As the two-time defending NBA champions, you’d think the Los Angeles Lakers would handle adversity a little better than they have so far this season. They lost by double digits for the third straight game, this time against the NBA-leading San Antonio Spurs and now find themselves battling not only their poor performances, but possibly themselves.

It’s the second time this season they’ve had a 3-game skid, following their only 4-game losing streak of the Pau Gasol era at the end of November. It’s also the first time since 2007 that they’ve lost 10 games this early in a season, and with their current record at 21 wins and 10 losses they are seeded fourth in the Western conference.

Casual Lakers fans will say it doesn’t matter, but the reality is that the season is nearly halfway complete and there are several issues facing the team. Failing to put the proper importance on the regular season is a dangerous gamble, a fact seemingly lost on these current Lakers, who look more destined to go to www.casino.com than the NBA Finals right now.

If they want proof of how risky it is to act like home-court and regular season seeding is, they should look no further than their NBA Finals foes the Boston Celtics, who ultimately lost the championship because the game was played in LA and not Boston.

It’s all a numbers game and whether you’re looking to play online blackjack, online roulette or go for your third straight title, you have to be prepared to make the numbers roll your way. Game sevens are no joke in the NBA and the difference between winning and losing largely hinges on who’s playing in the comfort of their own arena.

If they don’t right their ways soon, the only numbers coming their way will be on their tickets back home.

While the Heat stockpiled All-Stars and the Bulls collected former Jazz, the defending champion Lakers stayed relatively quiet this offseason. They did, however, manage to make a great team even better.

Take a break from round-the-clock LeBron James coverage and check out the Top 5 moves the Lakers made this summer.

1. Retaining Phil Jackson
Retaining the best coach in NBA history was easily the most important move the Lakers made this offseason. Without him they’d still be title contenders. With him, they’re obvious favorites. The rings speak for themselves on that one — Phil has 11 of them, two more than Red Auerbach. Forget about Coach of the Year awards. No coach means more to his team than Phil means to the Lakers. Health concerns and talks of a pay cut were enough for him to hold out for a month, but a doctor’s blessing — not to mention the glowing promise of a fourth three-peat — was enough to lure Phil back to the bench, much to the relief of Kobe Bryant and Co.

2. Re-signing Derek Fisher
Pat Riley and the Heat flirted with Fisher harder than anyone since Mrs. Fisher, but in the end D-Fish picked L.A. It’s easy to see why. The opportunity to chase a sixth championship, play alongside Kobe Bryant and earn $10.5 million over three years at the age of 36 doesn’t come along every day. You might say the Lakers overpaid for the aging point guard, but his value to the Lakers goes beyond stats. He’s the undisputed leader of the team, and he has come up clutch for them time after time in the playoffs. Bringing him back is a major piece to the three-peat puzzle.

3. Bringing in Steve Blake
Lakers fans with a soft spot for Jordan Farmar likely hate this move, but ultimately it makes the Lakers a better team. One of Farmar’s biggest weaknesses was ball control. He struggled to get by opposing guards, which led to increased turnovers when he was in the game. Blake will be the opposite. He had a 3:1 assist-to-turnover ratio last season, compared to 1.8:1 for Farmar. Blake is also a more reliable free throw shooter, which gives the Lakers increased lineup flexibility down the stretch, and his shooting percentages are nearly identical to Farmar’s; so the Lakers won’t be losing anything in that regard. On top of that, Blake signed for the same amount per year ($4 million) as Farmar did with the Nets, which means the Lakers upgraded at backup point guard without adding dollars to the payroll. Pretty good deal if you ask me.

4. Snagging Matt Barnes From the Raptors
Barnes was in line for the first big payday of his career (he reportedly had a two-year, $10 million offer on the table from the Raptors) but negotiations with Toronto hit a snag and the Lakers were able to scoop him up at the bargain price of two years, $3.6 million. The move gives the Lakers a low-priced alternative to Luke Walton at small forward. It also ups their toughness factor–Barnes is one of the most heated competitors in the league–and continues the trend of adding former Kobe haters to the mix. Anyone who goes toe-to-toe with Kobe seems to automatically be in line for a contract with the Lakers the following summer. This is getting ridiculous. I mean, who’s next? Raja Bell? Oh wait…

5. Drafting Derrick Caracter
A 6-foot-9 big man who weighs nearly three bills and bounced around from school to school during his college career hardly seems like a top acquisition, but it looks like Derrick Caracter will work out just fine with the Lakers. The 58th overall pick stood out during Summer League, using his smarts and post skills to shoot to No. 3 on NBA.com’s rookie ladder. He won’t be a star or anything, but Caracter’s polish inside makes him a valuable asset off the bench. Adding him and veteran center Theo Ratliff upgrades the Lakers’ front court depth, making the departure of fan favorite Josh Powell a little less painful.

