First off, let me emphasize that Laker fans to not get TOO overly happy about yesterday's win. Lets face it, the Spurs played terribly yesterday. Not so much as terrible, but they had 0 people step up outside of their big 3. Of course 3 years ago, that would have worked because it would have meant Duncan/Manu/TP dropped 80-90 on you, but the older Trio are really only capable of dropping 50-60 collectively. That is a huge difference!

Losing role players like Oberto and Bowen, even Udoka also greatly reduced their defensive intensity. And clearly RJ is in no type of psychological state to make an impact at either end. The guy has hit the wall, and HARD.  So really, if yesterday's game meant anything, it was for the Spurs, It really characterized their season on a whole, and hyperbole aside, very well could be seen as the Spurs last hoorah vs the Lakers for a very long time. So for having hated the Spurs for the better part of 20 years (90's-00's)  its bitter sweet to see their core fall off.  I feel like that  Family Guy satire of Looney Tunes, where Wiley Coyote finally killed the Road Runner (see this link if you don't know what I'm talking about: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR7DCFCkqao )

On the Laker's side of things, yesterday's victory can really be credited to.... drum roll please..... MITCH KUPCHAK. We saw all his hard working role players step up and step up big. Thank you Mitch for trading for Gasol. Thank you Mitch for NOT trading Odom. And thank you for signing Artest.. It was great to watch our role players from Odom, and Artest to Fisher and Sasha step up. The only bad games came from Powell and Brown. Powell we can just write of as being bad shots being directly proportionate at amount of playing time, but Brown has become increasingly, I daresay, overconfident in his abilities! Not a quality we want nor need in a 6th man. Despite all the hype Ariza got, we never saw him take the offense hostage like Brown does. Unlike the Powell situation, this trend is actually worrying since  we actually do need to play UPS. With Kobe out, I know there is no way we can afford to send him a message by benching him, but Phil really has to emphasize the damage Brown does with his "Dribble Dribble Shoot" mentality.

To end on a more positive note however, there were 2 players that were very encouraging to watch yesterday. Lets see if you can guess who I am thinking about? ......

Wrong, I am not referring to Pau and LO. While those two very well were the reason we won yesterday, their production is largely fools gold consider we were missing 2 huge pieces of our offense. Don’t get me wrong, it was very nice to see LO and Pau have games that went beyond expectations. Sure people criticized Pau for missing easy 1-3 footers, but playing Monday...well, Tuesday morning quarterback, we can point to those misses as the difference between  Pau having a monster game (21pts, 19rbs, 8ast, 5bs) and having a CAREER game ( with 8-10 shots that easily could have gone in).

Pau truly spoils us with his "bad" games. I, like many of you would love to see the guy get angry and dunk the ball, but if he can give us a near triple-double, 20-20 game on just finesse that I guess I'll just have to settle.... begrudgingly  ; -) LO meanwhile showed us why scouts and GM's have drooled over him all his life. Truly a butterfly emerged last night, and he definitely was not lacking on the sting, ask the Spur's interior D. I don't expect LO to drive to the basket quite as frequently, but hopefully last night's game "reminded" the Candyman what he is capable of doing (Sometimes I seriously believe he forgets how good he is, because I know Laker fans do!) . The LO-Gasol Connection was particularly pretty, perhaps the prettiest 1-2combo we have on the team, sorry Kobe drive-dish to Bynum at the rim...you guys better answer the bell when you return... HEALTHY!!! And not a minute sooner!

Sorry folks, like many of you, I could go on for days about how impressed/man-crushing I am with LO and Pau, but I believe I was going to talk about two other players who I was proud of. Those two players are: Jordan Farmar and Ron " I lost my crazy-pills" Artest. Although neither of these players had flashy games, they both really stepped up to answer the call.  Ron looks like he has finally started to get his mobility back, and we really got to see what an upgrade over Ariza he is. Sure RJ isn't the same player, but Ron-Ron still did an admirable job on both sides of the court nonetheless. As for Farmar...... MITCH.... if you're reading this..... GIVE THE MAN A CONTRACT! Excuse my enthusiasm, but Farmar did a wonderful job running our offense yesterday. He was able to get his own shot (quality shots), but more importantly was able to get the defense to collapse to make life easier for those around him!  He also did a pretty admirable job on defense. It's refreshing not to have an opposing PG drop 50 on us. Sarcasm aside, I would be very sad to see Farmar move on, especially considering I don't think the Lakers are going to get very much in trades involving the usual suspects : Morrison, Powell, Sasha, and Walton. Hinrich, Felton, Harris, Conley aren’t going to be Lakers any time soon people!

In closing: Great win for the Lakers, even worse loss for the the Spurs. On behalf of all Spur haters of the last two decades: It was a pleasure rooting against you, and I hope you don't take as long as the Kings to become competitive again.

... sorry.... I'm not a very good eugooglizer.....