WINNING IS NICE

We won! Jordan Farmar, Nick Young, Pau

Gasol, all showed us their worth. Wesley

Johnson too is a player worth watching.

Even though we blew a large lead, we

managed to pull a winning game out of

the hat so to speak. It does look odd to

me to see Paul Pierce playing with a

totally different team other than Boston.

Our winning score was: 99-94.

Pau Gasol alone had 21 points. This

moved him ahead into second place on

the NBA's career list for points by a

European player. Chants were heard from

the stands as our Lakers came out onto the 

floor wearing their new black uniforms.

Nick Young scored a season high 26 points

to show such spark with the huge efforts

from the league's most productive bench.

Our victory on Wednesday over the Nets

at Barclay's Center also provided a case 

study on how they can morph from one identity

one night over another.

And once again, we can clap our hands to

thank Nick Young during Friday's game

against Detroit; another road trip for us.

Nursing a sprain on his ring finger of

his left hand, he still managed to sink

two free throws, having been fouled 

by Detroit's forward Josh Smith. Our

winning score for this last game played?

106-102. Friends, Jordan Farmar and Nick

Young go way back together when they were

students. Jordan made the statement that

he was going to say something a coach might 

not say, and that is that Nick Young won a

game on defense. Farmar himself helped

our Lakers when there was a 1-0 point fourth

quarter deficit by making a 3-pointer, a reverse

layup and a step-back jumper. We as Lakers

improved our road record to a 3-5, and won five

of our past 6 games. Now we can build and grow

with what we are doing.

BABS WELLS

OOOOOOH SOOOO CLOSE

Score? 116-111. Parts of the game

we matched and even got ahead some

but at the trail ending, Washington Wizards

outplayed us and we must own up to that.

Jordan Farmar made 22 points. His

sidekick Nick Young, although clowning

around off the courts and being fun to be

near, did his best on Tuesday night as well.

He did make 16 points, Steve Blake

made 15 points, Wes Johnson 11 points

and Jordan Hill made 10 points.

Pau Gason mentioned he may be 

likened to fine wine, getting better as

he "aged". Brazilian Pau is 31. Pau had

17 points playing against the D.C. team.

Tonight is another game being played.

It will be on earlier here in California, 

airing at 4:30 in the afternoon, and

is being played against Brooklyn at

Barclays Center.

Money? A mere $48 million dollar PLUS 

contract was offered to our star, Kobe Bryant, 

for the next two years. He then will have 

played for the purple and gold for a period 

of 20 years and will very likely be retiring 

after this contract is over with. 

He began his career at age 18 and a High

School 'er. His body has done its share of 

complaining through out these years, the 

latest problem being his Achilles heal tendon.

In practice he seems very able however and 

is looking forward to being in uniform and out 

there with his buddies playing his best.

His practices appear to be doing extremely 

well so after these next two games away 

from home it is very possible we will be seeing

him play again on Dec. 6th when we play 

against Sacramento. At any rate, we, 

in addition to his trainers, really do not want 

Kobe to try coming back to play until he is 

deemed ready.

Turkey Day tomorrow! 

May God Bless us all this Thanksgiving.

Babs Wells

WE DID IT!!

Our players joined forces and we won our

last two games! Hopeful that once we do

get out there on the road, some of this

enthusiasm will be packed within the clothes

suitcases too so we can strut our stuff!

Pau Gasol said he would gladly donate

$1,000 for each point he made on Friday

to give the proceeds to the relief effort

for the horrid Phillippine storm. He made

24 points and therefore donated $24,000

and mentioned he hoped others would be

following suit for their own gifts of love

and caring for those poor victims and

their families. Nick Young was in good

form as was Jordan Hill. The entire team

seemed to be very unified and set on

winning. It was so much fun to watch.

Stu Lantz has had laryngitis so his

speaking voice was mum. Bill McDonald

was telling the viewers about his earlier

days with Chic Hearn and pictures of

them together brought back memories.

Stu's deep voice almost mesmerizes you

when he is speaking and describing the plays.

He is announcer for our NBA Lakers

in his 27th season now. James Worthy

filled in for Stu along with Bill doling play

by play. Stu missed 3 games back in

2009 when he took time off  while his

wife recovered from surgery. In other years

he skipped games to attend his mothers'

funeral and his daughters' college graduation.

This then was the first time he missed a game

because of health issues. Another note

of mention is that fans brought in books

that were gently used to donate to a local

charity in honor of Chic Hearn, former broadcaster.

Back soreness kept Chris Kaman off the courts

so that he could heal. In fact he was out for 2 games.

Kobe Bryant is still in a process of recovering from

his Achilles heal tendon surgery. Coach D'Antoni

stated that it is timing, conditioning and many other

things that fall into play for healing and that he

chooses to not hurry Kobe back into uniform until

he deems he is more ready to tackle playing.

