Who's Not Honoring Me Now? (i)

OK, let's get this bloggy started right, let's get this bloggy started quickly.

We've had a few weeks to digest all the comings and goings around the league, so it's prediction time, but that'll be another post. Time to find out Who's Not Honoring Me Now -- I'd guess that numnut Marty Burns, but no, Marc Stein is this week's designated Hater.

Laker Rankings:
(1) - Sagarin
(1) - Hollinger/ESPN
(2) - Stein/ESPN
(1) - Burns/SI
(1) - Ball Don't Lie/Yahoo
(1) - Murphy/Covers

So, the Celtics have lost at INDIANA and at home DENVER -- two teams that will struggle to make the playoffs, and the Lakers layed an egg at home to a hot-shooting and certain contender Detroit team. Somehow, that was enough for Stein to put the Lakers at #2.

Meanwhile, the Sagarin index has the Lakers with a larger point lead over the #2 spot (Cavs) than the homecourt advantage factor, meaning the Lakers should be favored in any game, home or away.

Pretty easy schedule so far, and nothing daunting coming on the schedule, so mainly the Lakers just need to stay focused, especially on defense. Here's something not-at-all surprising: The Lakers are 4-3 at home against the spread (yawn, we're up 18, let's relax, stop playing D, and let Sasha jack up some shots), and 4-1 ATS on the road. So color me worried that we'll see a setback in one of these next 3 home games (Nets, Mavericks, Raptors).

I Like The Fear

I do declare, that was quite a lovely evening of basketball.

First, I get home in time to see the Suns game out of reach early in the 4th, which meant that a win by the Lakers would clinch the Division. Nooooiice.

Second, as I'm getting ready to leave, Sony calls and convinces me to watch that hilarious hockey check by VladRad on Tyson Chandler. Great to see him fired up, but the adrenaline didn't seem to do much for his outside shot.

Third, I played a very entertaining 3 hours of basketball down in the Mont. With 16 guys we played rotating winners/losers court 4-on-4, and my team never lost despite having a 10-year-old as our fourth. There is some pretty decent talent there mind you -- mostly in the 21-29 age group, including a few guys that play on the Ohlone college squad. In the fifth game the one loudmouth hick in a gym full of otherwise classy, no-argue players, rolls his ankle untouched on some ridiculous fading 3-point turnaround jumper. It wasn't too bad, but he threw a hissy fit and basically challenged my teammate to a fight, claiming he was pushed. The best part: the remaining 15 of us all told him to go home an not come back. Oh yeah, then we ran full with subs and my team won a 20-min. timed game by 2. Nooooiice.

Was there something else? Oh yeah, Fourth: I get home well after midnight, sore but satisfied (no homo), and get to watch that great Laker win over the Big Easy CP3s. Someone 'ruined' the outcome for me, so that 3rd quarter only stung a little. But a salve was at hand: that dunk (above) by Kobe was incredible -- the slo-mo really does it justice. And speaking of justice, that clinches the division and moves the Lakers to the #2 spot and a potential 1st-round match-up with our bitches the Mavs. What do you think, Stu? Nooooiice.

So did the MVP race just turn back in our favor? I'm still not buying it. If the players or coaches or GMs voted, Kobe would win in a landslide. And yes I know that a couple LA Times 'informal poll of voters' has him winning, but the 'journalists' that vote are lard-ass haters extraordinaire (this not an opinion, but a verifiable fact). And as we've seen in the difference in Obama vote totals in open caucuses vs. balloting, there is something about the privacy of a voting booth that clarifies the mind and allows the voter to proceed with complete irrationality and unfettered bias. Also, most of the writers are white, and white people do love assists.

Never mind that CP3 is sort of a defensive liability -- sure he gets some nice steals, but so does Baron Davis, and so did Smush Parker. Can anyone seriously watch last night's game and think, wow those two superstars really battled it out? You mean Kobe and Pargo? And since stats can't tell the whole story, it should come down to the intangibles of Leadership, Indomitable Will, and, I don't know, how about Which Player Strikes The Most Fear Into The Hearts Of His Opponents? (Answer: Kobe, Kobe, Kobe. And KG second.)



If it comes down to this "who is most valuable to his team" nonsense, I might have to go with Lebron James. That Cavs team wouldn't win 20 games without Lebron. But is anyone worried about them on the playoffs? Or the Hornets? It is to laugh. There are three and only three contenders for the championship right now: Celtics, Spurs, and Your Los Angeles Lakers. You feel that fear? It's because we're close.

