Records: Lakers 53-14 (1st in the West) Warriors 24-43 (10th in the West)
Offensive ratings: Lakers 113.7 (1st in league) Warriors 109.5 (10th in league)
Defensive ratings: Lakers 105.6 (6th in league) Warriors 113.0 (28th of 30)
Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Trevor Ariza, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol
Warriors Monta Ellis, Stephen Jackson, Marco Belinelli, Brandan Wright, Ronny Turiaf

Lakers notes: While in recent posts we’ve railed against the bench play of late, there is one thing from yesterday’s comments that bears repeating — Phil Jackson does not have a lot of options right now.

Until Andrew Bynum comes back, he has to stick with pretty much this front line rotation, and if winning is the goal then that means lots of minutes for Gasol.

In the playoffs, with long rests between games and long commercial breaks during them, he can limit the minutes of Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar and give those minutes to Fish and Kobe, but in the regular season with 10 of 15 games remaining on the road, you need the bench guys to play. He can’t yet tighten his rotations.

But when the games matter, if the bench is still playing like this, some people are going to see a lot less of the court.

On a separate note, you can see some Lakers players NCAA brackets right here. The fact I have Gonzaga going farther than Adam Morrison does concerns me greatly.

The Warriors Coming In: No Jamal Crawford tonight, not because he is injured but because Don Nelson is brilliant. Or just nuts. But the coach is sitting him. Bottom line is it means more minutes for Marco Belinelli and Anthony Morrow. On the other hand, Stephen Jackson will be back and should be on his best behavior — since he already has 16 technical fouls this season, every one earn gets him another game suspended without pay. Of course, the question of what is Jackson’s best behavior is an open one.

I like Monta Ellis, and to be honest I think the Warriors have a roster that is not as bad as its record. I like the athleticism of Kelenna Azubuike. Anthony Randolph could be good. Corey Maggette may be overpaid but his a good scorer to have coming off the bench. Andris Biedrins is quality, when healthy. They are overpaying for a few of these guys, and there are too many shooters who don’t care about defense, but the roster has the pieces in place to start to build something.

But this is a franchise that is at the top of my list right now of how not to run a front office. Everyone needs to be on the same page — the GM getting players that fit the coach’s system, with everyone from the owner on down buying into that system. But that’s not what is going on in the Bay Area at all — the GM and coach are in a power struggle, and player/personnel moves struggle because of it. Mullin wanted to offer Barron Davis a three-year deal to come back, the team president shot it down.

Mullin is going to be out soon. But that leaves Don Nelson, who has seemed more mad than genius lately, running the show and dictating front office moves. Is that how you improve the franchise?

Keys To The Game: Transition defense. Transition defense. Transition defense. The Lakers gave up 68 points in the first half the last time they played the Warriors. Transition defense. Transition defense. Transition defense.

Part of transition defense, however, is not getting sucked into the style and tempo the other team wants to play at. It means not launching threes 5 seconds into the shot clock or pushing the break when nothing develops. It means making smart decisions. I’m looking at you, Jordan Farmar. The Lakers need to dictate the tempo of this game.

Turnovers will also be key. The Lakers lost to Philly because they could not hold on tot the ball and that meant easy baskets in transition for the Sixers. Do that tonight and the Lakers are in another dogfight. Hold on to the ball and it should be a comfortable win.

Where you can watch: 7:30 start here with the TNT crew. I suppose a Charles Barkley Drinking Game would be in bad form.

The Lakers remain in the state of Texas, for the finale of their three-game road trip. They’ve made the three hour ride to San Antonio to be the first part of a NBA on TNT doubleheader. Prior to making the trip; the Lakers ended their three game road skid and the Rockets 12-game winning streak by beating them 102-96 in Houston.

Kobe led his team scoring 37 points and his 18 fourth quarter points sealed the deal but the Lakers got an excellent performance from Josh Powell who scored 17 points and grabbed 9 boards. The biggest factor in the win was their defense; the Lakers forced the Rockets into a season-high 23 turnovers.

After taking down one of the hottest teams in the conference on Wednesday the Lakers now face the challenge of playing the Spurs, another hot team, which ranks as the second best team in the Western Conference.

The Lakers suffered a one point loss to the Spurs on 1/14 in a game the team should’ve won. The Spurs enjoyed a phenomenal three point shooting night and a few lucky breaks along the way. The fact of the matter is the difference between winning and losing for these two teams comes down to offensive execution and defense.

There will be several adjustments for this game defensively. The Lakers need to start early and come out aggressively on both ends of the court with a contribution from everyone and take an early lead, this will take the crowd out of the game. The reserves need to have an impact on the game.

