[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by King Glorious

Lakers have looked good offensively. Not so good defensively. That Phoenix win is looking less impressive by Utah going into Phoenix and beating the Suns. Can't be mad with 3-0 though. I may have underestimated them. I still think they are going to struggle to make the playoffs though and if they do make it, it will be as a seven or eight seed. I see Sacramento improved with a full year with Artest and the emergence of Kevin Martin. I think Utah will be much improved if they keep Kirilenko and Boozer healthy this year. I think the addition of Derek Fisher also helps them. I think Houston will be better if they can keep Ming and McGrady healthy. I expect Memphis to be down though with Gasol missing the early part of the season and Battier gone but Warrick will take up some of the slack. Also, Stoudamire should be back but they'll miss Bobby Jackson. On the top, u still have Dallas, SA, Phoenix, Clippers, (team from the Northwest Division). That leaves the Lakers battling with Memphis, Utah, Houston, Sac, and Denver for the last spots. We'll see. I do expect to see Kobe try to dominate even more than last year. Knowing the way we've seen Kobe over the years, I am betting that it KILLED him to do all he did last year and not win MVP so I think he's going to try and score 40 a game this year and I don't think that will be in the best interest of the team. The key will be Bynum. If he can give them 12-8, they are a shoe in for the playoffs. And of course, Odom has got to be consistent even when Kobe is on the floor. Stop deferring to Kobe so much and display the skills that, if he brought them every night, would make him arguably a top five player in this league. At least top ten.

There is absolutely no excuse for the way he played last night in Seattle. He took SIX shots in the game and four of them were 3pt shots. In the entire first half, he didn't attempt a 2pt shot at all. That's crazy. And the Laker defense has been horrible. They are giving up the fourth most points in the league. They've been playing at a faster pace this year and scoring more points but defense is what's going to be needed to win games and they play none. Seattle just scored 112 and 117 on them in back to back games. The Sonics had 95 at the end of three quarters Sunday. That's not going to get it done.