Posts tagged AndrewBynum at FanHouse

Despite their recent struggles to win convincingly against teams with losing records, the fact remains that the Lakers are the best team in the West, and stand atop the conference's standings with a record of 20-3. So when a report surfaces that one of their players may be available, well, let's just say it's worth mentioning.

In a discussion about how the Knicks might go about filling the roster spot that opened up when Cuttino Mobley decided to retire, Alan Hahn of Newsday briefly mentioned that the Lakers' Sasha Vujacic (Machine!) may be "available."

With Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza both healthy and taking up a lot of minutes, there doesn't seem to be as big of a need for Sasha's services this year. His minutes are only slightly down from a season ago, but the ones he is playing aren't the ones in crunch time that he saw during last year's run to the Finals.

At TrueHoop, Henry Abbott links to and discusses this surprising Andrew Bynum quote from the Los Angeles Times:

"The second unit played well, got a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter. We were all taken out with six minutes to go in game," Bynum said. "We didn't get any rebounds [after that]. I don't know what to say about that."

Basically, the Lakers got killed on the glass in the fourth quarter while Bynum was on the bench. The offensive rebounds by Indiana greatly helped the Pacers' comeback and eventual victory. Bynum wonders why, given his elite ability to rebound, he had to watch the destruction from the pine.

He has a point. L.A. is a much stronger rebounding team when Bynum is on the floor. 82games.com has the stats: the Lakers rebound 53% of their opportunities with Bynum on the court, and only 51.4% with Bynum on the bench. That may not seem like much, but it is: a team rebounding percentage of 53% is elite, whereas 51.4% is merely above-average.

Beyond the numbers or the single loss, Bynum's realization of reality is a telling lesson from the '08 Finals where Boston thoroughly whipped L.A. on the glass. For all the talk of L.A.'s new toughness these days, it comes down to Bynum. Without him, the Lakers are still "soft."

Despite a league-best record of 12-1, all is not well in Laker-land. That's because the team received troubling news of a foot injury sustained by Andrew Bynum during the team's Tuesday night win over the New Jersey Nets.

An MRI and a CT scan revealed that a bone spur had chipped off, causing "pain and inflammation." (Well, yeah, I would think so.) Bynum is listed as questionable for tonight's game against the Dallas Mavericks, and the team is expected to update his status before tip-off.

As well as the Lakers have been playing, and with their desire to improve defensively over the course of the season so they can have a shot at a championship, this is obviously an injury they could do without. Bynum is second on the team in rebounding (almost nine per game), and leads the team in blocked shots at 2.4 per game. Without him on the floor patrolling the paint, the team is left with a roster that features basically the same group that played the Celtics in last season's Finals. And we all saw how that turned out.

Lakers versus Suns will always be about Shaq versus Kobe. But the real matchup on the court is Shaq versus Andrew Bynum.

Yesterday, in advance of the Lakers heading to Phoenix to take on the Suns, Nate Jones reminded you of what happened the first time that Shaquille O'Neal and Andrew Bynum faced each other on the court, and predicted the two would both be ready for round two. So how did it turn out?

By all accounts, Shaq was the winner in the individual matchup, even though his team was beaten soundly by Andrew's. Shaq finished with 15 points and nine rebounds to Bynum's 10 and seven, and although the stats were fairly close, Shaq mostly schooled the youngster when the two went head-to-head. Defensively, he kept Bynum from getting easy looks inside, and he was also able to get Bynum into foul trouble by getting him to leave his feet on defense, which is something that Phil Jackson warned his center about beforehand.

"Like I said before the game, if you get up in the air on Shaq, you're gonna get in foul trouble, and he did, he got up on his toes," Jackson said. "He got moved around a little bit and got himself in foul trouble. Other than that, I thought he got some offensive opportunities, and did a good job when he got four fouls."

I asked Kobe Bryant how he thought Drew did against Shaq, and let's just say he was more respectful of Shaq's abilities than he was complimentary about those of his teammate.

