Peace Wilson's Los Angeles Lakers fan blog

Bring on the Jazz! Those Salt Pillars are goin' down! Lakers in 6. In the other semifinal, steely Spurs over stinging Hornets in 6. Western Conference Finals: Lakers-Spurs gunslingin' showdown at the OK Corral. Lakers in 6 or 7.

Meanwhile, in the East -- s'up with Boston? What part of put the effin' lowly Hawks away do they not understand? Pistons struggled, but overcame Sixers in 6. Cavs offed the Wizards in 6. Orlando, echoing their great center Dwight Howard, is lookin' like the true "Beast of the East."

Boston is resembling an almost worse case last-year's Dallas Mavericks with their best-record-in-the-league-struggling-with-#8-seed syndrome. What'd Atlanta win, 43% of their games? Ugly. That kinda record is why I used to think the playoffs went too deep in seeding -- that is, until this year's amazing Western conference horse race, with the top 6 teams separated by about 2 games, and the whole 8-pack by a mere 4 or 5.

Continue reading "ROCKIN' SECOND-ROUND (& ONWARD) PLAYOFF PREVIEW"

Since I'm still finding a more thoroughgoing blog voice re Lakers, I thought I'd post here my reply to Kareem's informative and enjoyable post off nba.com:

Kareem, you will always be my all-time favorite Laker. The grace, dignity, and extraordinary numbers you posted over your long distinguished career remain nonpareil. And the multi-champ team with you and Magic and Worthy, et al remains my fave too.

Your ultra-expert comments on the Lakers status and playoff outlook are pure gold. Apart from Kobe's continuing leadership emergence, I love the performance and the steady basketball IQ of Pau Gasol. He's really raised the level of team chemistry, and the consistency of Lamar Odom's free-roving, all-purpose style of play.

Consistent and staunch enough defense, and this team can go all the way, even without Bynum's reinforcement of the front line (great job mentoring him, by the way).

Continue reading "KAREEM POST"

Would somebody with leverage tell ABC's Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy to shut the hell up? Especially Van Gundy.

Time and time again these egomaniacs conduct themselves on-air as if we tuned in to listen to their dissociated yammering instead of dialed-in comments on the game.

Case in point: During the first half of today's first-round playoff opener between the Lakers and Nuggets, Jackson made a comment that Allen Iverson was one of the best pound-for-pound players in the NBA ever. Van Gundy goes off interminably, expressing incredulity, and maddeningly ignoring Jackson's "pound-for-pound" qualification, as Iverson is around 6'1" 165 lbs.

The contrast with KCAL's smoothly professional coverage is startling. Joel Myers and Stu Nance are much more in sync.

Continue reading "ABC's GAME COVERAGE SUCKS"

Whew! This has been one helluva season in the Western Conference, the most relentless horse race ever.

Just missed that double-overtime thriller won by the Spurs over the Suns. Our Lakers host the Nuggets tomorrow, Sunday. I predict the Lakers win that series in 5. More difficult to pick is Suns-Spurs series. Hungry Suns with Shaq addition vs. the very tough-minded, time-tested, defending champs holding the home-court advantage.

Mavs-Hornets? Also tough to call; #2 new kid on the block vs. perennial challenger and recent conference champ, Mavericks.

Hard to imagine Eastern Conference final being other than Celtics-Pistons. In the West, it's gotta be Lakers vs. probably either the Suns or the Spurs. That 1st-round matchup is definitely the most dramatic, with the strongest implications. But then, everybody finished

Continue reading "CONGRATULATIONS LAKERS ON #1 SEED!"

And 7th seed 4 games out, 8th seed 4 1/2.

But 1 through 6 separated by ONE game? Has it ever been so insanely close? Is this the Western Conference of the NBA or the last race at Santa Anita? Crazy, baby!

So the Lakers slipped a hair again, losing to the #8 Warriors at Staples, 115-111 Sun. night, mostly due to giving up too damn much early and having to climb a big hill back.

That bumps 'em back to #2 seed behind New Orleans again, by miniscule percentage pts. And shrinks their lead over #3 Phoenix in the Pacific Division to a precarious 1/2 game. The Stoudemire-Shaq tandem gelled and dominated against Houston, their most recent game, I think, so look out!

Come on back, Pao, wade that ankle into the crazy fray, reinforced, if possible. Ditto Andrew close behind. We need you!

Continue reading "WESTERN CONFERENCE SEEDS 1 THROUGH 6 SEPARATED BY 1 GAME ONLY!"

Turiaf started out a lion on defense, stepping up as backup center for injured Casol, even as he did for Bynum before that.