Steve Blake and Pau Gasol talked about the plays

Kobe has made though in practice and that he

looked good and they were quite surprised.

D'Antoni also talked some about Steve Blake's

hustling his plays and although not super tall,

he runs fast and dunks shots and never seems

to flinch doing so at every single possibility.

He has brought some relative backcourt stability

while both Nash and Bryant heal up. Steve Nash

does seem to be doing some better. He traveled to

Vancouver with personal trainer Rick Celebrini

but will return to L.A. next weekend before L.A.

hosts the Portland Trail Blazers on Dec. 1st at

Staples Center. He did have (some) comfort after

his epidural Shot on Nov. 12th, He turns 40 in Feb.

Winning against Golden State and Sacramento

gives us some more confidence and watching how

well Xavier Henry did also lent us some real hope.

There are 24 "away" games out of 36 so now we

shall watch and see how well we do when not at home.

BABS WELLS

BEING AT STAPLES HELPS

Kobe is still going on with his rehab. & in fact

as of today he is in full practice to see just

how much strain his Achilles Heal tendon

can perhaps take. He is still being monitered

to see just where his comfort zone is. The Lakers

have not offered any time table on when Bryant will 

return in a game. The Lakers took Monday off following

their win the previous night against the Detroit  Pistons.

They do not play again until Friday against Golden

State and yes, that game also takes place at the

Staples Center.....so this then gives Kobe three

days in which to practice so it is any one's guess if

he will be able to go out there on Friday to play

against the Warriors. Caution is a must right now.

Jordan Hill barely played for coach D'Antoni in

New York four years ago but once again they

are on the same team here in L.A. Hill had

career highs of 24 points and 17 rebounds

and Jodie Meeks and Nick Young scored 19 points

apiece in the Lakers' 114-99 victory over the

Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. Steve Blake

had 9 points and 16 assists and the Lakers

really seemed to come alive in the fourth quarter.

Former Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has now

collaborated with the Los Angeles Unified School

District to fund "Camp Sky-hook", a 5 day overnight

camp in Arcadia at the Clear Creek Outdoor Ed-

ucation Center in Angeles National Forest. Jabbar

also donated $100,000.from his Skyhook Foundation

to the LAUSD on Sunday at the California STEM

Symposium in Sacramento. The STEM acronym

stands for science, technology,engineering and math.

These four tennets the camp will be teaching then

to underprivileged children throughout LAUSD.

BABS WELLS

GRATEFUL THERE ARE SECOND CHANCES

Our Kobe is not giving the reporters what they wish to know.

At his locker the other day, he playfully told them he would be

ready again to play "tomorrow", but then replied that he really

has no true idea when he will feel fit enough to play again.

Yes, he is out at the practices and yes, he is far stronger, but 

that Achilles heal tendon requires more stretching still.

Pau Gasol met with his brother Marc Gasol out on the

Staples court and gave Memphis something to be quite

concerned about. During the entire game, and it was a fun 

one to see, but it was the Grizzlies that won it in the finale'.

Score? 89-86. To check with the Lakers blog you can

go to: insidesocal.com/Lakers (or) keep an eye out for this 

blogs posts. Here, just go to: sportsnut-babs.blogspot.com.

In order to follow the Lakers on the new iPad app, go to the

iTunes store and search for "inside the Lakers" for the

latest news, photos and features on the team.

The Grizzlies win over the Lakers on Friday night was

the first road victory for them of the season. Even with

their win, Memphis only made 8 of their 24 shots in the

second quarter and finished the game 43.5% from the 

field including 1-for-13 from the 3 point range.

At the end of the first quarter of the game, Kobe (in his

Lakers warm ups) came out on to the floor and presented a

$150.000 check from the club to representatives of the

Phillippine Red Cross following last week's deadly typhoon.

Although Kobe was seen once again out on the practice

floor, it is still pretty doubtful just when he will be returning

to full force with the team again. "If it were the play off's", Kobe 

stated, "I would be with the team out on the floor playing".

But, it is not the playoff's so he is trying to perfect the

balancing act between staying patient with his recovery

while staying motivated with what he called "the low-

hanging fruit" which surrounds the ongoing uncertainty

about his return. There is another game today (Sunday)

against Detroit at 6:30 and so we will really be trying hard

to do a good job with the Bigs showing up and us guarding

the rim. The game is being played at Staples Center.

Future games (including tonight) are:

Golden State (Friday) Sacramento (Sunday), plus the 

road games in Washington (Nov. 27) and Brooklyn (Nov. 28) 

right on Thanksgiving Day. So, eat hardy my friends but awake

from your nap to watch this game with us!