As we all know, Shaquille O'neal didn't leave the Los Angeles Lakers on the best of terms. There's a ton of bad blood there that we've had opportunity to see play out in the newspapers, on cell phone video cameras, and on nationally televised Christmas Day games.

One of the best moments of the Shaq v. Lakers battle was the first match up between Shaq and his replacement, Andrew Bynum. For those of you that don't remember what took place during that match up, here's a reminder:



That was the last time the two big men played against each other, as injuries to both Shaq and Bynum have prevented them from matching up since that time.

Obviously the Lakers were going to lose a game at some point this season, it was just a matter of how soon. In a look at the Lakers' schedule earlier this week, I said that the Lakers' match up with the Pistons would be their toughest in at least month, and that if they were able to get past them unscathed they would have a chance to build a crazy winning streak. Well, the Pistons came into Staples Center and quickly extinguished any thoughts of the Lakers going undefeated in November.

Going into last nights game I was a little bit skeptical about the Pistons chances. They did win in Golden State the previous night, but it wasn't like they played great basketball up there. Until last night it was obvious that the team was still adjusting to playing with Allen Iverson. As well, Rodney Stuckey would be playing for the first time in a while after sitting out the last few games after his dizzy spell last Sunday. There would surely be some rust there for him. Despite all this, the Pistons came out and played an almost flawless game, showing what the Iverson acquisition could mean for them.

Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.

Whenever Lakers forward Trevor Ariza gets in the game, he brings lots of energy and instant offense. In fact, so far this season Ariza has been playing like a stud. So what gives? Why the big improvement? We caught up with Ariza and his teammates to ask them what's got into him (Jordan Farmar, for one, is not surprised that Ariza is blowing up). We also talk to Kobe Bryant about the help he gets from the Bench Mob.

Check out the full video after the jump.

For a long time it didn't look like it was going to happen, but Andrew Bynum and the Lakers finally came to terms on a four-year, $58 million contract. The deal won't be officially announced until this afternoon, but here's the skinny:

Bynum was hoping to get a deal that averaged $17 million a season; the Lakers only wanted to pay $11 million. In the end, they quite literally split the difference: the first three years will average $14 million, followed by a team option in the fourth year worth $16 million.

For a guy who just turned 21 years old this week, it's not a bad deal. The extension doesn't kick in until next season -- he'll make just $2.8 million this season -- so he may want to wait a bit before he sprinkles too much of his newfound wealth on the dance floor. If the two sides couldn't agree to an extension before November, Bynum would have became a restricted free agent next summer.

(via BDL)

After the Los Angeles Lakers got their butts handed to them by their rival Boston Celtics in the 2008 Finals, it was clear what set the two teams apart. The Celtics were a team built on defensive intensity and toughness. In short, they knew how to stop people. The Lakers, on the other hand, didn't have a clue on that side of the ball.

Post the Pau Gasol trade, the Lakers were the league's best offensive team. That offensive prowess is what allowed them to destroy the Western Conference in the playoffs. However, their lack of defensive prowess is what would be their demise in the Finals.

NBA FanHouse walks through the Valley of the Most Likely; we shall fear no topic.

The Blazers and Lakers have a history. Since the 1991 season the two teams have met in the playoffs six times. Two of those times the match up took place in the Western Conference Finals, where the Lakers ripped the hearts out of some of the best teams in Portland Trail Blazer history.

Because of this history, Blazer fans absolutely hate the Lakers. I mean really hate the Lakers. Lakers fans don't like the Blazers that much either, but they've spent so much time hating the Celtics, Spurs, and Kings that the Blazers haven't received that much of their ire.

Well, that all is likely to change this season, as it looks like the Blazers will be competing with the Lakers for Western Conference supremacy for years to come. At the center of that rivalry will be two talented young big men that most feel will dominate the NBA for years to come.