Quickies: the Elections Have Consequences Edition

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A round-up of articles, news items, columns and blog posts that caught our eye this past week.





Time to pay the piper, gang:

Shortly after Nov. 6, Zane Tankel, who runs 40 Applebee’s restaurants in the New York City area, announced that his company was freezing employment and would not build any new restaurants. President Obama’s re-election, Tankel explained, meant that ObamaCare was likely to be fully implemented, costing his company millions of dollars and significantly raising the cost of hiring a worker.

Tankel’s statement prompted outrage and threats of a boycott, but he was far from alone. Already John Schnatter, CEO of Papa John’s Pizza, has announced that he would likely lay off some workers. Earlier, Schnatter said that ObamaCare would cost his business $5 billion to $8 billion annually, forcing him to increase the price of pizzas.

Meanwhile, two other restaurant chains, Olive Garden and Red Lobster, are moving many of their employees from full- to part-time work in order to avoid the law’s mandate that anyone working more than 30 hours must have insurance. An owner of 40 Denny’s in Florida, meanwhile, says he’ll add a 5% surcharge to customer bills in 2014 to cover his increased costs.

Restaurants which employ many low-wage employees will simply not be able to afford ObamaCare's expanded coverage mandates beyoned the mini-med plans they currently provide their employees.

And for the outrageously outraged lefties who think that these layoffs and hiring freezes are some sort of "revenge" against employees who supposedly voted for Obama and have vowed to boycott places like Applebee's: that revenge boycott list is going to keep growing and growing. You all have fun with that.








So, this is what smart power and leading from behind will get you:

Egypt's president on Thursday issued constitutional amendments that placed him above judicial oversight and ordered the retrial of Hosni Mubarak for the killing of protesters in last year's uprising.

Mohammed Morsi also decreed immunity for the Islamist-dominated panel drafting a new constitution from any possible court decisions to dissolve it, a threat that had been hanging over the controversial assembly.

Liberal and Christian members withdrew from the assembly during the past week to protest what they say is the hijacking of the process by Morsi's allies, who they saw are trying to push through a document that will have an Islamist slant marginalizing women and minority Christians and infringing on personal liberties. Several courts have been looking into cases demanding the dissolution of the panel.

The Egyptian leader also decreed that all decisions he has made since taking office in June and until a new constitution is adopted and a new parliament is elected — which is not expected before next spring — are not subject to appeal in court or by any other authority. He also barred any court from dissolving the Islamist-led upper house of parliament, a largely toothless body that has also faced court cases.

The moves effectively remove any oversight on Morsi, the longtime Muslim Brotherhood figure who became Egypt's first freely elected president last summer after the Feb. 11, 2011 fall of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. They come as Morsi is riding high on lavish praise from President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for mediating an end to eight days of fighting between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.

It's good to be the King!


And let's not forget our little gun-running operation in Benghazi, Libya which ultimately resulted in the deaths of 4 Americans and a cover-up as to what happened on 9/11 at our consulate there.








Time to pay the piper pt. II

Want to know what we see here?

Blue

Top Five Tax Increases Tax Increases as % of Income

#1 – New Jersey $6,933 6.82%

#2 – Maryland $7,194 6.74%

#3 – Connecticut $6,653 6.62%

#4 – Massachusetts $6,632 6.53%

#5 – New Hampshire $5,660 5.81%








And nearly 4 years on, more waste, fraud and abuse from Porkulus:

President Obama sought to fund “shovel ready” projects with the 2009 stimulus, so the federal government spent $29 million in taxpayer money to dig a port in Alaska that has no roads connecting it to other towns.

“It’s not normal,” Steve Boardman of the Army Corps of Engineers civil projects division told KUCB (Alaska) . “And it has prevented the construction of harbors in the past, when that supporting infrastructure is not there.” Boardman explained that they were able to build the port in part because “the project was ‘shovel-ready’ when $29 million of federal stimulus money became available in 2009,” as KUCB put it.

