RealGM

I'm sure you guys have noticed the trend. Guys who grew up in LA/Cali show up to play against the Lakers, and always make sure to light us up, right? It happened last game with Arron Afflalo so decided to look up how others have fared against us this year. This is what I did (used basketball-reference.com as my source for everything):

- Looked up the guys who went to high school in California (not place of birth)
- There's 45 active guys who went to HS here. Excluded the ones who currently play in LA (Lakers and Clippers), and obviously those who haven't played against the Lakers this year. 31 players qualify.
- Looked at each of those guys' best game against the Lakers, and how good it is in relation to the rest of their season.
- Used "game score" to measure how good the game is, which takes the stats to measure how productive a player was in a game.
- Ranked the players based on the game score against us in relation to the rest of their games (for example, #25 is Tayshaun Prince, who had his 21st-best game of the year against the Lakers.. while #1 on the list had his best game of the year against the Lakers).

Got it? Let's go.


31. DeShawn Stevenson (39th best game of the season)
0pts on 0-5 shooting. Horrendous game. His 2nd worst game of the year. Clearly he didn't show up to play.

30. James Harden (32nd)
9pts on 36%, 3reb. Not his best game. His scoring and rebounding were near his averages, but he was highly inefficient and did nothing else really.

29. Ryan Hollins (24th)
2pts, 4reb, 2ast, 3TO. Been nothing special all year, and nothing much here.

28. Chuck Hayes (21st)
8pts on 80%, 5reb, 1blk. His scoring was good, but he didn't show more of his all around game vs the Lakers.

27. Tayshaun Prince (21st)
13pts on 46%, 6reb, 2ast. Held to below/around his averages.

26. Jordan Farmar (15th)
12pt on 45.5%, 3ast. He's around 10/4 on the season, on 38%. Played better than usual against us, but nothing special.

25. Josh Childress (14th)
2pts, 5reb, 2ast. The numbers look weak, but he hasn't played much or done much all year and this was actually his 14th best game of the year.

24. Chase Budinger (14th)
13pts on 60%, 5reb. He's 8/3 on 43% on the season, so definitely a step up here.

23. Gilbert Arenas (14th)
23pts on 47%, 4ast, 2stl, 7TO. His turnovers were bad, but he scored 10 above his average on much much better than 38% shooting.

22. Andre Miller (13th)
20pts on 50%, 5ast. Averaging 13/7 on 46% on the year... his season high in pts is 22.

21. Landry Fields (12th)
12pts on 50%, 8reb, 2ast, 2stl. The rookie has one of his usual games. He's 10/7 on 52% on the year. He can ball.

20. Tyson Chandler (11th)
6pts, 10reb, 2stl, 2blk. Didn't do much offensively, but those defensive stats really shine. Averages 9/9/.5/1 on the year.

19. Darren Collison (10th)
17pts (58%), 6ast. He hasn't been as good this year as last, 14/5 on 45% this season, but outplayed those stats against us.

18. Pooh Jeter (6th)
11pts on 71%. Just one of the usual random guys who has one of his best nights against us. His career high in pts is 13. Averaging 4 this year on 39%.

17. Jrue Holiday (6th)
19pts (44%), 11ast, 2stl. 14.5/6.5 this year, played better than that against the Lakers of course.

16. Austin Daye (5th)
12pts, 7reb, 2blk. Hasn't played much this year, his season high is 16pts.

15. Russell Westbrook (5th)
32pts on 52%, 5reb, 12ast, 2stl. Sick game of course. Better than his year's averages in just about every way.

14. Quincy Pondexter (4th)
7pts (50%), 3reb, 2ast. Close to his career high 10pts, and better than his usual 43% shooting.

13. Trevor Ariza (4th)
17pts (50%) with 3 3s (season high), 7reb, 6ast, 2stl. Ariza has been pretty bad this year, and he looked damn good here.

12. DeMar DeRozan (4th)
23pts (50%), 11-11FT, 2reb, 2ast, 3stl. Great game for him, somehow didn't miss from the line which was amazing.

11. Arron Afflalo (4th)
22pts (73%), 5 3s, 4reb, 4ast. This last game was actually his 4th best game this year (yes, he has had better), but it still is much better than his yearly averages.

10. Dorell Wright (4th)
27pts (46%), 5 3s, 7reb, 4ast, 3stl, 2blk... look at that sick statline. He's been sick all year but not exactly this good.

9. Taj Gibson (3rd)
16pts (58%), 12reb, 3ast, 2stl, 2blk. He just filled it up against us. His season high is 18, but he's only averaging under 8/6 on 43%... he went off on us.

8. Amir Johnson (3rd)
12pts (50%), 15reb. The guy averages 9pts/6reb and he goes 12/15 against his home team.

7. Jared Dudley (3rd)
21pts on 73%, 3 3s, 6reb, 2stl. He's only averaging 9/3 this year, though he's been better recently.

6. Nick Young (3rd)
30pts on 56% with 6 3s. We know he's been known to go off, and he had his 3rd best game of the year at his hometown Lakers.

