Sometimes the NBA can take on a whimsical tone with events going beyond reality causing what we know to be totally false. How else can you explain the sudden disappearance of the volatile aggressive Ron Artest that we all have come to know and love? Still, that is what has happened in La La Laker land, where the milk and honey flow in the form of Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson, and a roof of championship banners.

Ron Artest signed a long term contract for 34 million bucks to play for Phil Jackson’s Lakers and the thought was that Ron would bring some toughness to a lineup that features the ultra talented Bryant and the finesse playing Pau Gasol.

Ron Artest pre-Laker guarding Kobe Bryant

In Phil Jackson’s mind there are still questions about when Ron is going to bring the necessary aggression to the floor to add a weapon that the Lakers will need when they play teams like San Antonio, Orlando, or Boston, in other words, the big boys in the league.

“He still looks like he’s standing around watching the other guys play at times, and he’s not involved as much as I would like him to be involved,” Jackson said after watching Artest play 26 minutes,

14 seconds against the Kings.

Asked if he believed Artest was deferring too much to his teammates, Jackson said, “Yeah, yeah, I think he’s got to find his way in the post and do some things that asserts himself and put pressure on his teammates to get him the ball in the right spots.

“He’s trying to be the right guy and try to fit in and not try to crowd his way in there, but he’s got to do that. I’m going to have to force him to do it.”

Artest admitted his immersion to all things Lakers remains a work in progress. He also said he’s been reluctant to charge into the mix, particularly offensively, because he’s studying the Lakers’ pecking order in their triangle offense.

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It is quite the opposite of what many of the experts felt would happen. The dynamic that was expected consisted of Phil and Kobe and other veterans attempting to keep Artest in check so that the locker room did not implode and the chemistry that has produced the high level of Laker play would remain.

NBAObsessed has argued before that Ron Artest will be good for the Lakers. See this link.

Some disagree, but Artest good for Lakers

Time will tell.

Image: Zuma Press

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The Los Angeles Lakers are a team known for talent and coaching and Kobe Bryant. What they are not known for is toughness. In last year’s series against the Boston Celtics, the lack of toughness haunted them and drove them out of the playoffs.

This year they face the Orlando Magic a team known for toughness with one of the toughest players in the league, the very physical Dwight Howard. Everyone felt the Lakers were the better team, but Orlando was hot and playing physical. Would the Lakers fold up and not play up to their potential.

Would Kobe play it cute? Would Pau Gasol play it safe?

Kobe and the Lakers are showing toughness

No, the Lakers came to play and have brought surprising toughness.

In these moments, two things became abundantly clear: The Lakers weren’t going to let Orlando’s physical play get to them, and the Lakers had added a thick outer callous since the Boston Celtics beat them up in last year’s Finals.
All season they have talked about being tougher. But toughness, like character, isn’t learned, but rather forged.

Through experience, from failure, with regret and desire fueling the hot fire it requires to be fed.

It wasn’t until Thursday night though, that the Lakers were pushed hard enough to show how much they had hardened.

“It was a game we had to work so hard for and fight through so much and in the end it really paid off,” Gasol said.

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No, the Lakers will never be compared to some of the Piston championship teams, last year’s Lakers, or even the Shaq Kobe Laker teams, but this team has found the toughness they needed to survive and gain victory.
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Pau Gasol is getting banged around by Dwight Howard, but what did he expect? Dwight has only one style of play and it involves a lot of muscle applied in a not so gentle manner.

Pau rubbed the back of his head to the referee for a visual explanation.

Then again, Pau is not the most physical center in the league and Dwight is going to have to be physical to compete with Gasol. If Dwight Howard lightened up for even a moment, the crafty Pau would destroy him on the offensive end.

Dwight Howard fights off the Lakers

Howard even seemed to acknowledge Gasol’s complaints, though he had not been told of them before his postgame news conference.

“I think with (Andrew) Bynum, he doesn’t mind banging,” Howard said. “With Gasol, sometimes you’ve got to be aware of what you do in the paint. Gasol is very smart. He’s been playing for a long, long time and I think with him, I’ve just got to be smart. I don’t want to pick up any cheap fouls and have to sit on the bench.”

