At LA Lakers November 16th, 10:30 PM

TV - ESPN, FSDHD

Kobe is still in LA and well, he is still Kobe. He is avg 28.3 ppg at the time of this post, good for 2nd in the league behind T-Mac. The Lakers have impressive wins thus far - against the Jazz and Suns.

This will be an interesting game.

The Lakers are now at full strength for the first time in ages.

Tuesday night the Spurs defense shut them down to open up what was a close game. This is not the first time that the Spurs have done this to another team. LOL. Bowen also went bezerk on three point goals and made 6 of 6 against them.

The Lakers looked better tonight but the Rockets lost T-Mc at half time due to a sprained elbow on a freakish injury so Bonzi played most of the second half in his place. A definite fall off for Houston.

The Lakers have moved Odom to the #3 so he will match up with Tay. Odom is long like Tay but bigger. Tay will definitely have his hands full.

If Dyess is still out Maxey will start against Turiaf which really should be interesting. Two really high energy guys. Turiaf will bang with Maxey.

Brown is back starting at center and he is a pretty good defender when his head is in the game, which you never know in advance if it will be or not. I would look for Sheed to try and draw him away from the basket.

Fisher has helped to stabilize the Laker back court.

Kobe is Kobe, but keep a close eye on his defense, it could hurt us.

The Lakers have a real good bench. Better than ours. Rodmanovich is not injured this year and can put up threes in bunches again like he did before he was was injured last year. He played with an injured hand last year and for the most part was not very effective to say the least. His hand is better and he is a definite three point threat.

Bynum is solid in the center and tough under the boards. I don't think, other than maybe AJ we have anyone coming off the bench that can keep Bynum off the glass. Though I expect Saunders to put Nazr in to match up some of the time with Bynum. Bynum plays a lot more minutes than Nazr so it will only be some of the time. I don't think that Nazr can do much with Bynum but hopefully I will be wrong. I don't expect Saunders to put AJ in ahead of Nazr to match up with Bynum because of Bynums weight, which is probably at least 30 pounds more than AJ. Hopefully I will be wrong on this. I would love to see Bynum and AJ go at it.

Farmer's game has really improved in his second year. He is scoring close to double figures and tonight had 9 rebounds.

Walton has been downgraded to the second unit and his still trying to find his footing as a sub, but he is still a well rounded player who does a lot of things well.

Mo E. is their other guy in the second unit and we know what his game entails.

I think it will be a tough game Friday against the Lakers. This is not the same team that limped with injuries out of April and into May last year. They are healthy and lot better.

They are however, very turnover prone. So if we can force them into turnovers and capitalize on that along with keeping them off their offensive glass, we have a shot at winning.

Here's a thought. We often have that debate about Phil Jackson being a great coach for winning so many championships vs. just being lucky to have superstar teams at the time. Aren't the Pistons right now validating the argument that Phil is in fact a superb coach? We have a team that I think all of us feel is capable of winning championships (and should have been winning the last few years), but falls short because they don't have a great coach. Makes me respect a coach like Phil a little more.

It seems like your conclusion should be that you respect Saunders less.

It's funny right before we're playing all these Kobe to DET rumoured trade stuff come out.

Big game for Tay (hopefully!). Put him in LA and he plays well.

As for who wins i don't know. Kobe could go off. Hell, Bynum could go off.

Crossing my fingers Amir/Afflalo plays.

Turiaf may miss this game too.

Turiaf's ankle injury leaves a hole in lineup

Sheed should have a monster game again if Turiaf is out.

Both teams have injury issues, so it is a toss-up of who will play, who will step up and who will win.

You never really know what Laker team will show up..

Ticket prices to high for me, I will have to wait for when they come back to play the Clippers.

Dre, do ticket prices for Lakers vs. Clippers games vary depending on who the "home team" is? Of course, I'm guessing that the Clippers' generally lower prices go up to meet the higher demand whenever they play the Lakers "at home."

Except maybe when they play the Lakers the Clippers almost always have single game walk up tickets available. I believe that the price of a walk up single game ticket for a certain seat at Staples during a Clippers game remains the same regardless of whom they are playing.

The parking lot price and other second or third market prices for a certain seat will vary based upon supply and demand.

interesting game to watch. Looking forward Tay shoting down Cobe. Is CB playing tonight?