Tag: Lakers

Notre Dame’s Braden Lenzy Remembers Kobe Bryant

The news of Kobe Bryant’s death is shocking.  It’s awful, no words do the moment or the news justice.

If you haven’t already heard, this is one of those moments that just shock you.  Some people you grow up watching play a sport, invent the next great thing or do something heroic.  These people seem like real-life action heroes in that they’re just not susceptible to something awful happening.

Kobe Bryant was one of those people or players, who was nothing short of an NBA legend.

Unfortunately that was not the case today as the shocking news of Bryant’s untimely death has shaken not only the sports world but really the entire world.

I was never a Lakers fan by any means and I didn’t necessarily root for Kobe but I sure as heck enjoyed watching him.  I rooted against his Lakers squads for years (2000 NBA Finals still sting) but he was also the first athlete I remember specifically forking over a pretty penny of my hard-earned money to watch in person once I’d gotten a full-time job.

The news of Kobe Bryant’s death is shocking.  It’s awful, no words do the moment or the news justice.  If you’re the praying type I’m sure those close to him and the other victims could use some about now.

In the meantime, Notre Dame speedster Braden Lenzy took to Twitter shortly after the news broke to share memories of Kobe Bryant. I thought I’d share it because it’s a lot deeper and more personal than just “I loved watching him ball” or anything like that.

Again, I’m at a loss for words so won’t even try to do it justice.

Unreal and awfull

Los Angeles Lakers vs Philadelphia 76ers odds, picks and best bets

Previewing Saturday’s Los Angeles Lakers at Philadelphia 76ers sports betting odds and lines, with NBA betting picks, tips and best bets.

The Los Angeles Lakers (36-9) visit the Philadelphia 76ers (29-17) at the Wells Fargo Center Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET. We analyze the Lakers-76ers sports betting odds and lines, with NBA betting advice and tips around the matchup.

Get some action on this game or others by placing a bet at BetMGM.

Lakers at 76ers: Key injuries

Lakers

  • PG Rajon Rondo (finger) probable
  • C JaVale McGee (flu) questionable
  • PF DeMarcus Cousins (knee) out
  • PF Anthony Davis (Gluteus) questionable
  • SF Kyle Kuzma (ankle) probable

76ers

  • C Joel Embiid (finger) out
  • SG Josh Richardson (hamstring) out

Lakers at 76ers: Odds, lines, picks, and betting tips

NBA odds courtesy of BetMGM; access USA TODAY Sports for a full set of today’s betting odds. Odds last updated at 1 p.m. ET.

Prediction

76ers 111, Lakers 110

Moneyline (ML)

The 76ERS (+155) are moneyline underdogs, which is surprising considering they’re a stunning 20-2 at home this season. While they will be without All-Star C Joel Embiid, look for the 76ers to win this game as they have won six in a row at the Wells Fargo Center. Considering the value, it’s hard not to pick the 76ers here.

Line/Against the Spread (ATS)

If taking the 76ers moneyline is too risky for you, consider betting with them on the spread at +4.5 (–106). Philadelphia has done well against the spread at home this season, covering in 12 of 22 games. Despite having some injuries, they should be able to keep this game close – they have the No. 2 ranked scoring defense in the NBA. Look for the 76ERS (+4.5) to cover.

Over/Under (O/U)

The total for this primetime matchup is 218.5. That feels just about right considering how great each team has been on the defensive side of the ball this season. Both teams are allowing under 106 points per game despite each side facing injuries at the center position. However, look for this game to just hit the OVER (-106) as Embiid and potentially LA’s Anthony Davis miss this contest.

Want some action on this game? Place a bet at BetMGM now. For more sports betting tips and advice, visit SportsbookWire.com.

Follow @Marcus_Mosher and @SportsbookWire on Twitter.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship, and there is no influence on news coverage.

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LeBron James can pass Kobe Bryant on the all-time scoring list with 18 points tonight

LeBron James can pass Kobe Bryant on the all-time scoring list with 18 points in Philadelphia tonight against the 76ers.

