Cold country to be sure but our Lakers seemed to take
to it nice enough and won their first 4 of 7 road games
away from home court. Facing the Boston Celtics is
not always a super fun experience, having been rivals
for so long, but in January they beat us - yet this time
around we had the upper hand. L.A. rallied and we
came through with score of: 92-86, victors were we!
Phil Jackson received some other news too as the
media got wind of it as well. After 23 seasons
of coaching, Jerry Sloan has decided to retire.
He'd had 1,127 wins at the helm of the Utah Jazz
and simply said he had run out of energy and it was
time to move on. He is the only coach in NBA history
that went on to win 1,000 games with one team, a feat
he accomplished Nov. 7 against Oklahoma City.
Our own coach, Phil Jackson, had some "down
memory lane" moments when he ambled into Madison
Square Garden from the 33rd. Street entrance for possibly
the very last time as NBA coach Friday. Riding the elevator
he got to thinking " I really do not want to do this anymore".
Jackson played with the Knicks in the '70's., coached against
them in the '90's & with the Lakers in the 2000's. He has said
that this will be his last stand and will retire once the last game
is played in the spring. Once the shot wore off for Lamar Odom
with the head injury he suffered, requiring 8 stitches (since he
and Pau Gasol knocked heads together in the third quarter
collision Thursday in Boston), his head was mighty sore & throbbing.
Pau's front tooth evidently did not suffer nearly as much hitting him.
Matt Barnes is still on the mend since surgery but doing quite well.
He is back running again, practicing, doing the treadmill and his
agility drills. He is anxious to be one of the playing team once again.
The "All Star-Break" is scheduled for Feb.17-20 so it is just possible
he might be able to suit up after that is ended and begin playing then.
Winning in New York against the Knicks was a big plus and a real
bonus for our team. Kobe Bryant kept hitting 3 pointers and made
19 points almost it seemed in the first immediate minutes of the game.
Lamar Odom scored 14 points, Andrew Bynum made 12 points and
nine rebounds and Shannon Brown made 12, including 2 on a spectacular
catch and dunk on a lob pass from Steve Blake to finish a 2nd.quarter
fast break. They scored so high that the bench were even allowed to
get the opportunity of allowing the starters to sit it out and rest up.
Good game and a fun one to watch. Keep up the momentum if you can!
Babs Wells