The Lakers will have to slow Tim Duncan & Tony Parker, two competitors that always come to play. Limit Tony Parker’s foray’s into the painted area. Normally when these teams meet it is about which trio plays better, the Spurs will be without Manu Ginobli for this game but in the last game in San Antonio Matt Bonner & Roger Mason, who hit the eventual game winning shot, were huge factors.

DJ Mbenga & Josh Powell provided excellent defense and rebounding on Wednesday and a repeat performance in the final match-up of the regular season. The Lakers can win by running their offense from the inside out. The team is playing to their advantage by establishing Pau in the post and letting him set the table for everyone else.

I’m looking forward to seeing excellent player movement and ball movement.

Lamar Odom can make an impact by coming out aggressive and attacking the basket. The Lakers will have to control the tempo, the glass, stop the dribble penetration, get back in transition and rotate out to three point shooters.

Defensively is where the game will be won or lost.

Tipoff: 5:00 PM PST

Television -

• Los Angeles: TNT
• San Antonio: TNT

Radio -

• Los Angeles: AM570 KLAC (Spero Dedes & Mychal Thompson)
• San Antonio: WOAI 1200 AM (Bill Schoening)

Injuries -

Lakers:

• Andrew Bynum (Knee)

Spurs:

• Manu Ginobli (Ankle)

Real Women Don’t Wear Green: You asked for it and the shirt is here.

Lakers notes: So do the people here who thought Lamar Odom had turned the corner a few months back still feel that way? He’s had three games that have been down a little. I’ll go back to what I’ve always said about him — you need to accept Odom as Odom, the moments of brilliance and the moments he disappears. It’s all a function of just who he is. He is going to forever be inconsistent. He is going to be up and down in the regular season, but he tends to rise up in the playoffs. And he still provides a versatility that fits what the Lakers do very well. If you live and die with Odom night to night it is a roller coaster, but when you step back you see a picture of quality.

On another note Su Yue had 11 points on 4 of 15 shooting, with seven assists, in his first game for the D-Fenders. The reports are that he played pretty well, but his shot didn’t fall. That happens, we’ll need to wait a few games to see if when he gets playing time and his legs under him if that starts to change.

What I thought was interesting was the report (couldn’t find the link) saying that the Lakers spent a lot of time debating sending Sun down and negotiating/talking with Chinese officials to make sure that this move was not seen as a demotion or an insult. As is very important in his culture, Sun needed to be able to save face, so a lot of time and effort was put into the timing and the wording of the press release that sent him down. I think everyone involved knew him getting some burn was a good thing, but it was all in the presentation.

The Trailblazers Coming In: I attended the Spurs/Clippers game this week (the infamous “the beatings will continue until morale improves” game) with a number of Pomona College grads. They were there because Greg Popovich used to coach at Pomona, and he recruited his now top assistant Mike Budenholzer to play for him there (but left before Mike arrived).

Budenholzer spoke to the group afterward, and he was asked about Brandon Roy, who the night before had dropped 26 on the Spurs in a Trailblazers win. The first thing he talked about was just how strong Roy is, how he may be the most physical PG in the league and that allows him to get into positions to get the shots he wants. That kind of PG (think D-Will) has really given the Lakers trouble in the past. Blazers Edge had a great line that Roy tends to “lullaby and waltz” his way to the rim, he changes speed beautifully and that with his strength makes it very hard to stop him.

He has led a Portland team playing very well now, they are 7-3 in their last 10 including that big win against the Spurs. Roy is shooting 56.8% (eFG%) in those last 10. Travis Outlaw and Rudy Fernandez have been playing great off the bench.

All that said, they barely beat the Pacers the other night. Every team at this time of year has clunker games. Here is what Nate McMillan said about the Lakers game right after the Pacers game:

“They know that we’ve beaten them up here so they’ll be ready for the game. We go into this game, what I wanted us to do was have a good rhythm going into this game. I wanted us to basically play really sharp to go into that game. We get this game but we gotta play much better than we did tonight to get that game because they are looking forward to it and for us it’s at home and we want to continue to protect home court.”

Keys To The Game: These are the two top offenses in the NBA (per possession, which is what matters). This is going to be a high-scoring game. That said, whichever team plays the best defense is going to get the win.

For the Lakers, that means protecting the rim. The Blazers are good on offense because they have guys that get to and finish at the rim.

The Lakers defense is predicated on stopping penetration, that is the reason for bringing the help line over so far (bringing the big over to essentially zone off the strong side), but that will be put to a real test with Roy. He is going to get past Fisher (and Farmar), Roy will kill you with layups, and while he hits jumpers it is at a lower percentage, so you have to get the ball out of his hands and to the other shooters. Against the Pacers, take Roy out of the equation and the team shot 37%. This is one case where the Nash/CP3 system is not the goal — you want to get the ball out of his hands and make someone else beat you.