Construction of a road to connect the “port” to the nearest town two miles away won’t begin for years, but the federal government is now committed either to losing the money spent already or having to lay out even more cash to build that road.

That's how it is with these massive public works boondoggles. We've seen it played out here in California with high-speed choo-choos. Once you cross the Rubicon, there is no turning back.

Once you have aligned the political forces behind a project and that project has wetted its beak at the trough, you quickly have a tax-payer funded black hole if the project was ill-conceived and not well-planned from the start.








This is Sarah sez- worthy:

By now you've heard the outrageous quote from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on his doubts about the origins of planet Earth. When asked to give its age, he replied: "I'm not a scientist, man. … Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries."

He's not a scientist—no, indeed—and his comments have brought on a slew of finger wags and face-palms from the godless left. The answer was "so confused and error-riddled," wrote Phil Plait in Slate, "it's difficult to know where to start." We all should understand the age of Earth is not a matter of opinion, but a scientific fact: Our planet formed 4.54 billion years ago. If Rubio suggested otherwise, it's because he's uninformed or stupid.

But take a wild guess as to what Bible-thumping former Illinois back-bencher's view on creation and the age of the world sounds an awful like that of Rubio's. Check it out, here.







Here's Kobe Bryant:

“I’m not working too hard, to be honest with you. The shots that I made were all jumpers. It doesn’t take much energy to knock those jumpers down,” he said. “Bringing the ball up and having me kind of initiate the offense and score and stuff like that, it’s making me work a little more than I will when Gatsby gets back.

“When Gatsby gets back, I don’t have to do that. The game’s going to become even more easy for me.”

Gatsby?




But of course...

OK, gang, that's it for today. We'll see you tomorrow.

Pantheon performer

Kobe Bryant passed Jerry West as the Lakers' all-time leading scorer on Monday night against the Grizzlies in Memphis. Bryant now has 25,208 points in his 14 year career. We’ve watched all of Kobe’s career as well as that of Magic Johnson and we were witness to the sustained excellence of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 2nd half of his career that he spent as a Laker. We were too young, though, to see the play of the balance of the Forum Blue and Gold pantheon, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor.

Our Dad’s move out here to the West Coast coincided with the Lakers’ move out to L.A. in the early sixties and as a Laker fan (or was he just a Chick Hearn fan, first?) “Pops” is eminently qualified to comment upon Kobe’s place within the pantheon. Here’s what he wrote us in an email:

I am not much on picking all-time teams because the game has improved some much over the years. The four you mentioned were phenomenal but I watch Kobe and think "this guy is not of this earth, he's an alien in disguise." His ability to sling one up out of his jock strap, as we used to say, with the clock running down is phenomenal but the most incredible thing about him is the way he goes thru, around, under, whatever, a double team and makes it look like a walk in the park. I run the tape back, watch it again and still can't figure out how he did it. It was great defense (they were playing on him). So, I guess I am saying that Kobe is the greatest but Fisher is still my favorite Laker.

“I run the tape back…” Hey, you don’t mess with old dudes and their VCRs, capiche?

We leave you with a crappy video (because we care) of some of Kobe’s end of the game buzzer beaters that when all is said and done will comprise just some of his portfolio that will back his claim to being the greatest clutch end-of-the-game shooter in NBA history.



Fear the leg kick

"...and to those who speak Spanish..."

6 seasons removed from their last which included two miserable finals appearances, a trade demand and a complete overhaul of their roster, the Los Angeles Lakers won their 15th title as a franchise last night beating the Orlando Magic, 99-86. The championship also represents head coach Phil Jackson’s 10th title pushing him ahead of the Boston Celtic’s Red Auerbach who had 9 for the all-time lead among NBA coaches.

From the likes of Smush Parker, Luke Walton and Kwame Brown to Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Derick Fisher as his band mates, Kobe finally gets his.

