelphia 76ers, 103-99?
“The games we’ve won, blowing teams out, we’ve played a certain way,” Howard said. “The games we’ve lost, we’ve played a different way, so we need to find a balance.”
Finding that equilibrium, however has been difficult for the Lakers this season. They’re up, they’re down. They’re winning, they’re losing. Mostly, however, they seem to be stuck in neutral and the frustration is mounting.
“It is frustrating,” Steve Nash said. “Obviously we haven’t been able to find that understanding. We’ve had it in moments, but overall we’re still looking for our chemistry.”
Both Howard and Nash said the team — and Lakers fans — needs to be patient.
— Reported by Janis Carr of the Orange County Register
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Following the Los Angeles Lakers’ 103-99 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on New Year’s Day, Kobe Bryant had a simple answer for what has been plaguing the 15-16 Lakers this season: their age.
“‘Cause we’re old as s—,” said the 34-year-old Bryant when asked why a lack of energy has been a problem for L.A. all season. “What do you want? We just got to figure out how to play when we don’t have that energy. We got to change things up a little bit defensively. We got to figure out what we want to do offensively, figure out what we want to do on nights when we don’t have those legs or have that energy.”
The Sixers beat the Lakers on Tuesday primarily with the contributions of 22-year-old Jrue Holiday (26 points, 10 rebounds) and 24-year-old Evan Turner (22 points, 13 rebounds).
“You just saw an old damn team,” Bryant continued. “I don’t know how else to put it to you. We’re just slow. You saw a team over there that was just younger and just had fresher legs and just played with more energy, and we were just stuck in the mud. I think individually we all have to figure out how to get ourselves ready each and every game to have high level of energy. That’s all that is.”
Bryant, who has managed to lead the league in scoring this season despite being in his 17th year, said every player has to learn to create that energy individually.
— Reported by Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles
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Jrue Holiday had 26 points and 10 assists, Evan Turner added 22 points and 13 rebounds, and the Philadelphia 76ers rang in the new year with a 103-99 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.
The Lakers (15-16) have matched their worst start after 31 games since the 2002-03 season, when they began defense of their third straight NBA title with a 12-19 record.
Kobe Bryant, who shifted from shooting guard to small forward five games ago in coach Mike D’Antoni’s redesigned rotation, led the Lakers with 36 points. Steve Nash added 12 points and 10 assists.
The Lakers, who tied a franchise record with 10 3-pointers in the first half of their 111-98 win at Philadelphia on Dec. 16, were 1 for 11 from 3-point range before intermission in the rematch and finished 3 for 22 from behind the arc.
Pau Gasol had 11 points and nine rebounds, but shot only 2 for 12 while playing on a sore right foot. Dwight Howard missed his first five shots and finished 1 for 7 with seven points and 14 boards. The six-time All-Star’s only field goal came with 6:15 left in the third quarter, a put-back dunk that reduced Philadelphia’s lead to 67-63…
Lakers reserve F Antawn Jamison was benched for the sixth straight game. The 15-year veteran, a two-time All-Star and former sixth man of the year (2003-04), hasn’t played since Dec. 16, when he went scoreless in 13 minutes against the 76ers.
— Reported by Joe Resnick of the Associated Press
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Los Angeles Lakers center Dwight Howard has been fined $35,000 for his Flagrant Foul Two against Kenneth Faried of the Denver Nuggets, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.
The incident, in which Howard made excessive contact with Faried above the shoulders, occurred with 5:02 remaining in the third quarter of the Lakers’ 126-114 loss to the Nuggets at Pepsi Center on December 26.
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The pieces of the puzzle that have been the Lakers’ confounding season so far are starting to fall into place.
Kobe Bryant engineered a second-half comeback, the defense stepped up, and Los Angeles beat the New York Knicks 100-94 on Tuesday, extending its winning streak to five games.
”We’re .500,” a smiling Dwight Howard said. ”We did it on Christmas, too. I knew this day would come.”
Bryant scored 34 points in his NBA-record 15th Christmas Day game and Metta World Peace added 20 points and seven rebounds while defending Carmelo Anthony, whose 34 points led the Knicks. Anthony said he hyperextended his left knee, but expects to play on Wednesday in Phoenix.
Bryant, the league’s leading scorer, has topped 30 or more points in nine straight games…
The Lakers improved to 14-14 – 9-9 under new coach Mike D’Antoni – and upped their holiday record to 21-18, including 13-9 at home. They returned to .500 for the first time since they were 8-8 on Nov. 30…
The Knicks controlled most of the game behind Anthony and J.R. Smith, who had 24 points. But they struggled offensively in the fourth, when Anthony was limited to seven points and Smith had five as the Lakers’ defense clamped down. World Peace fouled out with 1:58 to play and the Lakers ahead by four…
Nash had 16 points, 11 assists and six rebounds in his second game in nearly two months. He missed 24 straight games while recovering from a small fracture in his lower left leg. Howard had 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Gasol had 13 points and eight rebounds…
World Peace scored 16 points in the second quarter, including eight in a row, when the Lakers played catch-up most of the way. His 3-pointer gave the Lakers their first lead of the period with 1:10 remaining. Smith tied it up with a free throw before Nash’s jumper sent the Lakers into halftime leading 51-49.
