Kobe looked damn good last night

[chillzatl]

He scored, he passed, he defended and he got his team involved. They beat a pretty good team last night that was on a good roll coming out of the pre-season.

[Weez]

hmmm. he shot like [censored] but found other ways to get his team involved. go figure. did you see him conferencing with Odom on the sideline once the game was iced? what about that blocked shot (when three other teammates were further downcourt than he at the start)?

funny how most 'predict' that Denver, a playoff team last year, were most improved in the offseason....and yet they lost to Kobe and crew (who most predicted outside looking in) on the first night (and Lakers without Vlade).

oh yeah, and DerMARR looked ok last night...might even get more burn now that Voshon Leonard is out for the season.

[OGRat]

I agree. And he still scored 24 pts.

All these projections of the Lakers missing the playoffs are offbase. People forget Caron Butler and Odom's talent. Mihm is surprising me, but can he keep it up.

Where is Brian Grant? Will he eventually contribute?

[Weez]

I'm not sure where Grant is. But with he and Vlade, and Mihm showing something last ngith...they're not the 'small' team that everyone is makign them out to be.

plus Karl Malone has reportedly said taht he's only coming back if his knee is 100% ~ but if he does, he said he's only coming back to the Lakers, as that's where he signed, and he's a mnan of his word...

[chillzatl]

Everyone wrote them off because they lacked the marquee big men. But everyone neglected that from the 2-3 spots, they are probably the strongest team in the west right now. If Mihm, Divac and Malone can get it done, they will make the playoffs.

[missedtackle]

I'm not convinced that it was a matter of the Lakers being awesome so much as the Nuggets being crap. I mean, it could be some of both, but the Nuggets looked horrible. I hate Carmelo's game and Kenyon Martin should be ecstatic that he conned Denver into signing him for the max. And now Voshon is out, possibly for the whole year. I'm glad Denver got exposed this early, and their "best frontcourt in the West" was dominated by Chris Mihm.

[chillzatl]

i'm certainly not going to blow it out of proportion. But they beat a good team that got better in the off-season and had the best pre-season in the league. We'll certainly know in the coming months.

[Packfill]

Big part of the Lakers win was the play of Mihm. He is definitely talented but I think it is way too early to say whether he can play even half as well for the rest of the season. If he does, then yes the Lakers have a shot. If he doesn't well, chemistry is their only chance.

[missedtackle]

The Lakers are getting totally outclassed by the Jazz...

[chillzatl]

Looks like old kobe showed up for this one. Almost 40 points, 1 assist...

[cyman3]

talk about an underrated player. AK47. he does much more for the team than just putting up good stats. 8 BLOCKS from the SF spot! some of it was right at KOBE.

looks like, AK and BOOZER play well together. no superstars on the team- reminds me of some other team in the EAST that recently won the NBA championship.