LAKERS NOTEBOOK: THIGH BRUISE, SUFFERED IN COLLISION, HAVING EFFECT ON JONES' PLAY.Byline: Howard Beck Daily News Staff Writer Through his varied bumps, bruises and aches this season, Eddie Jones has been loathe to pin any bad shooting day on injuries. So you know he was hurting Sunday when he actually noted the four-inch bruise on his right thigh as a contributing factor to his sub-par performance. ``Early on, it was tight,'' Jones said. ``Del (Harris) saw that I was limping, so he took me out.'' Jones clearly wasn't himself, scoring just five points. He played only 24 minutes, hitting 2 of 7 field-goal attempts. His replacement for half the game, Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant (born July 23 1978) is an American All-Star shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. , didn't do much better, continuing his long shooting slump with a 2-for-9 performance. Jones' thigh bruise came early in Friday's game, courtesy of a collision with Seattle SuperSonics The Seattle SuperSonics (or simply Sonics) are an American professional basketball team based in Seattle, Washington. They play in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Their mascot's name is Squatch. center Jim McIlvaine James Michael McIlvaine (born July 30, 1972 in Racine, Wisconsin) is a former professional basketball player who spent seven seasons in the National Basketball Association with the Washington Bullets, Seattle SuperSonics and New Jersey Nets. . ``It was murder, man,'' Jones said of the run-in. ``The guy didn't do it on purpose. It's just the guy is so slow.'' Bad team, bad play: Try as they might to guard against overconfidence o·ver·con·fi·dent adj. Excessively confident; presumptuous. o  ver·con , the Lakers showed Sunday they still have trouble getting
motivated against lesser teams - a potential problem this week, as they
play Denver tonight and the Kings again Wednesday.
Or maybe it was just the natural letdown after Friday's big win over Seattle. ``Coming off last week, beating Phoenix and Seattle and coming in here and hearing Mitch Richmond Mitchell James ("Mitch") Richmond (born June 30, 1965 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida) is a retired American basketball player in the National Basketball Association. Known as "The Rock," "The Hammer", "The Captain," and "The Scorelord," Richmond was one of the NBA's best pure shooters was out, our guys probably thought it was going to be easier than it turned out to be,'' Harris said. ``Fortunately, they awakened before the plane trip to Denver.'' Introductions necessary: The Lakers bring a new weapon with them to Denver today - Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal (pronounced "shak-KEEL") (born March 6, 1972 in Newark, New Jersey), frequently referred to simply as Shaq, is an American professional basketball player, generally regarded as one of the most dominant in the National Basketball Association (NBA). . Since joining the Lakers in 1996, O'Neal has missed every regular-season game in the mile-high city because of injuries. His lone appearance there as a Laker came in an October exhibition game. LAKERS vs. DENVER Tipoff: 6 p.m., McNichols Arena TV/Radio: Channel 9; KLAC-AM (570) Lakers (48-19) update: The four-day test of the Lakers' ability to resist underestimating lesser opponents continues today against the Nuggets Nuggets can refer to several branches of interest:
Nuggets (8-61) update: The worst team in the NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= became its hottest last week - winning three of four, with victories over Vancouver, Portland and Washington. - Howard Beck CAPTION(S): Box BOX: LAKERS vs. DENVER (see text) |
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