wildyams

In and amongst all the election stuff last night, I also watched the Lakers play their first game of the season against a vastly improved (or so they said) Denver Nuggets team. The Lakers, as you may have heard, have undergone massive changes, what with Shaq and Phil being gone, and with a whole bunch of new players and a new coach joining the team. The Lakers are a totally different team in terms of style of play from what they have been for the last 8 or 9 years or so, in that they are no longer a slow-down, pound it inside, half-court team like they were with Shaq; and are instead now a young, athletic, very fast, very aggressive team that runs a lot and has fast breaks and highlights and lots of switching on defense. The previous years under Phil Jackson the Lakers had become one of the oldest, most experienced teams in the league, due in large part to Phil's preference for players who were the grizzled veteran type of player. This new team I read has an average age of a little over 25 years, and are chock full of extremely athletic players.

The Lakers' opponent last night, the Denver Nuggets, were one of the teams that were really considered to have had a masterful offseason after making it to the playoffs last year. They added a key player (Kenyon Martin) to go with their already talented bunch, and have been pegged to probably be one of the top 4 or 5 teams in the West. However, you never would have known it by last night's game because the Lakers basically blew them off the floor from the opening tip. LA ran up a double-digit lead in the first quarter and basically held the lead between 10 and 20 points for the rest of the night. LA played this new, fast style of ball, and it was extremely effective against the Nuggets who are also a fast-paced team. LA played great defense against the Nuggets, and LA got a real surprise performance by one of the lesser known acquisitions this offseason: backup center Chris Mihm. Mihm had his career high last night in his Laker debut, literally feasting off all the great passes inside for easy baskets. Kobe looked great as well, looking to get his teammates involved and using them to kill the Nuggets early, then taking over more in the second half when they had to respect everyone else on the team.

I don't know how effective the Lakers will be this year, although I would certainly have to assume they won't be as good as they were last year or in the years they won their titles with Shaq; but they are definitely fun to watch. LA is still missing starting center Vlade Divac, who is recovering from an injury and should hopefully be ready in a month or so; and also LA may have Karl Malone join the team at some point this season depending on how he feels. If those two guys end up playing and can perform well, then LA will actually have one of the best, most powerful, and deepest frontcourts in the NBA; and will be able to pair it with a whole host of incredibly talented backcourt players and small forwards. If Malone and Vlade play and play well, then LA has a real legit shot at a title this year, because you need to have a solid post presence to win in the post season.

Anyway, here's a couple clips from last night's game if you want to see how they looked. This first clip was one of the real highlights of the night, a fast-break led by Kobe that resulted in an alley-oop to Caron Butler that really got the crowd excited:
Kobe to Caron alley-oop

This next clip was a play that came towards the end of the game with the Lakers up by 17 and a few minutes to play, in which Kobe fumbled the ball on offense, then as the Nuggets threw it up-court for a seemingly gimmie layup, Kobe came streaking out of nowhere to block the shot and redeem himself. This play was particularly telling considering the game was basically a rout at the time, and showed how much effort Kobe was still putting in despite having the game in the bag: Kobe's block on Andre Miller