Which Western Conference Concerns You....

[MAD MAV MAN]

I know the Lakers fans are feeing pretty invincible right now with good reason. However, there were several teams that made improvements in the offseason. Which Western Conference team do you feel you have to be concerned with?

[That Nicka]

IMO, for a western conference team to beat the Lakers they have to have home court advantage which I just dont see happening unless Kobe or Pau gets injured



edit: to answer your question, Spurs and Blazers have probably have the best chance at beating us

[MAD MAV MAN]

IMO, for a western conference team to beat the Lakers they have to have home court advantage which I just dont see happening unless Kobe or Pau gets injured



edit: to answer your question, Spurs and Blazers have probably have the best chance at beating us

I knew I would get the overall cockiness of we can't be beat, but alot of us feel like that there are chinks in your team's armor. First, I really think you should be concerned with Artest and how he has been known as a "ball stopper" on offense. He is a great player, but in order for him to be effective on offense, he has to isolate everyone else. Now, I don't know if Kobe's greatness will compensate for this, but I do believe it opens the door for other teams.

[iamworthy]

If healthy, nobody. As far a the ron artest stuff, we have heard it before. You guys give Artest way to much credit. All the teams he played on before either sucked or under achieved. Until I see him try to pull his antics here, im not worried about it. Will he take some bad shots...of course. But he cannot kill the season by himself. Phil will just bench him. I'll gladely do battle with Bynum, Gasol, LO and Kobe.

[Dr Aki]

artest issue
the artest experiment is running fairly smoothly so far... so until he breaks out the crazy ball-stopping show, thats not an argument anyone can use against the lakers

believe it or not, artest is now the lakers 4th (wow, what a luxury) best playmaker right now behind kobe, gasol and odom. hes not having to create offense from nothing, but doing it from a triple threat position afforded to him through the need to cover the lakers' other potent offensive players.

artest has inexplicably outplayed lebron, melo and pierce throughout his career in h2h matchups - ref

i honestly believe the lakers have improved, but artest is a high risk, high reward type of player.

PG defense
still unresolved, shannon brown with a full training camp should help alleviate a small part of it, but the lakers will still give up the worst PER differential in the entire league.

that said, there will be a few guards capable of playing defense that will be bought out and ready to sign a vet's min contract for a chance to win a ring.

overall
only teams with fast PGs will be able to exploit the lakers one weakness. the spurs and tony parker remain the only true competition we really have.

the western conference playoff teams are filled with big, strong PGs that arent going to burn you with speed so derek fisher is more effective against them.

the only other PG that can hurt the lakers is CP3 and the hornets looked like 1st round fodder after overachieving in 2008

[Kilroy]

Throughout the season everybody on your list will probably beat us at least once...

But in the playoffs if we all get that far, only the Spurs have a legit chance of knocking us off...

The Nuggets played us tough but I don't see that happening again... I think we're over that hump now...

We'll know about portland the first time we play there... But this is a much more confident team, and we own them at Staples...

And for Mavs fans, somehow the Lakers always seem to have the Mavs number... In fact, it seems like we always have teams Kidd is on's number... Until that changes, I just don't see it...

I actually think the Suns might be a dark horse this year... I don't think they're a playoff team... But during the season, I could see them running over some unexpecting, no-D teams...

And you can never count out the Jazz and Hornets... The two best PGs in the league will keep their teams in contention, but the Hornets have taken a few hits due to the economy and the Jazz just don't seem to have the pieces necessary to take out the Lakers or the Spurs... But I think both of them have the potential to be their in the end.

[Dalakerbox]

just to be somewhat humble, I'll say the Spurs if Healthy, or if the Blazers come hard! But in all honesty if we are 90% healthy, I don't see any team beating us. As far as Artest, all of you guys wishing he'll be the "Cancer" on this squad and all of the critics doubting his ability to adjust, will be very disappointed by season's end. or maybe even my the trade dead line. You'll see he is the perfect match and we will be scary good with him. For any reason this experiment doesn't work, he'll be shipped out quickly and with his value and some of our expiring contracts, it's even scarier to see what we can get in exchange.

and as a side note- No Dallas can't beat us, they are not the threat the you may think they are, Marion hasn't played well since leaving Phoenix, Am I to believe by putting him back with Kidd, he automatically becomes great again? And please do not get me started on Kidd, let's just say expect a decline in his performance this season

[Sedale Threatt]

I love to get into it with their fans, and pretend that their team sucks, but the Spurs are head and shoulders above everyone else trying to knock us off. If Blair can be half as good as he's been in the summer/preseason, and Jefferson fits in, and Duncan and Ginobili are fresh heading into the playoffs, they're going to be an extremely tough out.

After them, there's a decent gap between the likes of Dallas, Denver and Portland.

Dallas could beat us in a series -- they're better than last year -- but I still think we beat them more often than not, especially with homecourt. Marion was a good pickup, and Humphries looks like he could be as well. But Kidd is a year older, and Dampier still sucks.