But who are we kidding? This is all just a sorry excuse to rebroadcast perhaps the most excellent moment in the history of championship parades. From 2001 championship…



Congratulations to the Los Angeles Lakers who in addition to being the team of the 80s, cement their status, with 4 titles and 6 finals appearances in this decade, as the team of the aughts.

Picture of the Day

This defacement of road signage popped up on a two-block stretch of road in Denver after the Nuggets dropped Game 1 of the Western Conference finals last Tuesday.

Our take-away from this incident is that one takes his graffiti very seriously when he uses template forms to illustrate.

H/T: Deadspin

What is your favorite NBA team's Myers-Briggs typology?

Here’s a cool little political spectrum/personality trait-like graph we pulled from AOL Fan House that charts team quality (bad on bottom and progressing upward on the “Y”-axis through the better teams) and offensive tempo (plodding, walk-the-ball-up-court on the left progressing rightward on the “X”-axis to uptempo, fastbreaking… Showtime! offenses).




By this reckoning, the Lakers have the best and and one of the most uptempo team in the Association and we are inclined to agree. Laker center and wunderkind, 21-year old Andrew Bynum missed the 2nd half of last season and is just getting his sea legs underneath him again after playing so well before his knee injury. Because the Lakers played the last half of last season and made it to the Finals without him, its like they added a #1 overall draft pick-caliber player to the roster this season.

How stacked is this Laker team? We caught a little of a replay of a Lakers/Suns first round playoff game from 3 years ago where the Lakers had a starting lineup of Smush Parker, Kobe, Lamar Odom, Kwame Brown and Luke Walton. Good lord…. Only Kobe remains a starter and Lamar comes off the bench as a sixth man.

Another way to look at it is through the eyes of our little brother, “Matty” who asked us the other night how it is one can know how deep the Laker roster is. This didn’t take much thought knowing the utter disdain our brother holds for the play of this person so we replied, “Is it because Luke Walton and his game doesn’t see the light of day from the end of the bench?” Bingo. Hey, we like Walton. Smart, hard-working and completely void of any real NBA caliber athleticism. A starter 3 seasons ago to riding high pine this season so maybe Matty's one up on us.

The 4-0 Lakers take on the 3-3 Houston Rockets this evening at the Staples Center.

Beijing '08 Olympics Update

(One in an occasional series provided during the run-up to the ’08 Summer Games in Beijing, China. Archived posts in this series can be accessed by entering “Olympics” in the blog search box above).

The U.S. Olympic basketball roster for Beijing ’08 was unveiled today and the lineup reflects the reality of international ball: spreading the floor, dribble drive penetration and perimeter jump-shooting. A reality is lost on commentors to story here.

Here’s the squad:

Carmelo Anthony (Denver)
Carlos Boozer (Utah)
Chris Bosh (Toronto)
Kobe Bryant (Lakers)
Dwight Howard (Orlando)
LeBron James (Cleveland)
Jason Kidd (Dallas)
Chris Paul (New Orleans)
Tayshaun Prince (Detroit)
Michael Redd (Milwaukee)
Dwyane Wade (Miami)
Deron Williams (Utah)

Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic is the only player on the squad that fits the classic definition of an NBA center. The two other “big men” Carlos Boozer and Chris Bosh can both step out to knock down the 17-footer.

Injured Chauncy Billups and Amare Stoudemire withdrew themselves from consideration last week. We believe Billups opting out freed-up the roster spot taken by J-Kidd, the oldest player on the team. Were he available, Stoudemire would’ve bumped either Prince or Bosh, though there is no guarantee as both those guy’s games would appear to be more valuable to team USA in international competition.

Here’s our starting 5:

PG – Chris Paul
SG – Kobe Bryant
SF – LeBron James
PF – Chris Bosh
C – Dwight Howard

'Melo and Wade will be coming off the bench in short order. 'Melo loves international competition as he has been the U.S.'s best scorer the last couple of international competitions.

