Ken Ito's Los Angeles Lakers fan blog

As I watched the Hornets-Spurs game last night, I had no idea whom I wanted to win.  The Hornets?  The Spurs?  It wasn't so much that I was rooting for my favorite of the two, but I was looking for the opponent that couldn't match up with the Lakers.  It was a great game, but in the end, I think I did want the Hornets to win.  With Tony Parker maturing and Tim Duncan his usually great stoic self, the veteran Spurs always somehow find a way to win unspectacularly.  I've always like the Spurs since the George Gervin days, but I will always choose my Lakers over the Spurs anyday...

It will be a great series if the Lakers can bring their A-game and sustain it for 48 minutes per game!  Fish and Farmar (who's having a horrendous playoff season) will have their hands full with Parker; Duncan will square off with Gasol, and that should balance things out there... Ginobli will give the Lakers fits, and the Spurs bench (Horry, Finley, Udoka, etc... hey, don't forget about Barry!) are better than the Lakers bench.  Kobe Bryant will do his thing as usual, but I think the deciding factor is going to be Lamar Odom!  If Lamar can bring it, the Lakers have a great chance of winning the series... but of course, it'll go either six or seven...

Continue reading "And so it begins!!!"

I was hoping that the Houston Rockets would win the 6th game and extend their series to seven games with them defeating the Jazz at long last.  But it didn't happen, and now our Lakers face the Jazz, a team that's pretty physical.  The Lakers had a six-day layoff, and hopefully they'll be ready.  It's a good thing that they have home-court advantage throughout this series. 

And what about the Boston Celtics?  Who woulda thunk it?  The Atlanta Hawks taking them to a 7th game!  (No doubt the leprechauns will come out, and Boston will stomp on them.  But still, I give credit to the Hawks for not throwing in the towel.) 

Oh, yeah, congratulations to Kobe Bryant... I may still dislike him, but hey, an honor is an honor.  So, Mr. Bryant, kudos to winning the MVP Award this year.   

Continue reading "2nd Round starts tomorrow..."

Or so we think!  Although I'm hoping that Pau, LO, Fish and company pull it off tonight--the Nuggets are a house divided--it wouldn't be all that bad if they lost... They can easily finish the Nuggets off at home in Game 5!  And with the way Luke Walton is playing!  He just adds something to the equation, something that the Lakers have sorely missed from Luke.  But here's my real concern...

I know the Lakers will defeat the Utah Jazz (they'll beat Houston!) to get to the Western Conference Finals where they'll encounter the Spurs (another bold prediction on my part)... I want to have hope they'll beat the Spurs, but it's gonna be tough... 

One game at a time, I suppose...

Hey, anybody take a look at the article in the LA Times today about Mitch Kupchak?!  It's a good article...  

Continue reading "Tonight's the night..."

Having my own personal blog is new to me, but being a Los Angeles Lakers fan hasn't been.  I've been one for a long, long time... ever since the early 1970's.  I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly.  As a young fan, I was awed by the West-Chamberlain-Goodrich heydays; amazed at the Magic Showtime era, wanting to kill myself or someone anytime they lost a game; was around for the brief Randy Pfund days (they weren't Pfund!) and rooted for the Lake Show with players like Van Exel, Jones and Ceballos (anybody remember that team?); and finally, cheered for the "what coulda been a true dynasty" Shaq-Kobe team!  However, I'll be the first to tell you... as much as I have loved the Lakers, I really am critical of them.  I believe that the Lakers will defeat t

Continue reading "Still haven't forgiven Kobe!"