Five Things to Look For in the Lakers' Season

The defending champs are back. The Los Angeles Lakers look prepared to defend their crown in the 2009-10 NBA season, and the entire gang has returned (minus one Trevor Ariza and plus one Ron Artest). Kobe, Pau, Derek, and the boys appear better than ever, and with the addition of Artest, the defense just became one of the best in the league. With the newest season preparing to begin, there are five things to watch as time progresses:

Ron Artest: The controversial small-forward has received a warm reception, but he has big shoes to fill in Trevor Ariza. He also needs to know he is at best the third best player behind Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. No funny stuff, no crazy antics, just plain basketball.

Andrew Bynum's Knee: In an effort to compensate for his right knee which was injured last season, the young center has opted to wear a brace on both knees. His regular season play was outstanding; his postseason play was far from it. He enters this season as he did last year: having to prove his worth.

Lamar Odom: Odom's tempermental play was thrown aside when he returned after his stunning playoff push. He will still most likely work off the bench, but now that it's a role he is acquainted with, his on-again-off-again play might be a thing of the past. Might be.

The Bench: The bench received some added depth when Shannon Brown was resigned. After abysmal seasons, both Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic have to return to their former glory. Luke Walton needs to remain consistent, and Josh Powell needs to take a few lessons from Odom on how to be versitile. We saw a glimpse of Powell's potential when he sank a 3-pointer in the Finals. He needs to capitalize on that.

Phil Jackson: The NBA's winningest coach was in limbo this year. His health remains an issue, his right-hand man left for Minnesota, and he will be tasked with keeping Artest in check. There has never been such a strange combination for Jackson in his career as a coach. The way he handles the new frontieres he must face will set the tone for the rest of the team.

No Respect: Dodgers On the Wrong Side of the Media

Everyone hates the Dodgers. They love St. Louis. St. Louis is the city that bleeds Cardinal Red. It lives and breathes baseball, and knows the true meaning of passion. Los Angeles is a brooding toilet, where the fans arrive in the third, leave in the seventh, and spend the fourth, fifth and sixth texting. St. Louis has the amazing, the astounding Albert Pujols, the greatest jewel in baseball’s post-steroid crown. LA has a scrappy bunch of over-achievers led by a rotten, no-good cheat named Manny Ramirez. St. Louis has Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, a duo who could have two Cy Young awards between them by the offseason. Los Angeles has a bottom-of-the-pile lefty who somehow has pitched decently and a young kid who is the epitome of the Dodgers’ second-half struggles. Despite the Cardinals’ 2-8 regular season finish, there is no reason to think they cannot turn on the switch and play like champions. The Dodgers’ 4-6 record clearly indicates they are struggling, and could easily be eliminated despite holding the best record in the National League. In fact, the Dodgers do not deserve the title of the NL’s best. Who cares about records. The Cardinals are the clearly superior team. They’ve earned it, while the Dodgers have not.

Sound familiar? It should. This is the diatribe the media has been harping since the playoff matchups were set. FOX Sports ranks the Dodgers seventh of the eight teams in the playoffs, even behind the Colorado Rockies, the club they have beaten 14 of 18 times this season. Everyone says the rotation is in shambles. The bullpen is ignored for its incredible consistency (Tim Kurkjian of ESPN calls the Yankee ‘pen the best, citing how the relievers’ 40 wins is the most for a team in history). The offense is basically nonexistent, and that’s only based on the five-game losing streak. The media has never shown Los Angeles any love, going back to 1988 when the Dodgers were the team that couldn’t but did. As Tommy Lasorda said:

Nobody thought we could win the division! Nobody thought we could beat the mighty Mets! Nobody thought we could beat the team who won 104 games, but we believed it!

The media will never show the Dodgers any love, and until they can achieve the ultimate goal, they never will. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is if we believe. What matters is if we believe we can reach the end. What matters is if the Dodgers can go out onto that field and play like they are the better team, not just say they are. Because if they can do that, and if they can win that magic number of 11, then there will always be a reason to believe, even if no one else does.

Dodgers Take Finale

It was merely an exhibition, a chance for scrubs to strut their stuff. But for Vicente Padilla, it was his last chance to show the Dodgers he belonged on the postseason rotation. The righty struck out ten, including the first five batters en route to a 5-3 win. Padilla went five innings, giving up only one run on four hits without walking anybody. Brad Ausmus had the honor of managing the finale in keeping with Joe Torre’s tradition of letting veterans be the skipper for a day. Jim Thome and Juan Castro were the hitting coaches, Mark Loretta was the bench coach, bullpen catcher Mike Borzello was the pitching coach, and Jeff Weaver was the bullpen coach.

The Dodgers started where they left off on Saturday, scoring four runs in the first inning. A.J. Ellis had the first hit of his career, and it also led to his first RBI. Doug Mientkiewicz had three hits in his first start of the season, Casey Blake drove in two runs, and Orlando Hudson hit a double. Chin-Lung Hu was 2-for-4 and doubled as well.

Playoffs begin on Wednesday against St. Louis at 6:37 PST. Randy Wolf will get the ball to start Game 1, and Chris Carpenter will go for the Red Birds.