BABS WELLS

LUCK OF THE DRAW

Oh yes! Our Lakers won last night at Staples

Center playing once again with the New Orleans

Pelicans. Score? 116-95. Steve Nash has had some

back problems so it will be at least another 2 weeks

before he will be allowed to be back out on the

courts to play. The Starters differed this game too.

Jordan Hill started in place of Chris Kaman to begin

with. Nick Young changed places for a bit as well.

Wesley Johnson was put out there as a surprise starter.

Jodie Meeks got a start at guard with Steve Nash's

back and hamstring issues. The Pelicans trounced

our Lakers, before nearly a week ago, in New Orleans.

Pau Gasol was frustrated by his slow start. He has

gone through the games whereby he has shot below

50 percent. He is such a talented guy and one of the 

most skilled men but lately it just has not been going

his way and it is most frustrating to him. We did have

to wince however when Minnesota won last Sunday

with such an overpowering tally at games end.

Minnesota ended their 22 game drought against us.

And then last evening up in the mile high city of Denver, 

we lost 111 - 99. Jordan Hill was great, however,

offering up 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting and 15

rebounds in his second consecutive start. It was a

night after temporarily eradicating his shooting

troubles for Gasol. He did continue to struggle by

filling the leadership void stemmed from the two

absences of namely Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash.

Anyway, this instability doesn't seem to be caused

by any lineup changes and we can only hope for

more games to come landing us in the winners' circle.

Babs Wells

SAY IT ISN'T SO

Oh my. Winning two games and then last evening?

The New Orleans Pelicans ahead, then behind, then

ahead once again and the final score? 96-85.

Chris Kaman played his heart out. Jordan Farmar

came onto the court and played with fervor.

Steve Nash sat on the bench clenching his hands

and I imagine wishing he were right out there to

play too. The newcomers, Wesley Johnson, 

Xavier Henry and Nick Young showed such promise.

Kaman had 16 points for L.A. Pau Gasol said of

Chris that he is a 'special player because he is

so athletic. He is able to block a shot on one end

and then sprint to the other end and get in a lay-up.

He seems to have a good shooting touch which 

does make for a very impressive man on court.

Steve Blake never appears to lose his cool and made

13 points as point guard. A really happy hero of the

game against the Houston Rockets had Steve Blake

making a crowd pleasing 3 pointer for the Lakers to win the 

game with the score of: 99-98. Nail biting time for sure!

The Lakers led by 17 points early in the second quarter

before Houston used a 13-5 spurt capped by 7 points

from Harden to cut the lead to 45-36 about 7 minutes

before half-time. The Lakers led at 64-50 then at half-time.

When we played Atlanta we won by 2 points even though

at one time we led by 21. These ending games give us

pause to wonder just what on earth is happening as

our energy levels ebb, to barely win or not win at all?

Well, we will get yet another chance to see where

our strength might topple our opponent  (mine and

our Lakers earlier home state) of Minnesota on

Sunday at Staples Center, 6:30 p.m.

BABS WELLS

A NEWCOMER: XAVIER HENRY

In the starting lineup, Xavier made 18

points. Later, he needed stitches for a cut.

However, he did step in where Nick Young

had earlier been. And Pau Gasol is now the

leader of the team with Kobe Bryant still out

nursing his injury and not sure just when

he will be able to return either. Pau made 2

free throws with 6.1 seconds to play and then

tied the game  allowing for a final win with the

score: 105-103. Thought sure we'd win as in

the first half we were 21 points ahead of the

Hawks. Staples Center was a sell-out with

18,997 fans watching since Lakers lost their

last game against San Antonio but won against

the Clippers at Staples for their first game this

season. Coach D'Antoni says that Xavier is a

good defender and although perhaps does not make

his shots the same way Nick Young does, he does get it.

Henry started and scored nine of his 18 points

in the first quarter. Young was the first player off the

bench and he scored 5 of his 13 points in opening

quarter. Gasol had 16 points and 13 rebounds and was

out on the floor at the end of the game with Jordan

Hill who pulled down a key offensive rebound of

Gasol's errant shot with about 17 seconds left.

Walt Bellamy, NBA center star, died Saturday at

age 74. He was an enormously gifted Hall of Fame

player who had tremendous impact on the game of

Basketball. this was the claim by NBA Commissioner

David Stern. "Off the court he was an even more|

extraordinary person. He is going to be missed by all

who had the pleasure of knowing him. On behalf of

the entire NBA family, our condolences and our thoughts

go out to the Bellamy family". Bellamy averaged 20.1 

points and 13.7 rebounds in 14 seasons in the NBA.

Our sincere condolences we send to Walt's family.

We will be playing tonight in Dallas at 5:30.

Babs Wells