Protecting the rim is also the key to Lamarcus Aldridge, who can only score at the rim and the left elbow (I have no idea why there, other than he worked on that spot because it is key to the offense, and he shoots 52% from there.

While the Lakers need to help on defense, you do not leave Steve Blake at the three point line to help.

The other key — and this is where Odom needs to break out of his slump — the Lakers have to crash the defensive glass. The Blazers grab 32.4% of their missed shots, the highest percentage in the league. Aldridge and Przybilla are good on the glass, and this is an athletic and long team. Teams that beat the Lakers tend to do it because they got a lot of easy buckets, often on fast breaks, but another way is offensive rebounds and put backs. The Lakers have to limit those.

Where you can watch: Fox Sports in LA with a 7 pm tip off. Nationally, League Pass and thee other usual suspects.

The Lakers are back at Staples Center to host Minnesota, looking for the sixth straight home win and 50^th of the season. Playing the Grizzlies on Wednesday night was just what the Lakers needed to end their two-game losing skid and avoid a three-game skid. The best thing about the game, besides the win, was that no Lakers were injured in the game.

The team looked lethargic at times but nine games in 15 days will have an effect on any team. This is a match up of two teams on the opposite ends of the spectrum, one playing for a championship and the other playing out the schedule.

This will be the fourth game of the season against Minnesota; the Lakers beat the T-Wolves 98-86 on 12/14/08, 132-119 on 1/30 and 111-108 on 2/22. The Last game was too close for comfort. Kobe is averaging 28 points and Pau 21 against the T-Wolves, what is needed is a repeat performance of Lamar Odom’s 25 point 14 rebound effort in the last meeting.

That performance was one of the best stretches of games in his career and continued to show his importance in the starting lineup since Andrew went down. Since that game LO has averaged 6 points and shot poorly from the field. He filled the stat sheet and did other things such as grabbing 14 boards, having 8 assists and amassing a season-high 6 blocked shots on Wednesday.

It is starting to look like as Lamar goes so go the Lakers. Lamar needs to catch the ball closer to the basket and attack the rim. He has to score in double digits and be the third scorer for the Lakers. The bench needs play well and increase the lead.

The Lakers also need to control the tempo, glass and to play solid defensively which includes limiting Minnesota to one shot per possession, eliminating dribble penetration, getting back in transition and rotating out to three point shooters.

Defensively is where this game will be won or lost.

The scoring load for the T-Wolves will be on Mike Miller, Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes.

The trio combined for 46 points in their last game and put up 50 points against the Lakers in February. The trio was aided by a combined 50 points by Sebastian Telfair, Rodney Carney and Kevin Love.

I want to see more of Kobe in the low post. The Lakers need to establish Pau Gasol & Lamar Odom in the painted area and allow them to go to work, both players can set the table for everyone else but both need to be aggressive.
Tipoff: 7:30 PM PST

Television -

• Los Angeles: FS West 1 HD (Joel Myers & Stu Lanz)
• Minnesota: FS North (Tom Hanneman & Jim Petersen)

Radio -

• Los Angeles: AM570 KLAC (Spero Dedes & Mychal Thompson)
• Minnesota: KFAN 1130 (Alan Horton & Kevin Lynch)

Injuries -

Lakers:

• Andrew Bynum (Knee)

Timberwolves:

• Al Jefferson (Knee)

The Lakers Coming In: Phil Jackson said what pretty much everyone had seen lately — the Lakers are a tired team. A week of home games with some long breaks should help them recover a little this week, but they also just have to fight through it. Every team gets this.

But the question is are we just talking about tired with our guard play of late, where every guard not named Kobe has struggled. Kwame a. weighed in on this in the comments.

One thing that I am concerned about is D-Fish and his shot. It is kind of reminiscent of last year when he got off to a great start, kind of leveled off in the middle of the season and struggled late. I fully trust Fish to be productive in crunch time and play hard-nosed defense, but he was really giving us a boost earlier in the year with his early offense. We need him to be a weapon and that is why it is so important that Jordan (or Sasha) be able to EFFECTIVLEY spell Fish so Fish only plays about 28-30 minutes a game. If not, he may be too tired when we really need him. It’s a delicate balance for Sasha and Jordan because both guys are confident dudes and this has translated into them feeling confident in their abilities and a willingness to take some questionable shots and passes. The coaching staff has to find a way to encourage them to play with confidence, but more importantly to play smart and efficiently. These next two games should help with that process, but they must be able to translate that on the road (like they have shown already this season, i.e. at the Cavs).

