Laker Chat: As Long As They're Playing Well, I'll Be Blogging About Them Edition

Yet another edition of Laker Chat. Another great performance, this time dismantling a solid Hornets team in New Orleans. Bynum is playing like an all-star, Kobe is Kobe, Coby got his contract, Ariza continues to play better in the offense, and Lamar Odom, Derek Fisher, and Jordan Farmar seem to all make big contributions in nearly every game.

They are at 23-11 after 34 games. Last year they were 23-11 after 34 games. D'oh! This year they should finish much stronger, last year's start was deceptive, with a friendly schedule, this year they've already played a lot of tough teams, and done well.

Also, the reason for more Laker chat is that once again they are going to be on national TV a bunch of times in their next few games. Of the Lakers next 8 games, 5 of them are on TNT, ESPN or ABC, so they'll be getting lots of national exposure over the next two weeks.

They are playing as well as any team in basketball not named the Celtics or Pistons. Hopefully this trend will continue.

In the first edition of Laker Chat back on Dec 13th, I was hoping they'd go 17-7 over their next 24 games and beat a good San Antonio team they'd be playing that evening. They did beat the Spurs on Dec 13th, and right now they are 11-3. Winning at least 6 games over the next 10 shouldn't be a problem (barring injuries), but there are tough road games versus San Antonio, Dallas, and Detroit coming up, so if they do much better than 6-4 over those ten games, then it would be time to hype this team even more.

Win or lose, they are one of the most exciting teams to watch, they play with intensity on both sides of the ball, and they are one of the highest scoring teams in the league at the moment, so if you are at all a fan of the NBA, you should probably try and catch at least their games against Phoenix on the 17th, Denver on the 21st and San Antonio on the 23rd, beats watching reality TV or reruns, anyway.

Relatedly, today's NBA Dish podcast (1/10) at ESPN's Podcenter (direct link to the 3.27mb mp3, here), Chris Broussard chats with Chad Ford about the rise of Bynum, it's short (14min) and a good listen.