<div align="center">@ <font color="purple">The Los Angeles Lakers (28-25)</font> @ <font color="purple">The Toronto Raptors (23-32)</font> Time: 10:00 AM Pacific Place: Air Canada Center TV: KCAL, Telemundo</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, Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, Chris Mihm) </font></div> <div align="center"><font size="5"><font color="purple">Raptors' Head Coach</font></font> <font color="purple">Sam Mitchell</font></div> <div align="center"><font size="5"><font color="purple">raptos' Projected Starting Lineup</font></font> <font color="purple">(Rafer Alston, Jalen Rose, Mo Peterson, Chris Bosh, Rafael Araujo)</font> </div> <div align="center"><font size="5">Bench Factors</font> (<font color="purple">Jumaine Jones</font>,<font color="purple">Donyell Marshall</font>) </div> <div align="center"><font size="5">Key Matchup</font> (<font color="purple">Kobe Bryant</font>, <font color="purple">Jalen Rose</font>) <font color="purple">Kobe Bryant:</font> 27.5 ppg, 6.6 apg, and 6.1 rpg <font color="purple">Jalen Rose:</font>16.9 ppg, 2.3 apg, and 3.4 rpg</div> <font size="5">Keys to the Game</font> <font color="purple">Los Angeles:</font> <ul> [*]Get Back on D- Detroit really exposed the Lakers on this. The Lakers would score a basket, and before you know it Detroit would be down at the other end scoring on an uncontested layup. It was disgusting, they can't be lazy again. [*]Recovery Game- This is a recovery game for the Lakers. This should be a win, they need a win after Detroit blew them out of the game in L.A. Come in here and play smart ball, play the game at your own tempo. [*]Lamar- Inconsistency has been attached to his name all year. He hasn't shown up offensively for the last two games and that has really hurt L.A. We need Lamar to come in here and be effective. [/list] <font color="purple">Toronto:</font> <ul> [*]Run- Run! Run! Run! That is what Detroit did and they had excellent results. Toronto needs to open the game running, see if they can catch L.A. sleeping again. [*]Force Kobe to Take Bad Shots- Since Kobe has returned from his injury he has been taking smart shots, shooting about 50%. If they want to win, they need to force him to shoot bad, force him to take bad shots and make bad passes. If Kobe is off, more than likely the Laker team will be off. [*]Put the Nail in the Coffin Early- After a blowout loss to Detroit (a game in which L.A. would of beat almost anyone in the league), Toronto needs to take advantage of the situation. Come into the game fired up and knock down your first 5 shots. [/list] <font size="5"> Prediction</font> L.A. should win this win, they lost to Detroit Friday night, but shot the ball 45% against them. It was their defense that lost them the game. Toronto is not Detroit, so if they can replicate their game against the Pistons and add some defense to that, they will win. L.A. takes it 104-95.
I like the Lakers on this one. Jalen can score, but his defense is.. below average (to be nice) and if he's guarding a guy like Kobe, I expect Kobe to have 31, 6, 5, and 2. If Lamar Odom has a good game, the lakers should be able to beat them by +15. However, if the raptors outrun the lakers, i could see them taking this one. Nice preview by the way, K.
This is a winnable game for the Raps, specially if Mo contains Kobe and holds him under 30 points. It's going to be a good one.
