April 15, 2007
The LAkers Story: Kobe Helps Lakers Clinch a Playoff Spot

There was a strange look in Kobe Bryant’s face during Friday night’s game against the Phoenix Suns: It was a look of defeat. Kobe seemed tired and listless, playing only 17 points in their 93-85 loss. We shouldn’t waste too much sympathy on a multi-millionaire, but it’s been hard not to feel for Kobe, who has been playing some of the best basketball of his career without getting any consistent help from the rest of his team.
But for tonight’s game against the Seattle Supersonics, Kobe was back as determined as ever, carrying the Lakers to a 109-98 win with his 10th 50-point game of the season. A few changes may have helped. Center Kwame Brown returned after sitting out the last six games with a sprained ankle and - in the 81st game of the regular season - Coach Phil Jackson suddenly changed his starting lineup, using Jordan Farmar as starting point guard instead of Smush Parker, who has been a huge disappointment this season.
With this win, the Lakers clinch a playoff spot – either 7th or 8th - meaning they’ll meet Phoenix or the Dallas Mavericks in the playoffs. Either way, it’ll be a tough road against either the number one or number two team in the Western Conference. The Lakers have just not been able to gel as a team this year. As Phil Jackson commented in his post-game interview, “We’re not settled on what we have to do as a team; we’re still searching for the right combination.” For Lakers fans, it’s best to start focusing on the future and on whether the Lakers can get Kobe some real help for next season.
AP photo by Gus Ruelas



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First
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Smush a huge disappointment this season? Do you even watch the Lakers? His scoring numbers are up this year across the board and he is among the league leaders in steals. Only thing lacking is consistency in scoring sometimes.
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RIGHT COMBINATION: TRADE SMUSH, and throw in Radmanovic as a free bonus.
Smush is a waste of time, and Vlad is a waste of money. Nick, I like how you underscored Smush's numbers with the fact that he "lacks consistency". This is an understatement. He is completely inconsistent. In fact he is not even dependable in the least. Forget even using him as a clutch in the fourth quarter, the kid goes dormant after a single trip to the bench.
And to get back to bagging on Vladimir Radmanovic, forget the fact that he explicitly broke the rules of his contract, lied about it and missed a third of a critical season -- The man costs more money than Turiaf, Vujacic, Walton and Bynum combined ($5.2 million).
I would throw more of the LA roster into the fire except no one else has been as explicitly detrimental to the team as these two.
So I wanna ask you Nick, do YOU even watch the Lakers? The rest of us at LAist do and I think that Nikki Bazar is dead on the money here.
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Smush is worth the money though...
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Like your words, and welcome you to my blog~~~
kenkou31.blog.sohu.com