— Reported by Beth Harris of the Associated Press
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Steve Nash will start for the Los Angeles Lakers against the Golden State Warriors after missing 24 games because of a small fracture in his lower left leg.
Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said before the game Saturday night that Nash will have no minutes limit. The 38-year-old was injured in the second game of the season, the former Phoenix star’s first with the Lakers. Los Angeles is 12-14 so far this season.
Nash, a two-time NBA MVP, averaged 4.5 points and four assists in 25 minutes during his two games – both losses – for the Lakers. Los Angeles has won three in a row over Washington, Philadelphia and Charlotte.
— Reported by the Associated Press
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Courtney Fortson of the Los Angeles D-Fenders was today named NBA Development League Performer of the Week for games played Dec. 10-16.
A 5-11, 185-pound guard out of Arkansas, Fortson led the D-Fenders to a 2-0 record for the week, averaging 27.0 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 46.5 minutes. He scored a team-high 36 points in a 134-124 triple-overtime win over the Reno Bighorns, 134-124, on Dec. 15 to go with a team-high eight assists.
A second-year member of the D-Fenders, Fortson earned two GATORADE Call-Ups during the 2011-12 season and owns NBA career averages of 3.5 points, 1.5 rebounds and 9.5 minutes in 10 games for the Los Angeles Clippers and Houston Rockets.
Other top performers considered include Austin’s Tyler Wilkerson, Bakersfield’s Damion James, Canton’s Jon Leuer, Erie’s D.J. Kennedy, Fort Wayne’s Miles Plumlee, Idaho’s Joel Freeland, Iowa’s Chris Wright, Los Angeles’ Darius Johnson-Odom, Maine’s Shelvin Mack, Reno’s Garrett Temple, Rio Grande Valley’s Tim Ohlbrecht, Santa Cruz’s Travis Leslie, Sioux Falls’ Andrew Goudelock, Springfield’s James Mays, Texas’ Darius Rice and Tulsa’s Jeremy Lamb.
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Kobe Bryant scored 34 points, Metta World Peace added 19 points and a career-high 16 rebounds and the Los Angeles Lakers won consecutive games for the first time in nearly a month with a 111-98 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday.
Dwight Howard had 17 points and 11 rebounds for the Lakers, who led 60-50 at halftime. Darius Morris had a career-high 15 points, all in the first half, and Chris Duhon scored 14.
The Lakers (11-14), who beat Washington 102-96 on Friday night, won two in a row for the first time since a three-game streak from Nov. 16-20.
Even without injured stars Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, the Lakers hardly resembled the team which entered the night four games below .500.
Nick Young paced the reeling Sixers (12-12) with 30 points while Spencer Hawes and Evan Turner added 16 apiece. Thaddeus Young had 14 for Philadelphia, which dropped its third straight game for the first time this season.
— Reported by the Associated Press
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Carmelo Anthony scored 22 of his 30 points in the first quarter, and the New York Knicks held on after he departed with a sprained left ankle to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-107 on Thursday night in coach Mike D’Antoni’s return to Madison Square Garden.
Firing in 3-pointers and moving the ball to open shooters, things they often struggled to do under D’Antoni, the Knicks won for the eighth time in nine games and improved to 9-0 at home for the first time since the 1992-93 season.
Meanwhile, things are starting as poorly for D’Antoni in Los Angeles as they ended in New York. The Lakers, still without Steve Nash and Pau Gasol, were never really in the game while losing their fourth straight and falling to 9-14.
Raymond Felton scored 19 points, and Tyson Chandler and J.R. Smith added 18 apiece for the Knicks.
Kobe Bryant had 31 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers. Metta World Peace finished with 23 points and Dwight Howard had 20.
The Lakers did cut what was a 26-point deficit to 113-107 when World Peace converted a three-point play with 1:27 remaining, but the Knicks took more than a minute off the clock while twice grabbing offensive rebounds on the next possession before Chandler made a free throw with 18 seconds to play…
D’Antoni was loudly booed during pregame introductions, Knicks fans who appreciated the rugged defensive teams of the 1990s never truly embracing his offense-first style. D’Antoni said he enjoyed his time in New York and said earlier Thursday the Knicks, who lead the NBA in 3-pointers per game and fewest turnovers, were playing the way he’d like his team to play.
— Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press