Who's Not Honoring Me Now? VII

A couple of these are older -- Crouse for example is punishing the Lakers for those two bad losses. As far as the Lakers go, big deal. But those two losses will absolutely cause Kobe to lose the MVP award to Chris Paul. I'm not sure that anything that happens in the next week will change any of those grudge-holding, homerish, fatass writers' minds. Guess Kobe is the new Jerry West (also MVP-less). Logo2!


#3 - Sagarin/usatoday.com
#5 - Schuhmann/nba.com
#7 - Crouse/cbs.com
#4 - dime magazine
#4 - Hollinger/espn.com
#4 - Steyn/espn.com
#3 - Burns/si.com
#5 - Murphy/covers.com
#6 - Ludden/yahoo
#5 - Pincus/hoopsworld.com

Who's Not Honoring Me Now? VI

I may have to change the title of my post. Marty Burns is still picking teams from a hat (Rockets #1), and for some reason I couldn't find The Ultimate Hater Meija on CBS. Perhaps he was so consistently terrible they gave the job to this other guy.

I have been checking Sagarin regularly - the Lakers and Pistons have been swapping 2/3 back and forth by hundredths of a point, appropriately.

#3 - Sagarin/usatoday.com
#1 - Schuhmann/nba.com
#3 - Crouse/cbs.com
#1 - dime magazine
#1 - Hollinger/espn.com
#1 - Steyn/espn.com
#3 - Burns/si.com
#1 - Murphy/covers.com
#1 - Ludden/yahoo
#1 - Pincus/hoopsworld.com

Who's Not Honoring Me Now? V

Wow, a couple of #1s. Probably not deserved -- as usual, Sagarin and Hollinger seem to be the most reasonable. But appreciated none the less.

Then again, the Lakers are FIRST IN THE WESTERN CONFERENCE as of today by a half game over SA, Dallas, Phoenix.

Meanwhile, Meija the Hater writes his rankings comments all about the Lakers and how this injury will hurt their "elite" status, while leaving them at #6 below New Orleans and others (despite a better record and, let's see, an embarrassingly lopsided win in NO last week.)

Good news is, the Suns lost to the CLIPPERS last night (Walton: "You mean Clipper legend Brian Skinner?!?"), so the Lakers are in 1st all be their lonesome in the Pacific.

#3 - Sagarin/usatoday.com
#1 - Schuhmann/nba.com
#6 - Meija/cbssportsline.com
#1 - dime magazine
#3 - Hollinger/espn.com
#4 - Steyn/espn.com
#5 - Burns/si.com
#3- Murphy/covers.com

Who's Not Honoring Me Now? pt. III

Not a good week last week... 3 game losing streaks are never fun. It certainly gave some of the haters a chance to drop the Lakers down where they belong... below the, uh, Nets, Bucks, Warriors, and Nuggets?

Rank (last week) -- mostly as of Tuesday the 27th (pre Seattle win).

Lakers #5 (4) - Sagarin/USA Today [as of 11/30]
Lakers #15 (9) - Meija/CBS
Lakers #11 (7) - Stein/ESPN
Lakers #5 (4) - Hollinger/ESPN [as of 11/30]
Lakers #15 (6) - Dime Magazine/FoxSports
Lakers #15 (8) - Schuhmann/NBA.com
Lakers #14 (11) - Burns/SI
Lakers #14 (6) - Murphy/Covers.com

SWSBOGW

Nice win by the Lakers last night, but it was the Pacers so... let's talk about the Knicks.

They got trounced by the Warriors last night in front of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who actually said afterward: "I'm sorry that the New York Knicks lost. They've been playing poorly, very poorly, and I'm disappointed."

This prompted the best line of the year from one of the SportsCenter crew: "Confronted by millions around the world without clean water, even the Secretary-General is sickened by Knick basketball!"

(SWSBOGW = some would say because of global warming)

Who's Not Honoring Me Now?

One of my pet peeves is the weekly NBA Rankings on various sites -- you can really smell the bias. The best is Sagarin's computer ranking which uses a computer algorithm based on win margin, schedule strength, etc. The worst is usually Tony Meija from CBS, who is a full hater, but the LA Times is also homer hater which may be worse:

Lakers #8 - Sagarin/USA Today (thru 11/12)
Lakers #13 - Meija/CBS (thru 11/12)
Lakers #10 - Stein/ESPN (thru 11/11)
Lakers #14 - Heisler?/LA Times (thru 11/10)
Lakers #14 - ??/FoxSports
Lakers #10 - Schuhmann/NBA.com (11/11)
Lakers #9 - Burns/SI (11/12)
Lakers #12 - Murphy/Covers.com (11/12)