A Very Happy Halloween For Laker Fans
Boo! It's a blog entry! Who'da thunk it?
I haven't blogged in forever, but since it's Halloween and the NBA season started tonight, I figured why not. The fact that the Lakers won over the heavily favored Phoenix Suns didn't hurt my urge to blog either. The Lakers are starting this season with a bunch of new faces and a bunch of injuries, and they started their season opener tonight against Phoenix by falling behind by 19 points early in the first half. But the Lakers showed surprising skill considering they were missing Kobe Bryant, Kwame Brown and Chris Mihm, and were instead starting Andrew Bynum (in his first ever NBA start after just turing 19 the other day). The Lakers ended up playing a great game with Lamar Odom tying his career high with 34 points and 13 boards, and with Bynum getting career highs in points and rebounds with 18 and 9. Maurice Evans, who is new to the Lakers this year, also chipped in big with 17 points. Phoenix, meanwhile, is expected to be a legit title contender this year and are supposed to be much deeper, more versatile and better this year than they were last year; yet at one point were trailing by 16 points after leading by 19.
I think the Lakers clearly have a lot of good, young players and have a lot of athleticism. The Lakers also really have some good depth. It will be really exciting to see how they play once they get Kobe and Kwame back (if Bynum keeps playing like he did tonight and in the preseason, I'm not sure where Chris Mihm will fit in, maybe as trade bait). Laker fans should definitely be encouraged by the performance tonight as the Lakers shot a fantastic percentage, dominated the boards and the paint, and (probably most shocking) out fast-breaked the Suns, who have been far and away the league's best fast-break team for the last two years. The Lakers had six players with 3 or more assists for a team total of 30, along with 11 steals. The Lakers had great balance with only two players getting more than 30 minutes of playing time. We'll see how they do tomorrow night against Golden State, but the 2006-2007 Laker season is off to a good start.