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Hey, Dwight knows what he is doing.

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Is that goaltending? If so, the Orlando Magic should be headed home tied 1-1, not down 0-2 heading into Tuesday night’s Game 3 of the NBA Finals. source

This is just too freaky, because they just aired the 72 Munich Germany USA basketball loss to Russia, where Russia gets 3 tries and 2 additional seconds to hand the USA their first ever Olympic loss. Doug Collins had seemingly gave the Americans the lead with 1 second left on the clock and that is when the shenanigans began.

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A team posing as the Houston Rockets showed up at the Forum for a game 7. It was a testament to fortitude that the Rockets were still in this series at all. Just who were these Rockets, anyway? They were led by Scola and Brooks in scoring.

Who?

You know, Scola and Brooks. Oh, you were probably wondering about that Yao guy and the one named McGrady. Those two were not seen at the scene. It was more up to Battier and Artest. My thoughts exactly, do you want to trust your playoff fortunes to Battier and Artest?

Pau Gasol in the 3 man jumping drill

It did not matter as Pau Gasol and half of Hollywood led the Lakers to a huge 51 – 31 advantage at half and then just coasted to victory. Pau had 21 points and 18 rebounds. Kobe had a slightly off day with 14 points.

With Gasol scoring 21 points and grabbing 18 rebounds, the Lakers looked like the conference’s top-seeded team, not the maddeningly inconsistent one that was pushed to the decisive final game by the undermanned Rockets.

The Lakers dominated the paint on both ends, forcing the Rockets into turnovers and bad shots, and owning the backboards. They had an 8-0 lead a few minutes in and widened it to 25 points on Gasol’s jump hook shortly before halftime.

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Now the Nuggets and Chauncey Billups come into tinsel town on Tuesday. Stay tuned.
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The Knicks turn their back on Stephon Marbury

Why would Stephon Marbury be at a Lakers game?

Did you know he sat in Jerry Buss’s seat? Jerry is the owner, you know.

Marbury is living in Los Angeles, working out at a facility in Manhattan Beach and hiking in Runyan Canyon near Hollywood. This was the second Lakers game he’s attended this year. The first, rather famously, came in December when he sat courtside for the Lakers-New York Knicks game.

But there’s also no connection, Marbury said, between his

attendance Friday and the Lakers’ recent injury woes in the backcourt.

“No, there isn’t a correlation,” he said. “I gotta get out of my deal before I can do anything else.”

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Why would the Lakers want Stephon Marbury? Isn’t he a ball hog, a disruptive force on the team, a bad chemistry guy? Well, yes, yes, and yes.

Well, then why would the Laker even consider taking on Stephon Marbury?

Because sometimes it works. Because Stephon would know this is Kobe Bryant’s team. There was always doubt about whose team it was in New York.

Now think about it, with Kobe, Pau, Bynum, and Marbury? That is a lot of big time talent and you still have Phil Jackson to make it work.

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Pau Gasol scoring again

So what, they lined up all the internationally born NBA players and raced and Pau Gasol was the eighth fastest?

No, more like he is the 8th fastest European to get to 10,000 points in the NBA.

Pau Gasol shows more of his offensive creativity, and against Utah he reached the 10,000-point plateau for his career. Dirk Nowitzki, Peja Stojakovic and Vlade Divac are the only other Europeans to get there after having come to the NBA directly from overseas.

Only 286 players overall in league history have scored 10,000 points, and Gasol is the eighth-fastest (in terms of games played) internationally born player to get there.

And obviously Gasol isn’t done.

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Laker coach Phil Jackson says Pau has a great chance of joining him and Kobe Bryant on the All Star team.

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Pau Gasol takes a seat to nobody when playing basketball in the NBA

In the world of “yeah we kind of figured”, Mitch Kupchak came out and admitted the Lakers kind of stole Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies. Really? And we just kind of thought the Lakers were lucky?

Originally the Grizzlies wanted more for Pau Gasol.

The deal included Kwame Brown and weren’t the Lakers aching to get rid of him, Aaron McKie, the long time NBA veteran role player, rookie Javaris Crittenton, and two future first round picks, and Pau’s brother Marc. As you can see, they picked him up for a whole lot of nothing. Even the first round picks will most likely be low first rounders and worth very little.

