It is depressing how dominant the Lakers have been. Everything I hoped for has failed to happen. I thought that bringing back Bynum would have made the Lakers' defense worse (because it would have bumped Gasol to PF, where he is a poor defender against much better players) and Odom to SF (where, at this stage of his career, he's a bit too slow). But Jackson was way ahead of me and brainwashed Odom into playing off the bench. Plus Ariza has been playing out of his mind (check out his 3 point %) and has been everything Batum is to us and more.
The one bright spot is that Bynum is not putting up big numbers. But that doesn't mean he's bad - in fact he's perfect for the Lakers who only need him to play defense and get the odd alley-oop. But after all the hype, a lot of it coming from him, I really can't see him staying happy. (Yes, yes, I know - sacrifice for championships, blah blah blah. That works for savvy veterans who've been on crappy teams. Bynum is young and immature and hasn't tasted life in the shitpile.)
Working in the Lakers' favor too is the fact that all the good teams in the West are struggling. Most glaringly San Antonio, but Houston seems out of sorts, Dallas is going down in flames, Phoenix are going to be up and down, Utah has lost Williams for longer than they hoped and even N'Awlins had that ugly loss on the road.
I do note, though, that the Lakers have had a pretty soft schedule. Have they played any games on the road yet (apart from the "road" game against the Clippers, whose sole function in life seems to be to give the Lakers two more home games than any other team).
All that said, though, if the Lakers keep this up, I can't see them missing out on a championship. And if Phil Jackson doesn't get coach of the year (which he should have got last year) it's a travesty. And I say that as someone who hates his guts with a passion.
(As for Bynum vs. Greg: let's let Greg get healthy first. They both sucked in that one game, but at least Greg can remember this:
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