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Five thoughts about Lakers opener
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AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian
The Lakers defeated the Trail Blazers, 96-76, in their opener Tuesday night at Staples Center. Without further ado, here is the first regular-season edition of my five thoughts:
Firing on all cylinders. The Lakers could not have asked for a better start to the 2008-09 season. At the risk of sounding like a massive homer, a game like this reminds everyone just how good this team can be. Granted the Blazers played like a high school frosh-soph team, but the Lakers still looked pretty darn good. It will be interesting to see how things go when they get a real challenge (likely not tomorrow night against the Clippers).
Bad News Blazers. On the complete opposite side of the spectrum, the Trail Blazers redefined Murphy's Law in Tuesday night's loss. Let's take inventory. Greg Oden was held scoreless and left with a right foot injury. Brandon Roy played as bad as a human being can play in the first half, missing his first nine shots. In what was supposed to be a statement game for the young upstart team, they got thoroughly embarrassed by a superior team. Now I know it's only one game, but such a devastating loss could deeply affect this young and impressionable Blazers team.
Lamar Odom loves the bench. A little too much, it appears. In the first quarter Odom delivered a sterling chest pass to fellow bench-mate Sasha Vujacic. The only problem was that Sasha was standing out of bounds with his warmups on. It was the only time all game that Sasha caught the ball and did not put up a shot within three seconds.
Rudy Fernandez and Travis Outlaw are good. The lone bright spots for the Blazers, the duo scored the majority of their team's points Tuesday night. Outlaw seems to have expaned his range to the three-point line and Fernandez immediately thrust himself into the Rookie of the Year conversation (especially if Oden is out for an extended period).
The space cadet makes his case. I thought Phil Jackson made a mistake by starting Vlad Radmanovic instead of Trevor Ariza, but the oft-aloof Radmanovic proved me wrong Tuesday night. He shot well (although not often) and scored eight points, but what surprised everyone in Los Angeles and on Radmanovic's home planet were his FOUR steals! He was doing it in the pre-season, but nobody expected him to play defense on a regular basis. It helps when your team wins by 20, but Phil Jackson seems to be making all the right moves so far.
Just a side note, I have to toot my own horn a little bit. In yesterday's post I predicted that Oden and Bynum would both get in foul trouble and probably not produce much. Well, Oden picked up two quick fouls in his scoreless 13 minutes before leaving with an injury while Bynum had only eight points and had more fouls (5) than rebounds (3). I guess I do know what I'm talking about. Well...sometimes.
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