Give the Boston Celtics credit. After being run off the court in the first quarter, the C’s dominated the next 24 minutes of the game.
Too bad for the folks in Beantown that an NBA contest consists of 48 minutes.
The Los Angeles Lakers bookended their 90-89 victory over Boston by outscoring Doc’s Army 54-35 in the first and fourth quarters combined.
Ron Artest set the tone early by not giving Paul Pierce an inch from the opening jump. Kobe Bryant sent a sea of green home angry by hitting the game winner late. If you’re keeping score at home, then you know it has [...]

After dropping two of their first three on an eight game road swing, the Lakers were badly in need of some inspiration.
One trip to the White House and a visit with Barack Obama later, the Lake Show found all the inspiration they needed. Nothing like a little praise from the leader of the free world to get those competitive juices flowing again. If the Lakers want to see the oval office in 2011, then they’ll need to show more of the effort displayed against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night.
Kobe Bryant had one of his vintage nights of efficient offensive [...]

(via Washingtonpost.com) The World Champion Los Angeles Lakers visited the white house today for a ceremony commemorating their championship last June.  President Obama was given a customized Laker jersey as part of the ceremony.
The Lakers administrative staff and even some guests (i.e. Khloe Kardashian) joined the coaches and team to take part in the photo opportunity.

This won’t be a 72-10 season.  That part was obvious weeks ago.  The Lakers are in the middle of their longest road trip of the year, and things are getting shaky.  Lets step back for a moment and look at the big picture, though.  Chris and Ryan both rank the Lakers on their major areas:
Offense
Ryan: The shooting has been streaky- more so than in previous seasons.  When everyone is healthy, the balance of scoring is decent aside from Lamar under performing.  Kobe needs to get healthy so his turnovers decline and his shooting percentage rises.  Grade: B+.
Chris: Even with Kobe [...]

The calendar reads January but Andrew Bynum is already playing like its June. No need to call on David Blaine. Bynum is capable of making himself invisible.
Speaking of June, if the Lakers and Cavs meet again in 2010 it will be Cleveland who will have homecourt should the two teams finish with equal records in the regular season. If Bynum continues to do his best Elden Campbell anytime he’s on the court with Pau Gasol then the Lake Show won’t have to worry about seeing the Cavs or any other team from the Eastern Conference come June.
Laker fans will remember just how [...]

Following fellow Laker Kobe Bryant’s win of the prestigious award last year, Spanish transplant Pau Gasol will be awarded “2009 Los Angeles Sportsman of the Year” on February 19th at the fifth annual LA Sports Awards.
The awards are presented by the Los Angeles Sports Council to highlight the best sportsmen of the Los Angeles area for the year.
Since joining the Lakers in February 2008, the team has not lost more than two games in a row.

It’s no secret that the Lakers organization has been pushing the NBA to include Shannon Brown in the dunk competition.  There’s a youtube channel, a website (letshannondunk.com), and constant mentions of it by the Lakers play-by-play announcers during games.  The Lakers website has links to the drive, and if you’ve watched a Laker game in the past month or so you couldn’t have missed it.
With all of that drive, it’s no surprise now that the NBA has included “UPS” in the contest (there are quite a few nicknames being thrown around, so I chose my favorite).
What isn’t being talked about [...]

The people have spoken and the NBA has listened. Thanks to the grass roots efforts of the fans - and a serious collection of poster dunks - Shannon Brown will be among the participants in the 2010 NBA Dunk Contest.
Congrats to Shannon! We know he’ll represent with style for the Purple and Gold in Dallas.   
His ridiculous rise is far from a secret these days considering the way Shannon started this season and given his exploits from high school, to college and some of his other stops in the NBA prior to arriving in Los Angeles. But he’s definitely become a SportsCenter regular as a [...]

I never thought that I would actually ponder this question. Just speaking the words makes my skin crawl. As a diehard Laker fan I’ve seen some of the greatest players to ever step on the hardwood lace em’ up and go to work with nagging injuries, illness and off-court issues that would cause the layman to take a couple personal days just to sort things out.
Let me begin by saying that Kobe Bryant is, to me, the greatest to ever play the game. His offensive game is comprised of the most dynamic skill set any human being has ever had. [...]

The fansided network has blogs for most teams, and the Celtics blogger and I do a bit of back-and-forth since our teams have such a storied past.  He put up a post about the Lakers/Celtics rivalry and makes a case for the Celtics (and the Lakers for that matter) being set for the foreseeable future as annual contenders for the title.
I tend to see Boston as an older team right now who is on the decline with players like Ray Allen and Rasheed Wallace on their way to retirement.  They won’t even be terribly useful as trade bait due to [...]