Darius added to this:

I am concerned though with Farmar and Sasha and the point you’ve made before about them not playing as well together. You’re spot on that Sasha’s numbers were best when Jordan was injured and I’m wondering how Sasha can get on track with the consistency that he showed last season. One thing I can say about this whole situation that I also feel is affecting Sasha is Ariza. Again not that these guys have issues with each other, but their roles on the team are in direct competition. First, unlike Sasha, Ariza has tremendous chemistry with Farmar. Those guys look for each other constantly and usually hook up for one highlight play per game (as a matter of fact, that turnover the Kurt illustrated in the body of this post was Farmar looking for a slightly trailing Ariza). Second, Ariza is now our closer at SF. Last season, that was Sasha’s role (not at SF, but at SG with Kobe playing SF). Now, it’s really rare for Sasha to close a game. Phil has seemingly decided that Ariza’s contributions on defense and decent shooting trump Sasha’s decent defense and (supposed) stronger shooting. Although with Sasha shooting so poorly this season, you really can’t blame Phil for going this route.

One other guy that has gone ice cold is Luke Walton, who in his last three games has averaged 5.3 points on 36.8% shooting. He needs a couple easy baskets to get going.

The Grizzlies Coming In: Memphis is really not playing well, having lost seven games in a row and driving fans nuts. Here’s a recent quote from Three Shades of Blue:

Memphis is struggling and struggling in a big way. Rudy Gay and Hakim Warrick don’t seem to be pleased with Lionel Hollins or the Grizzlies front office and you can’t help but suspect this has something to do with Kyle Lowry being traded. That is a huge part of the Grizzlies attack. Defensively the youngsters are routinely getting beaten to the paint and that is especially noticeable at the point where Mike Conley seems unable to stop dribble penetration despite his incredible speed and his backup, Marco Jaric, can’t throw the ball in the Mississippi River since getting married to Adriana Lima. It is still too early in the season to contemplate the team throwing games so they must really be this bad. That isn’t encouraging.

OJ Mayo seems to have hit a wall — in his last 10 games he is shooting 41% eFG% and 31% from three (he is getting to the line about 1 more time per contest).

Marco Jaric has not made one shot since he eloped with a supermodel. Not one shot. On a basketball court.

Chris Mihm will not play tonight, he continues to have ankle pain after getting increased minutes since the trade to Memphis. I just feel bad for the guy. But it shows why keeping him would not have helped our front line out.

Keys To The Game: Keep Andrew Bynum healthy. No, he is not playing tonight, but any time Memphis is the opponent that will be my top concern.

The Lakers need to re-establish some focused intensity in their game, not looking tired but looking like a team that can take care of business. The next two games against struggling teams are a chance to do that and get some rest before heading out on the road. What I hope to see is not a Lakers team playing to the level of the competition, but one that is focused and ready to get to work.

This is a game where the Lakers more aggressive defense can really work — Mayo and Gay are great off the dribble but not great (yet, at least) at setting up teammates. The Grizzlies offense is about isolations and pick-and-rolls, ones often with little passing. The Lakers need to be smart and contest the shots those two put up and not let them just get into the lane.

Fun matchup in the paint with the Gasol brothers going at one another. Marc is a solid player, but Pau is far more skilled and should be able to get his points. How much Pau scores though is not really the point, with his passing the Lakers triangle offense looks better when the ball goes through Pau.

Remember a year ago when we were talking about all the great young point guards Memphis was stockpiling? Not so much now. Fisher should be able to control Conley and get into the paint on drives. I rarely say run the pick and roll with Fish, but this might be a night to try it.

The Lakers cannot turn the ball over, that leads to breaks and easy points for an athletic team. Smart passes and good ball handling will lead Memphis to be over-aggressive in going for steals, opening up cuts and kick-outs for good looks. Just take care of the ball.

Where you can watch: 7:30 start on Fox Sports and all the usual places.

The Lakers are in Oakland to play a back-to-back game against the Golden State Warriors tonight, fresh off of a convincing win over the ATL. The Lakers will have to stay focused this is the first of several road games.

The Lakers trailed early, and then basically broke the Hawks in half with an outstanding defensive performance, lead by Pau Gasol’s triple-double, the bench mob providing tremendous energy and Lamar Odom acting like Cinnabon cinnamon and staying on a roll. He is averaging 18.5 points and 18.5 rebounds over the last four games, playing good defense and really playing up to his potential. He helped the Lakers destroy the Hawks on the boards to the tune of 63-36. The only downside was having 23 turnovers which the team will have to clean up.

This is the third meeting this season against the Warriors; Los Angeles won 130-113 on 12/28/08 & 114-106 on 1/7, a Lakers win tonight will give the team the season series. Kobe Bryant will play the role of facilitator and score 30 points.

The blowout win allowed the Lakers to rest their starters, who shouldn’t have to deal with tired legs. They’ll have to play with the same defensive intensity shown against the ATL and impose their will on Golden State. The Lakers former teammate and true warrior Ronny Turiaf will start at center matching up with Pau. This is a match up that the Lakers will exploit with the size advantage. A match up of Stephen Jackson vs. Lamar at power forward could pull him away from the basket but Lamar can play on the perimeter.

