Eddie House beat the Lakers? For reals? AP Photo/Mark Avery Gutless. Pathetic. Pitiful. Sorry. And that’s being generous to the Lakers. Lamar Odom started out the game with a driving layup, and it looked like with that intensity it would be a foregone conclusion the Lakers would win. Lamar and the rest of the Lakers kept up the intensity in the first quarter pulling out to a 21-point lead, the largest lead at the......

It’s been a long time since a winning team of an NBA Final’s game looked like a team destined to lose the series. That game Tuesday night was atrocious. Dancers at Jumbo’s Clown Room look better than that game. The Celtics shot 35 percent from the field and the Lakers not named Kobe Bryant and Sasha Vujacic shot 28 percent. And to top it all off, the Lakers obviously weren’t used to getting foul calls......

Something funny happened after game four of the Western Conference Finals. After the Lakers escaped San Antonio for the three games to one series lead, for the very first time I truly believed the Lakers could actually win the NBA Championship. Despite their marvelous play throughout the regular season and postseason, the specter of Laker teams from the last three years hung over in my mind. At some point the Lakers would fold and......

Lakers 103, Washington Wizards 91 - The game wasn’t as close as the final score indicates. The Lakers led by 22 at halftime, and led by as much as 25 points in the third quarter. Kobe Bryant, who outscored the Wizards in the first quarter 19-15, ended up with 30 points on 10-15 shooting with eight free throws. Vladamir Radmanovic, Lamar Odom and Ronny Turiaf rounded out the starters with double-figure scoring, and Sasha Vujacic......

It would have been a much prettier victory had the Lakers played the New York Knicks at home three weeks ago. Today’s Knicks are hardly the bruisers of yesteryear, and it often appears as though Isiah Thomas rates coaching his team a distant third priority behind office poon and gourmet popcorn. But these last few weeks have been tough on the Lakers, with Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza out for 8 weeks each, resulting in......

Dude, strange things are afoot in Lakerland. Last night, en route to the Lakers beating the Nuggets 116-99, Kobe Bryant passed the ball. He made shit happen. And then, postgame, with a smile on his face, Kobe spoke in approving terms about his team, citing the fullness of their “passion bucket”. WHO IS THIS MAN? It wasn’t just Kobe raising the bar. Taking advantage of the double team on Bryant, Derek Fisher hit 6......

You can halt production on that purple and gold 2008 NBA Champions afghan you’ve been crocheting so diligently -- Lakers center Andrew Bynum is going to be out for the next 8 weeks. Bynum suffered a dislocated kneecap and a bone bruise courtesy of Lamar Odom’s big ass foot during the Laker’s victory over Memphis on Sunday. The good news is that the injury will not require surgery and the 20 year old big......

Lakers 103, Bulls 91 - Los Angeles spread the scoring around to down Chicago. Sasha Vujacic scored 19, Kobe Bryant had 18, and Lamar Odom had 17 (plus 16 rebounds). Raptors 80, Clippers 77 - As if the Clip Show wasn't missing enough performers, Cuttino Mobley was out sick. Both teams shot under 40% from the field. UCLA 77, Western Illinois 52 - In a breeze of a game, K-Love was 5-of-5 for 16 points.......

Lakers 123, Warriors 113 - We're still pretty sure this is a .500 team masquerading with an occasional good run, and now even their Phil Jackson is down on Kobe and Co. The Laker's coach told the media that a 50-win season is out of reach. His squad, however, responded by out-scoring the nation's hottest team on Sunday night. Kobe Bryant led the way with 28 and both Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum hit double......

Three losses in a row. A close loss in Milwaukee. A thrashing at the hands of the Boston. Then losing a 14-point lead and the game to New Jersey. That’s what last week brought the Lakers, pain and misery. And now a 7-6 record after a promising start. But like all things in Lakerdom, it all gets blown out of proportion. Some Lakers fans are running around like Chicken Little after these losses saying it's......

He was a dominant force at Westchester High School. He was part of the first year of Ben Howland’s turnaround at UCLA. And now he is a Laker. Trevor Ariza has come home, bringing with him some amazing dunks, good defense and a high-energy game that should fit in well with the young core of the Lakers. He was traded for veterans Brian Cook and Mo Evans. Call us crazy, but this is the rare......

After years of pressure from stats geeks thoughtful mathematicians, the NBA has started keeping a new official statistic — the old plus/minus. It’s a simple idea that hockey has used for decades: How much does a team outscore its opponent (or get outscored) when a specific player is on the floor. It’s pretty simple. Off the top of your head, who leads the Lakers in this new stat (if averaged per game)? Kobe Bryant?......

Injured Lamar Odom, who has been a huge disappointment to the Lakers, totaled his Mercedes Benz in Hawthorne yesterday, t-boning a woman in a Geo Prism who had to be removed via the jaws-of-life. The small forward sustained a concussion from the accident but was healthy enough to watch the Lakers lose to the Rockets last night. Odom, who is inactive for the Lakers because of left shoulder surgery in the offseason, was on......

Jazz 102, Lakers 81 - This game looked bad on the scoreboard but it was even worse on the court. Los Angeles was 3-of-19 in the first quarter, and Kobe missed his first eight shots overall. They were down 21 at halftime. By the final buzzer, three different Utah players reached double-digits in rebounds. Fortunately, it's just the preseason ... A bad omen of things to come, Lamar Odom is out for a little longer......

Suns 119, Lakers 110 - Everybody saw this one coming, but at least the Lakers made a game of it. Already trailing 3-1 in the first round of the NBA playoffs, the Lakers faced double-digit deficits for much of the night. However, they pulled within two in the third quarter and five in the fourth thanks to strong performances from Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom. Kobe had a typical 34 point game, but he needed......