The son of Joe “Jellybean” Bryant first broke onto the national basketball stage as a star prodigy for Lower Merion High School just outside of Philadelphia. Tonight, LeBron James can move past the all-time NBA scoring mark set by Kobe Bryant with 18 points in his hometown. LeBron enters tonight’s matchup in Philly averaging 25.2 per contest and has scored at least 13 in every game this season.

Kobe currently occupies the No. 3 spot on the NBA’s all-time scoring list  with 33,643 points. When James meets Ben Simmons and the 76ers tonight on ESPN he will step onto the floor 17 points behind at 33,626. Only Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar have scored more in their NBA careers than Bryant and James.

Throughout their professional careers, Bryant and James have formed a bond that was further developed by their time together on Team USA in 2008. Both breaking into the league from high school, LeBron has sought Kobe’s guidance and advice at times on how to manage expectations as a young player in the league. James spoke with the Los Angeles Times about how he would feel if he passed Bryant on the all-time scoring list tonight.

“Things have happened organically because I just go about my business,” James said. “I don’t think about it going into it saying, ‘OK, this is what I got to do. This is how many points I need, this is how many assists I need.’ When it happens, it happens. If it happens.

And, so, I don’t know how I’m going to feel when it happens. But it’s a pretty cool thing, you’re just linked with one of the greatest of all time.”

The Sixers will be without Joel Embiid when they meet LeBron, Anthony Davis and the Lakers tonight in Philly. At 29-17, they currently occupy the No. 6 seed in the East which is far short of preseason expectations. Regardless, the Lakers will need a solid effort collectively on Simmons if they hope to escape with their 37th win of the season.

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Andre Iguodala breaks down the Clippers and Lakers rosters

Iguodala thinks both teams have what it takes to win a title

Andre Iguodala technically plays for the Memphis Grizzlies, but you wouldn’t be able to tell if you weren’t paying attention.

He’s been laying low this season since the Warriors traded him to Memphis after Kevin Durant dipped and went to the Nets this summer. He’s been on a book tour, done some work in tech and has conducted a handful of interviews.

But now he’s finally back to talking basketball again. Iguodala paid a visit to First Take on Friday to talk about what he’s been doing and the state of the NBA.

Since he was traded to Memphis, he’s been one of the names that have been consistently connected to the Lakers and Clippers — two of the teams at the top of the West.

The problem is he’s currently stuck in a stalemate with the Grizzlies, who can either buy him out or trade him.

Iguodala makes $17.2 million this season and has said that he won’t be bought out for any less, but the Grizzlies refuse to buy his deal out with such a hefty price tag.

Meanwhile, trading him is difficult because of the money he makes. Whatever team trades for him has to send a similar amount of money back to the Grizzlies. That means they either send a player with a big contract over or they packaged together a number of smaller deals to add up to an appropriate amount. Either way, the team is losing depth, so it’s difficult to see a trade happening.

So when they asked Iguodala which team he’d want to play for, instead of actually making a choice he broke both of them down by their strengths.

“It’s picking your poison. I mean, you know, in terms of you having the poison and you being able to shoot that whichever way you want against your opponent.” 

Smart man. It’s best to play this diplomatically for him at this point — he still has no idea where he’s going to end up. First thing is first, though. Get this man out of Memphis, ASAP.

Report: Anthony Davis questionable for game against Brooklyn Nets

Lakers star Anthony Davis might not be in the lineup Thursday as the team takes on the Brooklyn Nets.

Los Angeles Lakers star Anthony Davis has played two games since returning from a bruised tailbone, but he might not be in the lineup Thursday for the second game of the team’s back-to-back.

According to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, Davis is listed as questionable for the Lakers’ game against the Brooklyn Nets. If he plays, this will mark the first back-to-back Davis has played in since bruising his tailbone.

Per McMenamin, Rajon Rondo (fractured right ring finger) and Kyle Kuzma (sore left ankle) are both probable. Tip off is set for 8 p.m. EST. in Brooklyn.

Davis scored a team-high 28 points, grabbed five rebounds and had five assists during the Lakers’ win Wednesday against the New York Knicks.

According to Basketball Reference, the performance marked the seventh time this season that Davis scored at least 20 points and tallied at least five rebounds and five assists.