I'm not seriously concerned with Denver, which did nothing to seriously improve after we beat them last year. Portland causes us huge problems on their home court, so I could see a series with them being pretty brutal. But you'd have to give us the edge by virtue of experience.

I don't consider Utah, New Orleans or Houston to be serious contenders.

[TonyMontana]

If healthy............ Nobody can beat us but ourselves. Bank on it.

[Danny Darko]

Mostly just our own health. The spurs are a little interesting and the Blazers are pesky.

[DEEP3CL]

IMO, for a western conference team to beat the Lakers they have to have home court advantage which I just dont see happening unless Kobe or Pau gets injured



edit: to answer your question, Spurs and Blazers have probably have the best chance at beating us

I knew I would get the overall cockiness of we can't be beat, but alot of us feel like that there are chinks in your team's armor. First, I really think you should be concerned with Artest and how he has been known as a "ball stopper" on offense. He is a great player, but in order for him to be effective on offense, he has to isolate everyone else. Now, I don't know if Kobe's greatness will compensate for this, but I do believe it opens the door for other teams.

Damn he answered your question and gave you a reason. You gotta lot of nerve to first come here and post a topic of which teams we think are a formidable foe when we damn well know who they are. Then you come off and try to say he was cocky ?

His answer was an honest assessment, for anybody to beat the Lakers they have to possess home court advantage period. That's far from being cocky......hell if any team want's to beat the Big 5 they're going to need HCA to do it plain and simple.

All those teams (Lakers, Cavs, Celtics, Spurs & Magic) are all excellent road teams and truthfully could still win a series if they lost a home game, and 4 of 5 proved that in last years playoffs. Case close

And bottom line you expected to come here and ask a wussy question and expected this board to bow down and say what you wanted to hear, " Yeah the Mavs are a concern to us" . NOT

[Frantik]

call me a complete homer but.... invincible is an understatement. People forget that this Laker team has massive room for improvement.

Shannon brown has huge space for improvement, how about consistency from LO, Sasha could go back to being the machine, Artest just barely got with the team so who knows how well he will play during the playoffs, BYNUM...alot, and i mean A LOT of room for improvement... even Kobe could use a little boost to his field goal percentage (his newfound focus on post moves should help there)... my goodness! . How scary will this team be if healthy after 82 games?

Injuries aside, I cant even begin to fathom the idea of this team not winning the west.
Beating San Antonio will be somewhat of a challenge. All else need not be worried about. period.

[fareweatherfan]

No team in the West can beat the Lakers in a playoff series.

No need for disclaimers, qualifiers or the like.

Have a nice day.

[OaklandLakers]

I fully understand the speculation from some Laker fans and fans of other teams, that Ron Artest will be a roadblock in the Lakers offensive scheme; but do people understand that Artest took MLE to come to L.A.(this dude was due for another 11 to high 12 mill a year after what he did in the playoffs, yes he did have bad nights but remember these 5 words 7 game series...AGAINST L.A.!) all the while knowing he's going to be at most the 3rd option and possibly 4th option, as he said, in the situation Odom has a good year in a system that he's already known to thrive in. Once again I understand that the argument and I am not a fan that blows off that conversation, because it has reason, but I feel that same convo is dead once you mention $5.5 dead presidents. But overall talk is talk. Video doesn't lie and I could very well be wrong but bottom line is come game day the floor is spread and your best gaurd/forward has to account primarily for Artest to expell more energy in the lesser minutes he'll be playing on this squad. All the while putting that same player that has to think of Artest hounding him has a put Kobe in the back of his mind...in the BACK OF HIS MIND. Opponents of Kobe's don't do so well when he is the PRIMARY ISSUE...

[fareweatherfan]

First, I really think you should be concerned with Artest and how he has been known as a "ball stopper" on offense. He is a great player, but in order for him to be effective on offense, he has to isolate everyone else. Now, I don't know if Kobe's greatness will compensate for this, but I do believe it opens the door for other teams.

GTFO...if I hear/read one more person mention "Artest" and "offense" in the same sentence, I'm going to seize.

Once and for all, Artest is not here for offense and he's 100% on-board with it! He's said as much.

To even suggest our offense will be hindered this year, is LMFAO funny. Keep dreaming, bud.

[dockingsched]

i really don't know what that mavs fan expected to hear from a fanbase who's team just won the title and won their conference by double digit games.

[joe.linnen]

The only team in our class in the western is the Spurs. The Mavs need to worry about the Nuggets, Trail Blazers, Hornets, Suns, Rockets and Jazz be for they even think about the Lakers or the Spurs.

[Mamba Venom]

The team I am concerned w/ is the Lakers

Chemistry, health & attitude

This team is in control of their own destiny!

[butter17]

The team that concerns me the most is the trailblazers. Thier young and athletic with a lot of energy. I still think we will mash them, but they gave us a lot of trouble last year.

[Anklebreaker702]

The team that concerns me the most is the trailblazers. Thier young and athletic with a lot of energy. I still think we will mash them, but they gave us a lot of trouble last year.

That's the team that I have my eye on also is Portland. I don't care what anybody says about the "Sperms" we will once again show them that they are impotent!