Basketball is a game of runs & match ups and Warriors Coach Don Nelson will come up with some unique match ups to get the Lakers out of their comfort zone. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Warriors repeatedly run the pick and roll play going to the basket or setting up open shots for Stephen Jackson, Joe Crawford and Kelenna Azubuike.

Monta Ellis has returned so look for the Warriors to play small ball, get in transition and attempt to run the Lakers out of the building. The Lakers are playing to their advantage running their offense and establishing Pau Gasol in the low post, attacking inside and letting him set the table for everyone else and passing the ball out to open shooters.

Both teams can score but the difference is that the Lakers are a better defensive team. They’ll have to control the tempo and the glass as well as rotate out to three point shooters.

Tipoff: 7:30 PM PST

Television -

• Los Angeles: KCAL Channel 9 HD (Joel Myers & Stu Lantz)
• Golden State: Comcast Sports Net Bay Area HD (Bob Fitzgerald & Jim Barnett)

Radio -

• Los Angeles: AM570 KLAC (Spero Dedes & Mychal Thompson)
• Golden State: KNBR Sports 680 or KNBR 1050AM (Tim Roye)

Injuries -

Lakers:

• Andrew Bynum (Knee)

Warriors:

• Andris Biedrins (Ankle)

Records: Lakers 42-10 (1st in the West) Hawks 31-21 (4th in the East)
Offensive ratings: Lakers 114.5 (1st in league) Hawks 109.5 (8th in league)
Defensive ratings: Lakers 105.5 (7th in league) Hawks 107.5 (15th in league)
Projected Starting Lineups: Lakers: Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Luke Walton, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol
Hawks Mike Bibby, Joe Johnson, Marvin Williams, Josh Smith, Al Horford

A couple of links: You may have heard there was a fight at the Lakers practice yesterday between Chris Mihm and DJ Mbenga. Check it out for yourself. I think this would have been more fun if Tim Floyd coached the Lakers.

Sasha Vujacic has a new Web site, and I have to say it’s a good one. Find out what Sasha is reading, some game and strategy stuff, just a good all around site. Check it out.

Who Is The Lakers Moneyball Player? The thing that has had me thinking the most lately — and had the NBA blogsphere buzzing — is last weekend’s piece in the NY Times Magazine about the statistical steps taken by the Rockets and how they plucked Shane Battier from obscurity to make him a key players. (I’m not sure how a guy recruited to Duke and selected sixth overall ever gets thought of as obscure, but we’ll let that question slide.)

It got me thinking (and emailing people to discuss) — who is the guy who fits that role for the Lakers? The guy whose contributions don’t always show up in the box score. And the first answer is: A lot of them. Ariza. Odom. Walton. Fisher. Farmar. The Lakers have assembled a team of good players by the new metrics, but they did it the old fashioned way.

I think Odom may be the poster boy for the Lakers guys who do the little things. It’s very hard to define Odom’s contributions because he’s a bit of a chameleon. He does just about everything on a basketball court well, but nothing spectacularly well. Still, the roundness of his game allows him to slide into the cracks and fill in this Lakers team’s weaknesses in a matchup on any given night. He rebounds well, and gets into the lane to shoot (59% of his shots are inside according to 82games), he creates mismatches at the three or the four. He is a better defender than he gets credit for. And, I think this gets overlooked, he’s a leader. He’s the guy in the middle of the circle doing the rap while the players bounce around before a Lakers game. In the Lakers locker room you can tell he is liked and respected.

I think there is one key difference between Battier and Odom, something Reed pointed out: Battier gives thought to what he is trying to do Odom plays on almost pure instinct. Those instincts lead to the “O-dumb” mistakes (coming off three point shooters to help inside when the other team just needs a three, for example). But that is what Odom is, an instinctual player whose natural tendency is to sort of fill in what the team is needing on any given night. With Bynum down the Lakers need scoring, so you see him pick that up. But, to borrow a phrase from Darius, you can’t “tie down or burden him with the expectation of statistics.” He just does what he feels needs to be done. But that that has translated to the best +/- on the team — when he is on the court the Lakers are just better. It’s that simple.

I want to add that I find the NY Times piece fascinating it seems to miss the team concepts of basketball. I mean the story does, not the Rockets staff. The story makes it sound as if Battier is out on an island. Battier is a good man-on-man defender, but what he also does very well is shade his man, pushing him toward a help defender. And, when your help is a 7-6 guy with long arms, you get guys pulling up and taking jumpers rather than trying to finish at the rim. Battier is smart to take advantage of this help, but he has it. He’d be less effective if the big help defender behind him was David Lee.