This has been in the works for a while as the committee approach to selecting the team was scrapped and put into the hands of ex-Phoenix Suns GM, Jerry Colangelo who is for all intents and purposes the CEO of USA Basketball. Duke coach, Mike Krzyzewski will coach the team and most likely had quite a bit of input into the roster selection.

Long View and Short View

Just a little over a year ago, Kobe was on the radio demanding a trade from the Lakers while also bashing the Laker organization and players on a fan’s video camera phone, the footage of which found its way to the internet. The Lakers made no significant roster moves other than bringing back Derek Fisher which looked to be merely window dressing so going into this season it looked to be a continuation of high drama off the court and mediocrity on it like the 3 previous ones since the Shaq/Kobe crack-up.

And even two months into the season, if we were to be told that the Lakers would be playing in the NBA Finals absent Andrew Bynum who had asserted himself as a front-line NBA center from the beginning of the season, we would’ve been forced to ask what calamity had befallen the cities of San Antonio, Salt Lake City and Phoenix… and New Orleans… and Oakland… and Denver…

Of course, it was the trade that brought Pau Gasol to the Lakers from the Grizzlies that changed the complexion of the entire season and also changed expectations. No longer was this a team that may hang on to a 7 or 8 seed but one that was expected to challenge for the Western Conference title and possibly the NBA championship.

That they did indeed make it to the Finals is cause for celebration and optimism for the future (trusting a full recovery by Bynum), but the manner in which they did “challenge” for the title is equally as troubling. Yes, having Bynum back will help the “physicality” of the Lakers and allow Gasol to move back to his natural power forward position but often times physicality and allowing yourself to get pushed around as the Lakers did all series and in disastrous fashion last night is not a mere physical thing but a matter of heart.

We suppose that we could chalk a lot of it up to inexperience and immaturity but the Laker young guns responded well in the Western Conference playoff rounds against two of the most punishing and grinding teams in the NBA in Utah and San Antonio. On the exponentially grander stage of the NBA Finals, though, it was obvious the Lakers weren’t ready and got beat not only by a better team but a team that understood the mental toughness that would be required to win the title.

As we said, we’re optimistic but also wary. There is an adage in sports, particularly applicable to the NBA and NFL that you have to lose before you can win. If the degree by which you lose or the manner in which you lose can be informative, the Lakers have themselves an entire off-season’s worth of excellent reading material. We’ll just call it the Lakers’ Beach Books series. And the book we hope they pay closest attention to would be: “The NBA Finals: Knowing What the Hell to Do When You Get There” by Magic Johnson, foreword by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Props Department: We got to hand it to ESPN analyst, Jon Barry, who shortly after acquiring Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett last summer predicted a championship for the Celtics. Further, after the Lakers struggled to win Game 5, Barry sensed the Lakers were in “big trouble” and predicted a “blow-out” loss for Game 6.

Renewing some old Aquaintances

(Laker fans, allow your memory to drift back in time to just over a year ago when Kobe Bryant embarked on one of the more quixotic and bizarre days in the history of sports talk radio. Last May, Bryant made three separate appearances on ESPN Radio starting with Steven A. Smith in the morning stating unequivocally that he wanted to be traded. He followed that up with appearances on the Dan Patrick Show and later still on the local L.A. affiliate ESPN 710 where he appeared to back down from his firm desire to not ever appear again in Laker Forum Blue and Gold. And now this, a year later: an opportunity to play for the NBA championship.)

We’ve hesitated writing anything on this subject as it is one in which we have yet to fully come to grips: Lakers v. Celtics for the Lawrence O’Brien trophy. Without delving into all the gory details it basically boils down to a throwback to high school/adolescent dread that we lived through during the 80s when these two Association flagship franchises hooked up 3 times for the NBA title. At the core is an emotion that the 2 titles the Lakers did win in ’85 and ’87 did not make up for the colossal disappointment of that 4-0 sweep the Lakers managed to choke away in seven games in the first 80s matchup in ’84 (curse you, Gerald Henderson).

