On a night full of glam & bling for the Lakers, there was a important task to prove, the Lakers aren't going anywhere & plan on repeating as NBA Champions. Playing without Pau Gasol, it was destined for this team to prove their depth & show the NBA that there ready to defend their trophy, banner, & rings that come along with being the NBA Champs. Andrew Bynum was big tonight proving he is becoming a force not to be messed with. His 26 pts. & 13 reb. along with Kobe Bryants 33 pts. 8 reb. & 3 assists show that these two are teaming up for the modern day 1, 2 punch that we were used to seeing years back with Shaq & Kobe. Kobe is showing that fire once again that he did thru the playoffs with another big night reminiscent of his NBA Finals MVP stats from this past June. Lamar Odom is on a early start on his 6th man award with 16 pts. & 13 reb. which is great to see considering all the publicity he's been getting with his new marriage with Khloe Kardashian, that he is still able to put his work in & still put up big numbers for the defending champs. Ron Artest didn't have the best Laker debut but thats the greatness of this team he can be the 5th best player here compared to being alot of other teams number 2 player so his 10 pts. 5 reb. & 1 steal were good enough to disrupt Clipper drives & good help defense, which is exactly what we signed him for. Overall the bench was less than impressive but it is game #1 & dont expect some of these players to be in mid-season form but still need to start sustaining these big leads. Outside of that the Lakers 99-92 victory over the Clippers was a good one to start off what is to be a GREAT season. The Lakers schedule is very favorable over the next 20 games, 16 are at home & the 4 on the road are against teams that have lost their star players or are in rebuilding mode. Either way the Lakers need to come firing out on all cylinders with this generous schedule & could easily come out this stretch 20-1 or hopefully 21-0 barring injury this is very possible with so many leaders & great players on this team. PF Pau Gasol is expected to play Friday vs. the Dallas Mavericks
