holy crap! how unlucky can lakers be?! fab four becomes one. with only payton left he should get a big help from the other guys. george is shooting poorly and so is fisher. slava is a good offensive player but needs to improve his defense. lakers is getting killed in rebounds. let's just hope that the 3 injured stars returns healthy.
He reinjured his right shoulder - the one operated on last year in the offseason that he hurt on a missed dunk against Minnesota. His injury isn't that serious, just quite painful. If he does miss games, it'll only be one or two.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Martin:</div><div class="quote_post">What kind of injury does he have?If it's serious then it's going to be hard for the Lakers.</div> They said its a slightly separated shoulder. Sounds pretty bad, and I thought it was maybe the dumbest thing I've ever seen to let him come back in to play before they got the test results. Fab four down to the underachieving and so far very disappointing Payton. Are the Lakers screwed? Yeah, for the next 3+ games atleast.
This might be serious trouble folks, that shoulder was killing Kobe last year down the stretch and was apparent in the way he played. If Shaq and Karl can come back within the next week as scheduled, I would consider sitting Kobe for at least 6 to 8 games, just to make sure the injury doesn't get worse. The fact that Kobe was unable to continue really worries me, he's usually able to play through pain.
Obviously you guys have never seen Payton hold up a team by himself. The Lakers will be fine. I believe Devean George is an excellent player, but doesn't get to shoot enough because of all the stars on the Lakers. From what I have seen in games, George is an excellent shooter. Payton and George will do their part. Just hope that Fisher, Medvedenko, Russell, Grant and Rush play good games.
George plays on motivation. When he doesn't start off well, he loses motivation and doesn't play well, making for someone who's very inconsistent. Slava is decent, as is Russell, but Grant is really getting old and I question his gameplay and endurance, Fisher is being forced into a reduced role, even without the stars, and really, Rush is still a rookie. And as much as you want to believe it, Payton isn't going to carry a team of 6-23 shooting or whatever he had tonight.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AllBoutDaPacers:</div><div class="quote_post">Obviously you guys have never seen Payton hold up a team by himself. The Lakers will be fine. I believe Devean George is an excellent player, but doesn't get to shoot enough because of all the stars on the Lakers. From what I have seen in games, George is an excellent shooter. Payton and George will do their part. Just hope that Fisher, Medvedenko, Russell, Grant and Rush play good games.</div> Personally I can say that I have seen GP hold up a team by himself, he's been doing it since his days at Oregon State. I watched him carry his team then, I also watched him carry his team in Seattle. Reguardless of that fact, it's going to take more than Gary alone to keep this team afloat without Kobe, Shaq, and Karl. The Lakers are going to have to squeeze every ounce of ability out of Kareem Rush, George, Medvedenko, Brian Cook, and every other player that steps onto the court. GP will be the key to making this happen and I expect him to do his best to make sure that it does. But this is not a 25 year old Payton, he's obviously not as quick defensively, nor is he able to knock down the jumpshot like he did in his prime. I'm not saying that he's not still a very good player, but that at this point in his career he can no longer carry a team on his shoulders alone. The Lakers should get at least two of those three missing pieces back before the week is over, so I'm not going to stress about it too much. Just hope that Kobe's injury isn't too serious, even surgically repaired joints and ligaments can continue to be painful, nagging injuries for long periods of time.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AllBoutDaPacers:</div><div class="quote_post">Obviously you guys have never seen Payton hold up a team by himself. The Lakers will be fine. I believe Devean George is an excellent player, but doesn't get to shoot enough because of all the stars on the Lakers. From what I have seen in games, George is an excellent shooter. Payton and George will do their part. Just hope that Fisher, Medvedenko, Russell, Grant and Rush play good games.</div> Lakers will be fine? Better stop there, right when we get some sort of confidence of winning again Kobe goes down with an injury. Payton can carry a team, as we've seen him do in Seattle, but it's still shaky. If Kobe does miss games, we will see what the Lakers role players are really all about, and if they can step up or not. Next 3 games are Denver, Sac-Town, Clippers, doesn't look good for us Laker fans right now.
