Former Laker Trevor Ariza scored a career-high 33 points on 11-of-17 shooting Saturday night, as the Houston Rockets defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, 111-107.
The Rockets are 2-1.
Just making a note of it.
Ariza, right, has scored 12, 25 and now 33 in his first three starts as a Rocket.
No, he never would have had that role on the Lakers — at least not until he was 30 or so.
But he is 24, and if you can name the good, under-24 players on the Lakers aside from Andrew Bynum, let me know.
Obviously the economy has made it difficult for young people to find jobs. How else do you explain “Blazer Girl?”
Here’s a lovely young woman (at least by her picture), who obviously has nothing better to do her final year at University of Oregon than to rip on NBA fans who live outside of the Portland city boundaries. OK, outside of the Great Northwest.
She has taken to writing some sort of blog that details her distaste for what other fans wear – as if those in Rip City possess any fashion sense. She has saved her biggest scorn for L.A. fans.
“My distaste for LA began early. As a Portland fan, it’s just what you do. And since I grew up drinking out of Rip City cartoon glasses, with life-sized Clyde Drexler and Terry Porter posters on my walls, it’s exactly what I did.”
Poor child.
“Living in a state with only one professional sports organization means that bandwagon fans run amok during the playoffs. And, this time of year, that usually means putting up with a lot of temporary Lakers fans.
“I watched the first game of the Lakers-Nuggets series at a bar on campus with the cheapest beer around. This was important, considering how broke I am (I’m in college, after all) and considering the general quality of the “fans” who would be watching the game around me. Cheap beer equaled a drunker (and thus more hateful and overall badass) me.
“And sure enough, right after finishing a few pitchers of Bud Light by myself, the Laker hatred surfaced.”
Maybe now that school has started, she can stay away from the beer and concentrate on studies. But I think not.
Blazer Girl has become something of a celebrity, now appearing regularly on Deadspin.com. and she no doubt will have more to say in the upcoming season.
The Lakers’ Western Conference rivals to the north have locked down their superstar, the AP is reporting:
Two-time All-Star Brandon Roy and the Portland Trail Blazers have agreed to a five-year contract extension, his agent says.
Agent Bob Myers confirmed to The Associated Press late Wednesday night that Roy has agreed in principle to a five-year contract at the NBA maximum salary. The fifth year is at Roy’s option.
If Lamar Odom is looking for love he gets a little here from Oregonian columnist John Canzano, who says the TrailBlazers should lock up the Nuclear Matchup now that they’ve lost Hedo Turkoglu and Paul Millsap.
With Ron Artest and Shannon Brown under contract, the Lakers still have a morning full of questions …
– Is Lamar Odom a key to Lakers’ repeat championship hopes with his unique talents, or is the 6-10 ballhandling forward merely a replaceable cog in a well-oiled machine?
I lean strongly toward the former.
–If the reported $3 million, first-year salary standoff continues, can the Lakers replace Odom with a player using the bi-annual exception of $1.99 million? signed to a minimum contract?
Extremely doubtful, although there are useful players who could fill the roster spot.
–Will the Portland Trail Blazers, rejected by Hedo Turkoglu and the Knicks’ David Lee, turn $9 million worth of their attention toward Odom? That’s what they can pay in first-year salary, closer to what Odom is asking from the Lakers.
Right now, the Portland interest seems lukewarm. Of all things, the fact Odom was a Clippers teammate of Darius Miles might be part of the Blazers consideration, or lack thereof.
–Where will Odom go, if he can’t come to grips with a 50 percent pay cut from the Lakers, and Portland doesn’t bite?
Free agency isn’t getting off to a very rosy start for the Lakers.
Not if , as ESPN is reporting, all they will offer Trevor Ariza is the mid-level exemption of $5.6 million. I bet Portland is looking a lot better than that. Toronto, too, can offer Ariza more than the mid-level.
If that’s the case, color him gone, which should leave lots of cash for Lamar Odom and Shannon Brown. Or, one would hope it does.
I’m sure we will hear from fans how disloyal Ariza is for not giving the Lakers a hometown discount.
The same ones who think it is only right the star of the team gets a maximum contract, even when he makes as much or more off the court. But hey, I accept that as the way it HAS to be … I will only mention a few times after this. Promise.
I can’t seriously believe Ron Artest is coming to the Lakers, but he can play defense. As for shooting and making three-pointers in the playoffs, which Ariza did, well we all saw the Rockets series.
Personally, I can’t wait until Kobe Bryant gets into teammate Artest’s face during a game. That might priceless.
LOS ANGELES — It was still the Sunday a.m. when I asked Phil Jackson about Houston’s 27-point victory in Portland on Saturday. Jackson wasn’t in the greatest of moods, moaning a moment later: “Here we are, doing an NBA thing at 10:30 in the morning.”
But here was Jackson’s quick take on the Houston-Portland Game 1. Bear in mind that the Lakers are in line to face the winner of that series in Round 2.
“Portland has been really good at home. Surprising victory, especially the way it happened.”
I did have Houston winning that series as the lower seed, but I can’t say I foresaw the opening upsets of Boston (by Chicago) and Orlando (by Philadelphia). No doubt that Derrick Rose and Andre Iguodala have a little killer in them, eh?
