<div align="center">@ <font color="purple">The Los Angeles Lakers (27-24)</font> @ <font color="red">The Los Portland TrailBlazers (21-30)</font> Time: 7:00 PM Pacific Place: The Rose Garden TV: KCAL, NBALP</div> <div align="center"><font size="5"><font color="purple">Lakers' Head Coach</font></font> <font color="purple">Frank Hamblen</font></div> <div align="center"><font size="5"><font color="purple"> Lakers' Projected Starting Lineup</font></div></font> <div align="center"> <font color="purple">(Chucky Atkins, Kobe Bryant, Jumaine Jones, Lamar Odom, Chris Mihm) *Caron is doubtful </font></div> <div align="center"><font size="5"><font color="red">Blazers' Head Coach</font></font> <font color="red">Maurice Cheeks</font></div> <div align="center"><font size="5"><font color="red">Blazers' Projected Starting Lineup</font></font> <font color="red">(Sebastian Telfair, Damon Stoudamire, Ruben Patterson, Zach Randolph, Theo Ratliff) *Nick Van Exel will miss the game for personal reasons *Shareef Abdur-Rahim is eligible for the game</font> </div> <div align="center"><font size="5">Bench Factors</font> (<font color="purple">Brian Cook</font>,<font color="red">Shareef Abdur-Rahim</font>) </div> <div align="center"><font size="5">Key Matchup</font> (<font color="purple">Lamar Odom</font>, <font color="red">Zach Randolph</font>) <font color="purple">Lamar Odom:</font> 15.8 ppg, 3.4 apg, and 10.30 rpg <font color="red">Zach Randolph:</font>18.9 ppg, 2.0 apg, and 9.7 rpg</div> <font size="5">Keys to the Game</font> <font color="purple">Los Angeles:</font> <ul> [*]PG play- Last night, Chucky got into serious foul trouble, picking up 3 fouls in 4 minutes, tonight with Sebastian seeing a lot of minutes, he needs to stay out of trouble so he can take advantage of the rookie. [*]Ball Control- The Lakers looked like a HS team out there last night, sloppy passes, misques, turnovers, they need to control the ball and the tempo of the game. [*]Lamar- With trade talks swirling around his name, Lamar came out and put in 21 points and 11 boards. He was very clutch down the stretch for the Lakers, he lead the team to the victory last night. Lets do it again Lamar. [/list] <font color="red">Portland:</font> <ul> [*]Force Turnovers- The Lakers had a bad game last night controlling the ball, their stat sheet only shows 13 turnovers, but there should of been more. If Portland can apply pressure and get the crowd behind them, things will be much easier. [*]Injury-returning Players- Zach and Shareef are both returning from injuries. Zach has missed the last two games, and Shareef has been out with injuries. Their effect on the game can be great, they are 2 of the Blazers key players, having good games will really help them. [*]Boxing out- Last night the Lakers grabbed 21 offensive rebounds, the Blazers can't allow Lamar and Mihm to pull that many boards down again or they will lose, box out, give the Lakers one opportunity to score. [/list] <font size="5"> Prediction</font> L.A. should add another win to their column, making it a 2 game win streak, I take L.A. 102-98.
Lakers by 6. The Blazers need to make some moves, and also a coaching move. The Lakers should play great considering they didnt play well in the win vs. Boston, Kobe will torch the Blazers like he always seems to do.
Have to point it out that if the lakers win tonight, that would make it a season high 3 Game winning streak I think the lakers have a better chance of winning it then losing it. But portland have always given LA trouble, and the lakers struggle on the road. Ill take LA, but it wont be by much.
Does anyone know if Caron accompanied the Lakers on the trip up to Portland? That could be a huge indicator of a trade...
I didn't see Caron on the bench last night, and I haven't heard anything regarding him playing tonight or even making the trip to Portland. We probably won't know until tipoff. Thanks for covering me on the preview today, looks great! I'm going to also go with the Lakers tonight, but it will be a close one. Hopefully Mihm can have another big game for us against a physical Portland team. Kobe always licks his chops when he has Patterson on him, so I expect Kobe to bring his A game tonight and go for 30. The Lakers need to stay out of foul trouble tonight, and not put themselves in a position to lose. Keeping the game under 100 points usually means a Laker win, so my prediction is 103-98 for the Lakers!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kobe 8 Ball:</div><div class="quote_post">Joel Pryzbilla is killin us tonight, he is really active.</div> He's the only though. The Lakers went on a nice run to close out the first quarter, Lakers lead 27-18. The team looks sharp tonight so far and the energy on defense has picked up.
We are leading at half...Kobe is shooting great, 6-9 with 15. Lets keep up this play. Wow, Nick Van Exel is also playing...he was supposed to miss today, sorry about that
Lakers won 86-83... I missed the game only like the 2nd game i totally missed all season and man i feel bad, but they won so that makes my day (its 7:50am)...i check the box score, only Kobe(31pts) and Pierre Brown(11pts) scored in double figures for the lakeshow. Kobe and lamar both had team high 6 assists a peice. Lakers shot a tad over 41% from the feild while holding port to under 40% for the game. <u> THATS 3 IN A ROW!!!!</u> Thats reason for all laker fans to be happy as its the first 3 game win streak of the season for us and we sure need all the W's we can get.
Whoops! lol you sir are correct! ...thanks for catching that, im on my girl's pc and im sitting so far away from the pc, i thought the 11 was by Jumanji's name. Suprising to some that Tierre scored in double digits im sure.
well tierr did play good basketball today. not a lot of turnovers from him and he got a nice alleyoop for lamar. and we won against a healthy blazers team w/o caron. good win for the lakers.
That was an awesome game. Living in toronto we get alot of Laker games, but its nice to get some TB games once in a while. I'll always shake my head. They are perrenial underachievers. A few years back with all the good players that went through this team...Scottie Pippen, Rasheed, Smith, Davis, Sabonis, JRider, BGrant, Stoudamire, Wells, Schrempf, Kemp, Strickland, I mean, this years team isn't as good, but they have alot of good players. This team has enough good players to make the playoffs. Mighty mouse, ZRand, TRat, Shreef, NVE, DAnderson, DMiles, I think this team will always be cursed
The Lakers played well last night as a TEAM. They had 20 assists on 32 makes, and the team shot .900 from the FT line, led by Kobe's 13-13. It was a huge improvement over last night's game against the Celtics. The Lakers were able to hold off the Blazers run and hold onto the 86-83 victory. The bench was big for the team again and Tierre Brown played well when Chucky Atkins got into early foul trouble. Brian Grant and Jumaine Jones gave the Lakers a lot of energy on the boards and negated Reef's big game off the Portland bench. The Lakers win again holding another team under 100. The Lakers were making the extra pass last night and it players were making the open looks. I also liked Kobe's post game interview. "Come back Butler, we need you."
Ugh, I messed up in the preview...I meant to put in Luke Walton... Anywho, great win by the Lakers...I loved it, played as a team, Kobe was good...Lamar wasn't there offensively, but his rebounding and assist game was on.
