Radman to the Rescue

The first half was a thing of beauty. The Lakers D held strong holding the Mavs to only 38 points in the half and executing the offense to perfection. Tex has to be proud of the way the sqauad was sharing the basketball. Then there was the small fact that, oh yeah, there was another 24 minutes to play. While #24 stood strong to carry the team in the first half, who would rise to provide a spark for the second? That's right, the space cadet! Not too much needs to said here, as one play describes it all. Shot clock winding down and coming out of a timeout, Phil draws up the play... Radman for a step back three ball from the corner, bottoms. The Mavs made quite a run, basically due to the Lakers questionable decisions to leave three point shooters in the closing minute of the game, but nevertheless on this day Vladamir Radmanovic was captain planet.

So, You Still Think The Lakers Shouldn't Have Traded Shaq??

Seen here dishing out one of his 5 fouls, Shaq, in foul trouble the entire game, logged only 14 minutes while scoring 9 points and grabbing an impressive 4 rebounds. The Suns looked like they were in jeopardy of losing to the Warriors and free-falling even further in the western standings until Shaq picked up his 5th foul and was forced to leave the game. From that point on, the Suns went back to their old ways, rained down threes on the boys from Oaktown, and won going away. Shaq, I loved you as a Laker, but...

Lakers Looking to Add Player...I Hope Smush Didn't Change his Name to Ira Newble

Real Gm is reporting that the Lakers are looking at the possibility of adding Ira Newble.  Although the benchmob 2.0 (original bench mob located here) has been struggling lately, I don't see what he brings to our team.  Yes, he is a defensive player who is tough-minded, whatever the hell that means, but he also played 33 games with Bron.  God knows that that did to him.  I think this actually is more of a sign that Trevor Ariza may not be back this season.  Or just maybe this is a way for him to get more publicity on the signatures and letter sent by players in the NBA to the Chinese Government, regarding the situation in Darfur.  Shaq did come to LA for a similar reason.  

Lakers Send Raptors to Extinction...Or Beat Them in NBA Game

Photo Courtesy of (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

TJ Ford and the rest of his dino-buds tried to make it a game against Kobe, LO, PAU and the guys, but in the end, well, they lost. Most interestingly, Coby Karl seemed to jump start the team a little with his rare first half appearance, gettting a block shot and a three pointer. In the end, the Lakers looked a tad better than last game, but they will need to pick up the play on this upcoming road trip, if they hope to stay atop the west.

One Play Does Not Decide A Game, But That Is One Flop I Think Sasha Wants Back

Photo Courtesy of Wally Skalij and the Los Angeles Times

Jack Haley is Harder to Find than Waldo and Carmen San Diego Combined

I don't know what it means about his ability as a basketball analyst, but it took me about 30 games to notice that after years of sucking up to Kobe and reporting imaginary trades, Jack Haley was missing from the Laker pre and post game show. I must admit, when I finally did realize Jack and his Comet were missing I got a little sad, I mean, how often can you say that your local basketball analyst was not only nicknamed "the human victory cigar" for his crucial role on the Chicago bulls as a garbage time specialist, but is also considered the only man that Dennis Rodman really trusts. Ever since that fateful night when I realized Billy Mac's sidekick was African-American and therefore couldn't possibly be Jack, I have wondered why he was gone and what he was doing instead. Of course, due to his immense popularity world-wide, hundreds of rumors about J-Hal have been flying around the Internet. Unfortunately, I could only find two of them, Google must not have been working or something. It was reported that Jack doesn't know why he was let go, and it was also reported that he was fired after an afternoon tea misunderstanding.

These stories though, don't shed the type of light on the story that I need to feel comfortable. So I came up with some theories of my own. Based on his unabashed love for Kobe, it occurred to me that maybe Kobe lost interest in Jack, and Jack, so hurt by Kobe's refusal to grant him pregame interviews during which Jack could complement Kobe's suit, sunglasses, hairdo, tattoos, jewelery and house keys, that Jack left Lakers Live and has spent the last few months eating Digiornos and watching replays of The 81 Game. Plausible as that theory is, there is one inherent problem, Kobe is extremely proud of his house keys and could never stay mad at someone who gave him dap for his exquisite taste in key metal. So that brought me to another, even more likely theory.

Jack, known as Dennis Rodman's Babysitter in his days with the bulls, could have been in some sort of "Dennis Rodman Incident", after which some Sacramento King's dancers type photos surfaced around FSN headquarters leading to Jack being quietly "let go" and leading Jack to a life of getting Kobe's voicemail and reliving that one time he scored a basket.

As for what actually happened to Jack, we may never know, but what we do know is that Carlos Boozer still has not been traded to the Lakers...Jack you are missed.