And now we’re here. Well, almost here as the series doesn’t get underway until Thursday and which epitomizes the NBA’s inflexibility in scheduling resulting in a failure to take advantage of the momentum of the not-so-recently concluded Conference Finals. We imagine this is the result of existing in the cloistered bubble of the league offices in New York where its NBA 24/7 and where league officials reside in the assumption that their product matters… really, really matters.

With this long layoff, rust will be an issue for both teams but the advantage goes to the older Celtics who have looked positively listless at times during the playoffs.

We’re cautiously optimistic on the Lakers’ chances which is based on the matchup problems we believe the Lakers will have on offense vs. the Celtic D.

If the Celts start Kendrick Perkins instead of James Posey that means Paul Pierce will matchup against Kobe. We don’t care how much summer ball Pierce played against Kobe or how much Pierce made a commitment to defense this year, its still Paul Pierce, an average defender throughout his career against the game’s ultimate weapon.

Now, Boston has had success on defense by funneling everything into the middle and Kevin Garnett. Pau Gasol’s ability to step away from the basket to knock down mid-range jumpers will be key in getting Garnett away from the bucket creating an open flight lane for Kobe and Lamar. Lamar has to take advantage of his probable match-up against Perkins who does not possess Odom’s length, skill or athleticism.

We like Derrick Fisher matched-up against the young Celtic point guard, Rajon Rando. D-Fish has played admirably against two of the premier point guards in the game thus far in the playoffs in Deron Williams and Tony Parker and though both Williams and Parker may have accumulated some impressive stats at times, Fisher never let those two get into a flow or rhythm to where they were controlling or dictating the flow of the game for any length of time.

The L.A. Times thinks that Radmanovich will match up against Paul Pierce. We don’t like this. Vlade tries but his Euro-soul is not one that will be committed to keeping down the Celts' most versatile offensive threat. We like the length of Odom on Pierce and we’ll take our chances with Radmanovich on the bulk of Kendrick Perkins and Gasol on Garnett. Kobe will then match-up against Ray Allen’s corpse.

Since we don’t like the Lakers winning a Game 7 in Boston, its gotta be Lakers in 6.

By the way, we were wondering why it seemed FreeDarko simply refused to acknowledge the Lakers’ existence during the Western Conference Finals. Did they have something against them…? Were they also Kobe haters….? No, it turns out on both accounts. Bethlehem Shoals' offering on the strange mystery of these Lakers.

Rise Above

One thing we’ve learned over the years watching NBA hoops is that you never throw dirt on the champion before there are 4 notches in their loss column and this applies double to the San Antonio Spurs. Yeah, that 30 point romp last night was fun but man, call us paranoid but we can’t help but think the San Antonio Spurs got the Lakers right where they want them.

This is their gig… this is what they do. They buck the odds, they defy conventional wisdom. It’s a statistical reality that a team that goes down 0-2 in a seven game series wins that series only about 7% of the time but those seemingly insurmountable odds did not keep the Spurs from doing just that in their last series against the Hornets including a Game 7 win on the Hornets’ home floor.

Of course, these Lakers are different. They have been playing the best basketball of any team in the league now for the past 2 months and they certainly seem to be peaking at the right time. Also, they have shown a cold-blooded killer instinct that appeared to be lacking even earlier in these playoffs.

We go back to last Friday night when a more immature team lacking that fire in the belly could’ve mailed in that Game 6 in hostile territory knowing they had Game 7 at home in their back pocket. Instead, they went out and beat the pants off the Utah Jazz and aside from taking the first 2-1/2 quarters off in this series to knock off the rust from a 4 day lay-off, they have outscored the Spurs by 57 points over the last 5-1/2 quarters. They certainly aren’t playing like they want this thing to go 6 or 7 games.