As the Lakers’ leading scorer, Davis has shown more of how his versatile game can positively affect a team. This season, Davis is a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, and his length and quickness helps him guard multiple positions. He ranks third in the NBA in blocks per game (2.5).

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Dwight Howard wants Kobe Bryant’s help in the dunk contest

Howard is asking fans to lobby for Bryant to help him in the dunk contest.

Dwight Howard has always been full of surprises — for good and bad, but mostly bad.

Howard is participating in this year’s NBA dunk contest during All-Star weekend, which came as a surprise when it was first announced. He won his last dunk contest in 2008, but whatever. Who’s counting, right?

But, anyway, that’s not the kicker here. The best part of all this is, now, Howard is telling us that he wants Laker legend Kobe Bryant’s help in the dunk contest this year. After the Lakers’ win over the Knicks on Wednesday night, he asked Lakers fans for their help in getting him.

“I’m trying to get Kobe. So if I can get all the Laker fans to lobby to get Kobe to help me in the dunk contest, that’d be really good. That’d be awesome.”

This is absolutely hilarious on a few levels, as Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant had one of the most memorable beefs in NBA history.

Howard came to Bryant’s Lakers in hopes of winning a championship in 2012. Instead, the highlight of their season together was the two of them squaring up over their head coach like a couple of nut jobs.

Embarrassing. I know.

Howard eventually left the Lakers after this year and Bryant, in the most Bryant fashion possible, proceeded to hate his guts. He’s called him everything from “soft” to a “teddy bear,” which was somehow supposed to be a compliment.

Maybe this is Dwight’s way of squashing the beef? No idea. Good luck to him either way, though.

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4 takeaways from the third round of NBA All-Star voting

Alex Caruso is really doing this.

Alright, y’all. I love chaos, but I didn’t think things would get this far.

The NBA dropped the third round of voting for the All-Star game this year just ahead of the final January 20 deadline on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

If you thought things were chaotic in round two last week, wait until you get a load of what’s going on this week. The bench guys are still on the rise, Pascal Siakam is on the move and Luka Doncic is still right on James’ tail. Just take a look at the newest All-Star Game fan votes released today:

Remember, there’s still a few days left. These aren’t the final results for the fans— but they’re probably really close to them. Even after this, we still have to take in media vote (25%) and player vote (50%) to determine who the starters are.

With that out the way, let’s get in to some of the takeaways here.

NBA Fans love chaos

That’s the only reasonable explanation for Alex Caruso rising up to No. 4 in voting for Western Conference guards. Right now, he’s got more votes under his belt than Devin Booker (577,035), Donovan Mitchell (673,917), Bradley Beal (609,899) and Ben Simmons (629,199).

Some people just love to watch the world burn. Yes, I am one of them. This is absolutely delightful. We just need to get Tacko Fall (757,375 votes) to rise a bit more.

Luka and LeBron will come down to the wire

If you had asked anyone before the season who would challenge LeBron James as the NBA’s leading All-Star vote-getter this offseason, I’m not sure how many people would’ve said Luka Doncic.

Yet, here we are. Doncic is only about 150,000 votes away from James as the leading vote getter. It’s time to stuff the ballot box, y’all. Get it done.

Pascal Siakam is rising fast

The last time we saw these results, Pascal Siakam was third in the Eastern Conference’s front court with just over 1.7 million votes. Now? He’s above Joel Embiid in second place with 2,433,411 votes. That’s a cool 700,000 votes to jump ahead.

No idea what they’re doing in Toronto to make this happen. Do we have another Biebergate on our hands? Maybe Bieber asking his fans to stream his new single, Yummy, was just code for “vote for Pascal Siakam.” I don’t know. Whatever they’re doing it’s working though.

Still no Rudy Gobert

Look, man. Jazz fans have been going absolutely crazy on Twitter over the last month. They’re complaining that nobody is talking about their team while the Jazz are on a 10 game win streak. That’s alright — nobody needs to care about the Jazz for them to be a good team.

But Rudy Gobert should absolutely be in the top 10 for front court voting and he’s not right now. He’s having the best season of his career on both ends and the Jazz are finally winning again.

