After beating the New Orleans Hornets on Wednesday night, the Lakers are now the NBA's only remaining undefeated team. Although the Lakers only won the game by seven points, the game really wasn't that close. The Lakers were up by twenty one points at the half and only really let the Hornets back in when they went into prevent mode in the fourth quarter. Despite the scare the Lakers still came away with the victory. After the win, the question being tossed around is "When the Lakers will lose?"
Looking over the Lakers schedule, it seems that the greatest opportunity for their first loss of the season will come Friday against the Deeetroit Pistons. However, the Pistons are still getting used to playing with Allen Iverson and will be playing the second night of a back to back.
After the Pistons, the Lakers play seven of their next eight games at home, with the toughest games being a road game in Phoenix next Thursday, a home game against Denver the following night and home games against Dallas and Toronto on the 28th and 30th.
If they can get through November undefeated, they'll go on a short three game road trip with stops in Indiana, Philadelphia and Washington. Indiana is a dangerous team, and Philadelphia is much better than they are playing at the moment, but I don't think it is too far fetched to say the Lakers could sweep that trip as well.
After their road trip, they come home for a game against the Bucks, and fly up to Sacramento to play the Kings, before playing the Suns again at home on December 10th. If all goes to plan the Lakers could be 20-0 by the time they get to that Phoenix game. If they clear that hurdle, they have smooth sailing for the next week or so, with home games against Sacramento, Minnesota, and New York and a road game in Miami.
They'll likely be tested in a road match up against Orlando on December 20th, and could be surprised by a high flying Memphis Grizzlies squad on the 22nd. But really, the Lakers won't see a real formidable challenge again until they face the Hornets again on December 23rd.
Basically, from now until they play the Hornets again the Lakers look like they will only see challenges in games against Detroit, Denver, Toronto, Phoenix, and Orlando. And those are all winnable games. Obviously the Lakers can't just walk into arenas and expect to win. I mean, they play the games for a reason. But with the way they are playing right now, it's really is not too far fetched to say that the Lakers could have no more than three loses by the time they see CP3 and the Hornets again in late December.
Which team do you think has the best chance of handing the Lakers their first defeat of the season?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-13-2008 @ 10:30AM
frank said...
Home court advantage will make a
big difference ask Boston ;
In fact, Atlanta will beat boston if they have
" Home court advantage" this year, guarantee!
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11-13-2008 @ 11:57AM
giff said...
welll, we know the Lakers will lose and when is a curious question, but attempting to posit who it will be against is a crapshoot...if a team's flat ANY team can take them...
Reply
11-13-2008 @ 2:17PM
Dave D. said...
This about the Staples Center's other team...
I went to the Kings/Clippers game last night and was surprised by a lot of things. On the Clippers side, Baron Davis played with absolutely no passion except at the end of the game, when he had a chance to rally a comeback (which didn't work out). Beno Udrih burned him repeatedly, and by the end of the game Dunleavy finally took Baron off of him. Baron refused to slide to stay in front of his man, didn't switch on screens when he was supposed to, and stayed back instead of closing out on shooters. On offense, he repeatedly broke off plays in order to take contested 3 pointers or double-teamed jumpers, and when he went into the paint while covered, he would jump and pass to also-covered bigs, resulting in turnovers. The Kings defense was almost as bad as the Clippers', so the Clips were still in it at the end, but Baron's D and refusal to run the plays were a big part of what decided this game.
Also on the Clippers' side, Kaman looks like he may still be injured or experiencing some other problem. He repeatedly missed tentative layups and brought the ball down instead of going straight up and dunking. Ricky Davis looks like he's being used as just a shooter now -- he posted up at the 3 point line the entire night -- and Al Thorton shot the ball almost literally every single time he touched it. He made a lot of those shots, but it's not surprising that his teammates were so hesitant to pass to him. Eric Gordon dribbles way too high and showed some of the worst defense I've seen in a professional game (he couldn't even locate his man on one play), so I'm not surprised Mike Taylor is taking all his minutes.
On the Kings' side, they were without Martin, Garcia, and I believe Douby (didn't see him), so I wasn't expecting much, but I came away impressed. The second unit was very active and definitely wanted to win, and Spencer Hawes seems legit. Moore was in foul trouble, so there was a lot of the Miller/Hawes combination which did not seem to work as well as when only one of them was on the floor. Jason Thompson has a lot of potential, and while I don't think it's a good sign when Udrih is your best player on the floor, he played very intelligent basketball and knew when to go at Baron.
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11-14-2008 @ 4:33AM
mcxj said...
THE CLIPPERS WILL ALWAYS BE BAD, I like the clips but let's be honest, something horrible always happens to them! They must be cursed or something cuz I'm at a loss to explain why they suck year in and year out. It doesn't matter whos on their team........something bad will always happen!
oh the other hand, the lakers are looking pretty good and that's scary because they haven't even played to their full potential...there's room for improvement in shooting percentage, turnovers, and post play. The Defense has been carring them and the offense (while best in the nba) could be better when they start clicking. The early schedule seems to have prevented them from getting into a rythym.
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11-15-2008 @ 8:27AM
frank said...
LA just lost to detroit in their house ?????
it wasn't even close, go figure.
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