Lakers v Bucks 12.21.2010

Denver misses Brandon Jennings:

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I don't believe in God. Not even a Spinozan logical God as the first cause of all causes. But I still pray that Lamar Odom becomes an All-Star. I forgive you for the '08 finals. I realize that you and Luke were the only ones who had Kobe's back in the pre-Gasol medieval times. 

Whatever team you play on is ridiculously better with you ont he floor. You will never be appreciated so I'm renouncing my membership with the Brights and asking 'Hov to get you int he All-Star game. 

And I swear that I wrote all of this before seeing that back-to-the-basket-behind-the-back-beauty to art model Artest. 

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Imagine if Kobe suddenly aged 15 years and had to play against the Bucks' 2s today. He'd still drop 30 on 46% and hit the game winner. Simply gorgeous. Kobe used every inch of his frame and moved his body in space in exactly the right way to create enough leverage and/or balance to loft a shot into the rim. The mechanics of his movement could even put '98 Airness to shame. 

How can dominance be so quiet?

On an unrelated note, I fully expect to see Bogut on Twitter again complaining about Kobe's travel + three point play. It only seems to happen against Bogut. 

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In my last post, I dicussed the stellar adj. +/- of Ilyasova and how if the Bucks knew what was good for them and listened to Denver, they would give Ersan some more burn. Well, Scott Skiles found my post while doing an unrelated search for pornography involving girls in Denver drinking Foster's beer and today the Lakers paid. 

His focused mug works way better than Bogut's oh-my-god-i'm-seeing-double-what-happened-last-night-at-Outback face. 

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'Drew on the bench is actually an optimal configuration but theoretically it won't be radically different in terms of the Maverick's flexibility in choosing lineups. We saw this LO-Bynum-Kobe lineup early in '010 and its pleasing in short spurts, especially if say Pau Gasol was being bullied by Aussie and Turkish big men. 

Matt Barnes had a rare off-night too. I was begging for more Luke/Artest. Perhaps it was the trauma of being called on Twitter by someone with the word "deepthroat" in her Twitter handle. 

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Is it okay to bring up that bullshit about the Lakers being soft? Or do the printing presses of Los Angeles still run on hyperbole?

Whatever, we just got Boykinsed. 

Lakers (19-7) v Sixers: LO

Denver forms notions of a game that does not give itself easily to any meaningful representations:

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The book on Eric Snow when he was playing was as a tough minded defender who could occassionally knock down shots. Hell, for a while, he traded AI second option status with Aaron Mckie. Now, he's resigned to being a gravelly voiced color man who bows down to Kobe and extolls the dominance of the Lakers. Needless to say, I prefer color guys who at least pretend they still care about what went down when they played. 

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My Matt Barnes love affair only grows after seeing pump himself up after making a 4th quarter corner three. It was somehow even better than Ron Artest talking to himself. I don't even care about his incredible adj. +/-, this guy just belongs on the court; it's a shame NBA teams do not really see it my way. 

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Another day, another Kobe injury. Won't faze him. Hopefully it won't become arthritic. He knows what to do. 

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Idiots look at LO's box score today and ask, "Hey, why doesn't he do that every game? Man, the Lakers would be dominant then." Yes, why doesn't he do that every day? It's not like he's playing with an all-world center, a historically high usage shooting guard and a team stacked with veterans who could each put up 15 every night. Why does he focus on the intangibles, work selflessly and post historically amazing +/- numbers? What is the matter with him? Must be the Kardashian thing, messing with his mind, not making him 'show up' like he did today. 

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Basketball has left Philadelphia. Running, jumping and yelling remain but Basketball has left. 

Lakers (18-7) v Pacers 12.15.2010: Bynum, Pau-ey Franchise, Denver's Killer B Crush

Cutting open the mind and severing that fancy sounding thing which connects the right brain to the left brain told us a lot about how we function. Providing exegesis of both the Lakers and the Pacers against as they compete against will surely test Denver's resolve. 

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Pau can be the franchise if we let him be.