How come no one talks about Cook? He's a hard worker, big man with great shooting ability. Also GP's overated he's not as good as he use to be. Poor Kobe, he works too hard, he's like TMac, he wants to win too badly. I hope he gets better soon, the Lakers are in terrible shape....
Well T-mac has a bad ass attitude, Kobe just shuts up and plays ball, I am a spursfan, But Kobe is my fav player, I respect him a lot, He works his ass off, And he just plays hard!!!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Joel-33:</div><div class="quote_post">Well T-mac has a bad ass attitude, Kobe just shuts up and plays ball, I am a spursfan, But Kobe is my fav player, I respect him a lot, He works his ass off, And he just plays hard!!!</div> That's true Joel, good point, but Basketball is a very intense and physical sport. I mean look at K-Mart and Rasheed Wallace. Very verbal players, Barkley was too. Plus TMac is improving, it's just the game getting to him, he works very hard and isn't as nice as say KG who only ever gets mad at himself but still he's admirable, not as much as KG but he gets the job done. He's the opposite of Marbury, I know Marbury isn't a ballhog anymore but more in the sense, that TMac is someone who wants to win so badly, even if he wants to do it himself. Hence his rather strange approach, trying to do it by himself, geez. Anyway I was probably going off topic there, back to Kobe. Yes he is a hard worker, plus he's good, that's a very deadly combination. KG is the perfect example of that he nevers lets up, Ron Artest and Ben Wallace are others. Kobe is such a great player that he'd be willing to sacrifice his welfare for the win, for the game and for the team. He's under alot of pressure and is handling it very well, he deserves alot of respect.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting KG is the MVP:</div><div class="quote_post">karma</div> ...haha... This SUCKS for laker fans..SUCKS...but I am not a laker fan..more of a sacto person myself...so im happy
Who ever said taht GP hold teams together, he had help...up in Milwaukee he had Dmason, Sam Cassell...granted tehy didnt go anywhere, he still had them, and in Seattle, he had Shard, Kemp, when he was good...and others, the Lakers are going to need George and someone else to step up, i would Start Medvedenko at the C and let Cook start at PF so he can shoot, he has a beautiful touch, and let GP run the offense the way he wants....this doesnt look good right now.
this really sucks, the lakers got to have kobe and deffiently shaq back to win. Hopely when april come the whole team will be healthy and can go on to win the champinship.
It's pretty scary enough for a Laker fan to watch on national television backup players. This will be a huge challenge for Gary Payton now. He must provide 100% veteran leadership, and motivation to these young players until the superstars come back 100% healthy. Brian Cook has some promise, he can control the boards, and has a decent outside shot. Jamal Sampson is also an excellent rebounder, and it clearly showed last night. Kareem Rush penetrated to the hoop, made outside shots, and Devean played well down the stretch to win. Our starting lineup may be young, but us Laker fans should hang in there. Thank God this happened in early January and not in the closing months of the season. Possible starting lineup for the next several games: PG: Gary Payton SG: Kareem Rush SF: Devean George PF: Slava Medvedenko C: Horace Grant Relax Laker fans. This crisis will soon be over.
Wow, that team really sucks. I've seen Payton keep his team in competition, but never carry a team to victories over powerhouses. Until one of the other stars gets back, this is garbage time for the Lakers.
Kobe to miss five games <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Kobe Bryant is expected to miss at least five games and could be sidelined for several weeks with a sprained right shoulder. The Los Angeles Lakers' star was injured when he was fouled by Kedrick Brown late in the first quarter of a 89-79 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night. Lakers coach Phil Jackson said Tuesday that Bryant won't need surgery but probably will go on the injured list. Bryant had an MRI exam Tuesday morning, and the results were not as bad as feared.</div> http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=1707601
