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November 6th, 2009, 1:45 pm by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
The Lakers have just four road games in their first 21, but they had to work overtime to get victories in these first two in Oklahoma City and Houston. To see some slices of life from my camera during first trip of the Lakers’ road schedule this season, click here for a slideshow.
Phil Jackson was asked by the locals the first night what he thinks of Oklahoma City. There was potential for the sort of slight that the broad-minded Jackson has given to smaller cities such as Sacramento (”cow town”), Orlando (”plastic”) and New Orleans (”that mildew smell”).
Jackson had sort of held his tongue in Las Vegas last month for an exhibition game, saying he wasn’t going to say anything bad about the city “as much as I’d like to.” This time with the Okies, Jackson basically did the same thing - but getting his opinion across.
The Lakers’ coach said he’s “not really fond” of the Oklahoma area. He praised the sunsets and sunrises, but then added: “The wind is aggravating if you live out here, there’s no doubt about it.”
Posted in: Houston Rockets • Oklahoma City Thunder | 1 Comment »
November 6th, 2009, 4:38 am by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
Here are my tweets during the last game in Houston (in reverse order). There are occasions for game analysis — as in my column about Andrew Bynum’s development compared to the debate over Ron Artest vs. Trevor Ariza — but otherwise it’s more fun to keep it light, eh?
Here’s the rundown from the Twitter (KevinDing) log …
I was going to tweet it midway through the game and should’ve: I’ve said it before, but Pat Fraher is the worst ref in the NBA. Clueless.
8:18 PM Nov 4th from TweetDeck
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After Kobe’s 10-foot fading turnaround just dropped, Pau looked away on the bench and raised his eyebrows, quite impressed.
7:49 PM Nov 4th from TweetDeck
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Ariza is 4 for 17 from the field. Can Rockets sub in Vlad Rad for him like Phil once would’ve? ;)
7:46 PM Nov 4th from TweetDeck
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Posted in: Pau Gasol • Ron Artest | 1 Comment »
November 5th, 2009, 3:05 pm by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
EL SEGUNDO — It’s evident that Pau Gasol is healthy and capable, but he is also careful.
That’s why he isn’t inclined to play Friday night against Memphis and sees the logic in also skipping Sunday night against New Orleans to get three more days of rest and rehabilitation before the Lakers’ next game Thursday night against visiting Phoenix. Phil Jackson is still holding out some small hope that Gasol will play against Memphis — the Lakers would be left using DJ Mbenga, Josh Powell and Lamar Odom in the paint, assuming Andrew Bynum (elbow) isn’t playing — but understands the situation.
“He wants to press it (in practice) and see how he reacts,” Jackson said of Gasol.
Gasol is ramping up his activity on his newly healed right hamstring so “my body can do a transition,” he said.
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Posted in: Pau Gasol | 2 Comments »
November 5th, 2009, 2:55 pm by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
EL SEGUNDO — Neither Andrew Bynum nor Pau Gasol is expected to play Friday night against visiting Memphis, but the Lakers are encouraged that Bynum’s strained right elbow isn’t a serious injury and Gasol is certainly capable of playing whenever he is ready.
An MRI on Bynum didn’t show significant damage from the hard foul he took late in the Lakers’ victory in Houston on Wednesday night. He remains in considerable pain, but he said whenever the pain abates, he has been advised he can return to action — possibly Sunday night against New Orleans.
“It’s nothing too serious,” Bynum said.
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Posted in: Andrew Bynum • Pau Gasol | 3 Comments »
November 5th, 2009, 12:20 am by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
HOUSTON - If this is the road to a repeat, it’s going to be a long one.
The Lakers were stretched to overtime for the second consecutive night to start their road schedule, but they gutted it out again and beat the Houston Rockets, 103-102. After escaping Oklahoma City on Tuesday night in their first road game this season, the defending champs had to work extra again - though they headed home happy after perhaps the last time they have to play without injured All-Star Pau Gasol.
Kobe Bryant had 41 points in a scintillating performance of mid-range shooting.
But it was a pass by Bryant after a faked jumper that set up Andrew Bynum to score the decisive point from the foul line with 24.7 seconds left.
It wasn’t an easy free throw for Bynum, who was fouled hard on the play by Houston’s Chuck Hayes and suffered a sprained right elbow. Bynum (17 points, 17 rebounds, five assists, three blocks) said his elbow was hyperextended on the play, and he’ll be re-evaluated Thursday.
He still made the second foul shot, and then couldn’t even lift his arm to put his clothes back on after his postgame shower.
“They just took a whack at me,” Bynum said.
Posted in: Game reports | 3 Comments »
November 4th, 2009, 5:20 pm by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
HOUSTON — With Pau Gasol’s season debut imminent, the Lakers will soon have an interesting problem to sort out:
Who plays the crunchtime minutes at the power positions?
Andrew Bynum has showed improvement at both ends of the court and made a key help-defense play to deny Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant at the end of overtime Tuesday night. Team defense was the primary area where Phil Jackson has wondered if Bynum could be more deserving of playing than Gasol or Lamar Odom.
Odom has been off to a pretty terrific start this season.
“It is what it is, as far as that goes,” Bynum said about playing late-game minutes. “P.J.’s the coach; he’s going to make his decisions. All I can do is go out there and play with energy and play with focus and do what I need to do, offensively and defensively.”
(One more note: If you like to log on right after the game to check out the quick postgame story here and chat a bit, sorry, but the site is going to be down for maintenance tonight after the Lakers-Rockets game.)
Posted in: Andrew Bynum • Lamar Odom • Pau Gasol | 8 Comments »
November 4th, 2009, 4:59 pm by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
HOUSTON — The Lakers’ championship defense can move forward in full force now that Pau Gasol has been medically cleared by Lakers medical personnel and Gasol’s personal doctors in Spain (including his parents, both physicians) to resume full basketball activity. Gasol’s right hamstring, initially injured Oct. 13 and forcing him to miss the season’s first five games, has been deemed healed.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson said Gasol could play Friday night against Memphis, depending on how he responds to tougher workouts Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon and how his conditioning is.
Gasol has extra motivation to play Friday to match up against his younger brother, Marc, who is off to an excellent start this season after dropping a lot of weight over the summer. It might also help Andrew Bynum to have Pau out there to eat up some minutes given Bynum’s bad luck in recent years with injuries when facing Memphis.
Posted in: Andrew Bynum • Pau Gasol | 2 Comments »
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