Patrick Crawley is the sports editor for Neon Tommy and a longtime NBA blogger.

As promised, the summer of 2010 has brought about seismic upheaval to the NBA landscape. There was, of course, the “Decision” that infamously landed the biggest free agent fish in the pond, LeBron James, on South Beach with buddies Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. With that, the Miami Heat went from first round fodder for the big boys in the East to perhaps the biggest boy of them all in the Eastern Conference.

Shaquille O’Neal became the last big-name NBA free agent to sign (with all due respect to the still yet to be signed Tracy McGrady) from the much ballyhooed class of 2010 when he inked a deal with the Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics. Shaq wasn’t the only former elite center named O’Neal to sign with the Celtics as they used the mid-level exception to sign former Heat center Jermaine O’Neal just a few weeks ago. The Celtics also re-upped with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Nate Robinson respectively.

While most of the media attention was focused on the ever evolving Eastern Conference balance of power, out West, the two-time defending champ’s off-season was flying mostly under the radar. The most notable Lakers signing this off-season was the new deal reached by veteran point guard Derek Fisher who is a career role player. If not for a few memorable shots for a storied NBA franchise, Fisher’s career would largely be unknown to most fans.

The other signings in Lakerland include: Steve Blake, Matt Barnes, Theo Ratliff and Shannon Brown who rejoins the team after opting out of his contract at the beginning of the summer. Not a sexy bunch – especially in comparison to the names of those signed by the East’s top squads.

A mere look at the stats might lead some to believe the Lakers didn’t do much to improve their team for the 2010-2011 season, but nothing could be further from the truth. When you are a two-time defending champion, the priority is keeping the core intact and making subtle adjustments around that core to make the team better. That is exactly what the Lakers did.

Blake is a savvy point guard who makes good decisions with the basketball, and is a career 39% shooter from three as well. He should bring more stability and better long range shooting to the backup point guard spot than the talented but sometimes out of control Jordan Farmar. Meanwhile, Matt Barnes is a tenacious perimeter defender with an underrated offensive game. He is a considerable upgrade at SG or SF over guys like Sasha Vujacic or Luke Walton. Theo Ratliff will likely only play in case of injury or foul trouble along the frontline, but is a better option in those scenarios than the foul prone D.J. Mbenga.

I imagine Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson and company are just fine with all the attention being focused on the big-name signings made in Miami and Boston. While others have had to make drastic changes in an effort to win a championship, the Lakers have the quiet confidence of knowing they have subtly improved a roster already proven to be championship worthy.

–Antwan Leonard

Antwan writes a Fantasy Sports Blog – H2H Fantasy Sports – with the latest in Head-to-Head Fantasy Sports news, tips, recommendations and advice.

So today is Monday, June 21, 2010. If you follow the NBA or the Los Angeles Lakers then you know today is “Parade Day” where the team and its fans enjoy a celebration of their latest championship run in the heart of Downtown L.A.

Seems great right? Not really, especially since I’m not a Lakers fan and consider myself a member of the sports fan elite. That makes me a sort of endangered species, a fan within the city who doesn’t swear blind allegiance to the popular team and shower them with exaggerated praise.

Since the Lakers won their 16th title last Thursday against the Boston Celtics, the only team they still trail in prestige and banners (Boston has an NBA record 17, including nine won against the Lakers), I’ve had to endure an endless amount of television coverage and Homer-ism.

Every single local channel has run special segments on the team, Laker history, etc. Look, even though I wasn’t rooting for them, I know they won and people were bound to be happy. But as a person who regularly criticizes the Lakers and their supporters as the lowest class of fans, they’ve sure proven me right.

From the severely ill-informed proclamations that Kobe Bryant is now greater than Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan (how about no), the feigned ignorance about benefiting from preferential officiating and the morons destroying their own streets and cars in uh, celebration, most Lakers fans qualify as a village full of idiots.

If that wasn’t bad enough, today was like the culmination of it all. I woke up to wall to wall coverage of the Laker Parade, stock full of Kobe and his fake smiles to chumps like Sasha Vujacic thinking they actually deserve to be called NBA champs.

Sasha Vujacic getting a 2nd ring gives douchebags across the world more hope.

I’ve been dealing with simmering bitterness ever since I saw the way the fourth quarter of game 7 was turning into the same old home cooking for the Lakers (they had a 37-17 free throw advantage for the game, 21-6 in the critical 4th and 200 to 149 for the series) they’ve enjoyed on every successful championship quest.

