Since you guys are all concerned about how the Lakers are doing this year 
, I figured I'd give a quick update since the Lakers just won their third game of the year to run their record to 3-0 (they're one of only 3 undefeated teams in the NBA right now, which is odd considering I don't think any team has even played more than 4 games yet). There has been a lot of controversy with the Lakers already, with Kobe and Shaq sniping at each other and with Kobe's rape trial (his next court date is November 13th, by the way). The Lakers also have their injuries, what with Kobe missing the first game rehabbing from offseason surgery, Rick Fox is still rehabbing from an injury that knocked him out of last year's playoffs (he's due back in either December or January), with Slava Medvedenko trying to get healthy after a foot injury he suffered in preseason (he's probably a couple days to a couple weeks away), and with the Lakers #1 draft pick, Brian Cook, recovering from a broken finger (he's probably a month away).
All that aside, Kobe has been back for two games and the Lakers have in short looked pretty dominating thus far. After watching former All Stars come to the Lakers in the twilights of their careers only to not be very impressive in a Laker uniform (Glenn Rice, Mitch Richmond and Horace Grant to name a few), it is REALLY refreshing to see Gary Payton and Karl Malone (both future Hall of Fame players who are 35 and 40 years old, respectively) come to the Lakers and look like they are right in their primes. For instance, on opening night BOTH of these players came very close to having triple-doubles (I don't think I've EVER seen two teammates get triple doubles in the same game, so that really would have been amazing). Kobe missed that opening night game against the Dallas Mavericks (who feature five players who very possibly could be All Stars this year in Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash, Michael Finley, Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison), but the Lakers still blew them out, leading by as many as 19 at one point and eventually winning by 16. In their second game, Kobe did play and the Lakers opened strongly with a huge early lead, and eventually won after only being behind for 22 seconds at one point, as the Lakers beat the Suns on the road in Phoenix. Then tonight the Lakers took on the Golden State Warriors, and LA fell behind by their biggest margin of the year this year against them (3 points), but after leading by as much as 17 at one point, the Lakers eventually won by 15 points and led by double digits for most of the game.
Suffice it to say that Lakers fans like myself are EXTREMELY excited by what this season could hold for LA. The Lakers have 3 new starters this year, they have two key new guys on the bench, so the Lakers are not at all used to playing with each other. They have injuries and are having chemistry issues, and yet they are STILL just toying with teams. The Lakers will now go on an important early 4 game road trip where they will face the team that eliminated them last year, the Spurs, and the only other team in the league that is 3-0, New Orleans, along with Memphis and Milwaukee (who shouldn't be that hard). So anyway, there's your Laker update that I'm sure almost nobody cared about 