The Hawks Coming In: To find out a little more about the Hawks, I asked Brett from the smart Hoopinion about his team, and if they really are as perimeter oriented as they seem.

They’re as perimeter-oriented as they seem to be. But, they’re able to succeed with that because Smith, Williams, and Horford have all improved their back to the basket games enough that any one of them can create offense from the low post: Williams almost always for himself (he’s close to being a really good offensive player) but Smith and Horford are both good passers.

I can’t overstate the importance of Williams, Mike Bibby, Flip Murray, and Maurice Evans each having career years from behind the three-point line. I’m naturally pessimistic so take my sneaking suspicion that this year’s offensive success is neither sustainable nor fully by design.

Woodson is never going to run the offense through anyone other than Joe Johnson, matchups be damned, but he does give Bibby a free hand to do whatever he wants to do and Bibby can still get himself open 8-10 times a game and, thus far, he’s been making those shots and taking some of the offensive pressure (some of which is self-imposed, I believe) off Johnson.

On the other hand, the machinations the Hawks put themselves through to try and hide Bibby defensively border on the comic and Johnson may have taken on as much of a defensive load because of Bibby as Bibby has lightened Johnson’s offensive responsibilities. Or, Johnson might be showing the wear of attempting to finish in the top 4 in the league in minutes played for the fifth time in six years.

Keys To The Game: Let us repeat our mantra — pound the ball inside. This is not a team that protects the paint well (look what the Knicks did to them). This is another case where if the Lakers go to their length and skill advantage inside they will open things up on the wings. But things work best inside out.

The Lakers should also be able to control the glass at both ends. Easy points off offensive rebounds would be huge for the Lakers.

This might be a good night for Olympics Kobe to show up — as Brett noted above the Hawks run their offense through Joe Johnson. Nothing fancy, just isolations and some high screens out at the elbow extended. The Lakers know how to defend this, if they are focused. Shut Johnson down, make the other guys make the plays, and your chances of winning go up. Their other guys are capable, but Johnson is at the center of it all.

On defense, make Josh Smith a jumpshooter. Easier said than done, but he is a 35% jump shooter and 65% if you let him get in close. Pull back, take away the drive and dare him to put up a jumper.

On offense, the Lakers need to be smart with passes — the Hawks are long and athletic and will play to deny the pass, particularly on the wings. The Hawks are a good transition team that can be slowed down, but turn the ball over with sloppy passes and you will give them a lot of easy buckets that they need to win.

The other thing is the Hawks, to make up for their size, will double the post. That will leave room for Pau to hit cutters — it could be a good night for the Gasol/Odom high-low game.

Where you can watch: Back home for a 7:30 start at Staples. Fox Sports locally and NBA TV nationally (which means you NBA broadband people will be scrambling. Sorry).

Episode VI: Return of the Odom: Bill Bridges thinks we have have seen the start of a different Lamar Odom:

In the 1984 finals, his team was bullied, his power forward literally clotheslined. The Lakers were Intimidated and then finally beaten by the Boston Celtics, a team the Lakers had never beaten since their move out west.

Fast forward a year. Pat Riley heard a year of talk about how his team was soft, good enough for show time but not tough enough to win. It was then. prior to the rematch that he told his team what his father had told him. “Just remember what I always taught you. Somewhere, someplace, sometime, you’re going to have to plant your feet, make a stand and kick some ass. And when that time comes, you do it.”

It was the spirit of Lee Riley that Lamar Odom channeled on February 5th 2008. “Sometimes you’ve just got to make a stand. Tonight, we made a stand.”

If history repeats itself it must do so on 24 year cycles. The finesse team from Los Angeles goes into Boston and kicked sand into the bully’s face. As it was in 1985, so it shall be in 2009.

“Cathartic? I don’t know what cathartic means. I didn’t go to college” Kobe Bryant may not know what cathartic means but Lamar Odom embodied it.

We might have witnessed the transformation of LO. For so long he has tantalized us with a unique combination of size, speed, and skills. Always disappointing instead with inconsistency and lack of focus and fortitude. Can a moment be so cathartic for an individual? Can transformation happen in an instant?

Stephen Jay Gould amended Darwin by showing that evolution happens in an instant (geologically speaking). Punctuated Equilibrium rather than a gradual crawl. Evolution is Revolution.

What are the traits keeping LO back from greatness. Not skills. Not size. Not athleticism. But focus, determination, concentration, will. Maybe he finally got it. Finally realized he has to let go to move forward. Phil started the process by having LO come off the bench for the first time in his life. Humility shatters the illusions of the ego that prevent growth. By letting go, maybe LO now can play in the moment. Present, focused, determined.

“Basketball is a humiliating sport, it can humble you right in the middle of the game,” Odom said. “But tonight I just left all that behind.”

