What a difference a day makes...24 little hours with the sun and the flowers..where there used to be rain. Second chance opportunity surely..Fridays game? A hard one to describe against Oklahoma City Thunder..with our team losing big time.. Score:Oklahoma City 91 and Lakers only 75. At one point in the game trailing by 33 points. No starters seemed to help nor bench either.. Then Saturday's game in Houston the Lakers came alive..winning by 8 points, Lakers:109 and Houston Rockets 101.Ron Artest hurt his foot & was in pain but kept walking and limping about so that it would not freeze up on him. Derek Fisher jumped in with both feet and helped his buddies out by tying his season high with 15 points. Jordan Farmar scored 14 points and Kobe Bryant missed a triple-double by one assist. The Lakers led by 21 points in the third quarter. Pau Gasol scored a season-high 30 points on 11 for 17 shooting & also had 8 rebounds + 4 blocked shots and 2 assists. If by some chance Lakers can win against the New Orleans Hornets & the Atlanta Hawks, they can still sew up the best record in the Western Conference for the 3rd. consecutive season. We can only hope. Babs Wells

Surprise, surprise, surprise! All throughout most of the first 3 quarters our Laker team piddled around and it sure looked pretty grim for any way to win.With Andrew Bynum out in injury, Lamar Odom moved into the starting lineup to take Pau Gasol's place and Pau then moved from power forward to center to replace Bynum. We have Odom suffering with a sore left shoulder but it has not kept him from playing games or from playing in practice. Kobe Bryant needed two points in Wednesday's game against the Spurs to pass Alex English to move into 12th. place on NBA's all time scoring list. He did so and Kobe's career total is now 25,636 points.During the first half of San Antonio Wednesday game we actually did get ahead by 10 points but it did not remain so and we fell sorely behind. With a 6 game winning streak it looked like we would lose this one but in the 4th quarter, ginseng must have kicked in so with 3 pointers helping us out, we actually won 92-83. Still on the road we must muster our strengths now for upcoming Oklahoma City, Houston and New Orleans games to play.More surprises? We shall see! Babs Wells

Every now and then we are allowed the opportunity of knowing that a win is inevitable and that this one is to be "our game".Well, Sundays' game was "our game".The players knew it, the opposition knew it and we, the fans knew it.At one time we were 28 points ahead! Andrew Bynum, out with injury was too bad but Pau Gasol stepped right in to the role and made a team leading 28 points himself. He also grabbed 12 rebounds.Ron Artest scored 16 points,Shannon Brown 13 points and Lamar Odom 4 points with 13 rebounds. The Lakers hit the road now and play on Wednesday in San Antonio. Next is Oklahoma City, then Houston & finally to New Orleans & Atlanta. Back breaking schedules certainly and not always conducive to winning. Coach Phil Jackson is already warning the team to gather their wits and their strengths for the grueling schedule ahead of them.For Sunday's game however, we were treated to consecutive 3 point baskets made by Kobe Bryant helping us win over Washington with score of 99-92. Fun game to watch and now onward and upward..we shall see them play from elsewhere for awhile & wonder what is in store for us all. Babs Wells

Minnesota played the Lakers on Friday night.Lakers Former assistant coach Kurt Rambis is now the Minnesota Timberwolves coach so it was a bitter sweet game to be sure.Kobe Bryant went over after the game at Staples center and gave Rambis a hug. Was nice to see..Andrew Bynum made us all proud as he ran down the floor during the first parts of the game and then was injured. His past medical injuries were to be a bother again it might seem. One year ago he tore the medial collateral ligament in his right knee. Two years ago he suffered a partially dislocated left kneecap.Now they are evaluating his injury from Friday's game....a strained left Achilles' tendon..Let us all hope that this last set back will be short lived.Pau Gasol had a case of tonsillitis but managed to score17 points with 14 rebounds. To regain their direction, momentum and rhythm for playoffs on their minds will give the team the boost that might be needed. We indeed did win Friday's game 104-96. Next comes Washington Wizards this Sunday. Our upcoming game is being played at Staples center too which always helps for playing on homecourt (in spite of the Fan Jam close by Sat. & Sun at the L.A. Convention center !!!).Wishing both Andrew & Pau to get well & we will see how the rest of this wk.end fares now! Babs Wells

St. Patty's day today. Last eve. we watched the game out of Sacramento. In life, we sometimes seem to include other people in our lives so much they feel close like extended family (some of course not even aware of it). And so it is with "my boys" on the Laker team. Losing my 22 yr.old son this very day 1973, I guess I often look for others' sons to help fill the gap. Seeing Derek Fisher return to the Lakers, watching the young, tall, quiet Andrew Bynum become so assertive and show us his stuff, knowing Kobe Bryant has been one of "us" since he was but 17 years old, feelings for Luke Walton and recently like many others, enjoying Pau Gasol in his ever improving role with us, seeing Ron Artest seizing a temper formerly displayed..each player doing his "own thing" empowers us all..Last night's game was a game that compelled fans to stand up and cheer..it brought down the house with Shannon Brown's high jumping dunk causing us all to really feel the rhythm being shown. We are a proud group & have every reason to be with last nights win at 106-99. Thankyou ! Now on to another topic..In L.A. Convention center March 20 & 21, there will be a "Fan Jam" for folks to participate along with players and mingle with other Lakers fans too.Tickets $15 for Adults, $10 for children 12 & under. The Boss's daughter also coming for parts of it ..Jeannie Buss, KCAL 9 tells us..To locate additional info go to - Lakers.com/FanJam Hope this has been informative for you. Babs Wells

