Blazed

Well so much for being resuming the role of road warriors. To be honest, I didn't see much of last night's game with Portland since I was making my famous fried chicken. What I did watch of the first half, viewed in the reflection of our kitchen sink window was a lot of Brandon Roy abusing Luke Walton in the half court. I know Luke isn't the best defender to say the least but please, can't PJ show a little more respect for Portland's all-star than that.

This was easily the worst L of the year, but maybe (if the Mighty Stern doesn't suspend Trevor and LO), the Lakes can take something out of this game. As I said following the Phoenix loss, LA has played way too many close games against lesser opponents. Tonight, they were plain punked by a team that has been struggling (mostly on the road) recently. Maybe it serves as a wake-up call that the Lakes can't coast into the third quarter before turning on the offense. Maybe they can learn to play some straight up D before the fourth Q. As it turned out, they finally did show up in the 4th and didn't quit, even when they were down by 28. They showed some pride which is as good a sign as you can hope for heading into Houston and SA.

Any fool who watched the Ariza-Fernandez play can tell you TA doesn't deserve a suspension. He was clearly going for the ball. Yeah, it was a hard foul but you can't start giving out suspensions just because the end result is someone getting hurt. The league didn't suspend Bynum after Gerald Wallace's lung collapsed. They shouldn't suspend Ariza for this. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if they suspended both Ariza and LO. LO was not on the floor, but he did join the fray and I can't imagine suspending him and not Ariza. If Kobe can be suspended for hitting Ginobli in the nose a couple of years ago this seems a no brainer for the halfwits (Stu Jackson) in the league office who make these calls. I hope I'm wrong.