Two soundbytes we heard that made us ponder. After the Game 1 on Wednesday, Kobe was asked at the press conference why he waited so long to assert himself offensively (the appalling double standard in this line of questioning may be addressed later). Kobe kind of shrugged his shoulders and said he was just checking out the flow of the game and then stated a plain matter-of-fact that he could “go off any time I want”… and he’s exactly right.

Kobe’s playing at a different level right now from everybody else in the league – he’s playing with a chip on his shoulder and like Wilt Chamberlain once leading the league in assists just to silence the he-doesn’t-make-his-teammates-better critics, Kobe is doing pretty much whatever he wants right now and really is looking and playing like you-know-who.

Also, Lamar is talking about “perfection”. Lamar, after last night’s game, sounded like he was reading up on some John Wooden, saying that though the Lakers were playing very well right now, their goal was to “play the perfect game”. When you hear a guy like Odom, who has been one of the most frustrating and enigmatic on-court players in the league, start talking like this, its as if a light has come on or that something has finally clicked to where he is for the first time in his career in a comfort zone where he can maximize all that amazing physical potential.

Again, nothing has yet been decided but to paraphrase Tiger Woods… the Lakers are defending well, they’re shooting well, they’re rebounding well…. we like their chances.

P.S. Trevor Ariza got some garbage-time minutes for the 1st time since January as he was out with a broken bone in his foot. Its probably too soon off his injury and too late in the season to expect any significant minutes from him but his long athletic 6-8 frame allows him to guard 4 positions, rebound and get out on the break. We look forward to seeing more of him next year. Welcome back, Trev!

Defining

Let’s face it. This was huge. It was not the biggest game for the Lakers in the past four years. That designation is reserved for an elimination game in the coming playoff series against either the Spurs or Hornets or the NBA Finals thereafter. It was, however, the most important victory for the Laker franchise in the past 4 years. The 4 years since Shaq left and the years immediately succeeding that departure where the Lakers flirted with mediocrity.

Its not hyperbole to say these types of victories are the ones that define teams. Playing in the most hostile arena in the NBA, the Lakers were not content to rely on the home-court advantage and wait for home-cooking on Sunday back at the Staples Center. They do what all good, aspiring to be great, teams do… they took care of business, finishing off their opponent by ruthlessly ripping the heart out of the Utah Jazz last night in Salt Lake City, a place where the Jazz had lost only 4 games all season, 108-105.

The Lakers doubled, last night, the amount of victories the 2nd round road team now has in these playoffs. The record now stands at 2-22. And they accomplished what two other conference semi-finalist teams, the New Orleans Hornets and Boston Celtics, could not: Game 6 victories in the opponent’s arena. This bodes well. Again, this was huge.

With this victory, the Lakers officially put it all behind them: Eagle, Colorado, Kobe’s video cell phone rant, the supposed lack of leadership in the front office, questions about Mitch Kupchak’s competence as a GM, Kobe’s trade demands…. Stick a fork and more in all of that. Its done…over with. Living in the moment and leaning forward towards their next most important victory.

For now, the Lakers can now sit back and relax, rest and treat some of their aches and pains and watch the Hornets and Spurs beat each other up in their Game 7 on Monday night.

Kobe gets his and... the best response ev-ah.

In the worst kept secret of the NBA season thus far, it was made official today as Kobe Bryant was awarded the league MVP. And as much as we hate to agree with the Conventional Wisdom that held that this was more or less a life-time achievement award, we agree. He was probably more deserving of the MVP in years previous when he was dragging the Lakers into the playoffs as an #8 seed in the West while being surrounded by stiffs like Kwame Brown, Smush Parker and Vlade Medvedenko. While finishing with the best record in the rugged Western Conference this season, it just shows what winning can do for people’s assessment of your individual performance.

And all this is just an excuse to share something NBA-related that occurred a couple of months ago. We came in on a conversation on ESPN Radio half-way through while driving home from work where the two radio hosts were banging unmercifully (but rightly) on some local Orlando hack that was making favorable comparisons between forward Hedu Turkoglu of the Orlando Magic (as well as a native of Turkey and an adherent to the Religion of Peace… its relevant, trust us) to L.A. Laker legend and Hall of Famer, James Worthy.