Character is shaped not by success but reaction to failure. Evolution only occurs change in environmental stress favours a new variant of the species. Without stress no growth. Andrew Bynum’s injury, especially due to the deja vu nature, created cruel and violent stress. But also an opportunity for growth and evolution. How this team, on this trip, reprising the character of 1985 has responded to this stress been gratifying to us all. How LO, in this game matched the passion of KG, looked the bullies in the eye and, in the end, won the game, might be the true blessing arising from the misfortune in Memphis.

We sensed the change even during the game. Any other game, you would despair at seeing LO at the line with one free throw to tie and two the win. But for the first time since he became a Laker, somehow I knew he would sink both. And he did.

The last week in Lakers Land: From kwame a.:

Sat, Jan. 31: Humming along on the roadie, Drew goes down and is left screaming in pain. Can’t help but think the worst, even while drinking at a wedding reception, can’t stop thinking about Drew being out for the year.

Sun, Feb. 1: Super Bowl Sunday is a subdued affair, waiting for the word on Drew, only to hear the damn doctor couldn’t look at the MRI. Even while enjoying some delicious fat tire ale, and watching a great football game, I’m nervous as hell bad news is looming.

Mon, Feb. 2: Kobe comes out firing early at MSG and you knew he was in that mode. After a virtuoso performance, he ends up with 61, which tempers the earlier news that Drew is out for 8-12 weeks.

Tue, Feb. 3: A day to re-think just how amazing Kobe really is, the fact he has done it for a decade straight, all with the same cold-blooded determination. We are all lucky to be able to have seen his career.

Wed, Feb. 4: The team buckles down in the 4th after some rag-tag play, and led by Pau and Kobe beat the Raptors, 4-0 on the trip, but Gasol goes 45 minutes, how in the hell do we win in Boston tomorrow without AB?!?

Thurs, Feb. 5: Against all odds, and sometimes 3 zebras, the Lakers prevail in OT, showing the requisite “machismo” the mainstream media has lusted for all year. Fans and players know its only a regular season game, but the win felt like it could have important psychological ramifications for the team going forward.

Fri, Feb. 6: Talking heads and typing bloggers argue and debate the BOS/LA classic, arguing over whether the refs were at fault for the C’s loss, what the win meant for the Lakers and what the loss meant for the C’s. Such reaction to a regular season game is rare, even forcing Kurt to reaffirm FBG’s commitment to civil dialogue.

Sat, Feb. 7: While thinking this would be a slow day, I get a text message that we made a trade. I immediately doubt it, but then, there it, confirmed on FBG, Vlad for Morrison and Shanny.

For many teams this type of week would be the most memorable in franchise history. For the Lakers, it’s just another week. With a chance to break the Cavs perfect home record, I can’t wait to see what this next week brings.

Cleveland Coming In: Everyone talks about LeBron and what Mo Williams has brought to the table, but the reason Cleveland is one of the top teams in the NBA is defense.

They are second overall in defensive efficiency (lowest PPG because they play at a slow pace). They do it by limiting shooting percentages with solid perimeter defense and some long arms and big bodies in the paint that can block and alter shots.

Part of that is Ilgauskas, he is quietly the key to this team. They need his scoring as a big, his presence and length inside. With him in the lineup they score fore more points a game. With him they are 28-4, without him 11-5.

Last Time They Met: The Lakers handed the Cavs their worst start of the season back in January. We can take nothing much from that game, the Cavs were without Big Z. and Delonte West. As stated above, with Z in the lineup they are a different team.

Keys to the Game: One of the things that has been a problem for the Lakers this season is teams with a center who can step out and hit the jumper, pulling the help defender away from the basket. That is a basic tenent of the Cavs offense — Big Z lives in the corner as a spot-up guy on the three. The Lakers are going to have to defend the P&R without a simple backstop, they need to be smart about it.

On the other end, we seem to always talk about getting Gasol involved, and the Lakers need to because he is hot — in the last four games he is shooting 69.4%, scoring 27 per and adding 13 boards.

In the last meeting Kobe did a good job denying LeBron and making him work for his points. I expect to see that again, the goal is to force the other Cavs to beat you, the problem is that they can in this meeting far better than they did in the last meeting

Kobe Bryant has to play with his team, he cannot get sucked into a one-on-one deal with LeBron. It’s one thing to do that against the Knicks (and shooting 60% while doing it) but in this game it is not a winning strategy.

Where to watch: 12:30 on ABC, after a pretty interesting Spurc/Celtics game.

The 35-8 Lakers host the 18-26 Charlotte Bobcats at Staples center looking to improve their home record to 24-3. The Lakers, back at full strength with a healthy Jordan Farmar, made a statement Sunday by laying a 14-point beat down on the Spurs. The win gave them a six game lead over the second best team in the Western Conference.

