Is that Andrew Bynum dunking the ball?
On Wednesday, at the Los Angeles Lakers last practice before they hit the road to New Orleans, there was a rather large young man on one side of the practice court dribbling a basketball. Then in a quick motion he turned and took down the rim with a two hand jam. Is it a bird, is it a plane, no it’s Andrew Bynum dunking the ball in practice. Talk about a Kodak moment for Laker coach Phil Jackson.
“I saw him dunking the ball a couple times, which surprised me,” Phil Jackson said. “He shot the ball a few times.”
This is just a reminder to the rest of the NBA that Andrew will be back. I think the Lakers are babying him a little because he’s so young and valuable. Once he’s fully healed and rehabbed, they will have to let the monster loose, and that spells doom for the rest of the NBA.
The Lakers have been trying to get back to their hot shooting ways, and the coaching staff is concerned about the effects of the dog days of March. Let’s not forget that the Lakers are a very young team and the fear here is that some players may hit a wall; which you want to avoid at all costs.
Phil Jackson’s opinion is this, “Teams go through hot spells and cold spells; I think we’re shooting the ball pretty well, but our activity level is down. Some of our players look tired. They’re leg weary. That’s part of the March doldrums that you get in this game because of the amount of games you play.”
If the Lakers weren’t in such a hard fought battle in the Western Conference they could rest players with mysterious injuries, but would it be wise to do it this year? The Los Angeles Lakers have the best record in the West, but are only 4 ½ games above the 8th seed (Golden State Warriors), and 7 ½ games above the 9th seed (Denver Nuggets). In other words, a pro-longed losing streak could actually knock them out of the playoffs. I’ve never seen a conference race as tight as it is this year. With that being said, rest is doubtful; the players will have to play through it.
On another note, the Sunday’s Lakers/Rockets game has been moved to 2:30 PM and will be on national TV on ABC, Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy will call the game. This game is listed at 6PM, but when a team (Rockets) wins 20 in a row, things change.
[More at mvn.com] |
