Lakers-Spurs Open Thread

With a victory tonight, the Lakers get to 40 wins on the season. Pro-rated for the shortened lockout schedule, that's the equivalent of 50 wins in a normal year. Nothing amazing, certainly not by the standards of Laker history, but it's a nice little milepost for a team that seemed lost as recently as early February. I remember tweeting that a total collapse was possible, meaning a year-end win total in the low thirties. Bluexfalcon replied, I recall, that he thought they'd finish in the high thirties. I suppose they still could, if they lose the rest of their games, but with the Warriors and Kings still on the schedule, a 40th win seems likely at some point. I'm glad Blue and I were both wrong and that he was more right than me.

Become one with the beverage whenever someone mentions:

• Kobe doing something assistant coach-y,
• That time (last week) when Andrew Bynum collected 30 rebounds against the Spurs,
• How Mike Brown used to coach under Gregg Popovich,
• Boris Diaw's conditioning (fatness), or
• The corner three.

Five games left.