It doesn’t matter that Boston was by far the more aggressive team for the series (they consistently drove more and shot more total field goals despite taking 20 less 3-pointers than Los Angeles) or that the referees completely changed the tempo of the otherwise greatly officiated game in the fourth.

Just like it doesn’t matter that Kobe Bryant had yet another sub par NBA Finals performance (6/24 stink bomb in his biggest career game at home and 40 percent shooting for the series), because after all, (sarcasm) he’s the greatest ever! (/sarcasm).

The only positive I’ve taken from it all was the fact that after today, I won’t have to deal with too much more ignorant nonsense. Because most Lakers fans are casual followers in the same mold as those of the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys, they’ll forget the NBA exists in about half an hour and find pretty butterflies to chase in amazement.

- Will.

The Sports Snob will be published once a week here on YouBeenBlinded.com. Will R. is a journalist/writer who covers sports, news and music for several websites. His music work can be found on www.WestCoastRydaz.com

Referees in the NBA seem destined to forever be a hot topic, especially among the fans of whichever team loses, so today I’m tackling the officiating so far in the NBA Finals.

The Tim Donaghy scandal and the recent parade of knee-jerk “the refs made sure we didn’t win” reaction losing teams and their fans employ have almost irrevocably blurred the line between legitimate gripes with officiating and just plain old whining.

There’s a big difference between the two and it’s no surprise that most of the improper criticizing of officials comes from bandwagon fans. The problem has become even more glaring with this year’s Finals, a hotly contested, physical battle between two teams that genuinely dislike each other.

Whether you highlight Kobe’s angry physical antics when losing (does anyone hysterically throw their arms up more during games?) or the venom exchanged between the two fanbases during the historic rivalry, enraged fans have been looking for the easiest excuse when their team loses.

You know, other than “the other team just played better.”

Kobe is among the leaders in complaining to referees.

Blaming the refs has fit that mold perfectly, although it’s a big joke coming from Lakers fans. I have very little doubt that crooked or impartial refs, gambling and the almighty dollar in general are possibly influencing how games are called in some form. If you honestly believe a money-making organization as big as the NBA is 100 percent clean then you’re a fool. But to listen to fans of the very franchise that has arguably benefited most (and in the most egregious ways) from questionable calls since the Shaq era in Los Angeles until now complain is absolutely ridiculous.

The officiating during the infamous 2002 Western Finals between LA and the Sacramento Kings was a downright travesty. The epic game 7 collapse by the 2000 Portland Trailblazers has also been redefined to exclude a sizeable free throw disparity (37-16) and awful calls. Derek Fisher has gotten more flops called his way than anyone since Vlade Divac. And I won’t even talk about how Shaq used to get away with camping in the lane and offensive fouls during the three-peat. It’s no coincidence that despite playing the same way since then he’s lost the benefit of his Lakers pass and gotten more whistles.

That brings us to this year. The Boston Celtics currently hold a 3-2 advantage in this year’s finals and are one win away from their NBA record 18th championship banner.

Every single game Boston has won was followed by Lakers fans complaining that the refs “screwed” them and favored Boston. Aside from the first two games, which were universally bashed as foul-fests created by whistle-happy refs, the last three games have been called pretty evenly. Both teams had some bad calls go against them, but it’s been mostly neutral. If there appeared to be any type of advantage at all, it’s actually for the Lakers.

This is why the anti-ref rants of LA fans seem even more hollow and hypocritical.

Of the five games played so far, the Lakers have shot 22 more total free throws (144-122) and have twice shot 10 or more in a game than Boston. So to suggest that the referees are giving the Celtics an advantage at the line is just a lie.

Well then they call more fouls on LA right? No.

Let’s look at the numbers; 127 total fouls called against Boston, 121 against Los Angeles. Combine that with the fact that the Lakers drive to the basket considerably less than Boston (LA has shot 18 more 3-pointers so far despite having six fewer total attempts) and at least 10 late-game intentional fouls LA has committed and you see just how many breaks they’ve really gotten.

Scientific diagram depicting the logic behind Lakers fans complaining about officiating.

The bottom line for the last two games has been that Boston has just wanted it more and played harder as a team, something LA has failed to do. The refs have done a decent job of not being the focus of each game and “let the players play.”

So quit the whining Lakers fans, because complaining about NBA officiating while supporting a franchise with such a checkered history on the issue just looks pathetic. Nobody believes your empty cries, especially not when guys like Mike Bibby, Jameer Nelson, Dikembe Mutombo, and countless others look back at all the uncalled elbows and phantom fouls.

LA is the major market team with the top-selling star and all the Hollywood glitz, so I won’t be surprised if this series goes seven games or if they once again benefit from some home cooking to get a ring. This is entertainment and deep pockets and all that shine go a long way.