Fun to watch, this game with Golden State was .. Lakers were head to head during almost entire game. Sasha got to play for awhile this time and Lamar Odom as 6th. man did his eager part to help us at one point actually be 10 points ahead.The Warriors play a fast pace game and gave us a merry chase.We dared not take this team for granted and gave the fans their due worth most of the time.Pau Gasol had 14 points, Kobe Bryant,12,Lamar Odom 11 and Andrew Bynum scored 10,,,,,,,first half,Certainly not a runaway game, as you cannot play the ball if you keep giving the other team the ball.Losing 3 games on the road hurt but we have 30 days now to bridge the gap, with 15 games still in the regular season....including tonight's game in Sacramento against the Kings, and a month + left before the playoffs start.Mondays' game gave us Lakers 124 and Golden State 121 so now St. Paddy's day (one day before) will let us see just what we are made of. Go get 'em me lads!!! Babs Wells

Confidence! That was the keyword this game..as our Lakers ran up and down the courts. They were fast and confident. Kobe made 21 points even though he got smacked on his broken index finger during the third quarter. Lakers led by as many as 15 points in the second half. Although squandering their lead, they continued to rip the ball from the hands of the Suns and it certainly looked as if they were enjoying playing this game with nods of approval and smiles rather than scowls and long drawn faces.Their plays were not superb but their confidence level was high as shown for example by Ron Artest rebounding a miss by Lamar Odom and scoring with only 2.31 left to play in the half. Paul Gasol followed with a dunk + free throw. They seemed to get back their rhythm right before the end of the half. All in all it was surely a fun game to watch from spectators view with Lakers winning over the Phoenix Suns 102-96. Babs Wells

Laker fans are very loyal. Losses for three road games did not seem to interfere with looking forward to having the team back on home court and facing the Toronto Raptors.Was nice seeing Sasha Vujacic playing too even though for short time. Kudo's Korner:A sequence led to technical fouls against Kobe Bryant that got the referee far more excited Phil Jackson, coach, claimed and going to the line for the other team sometimes not quite what was called for.Yes, these are the dog days of the season with the playoffs still a month + away and granted we shall see far more intensity evident then.Nothing is seriously wrong but we do need to try for playing the triangle more which seemed to work well in previous games..Our Kobe threw his magic once again & brought us a victory with final scoring (109)Lakers stated at first and then altered to 108 and Toronto losing at 107. Ron Artest shaved his head(!) & "Defense" reminder was gone but now lets' also work more on our offense too. Friday we go to Phoenix..so we shall see! Babs Wells

Three misses. Score? Orlando 96 & Lakers 94. Enthusiasm certainly but mostly in the very last seconds of the game.If only they had demonstrated some of that enthusiasm during parts of the rest of the game instead of only in ending of 4th. quarter we just may have actually won this Sunday game. Mock awards were mentioned. Kobe Bryant for his infamous last seconds basket in former game, Derek Fisher for his dunk that wow'ed the crowd, Ron Artest for his hairdo (his barber says that it took around 6 hours in all for the bleaching process and then the writing of "defense" on his head in 3 different languages) Defense? Where was it? Yes road games are tough and very hard on the players but perhaps they can give us a good game to watch this coming Tuesday on home court. Hoping so.......we shall watch and see Babs Wells

Disappointment reins it would appear for fans of our Lakers team. To not become too maudlin about Friday's game let us all recognize that fatigue had indeed set in with the players. That and all of Kobe's injuries (including the funny bone incident on court) & Ron Artest's playing with a sprained left thumb. He also was hurt for awhile during the last game falling as he did hurting a hip. Getting into their hotel after the flight from Miami,at 3:30 a.m. did not help either + Pau Gasol not being in top form, caused a great deal of positioning during the play. Both Jordan Farmar and Derek Fisher made 3 pointers.Final tally:Charlotte 98,Lakers 83. Pretty grim, certainly and a hard game to see to its' fruition but there is always another way to consider. so....in this case, perhaps they can redeem themselves next Sunday playing Orlando..One can always hope and continue to cheer on our team. With that said, it is best to just leave the floor for this time and wait for the next game. Thankyou for listening to one reporters' comments. Babs Wells

Nail biting game for sure.We even went into overtime. Miami and Lakers tied during several times all through the entire game and even at ending of game 99-99. Pau Gasol did a very able basket with the left hand at one point..Farmar was off his mark during parts of this game but finally made a nifty 3 pointer shot. Some calls made were questionable and even Phil Jackson seemed to think so but overall these two teams were neck to neck on the court and finally in overtime Miami Heat won the game114-111. Was a nice aftermath seeing Kobe Bryant hugging lead Miami player Duane Wade.We had all been sort of wondering how Lamar Odom would play. He owns a house in Miami and has spent much time there. Good game to watch but sorry we did not pull it off enough to win. Maybe Charlotte? Babs Wells

Well, puttering around the entire first half, one tended to wonder just what was going on with our Lakers players! Kobe kept going to the line for free throws making 14 of his 24 points.! A real basket wasn't even made until half way into the first quarter..Farmar made some good buckets with 3 pointers finally in the second half but even the 3rd. quarter left spectators wanting. Finally in the 4th. quarter our team came alive..Good work!!Derek Fisher played well and Ron Artest showed his worth. He has lost wt. so showed more stamina it seemed. Lakers won over Indiana 122 to 99. 11 of the next 14 games are on the road. Lets' see what takes place with these first two games being held back to back. Go Lakers! Babs Wells