The Grizzlies were asking for Monkey King…err Sun Yue, but the Lakers talked them out of it.

The Lakers had a pair of second-round picks last year. Gasol was selected 48th overall, eight picks after the Lakers drafted Sun. The younger Gasol spent the 2007-2008 season playing in Europe.

In the end, the Lakers were able to hold on to Sun, primarily because of the scouting report that assistant general manager Ronnie Lester prepared for Kupchak, after Lester evaluated Sun in Singapore, a month before the trade was consummated.
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So now you have a Laker team of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum.

Sun will be surrounded with Stars!

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Ronny Turiaf says “Oh yeah, no more purple outfits”

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The Lakers reluctantly did not match the offer of the Golden State Warriors for Ronny Turiaf. He was a restricted free agent and the Lakers had the rights to match any offer.

The Warriors signed Turiaf, a restricted free agent, to a four-year, $17 million offer sheet last week. By rule, the Lakers had seven days to decide whether to match it. The three-year veteran from Gonzaga averaged 6.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in 78 games with the Western Conference champions last season, making 21 starts.

The Lakers played much of last season without starting center Andrew Bynum, giving Turiaf the opportunity for more playing time than he would have had otherwise. But, Kupchak said, Bynum is expected to be healthy when training camp begins in early October, and Turiaf’s opportunities figured to be diminished significantly.

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Even without Ronny Turiaf, with Andrew Bynum coming back the Lakers are loaded, including Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant.

The Golden State Warriors lost Baron Davis to the San Diego Clippers, but signed Corey Maggette from the Clippers for what many are calling a draw.

Turiaf should see a lot of playing time with the Warriors.

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Superbad Superman has a stress fracture, but not to worry. It will heal in time for the next set of practices on July 21. That is when training camp resumes.

“It’s a six to eight week recovery time, and this is the sixth week,” said Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski, who expects Howard to be fully healed by the time the team reconvenes for training camp July 21.

Still, the injury is worrisome for the Americans, who are planning to go to Beijing with just three big men — Howard, Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer. If Howard were to aggravate the injury, that lack of front-line depth could become a major issue.
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Dwight Howard has some serious guns for a hoop player

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Something just does not seem right here. The USA has come right out and said that they planned this to win the Olympics. Then went out and put Tayshaun Prince on the team as proof that a non-superstar great defender clutch player could make the team.

But…They still did not stock the team with big guys and took too many guys that just like to score. Do you really need Carmelo Anthony and Michael Redd, when you have Kobe Bryant and LeBron James? And why are there no Celtics on this team?

My good friend RonB wonders why we don’t just take the NBA Champion team and send them to the Olympics. My addition would be to add a few players to their bench like Kobe and LeBron. Can you imagine the announcers getting all over Rondo in the Olympics? Ok, add Chris Paul as well.

Let’s say Howard reinjures his sternum. Just a hypothetical.

That leaves Chris Bosh and Carlos Boozer as your big guys.

Chris is 6′ 10″ tall and weighs 230.

Carlos Boozer is 6′ 9″ and weighs 266.

Now Dwight Howard is a little taller at 6′ 11″ and weighs 265.

Wait a minute, no 7 footers at all? Howard sits and we go to a thin 6′ 10″ or a heavier 6′ 9″?

Check out the rest of the roster, no big guys there.

Joining Williams and Boozer on the ‘08 Olympic team are fellow NBA stars Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Michael Redd, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Tayshaun Prince.
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Yes, yes, the trend lately in college and NBA is to be more mobile, less defense and more offense. Boston’s center was only 6′ 10″ Kendrick Perkins, but he weighed 280 and had 6′ 11″ Kevin Garnett right beside him.

The Pistons had 6′ 11″ Rasheed Wallace. The Lakers had 7′ Pau Gasol. The Spurs had 6′ 11″ Tim Duncan. Maybe all that small ball is not working.

On the bright side, when Dwight Howard is healthy, he is a beast of a player and even without polished moves down on the blocks, he often commands a double team.

Go USA! Take the Gold in the Olympics.

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