First day at work

Welcome to "Another L.A. sports fan"
Born out of my morning discussions with my friend Cecil Godbold.
Hopefully you'll find this to be a usually fact based,  logically inspired,  intelligent rants and ravings of a long time Lakers,Dodgers,Raiders,Kings fan, and  sports fan in general. A place to rehash, examine, dissect, and if necessary complain about my teams ,sports in general. And Before I start, I know, the Raiders are no longer in Los Angeles (for now), but when they were, they gave us our lone Superbowl victory in 1984 (Superbowl XVIII vs the Redskins). That said, a lot of us  still consider them our team. If you don't, too bad. This is my blog!
So with that said, let the fun begin.

HEADLINES

Its playoff  time for the Kings (versus the San Jose Sharks). It will soon be playoff time for The Lakers. The Dodgers beat the Defending Champion San Fransisco Giants for the 4th time in 5 games. The NFL and the Players Association still without a CBA. The Barry Bonds trial goes into its 3rd day of deliberation(looking better for Barry). An reward for information leading to the arrest of the trash who assaulted a Giant fan after the Dodger/Giant game has grown to $100,000.

Lakers 
Game 80 of 82 finds the Lakers trailing the Dallas Mavericks by a 1/2 a game in the race for the number 2 spot in the conference standings. Tonight we play the team with the best record in the league, the San Antonio Spurs. With a 5 game losing streak, the Lakers need to win this game. After winning 17 of 18 games since the All-Star break, and looking poised to win their 18th Larry O'Brien NBA Championship Trophy, their  current 5 game losing streak has them looking more like a first round casualty rather than a "three-peat" champion.  Correction must be made now, or the boys in "Forum Blue and Gold" will be leaving the playoffs real quick.  five things that need to happen to make this playoff run successful.

1. Get back to playing strong defense. During this 5 game losing streak, the Lakers' defense is up from averaging 95.2 ppg ((8th best) to 97.8 ppg.     Not a lot, but worth mentioning.

 2. The offense, like the defense,  has to be more consistent. Prior the losing streak, the Lakers were averaging 101.3 ppg (9th best). During the streak their averaging 90.8 ppg. Not good at all.

3. Andrew Bynum has to dominate the paint at both ends. Period!

4. The Bench has got come and play. They have to bring energy, tough defense, and  protect leads(when they have them).  Not just shoot a lot of ill advised 3 pointers, commit turnovers, and give away leads.

5. And of course, Kobe, has to be Kobe. Enough said.

Minus these corrections, no 3-peat, no champagne, no parade.!!!!!

Now that's the "half glass empty " mentality.  I'm a "half glass full" person myself. You don't win championships in the regular season. That's what the playoffs are for. Last year the Lakers finished the season 4-11. Doom was predicted everywhere. At that time,  Jackson said "We're disappointed in our team's effort at the end of the season," We know how that turned out.  So with that being said, let's hope  Yogi Berra was right when he said, "Looks like Deja vu all over again.
I still think we'll be alright.  Go Lakers!!!!!

*Hi Robin and Evette