LOS ANGELES -- An excited, capacity crowd anxiously awaited the final chance to celebrate last season's NBA Championship with its beloved Lakers. The team held a ring ceremony, before unveiling their 15th championship banner, which was hanging behind a black curtain high on the back wall of the Staples Center.
It was an exciting start to the night, but the excitement ended there, as the quality of the opening night opponent (or lack thereof) made it easy on the defending champs and a yawner for those in attendance. The result was a lackluster, comfortable 99-92 win for the Lakers in their first game of the 2009-10 NBA season.
The Lakers have until October 31 to offer Jordan Farmar a contract extension, but a report in the Los Angeles Times says the team isn't planning to do so. What that means for Farmar, of course, is that this season will be one where he'll be trying to increase his value on the semi-open market, by putting up some numbers that are larger than his career averages of 7.8 points and 2.4 assists per game.
Playing on a very deep team that's looking to defend a championship (rather than showcase individual talents), this is going to be very difficult to do. And that has to make you wonder if Farmar will still be on the Lakers' roster once the trade deadline for this season has come and gone.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
Actor Tom Arnold has been a longtime NBA fan. In fact, you can say he is far from the fly-by-night Hollywood "fan". In this FanHouse exclusive we talk to Tom about being Shaq's next-door neighbor, who is the best player in NBA history (the answer will surprise you), and who, in his opinion, should start for the Lakers.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
Jordan Farmar has been working hard this offseason, going from the basketball court, to the community, and back to the basketball court. In this exclusive FanHouse video we visit Hoop Farm, Jordan Farmar's basketball camp where Jordan tells us what it was like to win a championship with the Lakers and where is he going with the NBA this summer. We also hear from UCLA star Josh Shipp, Justin Holiday (Jrue Holiday's Brother) and, of course, the kids.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
Jordan Farmar is trying to make a dream of his come true: to build a green room at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA, where kids could come in and forget about all of their medical treatments, even for just a little while. To make it happen, Jordan is in need of a lot of money, so he recently held a special fundraiser gala to help raise money. In this exclusive video we visit the party and catch up with Jordan, his family, Luke Walton and Marla Gibbs of The Jeffersons.
Elie Seckbach, the Embedded Correspondent, brings his exclusive video reporting to FanHouse. Check back regularly for more videos.
Shannon Brown, a member of the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers, is one of the most popular players on the team. Besides his basketball skills, Shannon gets a lot of attention, especially from his teammates, because of his resemblance to singer Chris Brown. In this FanHouse exclusive we hear from Shannon, Josh Powell, Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic as they all tell us about the Shannon Brown - Chris Brown saga.
If it's true the two most important positions in basketball are the point guard and the center, than the L.A. Lakers are going to be in for a doozy of a Western Conference final.
OK, so technically the Lakers haven't quite advanced that far yet. But after their 118-78 Game 5 blowout win over the Rockets, is it really going out on a limb to say L.A. is going to get there? Ditto for the Denver Nuggets, who lead the Mavericks 3-1 in the conference semifinals and have two cracks at putting them away on their home floor to close out the series.
After stunning the Lakers in Game 4 in Houston, the Houston Rockets actually played like a team that was missing its two best players. As well, Phil Jackson finally got the memo that Yao Ming wasn't in the lineup, and came up with a game plan that took advantage of the undersized and undermanned Rockets.
Jackson re-inserted Andrew Bynum into the starting lineup Tuesday night, and Bynum and Pau Gasol combined to punish the Rockets inside.
With Bynum and Gasol clicking on the inside and Kobe Bryant in Mamba mode (20 first half points), the Lakers pretty much had this game wrapped up by the halftime buzzer en route to a 118-78 laugher. It was basically an ultimate reversal of the results in Game 4, complete with Sasha Vujacic breakaway dunks and Jordan Farmer 35 foot buzzer beaters.
Lakers 118, Rockets 78: Recap | Box Score Lakers Lead 3-2 | Next Game: Thursday @ Houston, 9:30 PM ET
HOUSTON -- The way Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals was setting up, the Los Angeles Lakers seemed vulnerable to the Houston Rockets on Friday night.
But fighting through adversity that included the one-game suspension of its starting point guard and coming into a hostile environment after the Rockets had stolen home court advantage, the Lakers reclaimed momentum in the series with an impressive 108-94 win at the Toyota Center. Los Angeles has now won two straight in the best-of-seven series to claim a 2-1 edge heading into Sunday's Game 4.
A win Sunday would all but deliver the series to the Lakers and quiet any chatter about the re-emergence of Clutch City in Houston.
The Lakers versus the Jazz was a competitive and physical second round series a season ago, but this year it looks to be (on paper) one of the most lopsided matchups of the first round. So what's changed? Well, while the Lakers have gotten better with the return of Andrew Bynum, injuries and a lack of continuity have sent the Jazz limping to the finish line.
The 
Jordan Farmar has been working hard this offseason, going from the 
After stunning the Lakers in Game 4 in Houston, the Houston Rockets actually played like a team that was missing its two best players. As well, 
HOUSTON -- The way Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals was setting up, the Los Angeles Lakers seemed vulnerable to the Houston Rockets on Friday night.