The two best things about the win over San Antonio was the return of Jordan Farmar, whose energy and 14 points gave the team a huge lift and holding the Spurs to 37.5 percent shooting.

The Lakers must continue their winning ways against the Bobcats. At first, this game appears to be one that the Lakers will win by 20 although Charlotte always seems to play the Lakers tough. According to Stats Inc., The Lakers have split their eight all-time meetings and have lost four of their last five including the past two at Staples Center.

The Lakers beat the Bobcats on the road 2/11/08 last season 106-97 behind Kobe’s 31 points and ironically lost by 13 to them 108-95 at home 3/26/08.

This is a different Bobcats team, after the trade with Phoenix that allowed them to add Raja Bell, Boris Diaw and Sean Singletary; Head Coach Larry Brown has them playing well as of late, so the Lakers cannot take them lightly. This team has won five of their last seven but lost their last game to the Pacers 98-93.

Another interesting fact is that prior to the loss to the Pacers, the Bobcats held their previous six opponents to an average of 85.3 points.

The Lakers need to come out aggressively from the start, jump on the Bobcats early and impose their will on them. The Lakers displayed an impressive defensive game Sunday which has to happen every night. The Lakers need to show the Bobcats what it’s like to play the best by breaking them in half.

I’m looking forward to seeing excellent player movement and ball movement and seeing the team end each quarter strong. Jordan Farmar’s return allows the team to return everyone to their natural positions and the team the opportunity to speed up the pace of the game.

The Lakers need to throw the ball into the low post and allow Andrew Bynum & Pau Gasol to go to work. Andrew has become a presence in the painted area.

The team has an advantage with their long front line and will win by controlling the tempo, glass, stopping dribble penetration and rotating out to three point shooters.

Tipoff: 7:30 PM PST

Television -

• Los Angeles: Fox Sports West 1 HD (Joel Myers & Stu Lanz)
• Charlotte: Fox Sports Carolinas HD (Steve Martin & Henry Williams)

Radio -

• Los Angeles: AM570 KLAC (Spero Dedes & Mychal Thompson)
• Charlotte: WOLS 106.1 FM (Scott Lauer)

Injuries -

Lakers:

• None to report.

Bobcats:

• D.J. Augustin  (Abdominal Strain)

The 31-6 Lakers remain on the road for the second stop on their ‘Texas two-step” a match up with the San Antonio Spurs.

The Lakers made the 45 minute flight after beating the Rockets. TNT has a TV show named ‘The Closer’, but it is also yet another name that can be added to the long list of names for Kobe Bryant.He scored 13 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter and once again ruined the Rockets upset bid last night with a shot that can only be described as ‘unbelievable’.

He is simply the best closer in the game. As nice as it was to see the Lakers had a bad shooting game without a good scoring run, except for Trevor Ariza who played lights out. Also, Lamar Odom returned and his contribution were huge. The Rockets fought Los Angeles to the wire.

The Lakers outplayed the short-handed Rockets down the stretch, survived the Von Wafer (a career-high 23 points) & Carl Landry (a season-high 21 points) onslaught and outscored them in the fourth quarter.

Tonight the Lakers face their old rivals the Spurs, the team they beat in the Western Conference Finals. Their season series begins tonight; both teams have ruled the West for most of the last decade, combining for 9 of the last 10 conference titles and seven league Championships.

The Lakers have won their last 4 games and 10 of their last 11, averaging 108.5 points in that span with Kobe averaging more than 30 points per game. Slowing Tony Parker will be a team effort. Manu Ginobli missed a lot of time last season and has struggled to get on track this season he’s shooting a career-worst 33.3 percent from 3-point range and averaging 14.5 points.

The home team won all four of the match ups in 2007-2008. The Spurs will lean on Tim Duncan who has a career average of 23 points and 12.8 rebounds in 68 career games against the Lakers.

The Spurs are a solid defensive team but the Lakers need to throw the ball into the low post and allow Andrew Bynum & Pau Gasol to go to work.

The Lakers defense needs to improve. The team has an advantage with their long front line and will win by controlling the tempo, glass, stopping dribble penetration and rotating out to three point shooters.

Tipoff: 6:00 PM PST

Television -

• Los Angeles: KCAL HD (Joel Myers & Stu Lantz)
• San Antonio: ESPN HD, KENS HD (Bill Land & Sean Elliott)

Radio -

• Los Angeles: AM570 KLAC (Spero Dedes & Mychal Thompson)
• San Antonio: WOAI 1200 AM (Bill Schoening)

Injuries -

Lakers:

• Jordan Farmar (Knee)
• Luke Walton (Foot)
• Sasha Vujacic (Back Spasms)

Spurs:

None to report.