The Los Angeles Lakers are definitely giving the fans a roller coaster season to follow. The latest Eastern Conference road trip which has the Lakers facing the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Philadephia 76ers and the New York Knicks is proof of the up and down cycles.Against the disappointing Chicago Bulls, the Lakers won the opener of the 4-game trip with a balanced attack with Sasha Vujacic leading the scoring line with 19 points. Sasha has done this before and it seems he's more confident with his shot and making most of the PT Phil Jackson is giving him. Six Lakers were in double figures in that game and that shows some great deal of talent in the bench.
However, the much hyped game against the Cleveland Cavaliers was a different story. The Lakers were clamped to 12 points in the last quarter. 12 points! If you read the news articles on the 94-90 loss, most of them would read "LeBron put put the stops on Kobe" or "LBJ is the Kobe Stopper." I'll refer to Kobe's old quote: The Cavs game was just slap boxing.
Now onto the Philadelphia stop. My general comment on that game is that it was a nice game to watch from a visual perspective. Both the 76ers and the Lakers were wearing 1980's throwback uniforms and it was homage to the 1982 Philadelphia team that won the NBA championship. The Lakers won the game behind Andrew Bynum's career scoring night: 24 points. The game perhaps is a harbinger of how Bynum will dominate the NBA in years to come.
The final game of the trip is against the dysfuntional New York Knicks. If the Up and Down theory holds, expect a Laker disappointment.
Tags: Lakers
I got to watch 2 of the 4 games on the East coast swing. The Lakers are going for a top seed in my opinion. Right now they are playing hurt and winning, Kwame out, Walton out, Kobe hurting, and Mihm still recovering, they are doing great. Also, beating the Suns on Christmas day is big. That makes the Lakers 4-1 in the last five games. They just need to be consistant and they will be a top seed.
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