Just don’t be too shocked if every so often someone without all that glamour exposes your carefree entitlement and punches you in your mouth and takes what you want.

Do like your hero Kobe says and man up or get out.

- Will.

The Sports Snob will be published once a week here on YouBeenBlinded.com. Will R. is a journalist/writer who covers sports, news and music for several websites. His music work can be found on www.WestCoastRydaz.com

When the Los Angeles Lakers signed Ron Artest a lot of their fans (and a number of “experts”) thought the team made a major upgrade over Trevor Ariza. They would have been right if LA had gotten Artest three or four years ago. Back then his defensive abilities would’ve made up for him being lost in the triangle offense. In 2010 it’s hard to tell which aspect of Artest’s game will show up from night to night.

Ron-Ron isn’t oblivious to the lack of impact he’s had with the Lakers. He told Bill Plaschke that the team would probably be better if Ariza was there instead of Artest.

“He’s a better player,” Artest repeated emphatically. “He’s won a ring, I haven’t. I can’t even compare to him. He’s a better player.”

Artest also agrees, incidentally, with the part about Ariza being a better fit.

“He probably is,” Artest said. “He’s a role player, a great role player. I haven’t been a role player. Many times I’ve had to carry the load, this is a different look for me.”

The playoffs start in three weeks and Ron Artest is still trying to find his way with the Lakers. That’s a bad sign. Unless you’re a fan of Cleveland, Dallas, or Denver.

Even on his best behavior, Ron Artest is an awkward fit with Lakers [LA Times]

It doesn’t have to be the holiday season for Los Angeles Lakers head coach and Zenmaster Phil Jackson to give his players books. He’s handed out Ecce Homo, My Losing Season, and The White Boy Shuffle to show “that I appreciate them and am focused on who they are.” With technology quickly erasing the print platform it’s time for Big Chief Phil and the Lakers to catch up with the times.

Phil has to realize books are played. Unless they’re being used as a gaming system stand or hollowed out to carry some of Humboldt County’s finest, a book is a mini-anchor with words. You have to turn the pages to keep reading and if you collect enough of them you’re gonna need a bookshelf. That’s too much trouble to put Kobe, and the rest of the guys through. It’s time to turn to the Amazon Kindle.

The Starting Five version of the Kindle:

The End of the Bench version of the Kindle:

Using the Kindle will raise the chance of the players reading the books Phil gives them by 25 percent. I’ll say it’ll be around New Year’s Eve before Ron Artest figures out you can’t use the machine to tweet.

Twitter rumors say Los Angeles Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic is dating tennis star Maria Sharapova. Darren Rovell spotted Marsha at a U2 concert and they’ve been together for a hot second according to Matt Cronin of tennisreporters.net.

That’s all the confirmation I need to say Sasha Vujacic is officially dating Maria Sharapova. I understand the hook-up from Sasha’s point of view. It’s Maria Sharapova. Nuff said. But what’s a beautiful woman like her doing with a malaka like this? I guess she likes malakas.

Maria Sharapova, Laker Sasha Vujacic Are ‘Dating’ [Sports by Brooks]

The Los Angeles Lakers will defend their NBA title with a team that looks better than last year’s squad. If Andrew Bynum can stay out of his own way, and Ron Artest falls into line like Kobe and Phil want him to, they’ll represent the West in the NBA Finals.

Phil Jackson knows repeating is difficult and he’s laid out a couple of plans to get the team ready. He wants to familiarize Ron-Ron with his new environment and to limit the players use of social networking sites.

From the Whittier Daily News:

“We want to try and make this transition for Ron Artest seamless, get our players playing at a level that they can approximate the chemistry they’ve had in the past and get some of our players in condition, like Lamar (Odom), who’s been busy all summer.”

“There’s a certain amount of privacy we’re going to have to demand from them, so that our business doesn’t become street business. I think that’s where the distinction has to be made. These guys are professionals, and I think they’ll understand that.

**UPDATE**
Phil Jackson video:

Nice subtle “Lamar Odom has gotten fat” line from Phil. And Sorry Laker fans but Ron Artest is gonna miss a couple of weeks to start the season. He’ll be in rehab for Youtube, Twitter, and attention addiction.

LAKERS: Jackson eager to tell players it’s time to get down to work [Whittier Daily News]

The Los Angeles Times is reporting Ron Artest will sign with the Los Angeles Lakers later this afternoon. Former Laker swingman Trevor Ariza decided not to take the team’s offer leaving the door open for LA to bring in Ron Artest.

Artest comes to the Lakers at the cheap price of five-years, $32 million. If Lamar Odom stays in LA the Lakers will repeat. Rasheed Wallace just became more popular. That is all.

Lakers close to deal with Artest [Los Angeles Times]