**LAKERS VS GRIZZLIES: FEB 7TH 5 PACIFIC**

[H00PDREAMS]

...Artest continuing to stew as he was corralled towards the bench. First he pushed Lakers trainer Gary Vitti's hands away when he tried to take a look at him. Next it took his longtime confidant Chuck Person looking him in the eye and Kobe Bryant touching him on his face to grab Artest's attention and try to center him...

"We have a relationship where even though things may get a little crazy for him, I’ll go up to him and check on him and make sure he’s alright and he’ll respond," Bryant said. "So, I just wanted to make sure he’s OK."

"It was Pau’s brother, so I didn’t want him to beat up Pau’s brother."

http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/lak ... in-memphis

[Anklebreaker702]

^Yeah Artest wanted blood last night night. I was it in his eyes. I said the only thing that saved MG was being Pau's brother. And that gif is funny as hell! lololololololol

[Anklebreaker702]

the lakers wont catch up to the spurs...regardless of LA playing well...the spurs and mavs are spitting fire right now....lets just hope for a top 3 seed in the west...i think the lakers can handle it from there

They have been spitting fire all year & we haven't caught fire yet. So when they hit their luls (and they will) we'll make a surge.

[Anklebreaker702]

Watching the highlights again I absolutely love the way LO's been playing off late. He's cutting, diving to the basket every time either Kobe or Pau is in the high post and he's running the floor like there's no tomorrow on every transition attempt.

No more standing on the perimeter and getting lost on possessions for the big guy.

Yeah I commented on that early in the GT, if his defense could jump up to that level it would be lights out for Lamar.

[semi-sentient]

damn, you're pessimist. dallas wont finish ahead of us. They're on a good run but they don't have enough firepower. The cavs almost beat them at their home, lol.

No, I'm being a realist. We've struggled against playoff caliber teams this season, and our schedule is A LOT more difficult than either the Spurs or Mavs. I don't know how anyone can come to a different conclusion based on how the season has unfolded so far in addition to what we know is up ahead.

I would like to know why people are convinced that we'll finish ahead of Dallas? Have you looked at their schedule? Have you looked at ours? We have, quite possibly, the most difficult schedule in the league from here on out. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone since we had the easiest schedule the first half of the season.

I would love to believe that we're going to finish something like 25-5 to close the season, but I'd just be deluding myself.

[semi-sentient]

Chicago

We've already seen them twice I thought?

Ooops, you're right, we have. Might have gotten a little too excited when I was listing upcoming opponents.

[Penberthy]

I don't think we need to look at what the Celtics does any more. Our only priority is to get our own act straight. Catching up other teams for HCA is kind of a long shot.

Uh not really, we are only like 7 games back of the spurs. if we beat them the next 2 meetings that's only 5 other games to gain ground on. Still about half the season left to be played...thats an eternity.

You have to take our schedule into account. The 2nd half of the season is going to be extremely tough for us, so the odds of us catching up are pretty slim. The Spurs would have to essentially stop playing basketball in order for us to catch up, not to mention we'd have to start beating good teams on a consistent basis. The season is also 2/3 completed, not halfway, so there's not as much time as people seem to think. We only have 30 games left. If the Spurs (who have 32 games left) finish 22-10, we'd have to finish 27-3 just to catch them. We'd also have to win both games we have left with them and hope we win the tie-breaker.

Im pretty sure the spurs' starters' season ends about 1 month before the rest of the league's.

[semi-sentient]

Not this year they won't. They know how important HCA is and I don't think we'll be seeing Pops rest his guys as much, especially since he's been able to keep their minutes down as it is. Pops has done an unbelievable job of managing his personnel this year. Look at the minutes those guys are playing... Parker 32.9, Ginobili 31.5, Jefferson 31.4, Duncan 29.1 (!). Meanwhile our big 3 are all playing over 33 MPG, with Gasol averaging 37.4.

[Penberthy]

Not this year they won't. They know how important HCA is and I don't think we'll be seeing Pops rest his guys as much, especially since he's been able to keep their minutes down as it is. Pops has done an unbelievable job of managing his personnel this year. Look at the minutes those guys are playing... Parker 32.9, Ginobili 31.5, Jefferson 31.4, Duncan 29.1 (!). Meanwhile our big 3 are all playing over 33 MPG, with Gasol averaging 37.4.

Damn that IS pretty amazing.

[Rox_Nix_Nox]

Remember mike miller and Kobe? Ron & Kobe aren't so different after all.

[Edrees]

Stop mentioning the lakers schedule. the lakers regular season success has nothing to do with who they play but with how much they are motivated. this road trip is proving that.

[DrewBynum77]

damn, you're pessimist. dallas wont finish ahead of us. They're on a good run but they don't have enough firepower. The cavs almost beat them at their home, lol.

No, I'm being a realist. We've struggled against playoff caliber teams this season, and our schedule is A LOT more difficult than either the Spurs or Mavs. I don't know how anyone can come to a different conclusion based on how the season has unfolded so far in addition to what we know is up ahead.

I would like to know why people are convinced that we'll finish ahead of Dallas? Have you looked at their schedule? Have you looked at ours? We have, quite possibly, the most difficult schedule in the league from here on out. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone since we had the easiest schedule the first half of the season.

I would love to believe that we're going to finish something like 25-5 to close the season, but I'd just be deluding myself.

I'm not as optimistic about us as you may think. I just think that dallas stinks. I think we'll finish 21-9 and still we'll be ahead of Dallas.

I forgot about OKC, tho. That concerned me so I watched their game last night to cheer for Pau's brother. It worked.

You mentioned they have a easier schedule, I know... The thing is IMHO they play better against better teams. Dallas depends too much on hustling and defending at almost a playoff level, when they face good teams they do it, but when they are facing the not-so-great teams they relax and they can't relax. On this run they are playing well against bad teams too but that's because they were on a 7-losses streak prior so they are trying to prove something... They'll cooldown because they aren't a young team like Chicago. Celtics do this every season. They don't play as good in the second half of the season.

Specially Chandler who's playing like Dwight Howard on this stretch. He isn't this good.

Not a single team as old as them can play D the way they're playing right now thru-out the entire regular season. Unless they plan on failing in the Playoffs again. The 9 players in their main rotation are actually older than our 9-man rotation... People forget about this.

Seriously, when they aren't playing high level D, any team in the league can beat them, I actually would favor most of the teams on such scenario. I'm a raptors-lakers fan and I watched the depleted raptors beat them at their home with ease. Raptors are probably the worst D in the league and they held dallas to 76 points If I'm not mistaken.

Also, there's the dirk thing. If he misses a game they lose. If he misses 10 games they lose 10 times. They have dirk as the 1st option and A BUNCH of 3rd/4th options guys. Nobody from that team could be a second option on a contending team.

That's why I rule them out even tho I'm not optimistic about the Lakers.

I hope I was able to clarify my position despite my bad english.

[picc]

Kobe physically is looking much, much better than he did last year.

He's driven to the rim more times the last few games than all of 2010 combined.