Real Deal

He refuses to get the surgery in the off-season, and there's no way he'll do it during the regular season (unless he's THAT hurt). His right hand has the dislocated pinkie (since last season), dislocated ring finger (since two seasons ago), and the tear in his index finger (since this past season). He's shooting with a middle finger and a thumb, with a rubber cast on the index finger. I really don't see how he's doing it. He hasn't been shooting all that well in the last 2-3 games, except for last night...he shot 7-10 before leaving the floor (the back spasms I mentioned). We're overworking him.

Why not just try bringing Calderon off the bench and letting Hedo handle the ball more? Toronto is rolling though, so I don't know.

Right, but how good would those teams be if they played a Western Conference season schedule? As good as the Spurs or Nuggets? Mavericks? Still better? Many believe the Nuggets may have beaten the Magic, had they gotten past the Lakers in the WCF.

You know what's weird about this? It seems like two years ago, and maybe last year, many people would be saying that a team of Gasol, Odom, and Bynum could make the playoffs. Now we're second-guessing a team of Gasol, Odom, Artest and Bynum could get in. Sounds crazy...but with our bigs not working well together, Fisher being a matador and not a traditional point, and our bench just flat out sucking...it would be quite the reach.

It won't happen unless the Sixers dump Dalembert's contract. In other words, it won't happen.

LOL, by the end of the year, it could be similar to that. Eleven teams are above .500 right now in the West. Four teams are above it in the East.

You know what's crazy about all of that? Many were angry that the Lakers had the easy home games to start the season...and now I wonder how they feel about us dipping into the worst part of our schedule, loaded with away games and strong teams, when everyone is injured. And that's spot-on about Fisher. He's a terrible defensive player and just as bad offensively. I've always said that, yes, he hits clutch shots...but the only reason he does is because he has to, by not playing like a starting point for the other 30+ minutes he is out on the floor.

Just for future trivia, the Central Division did this once in 2005-06, with everyone winning 40 games or more. But they are the only division to send all five since the NBA split into six divisions. On the other hand, last year, the Lakers were the only team to go to the playoffs in the Pacific Division, something that has only been done three times (twice in 2005-06).

C - Bynum PF - Gasol/Odom SF - Artest SG - Brown PG - Fisher That's a 40-win team, no playoffs in the West. It's been proven that Bynum and Gasol can't co-exist (you'd see that if you just watch us with both in the game), and Gasol has never attempted more than 15 shots in his career, even when he was the sole primary option on the Grizzlies. Jackson would have to put Bynum on the bench, start Gasol at the five and play Odom in the starting lineup, if he wanted to win more than 40...and I'm not even sure that would work out too well.

Kobe has a broken index finger on his right hand, with a jammed pinkie and a jacked up ring finger...still shooting hand. Plus, he had back spasms tonight, left the game for a bit and actually sit for most of it later on. Gasol thinks he'll be returning against the Clippers. His hammy is messed up, different leg than earlier in the season as well. Ron Artest just sprained his index finger on his right hand tonight. There's something mentally wrong with Andrew Bynum. How are we going to win an NBA championship with this mess?

History changes the future. The entire article was also about the present, if you read near the bottom. And I'm actually more against us acting like we are still the greatest country in the world, and that we can treat anyone differently than we do our own people. It really doesn't matter to me anyways. I don't see how any of them will be found innocent to begin with (like some delusional people think).

We should probably just keep them in our own special prisons outside of the US, monitored by some of our own military, so they can molest them and take pictures of them, like we've seen in the past by a bunch of low-life scumbag Americans serving our country. That's an idea...just keep pissing off other countries and treating everyone like dirt, no matter what. Read: http://www.spectacle.org/yearzero/tribunal.html

I WISH THIS TEAM WOULD'VE BLOWN US OUT BY 30. Duncan, McDyess, Odom, Bogans and Artest have all outrebounded Bynum. Duncan was toying with him. Parker is still tearing Fisher a new one. Kobe hasn't shot the ball once in the second half (I don't think). This is pathetic.

It's on NBATV, guys.

Be sure to stick your site in your signature space. That's probably one of the best ways to promote it, honestly. Your posting helps OTR out, and your posting helps your site out. And I'll go ahead and plug it for you before I add it to our sidebar (will do that soon): http://www.nbahoopsonline.com

Speaking of big leads...

Great post, Sky. And just a quick mention of our offensive rating: 12th, points per 100 possessions. Defensive rating? First. I think we need that green light to get our offense flowing again, especially if Kobe is going to be injured all season long.

Unnecessary comment. Both of you, drop the games already. When I let him have his account back, I clearly stated that nobody will start crap with him, even if it was from another site. And when I did that, there was an understanding that he wouldn't act like an idiot on the forums, and he wouldn't indirectly bait guys into starting trouble. So it ends right now.

I don't take the Alexa rankings seriously most of the time, but we DID bump our rankings up from almost 1,000,000 around October, to 370,000 right now. I'd say that's pretty good. As far as posts go... January 10th - 811 January 11th - 490 Still pretty good. I'll take that over the terrible days we were having back in October and November.

..and look at how amazing our defense has been since picking up Artest. We made a heck of a decision.

Anyone see how much Bynum actually contributed to that championship roster last year? Check the NBA Finals, also.

Bynum is no better defensively than Bosh is, doesn't matter the position they play. Bynum has been a mess on defense, and his production on offense is only significant when Gasol is injured. Gasol complained about touches, yet he should realize he's never taken over 15 shots a game in any season of his career, including the days he was in Memphis by himself. He fixed his problem, though, with his offensive rebounding.