5. Jason Kidd (2nd)
21pts on 67%, 5 3s, 10ast...... yea. Who knew our PG defense was this bad? Kidd is averaging 8ppg on <35%... and he manages to do this to us. And he's 37. His next highest pts this year was 16.

4. Jeremy Lin (his best game was against the Lakers)
13pts, 3reb, 2ast, 2stl, 5-5FT. His career highs in minutes, reb, and FTs. Only played sparingly in 17 games, but his best was against the Lakers.

3. Robin Lopez (best)
18pts on 50%, 14reb. His season high is 19pts, and grabbed his season high in boards here.... next highest is only 8. 7ppg and less than FOUR rpg this year..

2. Drew Gooden (best)
22 on 73%, 13reb. 2 threes also.. this was a season high in pts and near season high in reb. He shoots 44% on the year.

1. Brook Lopez (best)
35pts on 68%, 6reb, 4ast. His 2nd most pts all year on his highest FG%.


So there you have it. 4 players born in California had their best game this year against the Lakers. 16 guys (out of 31) had one of their 5 best games against the Lakers. So more than half the guys who grew up playing ball in Cali had one of their 5 best games of the entire season against the LA Lakers.

Hope you enjoyed learning about this useless stuff. What do you think? Cali guys must love showing up to play here.

it would have been usefull to know why you chose the guys that you did. is it to bolster your argument of useless information?

Westbrook that low. Makes the entire list usesless. Who are some of those names.

ill be honest this stat sheet you made really doesnt matter . but it looks like you took alot time in so thks for the effort. Ill use this info to stump the schawb!

ill be honest this stat sheet you made really doesnt matter . but it looks like you took alot time in so thks for the effort. Ill use this info to stump the schawb!

snaquille oatmeal wrote:it would have been usefull to know why you chose the guys that you did. is it to bolster your argument of useless information?

It's useless info yes but what argument?

I listed 25 guys who really had games against us, left out guys like the Collins', Baron (who plays in LA), and other guys who didn't really do much.

laduane1 wrote:Westbrook that low. Makes the entire list usesless. Who are some of those names.

If anyone cared to read, I didn't rank them by who had the overall best game against us. Russ' 32/5/12 statline was crazy, but it was the 5th-best game he has had this year out of all the games he has played. While Robin Lopez had 18/14 which isn't as good, but for his own season, it's his best game and it came against the Lakers.

Thanks for the hostility though guys.

joelafan wrote:ill be honest this stat sheet you made really doesnt matter . but it looks like you took alot time in so thks for the effort. Ill use this info to stump the schawb!

Yea, it's random **** but I decided to look it up out of curiosity, so decided to post it. Thanks, did take time

Tighten up the D on Cali players whenever we face them...OK

come on peepz, stop the hostility.. it's just a harmless thread showing that people that were born in cali play well against us most likely because they want to prove something to themselves or anyone else..

we need to pay more attention to these players especially the "chucklers" like Nick Young and guard them hard since the first minute to not let them get hot. Even if they aren't well know. If they can still put up great numbers then whatever...

Imadogg wrote:

snaquille oatmeal wrote:it would have been usefull to know why you chose the guys that you did. is it to bolster your argument of useless information?

It's useless info yes but what argument?

I listed 25 guys who really had games against us, left out guys like the Collins', Baron (who plays in LA), and other guys who didn't really do much.

the argument that guys from Cali light up the Lakers (you wanted to point that out, right? that is the reason for the thread, right?), but you did answer my question when you wrote that you left out "other guys who didn't really do much" otherwise the thread would be useless as well.

snaquille oatmeal wrote:

Imadogg wrote:

snaquille oatmeal wrote:it would have been usefull to know why you chose the guys that you did. is it to bolster your argument of useless information?

It's useless info yes but what argument?

I listed 25 guys who really had games against us, left out guys like the Collins', Baron (who plays in LA), and other guys who didn't really do much.

the argument that guys from Cali light up the Lakers (you wanted to point that out, right? that is the reason for the thread, right?), but you did answer my question when you wrote that you left out "other guys who didn't really do much" otherwise the thread would be useless as well.

I'm actually gonna add in everyone then, and you can have fun with my useless thread. Good call though, here's the guys I left off (20 out of 45 guys who played high school ball in Cali)
Luke Walton, Matt Barnes, Baron Davis, Craig Smith, Jarron Collins - Play in LA already
Paul George, Hamady Ndiaye, Paul Pierce, Eddie House, Leon Powe, Jason Collins, Dominic McGuire, Ryan Anderson, Jason Kapono - Haven't played the Lakers
That leaves just 6 players I have to add in. Some of them sucked but a couple of them actually would be in the top 25 anyways, missed that.

Thanks for the comments/criticism Snaq, this actually helped my argument. More than half the guys who played HS ball in Cali had one of their 5 best games of the season against us. That seems significant to me (better than 15/45).

Some guys are comfortable and like playing in front of their friends and family, whereas others get nervous in the Staples Center spotlight and all the gold banners hanging.