The Lakers head into a must win game tonight in Phoenix (7:30 on KCAL 9 or TNT) with many fans and pundits thinking this is more a nationally televised execution than a playoff game. Look at the reports from yesterday’s Laker practice and the same feeling seems to have washed over the team. Not to worry though Laker fans, you’ve got Phil Jackson’s amazing motivational tools: “I did tell them that they had the brainpower......

Lakers 95, Suns 89 - After getting smacked around in the first two games of the series, the Lakers were looking up at a 17 point Phoenix lead in game three. Then something snapped. Kobe went on a 45 point rampage and -- surprise! -- Kwame Brown had 19. Lamar Odom had 18, but more important were his 16 rebounds (6 on the offensive glass). Los Angeles finally has the spark of hope that sometimes......

Kobe Bryant has always seemed to me like a character out of Greek mythology or a classic novel -– his greatest strength is also the cause of his undoing. Sunday in game one against the Suns, it was part of the Lakers undoing. Kobe could not be Kobe without his supreme self-confidence, without his unshakable belief that the next shot is going to fall regardless of if he made the last one, regardless of where......

After a heartbreaking loss to the Houston Rockets on Friday night, the Lakers redeemed themselves by scorching the Sacramento Kings 126-103 at Staples Center on Sunday night. Kobe had a season-high 13 assists, while Maurice Evans and Luke Walton scored 21 and 18 respectively. The Lakers' number two man, Lamar Odom, was crippled by foul trouble, but plenty of other players stepped up to the plate, demonstrating that the Lakers can be a deep......

While Kobe had an “off night” when he put up 43 against Golden State on Sunday, breaking his streak of games scoring 50 or more at four, he could return to his high scoring ways tonight against Memphis. The same Memphis he dropped 60 on last week. But is that a good thing? A few have questioned it, saying that Kobe’s offensive dominance is stifling team growth, short-circuiting a return to the team play of......

The Lakers continued their five-game winning streak with Sunday night’s 115-113 win over the Golden State Warriors. Kobe Bryant did not stretch his 50+ points game streak to five, scoring (only) 43 points. Lamar Odom was also instrumental with 24 points and 19 rebounds. The game turned out to be a nail-biter when Golden State’s Stephen Jackson dropped a three-pointer with 1.9 seconds to go, making it a one-point game, but a free throw......

Nuggets 113, Lakers 86 - When Phil Jackson went to bed on Wednesday, he was probably looking forward to the day ahead. Things were set up nicely for a home game with Lamar Odom and Luke Walton both returning from injuries. Then his alarm clock rang. Within a few hours, the NBA dished out $100,000 in fines for his comments about a Kobe "witchhunt" and the Lakers lost for the seventh time in a row.......

Current Record: 29-30, 3rd Pacific, T-7th West Last Week: If LAist didn’t know any better, we would have assumed the latest rash of injuries to hit sports stars across LA was just another insidious terrorist plot hatched up on 24, given the number of attacks our fair city has received over the years on the show. We saw Becks go down before even getting to LA. We saw Lamar Odom getting injured again and joining......

Maybe it’s time to call in a Shaman, or a voodoo priestess with a few live chickens, or go riding down a hill in a beat-up VW van with Hurley from Lost. The Lakers need to do something to break the curse that keeps raining injuries down on them the second half of this season. After two games where Lamar Odom finally started to look like the aggressive Odom the Lakers patiently have been......

The NBA goes to Vegas for the weekend and we're blinded by the sideshow even before Charles Barkley takes the court to challenge 67-year-old NBA ref Dick Bavetta in a sprint-off. First, Timmay, and now... 41-year-old Scottie Pippen wants to return as a player?!? Coincidentally, the Lakers are in the midst of their roughest stretch of the season having dropped 7 of 10. Phil and friends are definitely in need of a little somethin' somethin'.......

Knicks 107, Lakers 106 - With time running out, the Lakers employed a brand new strategy against New York. Unofficially dubbed the "Let's not pass it to Kobe" play, Lamar Odom fired up an air ball as the clock ran out. So much for that idea. 7.1 seconds earlier, Eddy Curry slammed home the go-ahead dunk and propelled the Knicks to their 23rd win of the year -- matching last year's total with 30 games......

There have been plenty of excuses: Luke Walton and Kwame Brown are out with injuries; Kobe Bryant had to miss a game because he can’t control his arms; Lamar Odom is not 100% from his knee problems; it was a long eight-game road trip to cold places; Mercury was retrograde so the stars were lined up against the Lakers. Maybe it’s because all the Laker players can do is “play video games and watch porn,”......

Bobcats 106, Lakers 97, OT - It had all the makings of a memorable game for the Lakers. Lamar Odom finally returned from injury. Andrew Bynum grabbed 16 boards off the bench. Kobe Bryant became the youngest player to ever reach 18,000 points. Three of his game high 32 came on a wide-open shot with 1.6 seconds to go, sending it into overtime. But Charlotte, one of the NBA's cellar dwellars, knocked off the Lakers......

Lamar: "It's about time that KCAL started broadcasting us in HD." Kobe: "Yeah? It's about time your fuckin knee healed. How 'bout that?" The Lakers are #2 in the Pacific Division with a .643 record and have a .636 record in games broadcast in High Definition. Pretty good, since the games are only broadcast in high def when they play top teams... until now. Starting February 2nd, all Laker away games on KCAL 9......

Lakers 108, Warriors 103 - The Lakers kicked off a slow week in local sports (only five pro games in total) by pulling out a win against the Golden State Warriors. Los Angeles had lost two in a row, but hasn't dropped three consecutive games all season. LAist was in attendance and watched the Lakers once again play to the level of their opponent. While the Warriors are better off since a massive eight player......