Battle of Los Angeles: rd 1

Lakers 105 Clippers 101

You just had a feeling that Kobe was going to go off for a big night and, after his 20-point first quarter, thoughts of 60-70 points were dancing in people's heads. I was a little concerned about containing Elton Brand, seeing what a dominant power forward like Zach Randolph was able to do to the Lake Show earlier this season, but when Kobe plays like that and gets the rest of his teammates to attack the basket, draw fouls -- getting Maggette and Kaman (huge) to foul out, it doesn't matter.

Odom had a pretty lousing night shooting both from the field and from the line and yet still was invaluable. Kwame seems to be back into the swing of things, pulling down 14 boards. I'm a little concerned, though, that Cook had yet another DNP and Farmar didn't see any action (the latter is really putting a dent in my "Farmar will be starting ahead of Smush by New Year's" claim), but the nine-man rotation Phillip had working last night really gelled. To look at Vujacic's stat line, you'd think he didn't do anything out there, but he put in a quality 15 minutes.

I'm always confident every time we play the Clippers. Even last season, when it looked like the two might meet in the second round of the playoffs, I never had a doubt that the Lakers could win. Though the regular season series has levelled out the last couple years, the Lakers do still enjoy a mental edge over the Staples Center rivals. There's a belief that they're the only team in LA and these other guys are just squatters. The Clips also look terribly thin on the bench and I'm surprised foul trouble hasn't been more of a problem this year. Maybe it soon will.

Up next for the Lakers: Utah. That would be the team with the best record in the Association. Amazing things happen when Kirilenko and Boozer are healthy. And one of my nemesis, Deron Williams, has finally come around to the pro game. Friday night, let's hope the homecourt matters.