Kobe Bryant brings the ball

The Lakers won game 6 out of the last 7.

It was Lakers 112 Pacers 96.

It was all Kobe Bryant in the 3rd quarter with 12 points.

The continuing to improve Andrew Bynum had 23 points and 13 rebounds.

The spiraling downward Indiana Pacers, a recently great franchise with nowhere to go, could not put it together.

Mike Dunleavy led Indiana (16-19) with 17 points. Danny Granger added 14 points, Jermaine O’Neal scored 13 and Kareem Rush had 12 for the Pacers, who lost their fifth straight road game and for the sixth time in seven games overall. source

As surely as the Pacers are going downhill the Lakers are going uphill.

In fact, Coach Phil Jackson just achieved a major milestone in the recent victory over the 76ers.

the Lakers gave Phil Jackson the 939th victory of his Hall of Fame coaching career, moving him past Red Auerbach into seventh place on the NBA’s all-time list. Bill Fitch is sixth with 944 victories.

“Oh, there goes another number,” Jackson said of passing Auerbach. “It’s nice to win. Maybe there’s another name there on the list (to catch) if we continue to win.” source

First off, 900 of anything is amazing, but to beat Red Auerbach in incredible. He coached those Celtic teams with Bill Russell when there was very little player movement in the league and once your team was great it stayed great forever. The Celtics won title after title.

But then, so has Phil. Does not hurt to coach Michael Jordan, Shaq, and Kobe.

Laker side note I: This is 12 wins out of the last 15 games.

Laker side note II: The Lakers are 7 – 0 when all 5 starters are in double figures. Go figure.

Don’t look now, but Kobe and the Lakers are for real!

NBA Basketball Fan Question Are you a Laker believer?

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Chauncey is averaging 2 and 1/2 less minutes per game this year

The roll continues for the Pistons and they are doing it by taking advantage of one of their team strengths, depth.

That’s right, depth. The Pistons are playing a lot of players and it is paying off with early dividends.

Last year the Pistons looked tired physically and weary mentally in losing to the Cav’s and LeBron in the Eastern Conference Finals. In an effort to prevent that from happening again, the Pistons are playing a lot of young players and will continue to play a lot of players, period.

Unlike recent years, this season the Pistons don’t have any players ranked in the top 50 in minutes. With their solid bench contributions and string of winning games long before the late moments of the fourth quarter, Pistons coach Flip Saunders has been able to cut his starters minutes back to the low 30s — just as Dumars hoped would happen this season. source

The latest result was for victory number 8 in a row. It happened to be a back to back with the Indiana Pacers.

Chauncey Billups had 17 points, reserve Jason Maxiell scored 12 and Rasheed Wallace finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds to help Detroit (23-7) complete the home-and-home sweep over the Pacers.

“It’s not that odd to play a team back-to-back, you get that every once in a while in this league,” Wallace said. “You still have to go out there and hoop.” source

Even with all the young guys playing the Pistons struggled a little bit with the back to back.

Mike Dunleavy’s 3-pointer cut the deficit to 96-92, but the Pacers couldn’t get any closer.

“They made a few more plays down the stretch, but we had our opportunities,” said Granger, who finished with 15 points. “We put ourselves in position to win the game, which is what you always want to do.”

Billups wasn’t surprised by his team’s ability to hang on at the end.

“We got everything we wanted in terms of plays down the stretch,” he said. “We came together when it really counted.”

There are still a lot of games to play before the playoffs, so you will have to watch and see if this strategy continues to help the Pistons, but right now they are a rested and confident team.

Eastern Conference Finals here they come.

NBA Basketball Fan Question Can the Pistons merge in the youngsters for the playoffs?

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