Purple Post Game: Trailing Blazers
As I predicted, the Blazers didn’t put up much of a fight without Brandon Roy in the fold. This is the downside of having the league’s best record. Most of the time, you either blow teams out or lose unexpected shockers. It’s hard to stay happy as a fan, but I always try to remember that this is a sprint, and that this team was also always pretty young to make a realistic bid for 70 wins. So, even though we ran over the Blazers like they were Pacific Northwest roadkill, I’m not going to be bummed about it. We’ll have enough competition come April and beyond. Now’s the time to savor the blowouts.
From a Lakers’ POV, things got interesting because current starter Luke Walton has sesamoiditis. No, that is not some STD he got by adopting his dad’s ol’ Dead Head free-love ways — it’s some weird foot ailment. Anyway, Trevor Ariza got the start. Trevor played well, but he didn’t exactly light up the scoring column of the stat sheet. Playing with the first unit, that is to be expected. There aren’t a lot of available shots when you are playing alongside Black Mamba and The Spaniard, and even Diaper Drew, who is going to keep getting more and more touches in the post. Points aren’t the barometer for Trev. Not at all.
The other interesting bit of Luke fallout we have is that Vladi Radmanovic is back, even if it is just temporarily. He had 16 points in only 18 minutes last night.
As the Kam Brothers point out, Phil Jackson finds himself in an interesting pickle. Who does he start while Luke is on the mend: Ariza, Odom or Radmanovic? Since Ariza prefers coming off the bench, and thrives as our sixth man, Vladi is more of a complimentary player and spot-up shooter. I would like to see Ariza and L.O. stay with the Bench Mob and get more offensive looks. Maybe that’s just me, though? By the way, we’ve gotta do better than Bench Mob. 20 screenwriters in every Starbucks and that’s the best nickname for the bench we could muster? Yikes.
Here’s the highlights. Big game against CP3 and the Hornets tomorrow…
(compliments of LakersMedia.com)
