FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3

LAKERS REPORT

I know some of you don't give two squeezes about the Lakers, but hey, I'm feeling a little giddy here, let me have my moment before the team comes crashing back to reality (which should be about the time Mihm & Kwame get healthy).

The Lakers jumped out to a 3-0 start on the season with a 118-112 nailbiter over Seattle in Kobe's debut. The win wasn't impressive--they simply have to beat teams like Seattle at home--but their young big men continued to shine.

Ronny Turiaf inexplicably played only 15 minutes, but went haywire in the 4th and was integral in bringing home the victory. He ended up with 13 & 7 with 3 blocks, including 10 points in the fourth quarter and 2 blocks in the final minute that all but clinched the victory.

Andrew Bynum also had limited PT, but had a solid 9 & 8 with 3 blocks in 23 minutes. He was a real defensive presence in the lane, altering several shots in addition to the three blocks. He did have 5 turnovers, bobbling a bunch of good post entry passes--weird game from someone who has demonstrated fantastic hands in his early career.

But Bynum and Turiaf continue to roll. Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing these guys being made the starters over Mihm & Kwame sooner rather than later. They're the future--might as well make the future now. Mihm and Brown aren't leading you anywhere, except to the bottom of the "points allowed in the paint" category. But there's a 0% chance of this happening under Phil. He likes veterans, he'll go with the tried and untrue and ride them to 46 wins and a first round playoff exit. I don't know, maybe the old man will surprise me.

Kobe looked to be in midseason form, going for 23-4-6 and making countless stupid decisions with the basketball. He had 6 turnovers, and could've had more. He forced a bad drive here, a bad pass there, and then did something brilliant. In short, he was Kobe. He had a great defensive play on Ray Allen with a minute to go and the game still entirely up in the air. He velcroed himself to Allen on a tough drive to the basket, elevated a full head above Allen and forced Allen to throw up basically a teardrop off the glass just to get it over Kobe's hand--a first team all-defense play. Guys like Raja Bell and Chauncey Billups are great defenders, but they can't do what Kobe did on that play.

Odom continued his aggressive play with 28/4/6, nailing 4 threes and getting to the FT line 12 times. He's playing as well as anyone this first week of the season, and it's a great sign that he didn't completely submit to Kobe the way he's done in the past. We need Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, not Batman and gay-ass Robin.

Luke Walton was spectacular too, with 20/8/5 in just 33 minutes. He's also 4-4 from three on the year--it'd be nice if he could improve from his generally cruddy three point shooting in his career up to this point, but I'm not counting on it quite yet. He got destroyed on the defensive end, per usual (although there were also some snafus with the guards on the high pick-and-roll, also per usual with the Lakers), so it's imperative he keep playing at a high level offensively. It's OK to be a horrible defensive player if you're Steve Nash; not so much if you're Kwame Brown (I swear to Christ, if I hear *one more fucking time* that Brown "is actually a pretty good defender"...yeah, he's a good defender only by comparison to his offensive game.)

OTHER GAMES

In brief...

My boy Monta Ellis had 15 in 24 minutes. He's coming. Still gotta give it time, but he's way ahead of schedule.

Brandon Roy had 19/6/5 in another productive game, but struggled from the floor with 5-15 shooting. Gotta love 10 FTAs though.

Minnesota had a nice road win over Denver, rookie Craig Smith (see my darkhorse pick in my rookie column) went off for 20 & 5 in 16 minutes. That's not a misprint. Keep an eye on this cat.

Utah looks good early, picking up a road win over Phoenix. The Jazz killed 'em on the boards, and Amare not coincidentally played only 16 minutes. Note that my other boy Leandro Barbosa got the *start*, and while struggling with his shot still put up 22/6/6. I'm uprading this stock to a strong buy. Diaw was demoted to the bench and didn't do much in only 15 minutes. Not sure what's up there, I'll see if I can figure out what's going on with him.

Continuing the solid road win theme, Sacto took down the apparently overhyped Bulls in Chicago. Kevin Martin followed up his strong 23 point opener with 30 on 10-15 shooting. Another strong buy.

What's with all these road wins? Cleveland edges out the Spurs in San Antonio, Lebron James just too much down the stretch. The King finished with 35/10/4, pretty much clinching an 8-2 week for me in fantasy. Interesting to note that Varejao got the big minutes down the stretch over Gooden. On the other side, another veteran I pretty much called washed up came up huge and made me look like a knob-Tim Duncan looked awfully good, particularly in the 4th, and finished with 25/12/5. He did blow from the FT line and really hurt the team late. But hey, just like with Shaq, you know all the good shit TD brings, and you live with the bad.

Adam Morrison had a nice little shooting night with 21 in 30 minutes on 8-15 shooting and 3-7 from three. But his stat line is awfully empty outside the points and threes--no boards and one assist. Eek. This guy isn't Larry Bird, he's more like Ricky Pierce. Rudy Gay followed up his 21 point opener with a near doughnut--no buckets, 2 FTs, 2 points.

The Knicks blew a chance to get out to a 2-0 start, falling to the Hawks. Eddy Curry had the quintessential Eddy Curry game: unstoppable in the post with 20 on 9-13 shooting, and 2 damn rebounds in 39 minutes. How does that happen? Seriously, how? He's huge, he's strong, he has great hands...he can't fucking rebound. I think it's time to recycle the nickname "Tin Man", 'cause Curry clearly has no heart. Or an enlarged one, one or the other.

Speaking of stock upgrades, Zaza Pachulia's having a nice start to the season, following up a 15 & 12 with 22/7/4. Remember this guy's only 22, he could easily get much better--and it won't take much improvement from last year's numbers to make him a pretty darn good fantasy center.

Andrew Bogut also had a nice followup to his solid opener, putting up 18/7/3 in 30 minutes.