December 2, 2009

No. 7's Second Quarter Surge Powers Lakers

After the first quarter of last night's game at Staples Center, the New Orleans Hornets were down just four points to the Los Angeles Lakers and lingering. Then Lamar Odom took over.

LO played all but one minute of the second period, and his effort was critical, driving a 31-15 run in favor of the Lakers. The one-sided frame helped LA to put the game out of reach early.

No. 7 grabbed seven of his eight rebounds in the period, four of which led directly to Lakers baskets.  He dished out three assists, finding Jordan Farmar for a bucket and helping Andrew Bynum to score twice. And although he scored just two points in the frame, it was his lay up at the end of the half that sent the Lakers to the locker room up 20.

LA cruised the rest of the way, winning easily, 110-99. The Lakers have now won seven straight and, at 14-3, sport the NBA's best record by half-a-game over Boston, Phoenix and Orlando.

"It's good. We just want to keep going, keep the momentum going," LO told reporters after the game. "It's experience. Losing in the championship round and then winning in the championship round, that adds a lot to the team's personality and attitude.

"This game is about wins and losses and sometimes we want to get them in good fashion. We want to play at a high level no matter who we're playing against."

For the game, Lamar scored eight points, caught eight rebounds and dealt six assists. Both his rebounds and assists were one off the team highs for the night.

SUPER SLAM
LO has already thrown down a couple YouTube quality dunks this year, and he had another vicious slam last night.

With under a minute remaining in the first quarter, Lamar walked the ball up across midcourt, then turned on the jets and blew past Darius Songalia. He drove the lane, leapt and slammed home a left-handed jam over Hilton Armstrong.

You can watch the thunderous slam above.

RESERVE ROLE
Since Pau Gasol returned to the lineup, Lamar Odom has only scored in double figures once, and that was in the Spanish center’s first game back. His rebounding and assist totals, however, have held steady. And that’s exactly how Lamar likes it.

"Getting rebounds, assists and moving the ball is important, I think, with that second group," LO told the Los Angeles Times. "I always make it my attention to do that first, rather than just shoot."

And he doesn’t care if people want him to score more. He knows the Lakers already have enough talented shooters, especially his second-string teammates.

"That's one of the reasons why we're such a good team, because they're great offensive players," No. 7 said. "Not saying they don't do anything else, but they are amazing offensive players."

WINS THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO HAVE
After the game, No. 7 spoke to reporters about how critical it is for the Lakers to put away teams that are not up to Los Angeles’ level.

The Lakers took on a pair of the NBA’s worst road teams in the past three nights, beating both New Orleans and New Jersey.

"We don't draw up the schedule," No. 7 said. "When you're playing against teams you feel might be a lesser opponent, we just want to concentrate on doing things just like we do them in practice. We want to play the same way against everybody, and for the last couple of games we've been able to do that."

Lamar and the Lakers face a much tougher test when the Phoenix Suns, now second in the Pacific to L.A., come to town on Sunday night.

You can listen to all of Lamar’s postgame comments, courtesy of the LA Times Lakers Blog.

NEXT UP
The Lakers have today and tomorrow off before the Miami Heat come to Los Angeles on Friday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 pm. PST and all the action can be seen nationwide on ESPN.

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