While the two hosts were in process of savaging this guy, Greg Anthony, an ESPN NBA analyst called in to the show. Since Anthony wasn’t privy to the conversation, one of the hosts set the whole thing up again explaining the sportswriter's case for similarities between Turkoglu and Worthy.

This host then asked Anthony: “So, Greg….whaddya make of that?”

Anthony: “…....Worthy’s a Muslim?”

LAST, click, LAST, click, LAST, click, LAST, click, LAST, click....

From 2:30 P.M. to 3:15ish, that was the button on the remote getting the workout of its life as both the UCLA Bruins (at Arizona) and the Lakers (at home against the Dallas Mavericks) were locked-up in tight ones and we were going back and forth between the two in frantic fashion.

The 4th-ranked Bruins hung on 68-66 against the Wildcats for their 7th straight victory against them. Story from SI.com here. (By the way, our man, Billy Packer was kicked out west to broadcast this game for CBS. At this very moment, Packer is well into a 4-5 hour in-flight harangue of his broadcast partner Jim Nantz over how this Sunday afternoon game will put them back in New York 3 A.M. EST and how that will just shoot to hell the entire Monday work day and why couldn't they do a Saturday game instead and.... bitch, bitch, bitch....)

The Bruins have been getting a lot of love nationally as both Jay Bilas and Andy Katz of ESPN have called UCLA the best team in the nation. UCLA’s ability to lock-down teams with their pressure man-to-man and ability to create turnovers out top with guards Darren Collison and Russell Westbrook remain their strong suit.

We worry though at times that as good as the guards are on defense, they play a little out-of-control on offense, a cardinal sin come tournament time. Also, Josh Shipp, a junior, who is/was supposed to be that go-to guy in the Bruin offense…. that guy they could look to get them a bucket or go to the rim to draw a foul and get to the line in crunchtime in the same manner Aaron Afflalo was the past two seasons for the Bruins, is experiencing a crisis of confidence right now. He scored only 7 points on 3-7 shooting and didn’t look comfortable doing it. Whatever is ailing him, hopefully he gets it worked out soon.

We’re going to keep a close watch on things because as much as we like this team, the sometimes skittish guard play and Josh Shipp’s apparent regression has us worried.

Now about these Lakers… They won 108-104 in OT against the Mavs with Kobe Bryant dropping 52 points. They have now won 11 of their last 12 and as of this posting are a ½ game ahead of the Spurs in the West who are playing the Nets this afternoon.

Barring catastrophe, Kobe appears to be the favorite to win the MVP this year. If he does so, we will file the achievement under “irony” as he probably should’ve won it in any of the 3 prior seasons. Kobe actually has some players around him this year like Pau Gasol and emerging young talents like the injured Andrew Bynum, Jordan Farmar and Ronny Turiaf.

You know, the Lakers just might win an NBA championship if they can find a way to contain Lamar Odom’s room temeperature basketball I.Q. In the last :30 of regulation, Odom missed two free throws that would’ve stretched the lead to 3, completely lost Dirk Nowitski allowing him to drain a three to tie the game when everyone in the house knew he was going to get the ball and finally, with 2 seconds left, tie ballgame and Laker ball at midcourt, Odom threw a horrible inbound pass to Kobe which was easily batted away by Jason Kidd forcing OT.

Phil Jackson needs to be held accountable for that decision, though. Upon seeing Odom trot to the sideline to take the ball to inbound it, we figured there was a 50-50 chance that the ball wouldn’t even reach its intended target.

When Bynum makes it back from his injury, we foresee some lineup changes that will probably result in less playing time for Lamar. His physical abilities are phenomenal but the guy drives us absolutely nuts with his mental execution or lack thereof.

All in all, not a bad day of hoops here in SoCal.