Of course, Jazz fans are going crazy about it. So crazy, in fact, that they’re even lobbying for screen assists to count as a box score stat to boost his numbers. It’s been crazy. Let’s get Gobert in that top 10. Not just because he deserves it, but because Jazz fans will riot if we don’t.

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The internet is roasting Stephen A. Smith for a terrible NBA trade proposal

Oh, Stephen A. This is your finest work.

We’re knee deep into trade speculation season in the NBA and people are already firing up their wildest trade machine moves for their favorite team more than a month away from the trade deadline.

No trade proposal you can find on Twitter is as wild as the deal Stephen A. Smith proposed the Suns do on Tuesday.

He suggested that the Lakers package Kyle Kuzma along with “a multitude of players and even a pick.” He then suggested to send said package to the Phoenix Suns for Devin Booker to partner him up with Anthony Davis and LeBron James.

Yup, that’s right. Stephen A. thinks Kuzma could be the centerpiece for a deal that gets Devin Booker to the Lakers.

The internet promptly roasted him for this take.

It’s hard to see this happening. And I really, really tried to see it happen. So hard, in fact, that I broke my own personal code and went to the NBA’s trade machine to make it happen.

The best thing I could come up with was this garbage.

Kyle Kuzma, Danny Green and a bunch of injured former All-Star carcasses along this year’s first round pick (which probably falls under 25) and…it’s still probably a hard no with a cackle before James Jones hands up the phone.

TO BE FAIR to Smith, we’ve probably seen worse trades go down in the NBA? I’m really trying to shoot him some bail here. This is a really good point.

It’s the NBA. As Kevin Garnett once told us, anything is possible.

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LeBron James passed Isiah Thomas for No. 8 spot on all-time assists list

LeBron James will be revered as one of the game’s greatest passers ever.

LeBron James is one of few NBA players in league history who has arguably picked apart teams more with his passing than his scoring ability.

Through his 17 seasons, James has developed into a master of running an offense, and on Monday his talents earned him another milestone. James took hold of the No. 8 spot on the all-time assists leaders list, passing Hall of Fame point guard Isiah Thomas. James led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 128-99 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, scoring a team-high 31 points and tallying eight assists.

James currently has 9,067 career assists and sits behind his good friend Chris Paul, who is ranked seventh.

The ultimate playmaker, James will go down as the quintessential point forward. While playing primarily point guard this season, James has had a career year passing the ball. He’s leading the league in assists, averaging a career-high 10.7 assists per game.

The value James holds as a passer, one who can change the dynamic of a game, couldn’t have been more apparent in the Lakers’ win over the Cavaliers. During the first half, James wasn’t as aggressive. He had eight points and two assists heading into halftime — and the Lakers were still only down by one point.

But during the second half, James took control of the game, picking his spots as if he was a masterful chess player. He had 23 points and six assists in the second half.

James’ ability to impact a game in a variety of ways is what will be the strength of his legacy. As he continues his career, it’s not too crazy to think he could be ranked top five all-time in points and assists before he retires.

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LeBron congratulates Rob Pelinka on promotion to vice president of basketball operations

LeBron congratulates Rob Pelinka on promotion to vice president of basketball operations for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Rob Pelinka helped pair LeBron James with Anthony Davis this season for the Los Angeles Lakers. That alone makes the Lakers a championship contender. He also seems to have filled out the roster with high-upside players like Dwight Howard and Alex Caruso, while also finding solid starters like Danny Green to surround his two superstars.

For that effort, Pelinka was promoted to vice president of basketball operations for the Los Angeles Lakers this weekend. Upon news of the promotion, LeBron was quick to cosign the deal with a congratulatory message on Twitter. While quote tweeting an update from SLAM, James offered the following.

“Yes he ABSOLUTELY has Earned it!! Congrats RP!”

The Lakers own the best record in the Western Conference heading into their matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday. At 31-7, they are 4.5 games up on Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. They are also 4.5 games up on Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers. The only team with a better record than the one Pelinka helped construct is the Milwaukee Bucks who currently lead the Eastern Conference and NBA at 34-6.

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