Lakers clickin' on all 8-cylinders, from the start. Odom, Turiaf, Radmanovitch, Kobe, Fish. Mavs chipped away at 20+ Lakers lead, pulling to within 16 with a min. and change left in 3rd.

Oops, Terry's 3 for the Mavs at the buzzer pulls 'em within 12, 77-65, goin' into 4th.

Well Kobe better come back in and the Lakers better regroup.

15-1 Mavs run. Then Kobe scores, back up by 12.

So it's basically tit-for-tat now hangin' around 10 instead of 20 pt. margin.

79-72 Lakers, jeez. Then to 5, then a Rad 3, back to 8.

84-76 Lakers after Odom cleanup. Rad bangs another 3 after Mavs close to 6; 87-78 Lakers.

Continue reading "SHORTHANDED LAKERS SHOW GRIT & SMARTS, HANG ON TO BEAT MAVS 102-100."

Gun-slingin' wild horse in a 9-deep horse race. Yikes, mixed metaphors.

I used to think 8 seeds per conference was overkill, seeming to invite EVERYBODY to post-season. Well I don't recall such a wild neck-in-neck race in the West. The Lakers had surged to #1 of course, 10 in a row. Then lost one to Portland. Triumphed in an OT thriller at home against the Mavericks on Sunday. Vis-a-vis the stately Spurs in the West as of March 3rd, 10pm? Spurs 41-17, .707; Lakers 42-18, .700. #2 now by a percentile sliver. We can live with that. And regain #1 pronto. Lakers-Spurs conference final would be cool, depends on the scheduling.

I almost pity the Southwest division. The hard luck Mavs are in FOURTH place, a mere 3.5 games out of 1st where the Spurs reign, the tightest division in the tight West. Utah and the Lakers in their divisions actually have 2.5 to 3 games breathing room on Denver and Phoenix, by comparison.

Continue reading "LAKERS: PURPLE & GOLD PALADINS IN THE WILD WILD WEST"

Heavyweights, blow for blow.

19-18 Phoenix, 4:13 left in the 1st.

D-Fish at the FT line. 20-19 Lakers.

Shaq tosses up a brick; condor-winged Lamar gets the roll from soft touch inside, on the other end. 22-19 LAL.

This is a rockin' matchup, and the score shows it.

Kobe drives and slams. Finger-lickin' good. Some Sun scores.

Kobe scores again. 26-21. Nash throws it away, Lakers ball.

I missed the next play, Shaq ends up stuffin' it for the Suns, gets fouled, misses the FT. 26-23 Lakers.

Jump ball.

Shaq ends up at foul line again, makes 1 of 2. But 28-24, 'cause Kobe scores again.

Back and forth, strong D, finally, Barbosa nails a 3 for the Suns, 29-29.

Phenomenal super dunk by Kobe (f*ck the finger prob) to close the 1st quarter, Lakers 32-29 over the Suns.

Continue reading "LAKERS ON A ROLL, NOW RULE, TAKE PAC DIV LEAD IN THE VALLEY OF THE SUNS, 130-124."

The 35-17 Lakers continued to roll with a blow-out of the T-Wolves Wednesday, with the line-up doing their jobs superbly.

What's becoming a bit more worrisome for the Lakers Finals quest than Bynum's knee rehab, Shaq rumbling for Phoenix, or whether Dallas can salvage the Jason Kidd trade debacle, however, is the diagnosis on Kobe's injured right pinky.

"Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant has been diagnosed with a complete tear of the radial collateral ligament, an avulsion fracture, and a volar plate injury at the MCP joint of the small finger of this right hand, it was announced today. The damage occurred when Bryant dislocated the finger in the Lakers’ game at New Jersey on February 5, and was aggravated in last night’s game at Minnesota."

Continue reading "WILL LAKERS' FORTITUDE & FORTUNES FIND FAVOR WITH THE FICKLE FINGER OF FATE?"

 Thank the basketball gods, Kobe found a better pinkie-taping arrangement.

After 2 games of anemic point production with his ring finger taped to the dislocated pinkie on his right hand, he and presumably the Lakers trainer, came up with tape support that separated the fingers, so he'd have a more natural touch again, despite the injury.

Result: 36 pts., 10 rebounds, and a Lakers victory, making for a 4-2 record, with 3 games remaining on this extended road trip.

Lakers were double-digit outscored by the Orlando Magic in the 1st quarter, returned the favor in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, and were outscored by 7 in the 4th, with the net result being a 4-point victory.

Also quite notable was the great new Laker Pau Gasol's 30 pt., 9 rebound contribution, after a slight dip in production in the Lakers shoulda-won-this-one-too narrow loss to Atlanta the game before.

Continue reading "LAKERS OUT-ENSORCEL MAGIC, 117-113"