The Lakers have looked really great the past two games! It was disappointing that John Wall was injured, but we were happy to have Andrew Bynum back on our team!! He only played a handful of minutes, but contributed some nice numbers. Honestly, just his presence is good enough right now; it gives the Lakers length, extra rebounding, and rest for Pau and LO. So it was good to see him on the court. There was a funny moment with Kobe in the third: he was fouled on a three point attempt (which he missed) and then went on to miss all three free throws. He later admitted that that had never happened to him before... so what did he do? He went on a scoring binge, scoring 12 consecutive points in two minutes. hahah. Gotta love Kobe.
Last night's game was even better; I think the Lakers were still smarting from Indiana beating them 94-91 in Staples last month, so they came out ready to put the smackdown on them. Did they ever!! The Lakers had a twenty point lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Of course the Pacers chipped away at the deficit, but it was more of a case of trading baskets. The Lakers shot over 50% for the night, and shot over 60% in the first half. They also played all four quarters of basketball, giving maximum effort throughout. I think it was easily their best game of the season so far, and really showed what they're capable of. In both contests, I believe Kobe only took about 20 shots and was very efficient- in both cases, he went off in the second half and scored most of his points in the 3rd quarters.
The other good news: Sasha is gone!!! So excitinggg. We're getting a former Number 1 pick named Joe Smith and a couple draft picks. Even though Smith is old, it'll be nice to have backup options for our bigs. And more leadership never hurts. I honestly didn't care if we got anything for Sasha, I'm just glad he's gone. Yes, he had a great season two years ago, and hit some of the most clutch free throws I've ever seen (11 seconds left in Game 7 of the Finals, Lakers up by two... his free throws iced the game and put us up by four). BUT for most of his tenure, he whined about playing time and everything else, he was annoying, and he never knew when to pick his battles (see: Phoenix series last year, getting into a shouting match on the bench with Brian Shaw). And his accuracy has been down as well... The Machine was looking a little rusty. Here's an example of the quintessential Sasha Vujacic play: hounding on defense until he picked up a foul and whined about it, then getting the ball on the ensuing possession and immediately hoisting up (and missing) a three. That was going to be one of the rules of the Lakers drinking game I was trying to make up last year haha. So yes, I am grateful to Sasha because he did have his role in two championship teams, but gratitude only goes so far. And we cut $7 million off our payroll. Plus, I don't feel bad about him crying at home to fiancee Maria Sharapova lol.
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