Generally, Kobe and Pau are 5 and 6 in PER (it's handy if immensely flawed, adj. +/- is favoring Gasol by a pretty wide margin right now although historically Kobe, Artest, Odom and Walton are the biggest stars) and it's beautiful.

Kobe is clearly a 3rd quarter savant. Think the legendary Game 5 2010 Finals v Celtics. Coming out of halftime, he has a clear conception of what he wants to do and Phil gives him the burn to ignite. 

4th quarters are pretty good too. The Goatee must have something to do with it.

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Does anyone else discern a racial subtext every time the white broadcasters for some mid western team calls them "a traveling circus." Who among them contributes to the circus? Pau Gasol, who could pass for a lost, very tall U.N. ambassador? Kobe, who, at this point, just hangs out with his kids, wears pilgrim hats and likes to bullshit with Obama? Lamar Odom, who puts traditional notions of selflessness to shame? 

I'll give you Artest, but you made him this way Indiana. If you want to see wild creatures look at the press corps (excepting Trudell, Teaford, Ding, Markazi and the McTen bro) who seize upon the smallest sarcastic remark to trace fissures at the team's seams.

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Andrew Bynum is a psychological boon at this point. Like a soldier cured of a nasty case of phantom limb through hypnosis, the Lakers simply have to believe that Bynum is there to have their collective backs and his atrocious plus/minus is quickly absolved and the team gets ready to clobber. 

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Ron Artest has clearly been drinking the other Ron's Ron Ron Juice. 

Steals, lay-ups, assists. Please God. Give him his threes back. I will ask no more. 

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To use a crude Simmons-ian metric Gasol will chew up MMA-bro Hibbert in retaliation even though he's not the type to retaliate. 

The Lakers have a secret toughness. They're the Paul Dano to the Celtics' Daniel Day Lewis. Each team is insane/tough in their own way. The Celtics beat you up. The Lakers make you think you're playing the game wrong. 

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Woe is Dahntay Jones. Gone is an overrated Kobe-stopper. In his place is a Sundiata Gaines look-a-like who gets slightly less playing time. 

His Indiana team should be a good story. Shockingly deep for what they are. Possible cap space in the future. A 1,3,5 and some bench players who need not be sacrificed to the gods of mediocre basketball. 

But the league is perverse. The Pacers will make the playoffs, draft a player in the early 20s who will not put them over the top and they will be left squeezing out narrow wins against the Raptors for all eternity. 

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As the futility wears on, I begin to wonder how Kobe/Chuck Person crack each other up. 

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Mark these pixels: Steve Blake will eventually bury a dagger three in the playoffs. This man is for real. He's got Zen like focus that I'm sure one old man, an old 1 and an aging 2 on the bench saw right away. 

Matt Barnes. Thank god Orlando doesn't understand adj. +/-, so we have this fiesty super glue guy. 

Shannon Brown. You can not only jump and shoot when set. You can run. Please use your speed accordingly.

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Keep your emotions in check, Denver. Revenge doesn't show up in the Hollinger Computer Elf Generated Rankings. 

But that voluptuous scoring margin sure does. 

Also, triangle sets with Kobe, Pau and Luke. Blake and Lamar on the weakside. I cannot forsake it and neither can the Maverick. 

Extended Pressing: The Bynum Blues

Human beings, as they are wont to do, either spend too much time mired in the past, hoping it will predict the future or an obscene amount of time waiting for the future to come. If you're not Kobe Bryant or Derek Fisher, the present is beyond your grasp. 

Thus, we are left with two things weighing on the mind:

1. If Bynum comes back, he might just get injured again and we'll be fucked. 

2. We can't keep playing Pau and Lamar for 40 every night. Bynum needs to come back. Why don't we just roll over agains the Bulls in the mean time?

Either way, the non Fish, Kobe contingent on the Lakers is left with the Bynum Blues. A state of uncertainty which creeps forth every year when you don't know if a ten mil plus portion of your team will be present or not. 

Houston was stuck for so many years having to craft their mindsets around T-Macs knees. Orlando with Grant. Portland with Oden obviously. 

The Lakers are not invulnerable to wondering when someone who could be the highest PER earner on the team will be able to walk without wobbling.