View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
Phil Retired
Joined: 03 Aug 2001 Posts: 10007
|
Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 6:20 am Post subject: March 28th: Extended Break Seen as a Springboard. |
|
|
Extended Break Seen as a Springboard
By Mike Bresnahan, Times Staff Writer
March 28, 2006
Rest for the weary, finally.
The Lakers hadn't had more than a day between games since the All-Star break, but here they are, seventh in the Western Conference, with three days between games, trying to heal in time for a game with the defending champions.
They have a chance to win a fifth consecutive game for the first time since April 2004, although their next opponent, San Antonio on Thursday, won't bring the same laundry list of sprains, spasms and jammed appendages as the Lakers, who were given Monday off.
"We really are starting to feel the vagaries of the season," Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. "I think this is a great time for us to have a little break in the season."
After so many days of activity — 20 games in 34 days — it's a quiet part of the schedule for the Lakers, who have another three-day break next week before their final seven games.
They can use the rest. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Phil Retired
Joined: 03 Aug 2001 Posts: 10007
|
Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 6:21 am Post subject: |
|
|
Things finally starting to come together for Brown
By Ross Siler, Staff Writer
If not for what happened to Kwame Brown in last season's playoffs, a topic that hasn't been revisited since the Lakers faced the Washington Wizards on Dec. 26, then Brown might not find himself in the position he is in today.
After quitting on the Wizards during last season's first-round series, Brown has put together arguably the best four-game stretch of his career and joined Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom in leading the Lakers as they push toward the playoffs.
Brown has more than filled the void since starting center Chris Mihm was lost to a severely sprained ankle. He is in position to return to the playoffs in his first season with the Lakers and, maybe, make a new name for himself in the NBA.
Asked what a return to the playoffs would mean, Brown thought back to Game 1 of the Wizards' series against the Bulls last season, when he finished with 13 points and nine rebounds in 35 minutes off the bench.
"I had a pretty good first game in the playoffs, was excited about the playoffs," Brown said. "The playoffs are a very good environment. All the excitement, the fans are going crazy. I just can't wait to feel that type of energy again." |
|
Back to top |
|
|
Phil Retired
Joined: 03 Aug 2001 Posts: 10007
|
Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 10:21 pm Post subject: |
|
|
To be great, Lakers might have to wait
By KEVIN DING
The Orange County Register
Kevin Garnett is one of the players the Lakers might have a chance to go after in 2008.
TOM OLMSCHEID, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Lakers will court an even more desperate Kevin Garnett, finally ready and able to set himself free. They will revisit Ron Artest as a more stable 28- year-old after a little time to grow up in Sacramento. And they will have their moon-shooting operation, too: getting LeBron James to super-size from Cleveland to Los Angeles.
Those are all legitimate scenarios for the Lakers to hit the jackpot via free agency in 2008, the club's new long- range plan, and sign a superstar to join Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom. The great-in- '08 scenarios don't end there.
During this season, the Lakers quietly guaranteed the final year of Kwame Brown's three-year contract, which means Brown joins Bryant and Odom as the only Lakers under firm contract until 2008 and precludes the Lakers from offering a maximum contract in 2007 free agency.
A major reason Brown was rewarded: Yao Ming and Amare Stoudemire signed extensions before this season instead of becoming free agents in 2007, and they were the two big men the Lakers were eyeing. Although a few other good players will come free in '07, a year later the possibilities are so multiple it's mind-blowing. |
|
Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|