And when you use it to bitch about something that has no root in fact you lose credibility. As tarheels just noted, your efforts are probably better spent bitching about something which isn't just a stat in a vacuum.

getting -6 on LA and the under on 192.5 LETS DO THIS

When a team leads in points in the paint and is by far last in free throw differential, that is a legitimately interesting stat. Given the Lakers have been winning, which should pad their FTAs at the end of games, it's a bigger anamoly. But saying the lakers are a jumpshooting team to explain it away is nonsense.

stealing from another post:
FTA (lakers) / FTA (opponent, (differential)
11 Home Games: 258 / 253 (-5)
6 Road Games: 170 / 274 (-104)

Differential per game, sorted
2003 Spurs +8.0
2005 Spurs +5.2
2001 Lakers +4.3
2006 Heat +3.7
2004 Pistons +3.7
2000 Lakers +2.6
2002 Lakers +1.4
2007 Spurs +0.6
2010 Celtics -0.2
2009 Lakers -0.8
2008 Lakers -2.9
2010 Lakers -5.8



Obviously the road games stand out, but it's not surprising given the lakers started each series 2-0 at home.

We've holed up all weekend chilling, taking turns playing the lead character in the game, and having an occasional cocktail. Good times.

wrt those #'s-- were they getting hosed in 08 and 09? the lakers score a lot of points in the paint-- they did all season but were still only average in terms of fta

and no it's not. when kobe beats his man and pulls up from 6 feet it goes down as a point in the paint but it's still basically a jumpshot. scoring in the paint is not the same thing as scoring at the rim. both are ideal obv but the latter is what draws most fouls and while i don't know the shot charts look like from each game my memory says that the lakers take a lot of shots in the lane but not at the rim

also those differential #'s lack context w/o knowing how good were those teams at getting to the line

league is definitely trying to **** the lakers.

Kobe would have 9 titles by now if the league wasn't trying to screw him.

All time WIM leaders:

1. Kobe
2. Refs
3. David Eckstein

fmp

yeah stern had to go and not let him go to Charlotte (who drafted him), because that team was dynasty worthy, and instead stuck him in the Death Valley of the NBA: LAL. Stern miscalculated though, he didn't realize Shaq was a GOAT-ish type talent. Took him a while but he eventually broke that up and made Kobe wait 3.5 years before he handed him another dominant big man.

Nope. Not true at all.

May have to think about getting RDR now.

Jay-Z with the massive ownership fail. Asked if he was going to recruit his friend LeBron to the Nets:

"That's his decision," the hip-hop mogul, who owns a piece of the Brooklyn-bound hoopsters, tells "Rolling Stone." "We're friends - we've still gotta hang out! I don't want to convince somebody to do something, then have to see him and say, 'Uh, yeah, we're 4-30 ...sorry.'"
NYDailyNews article

You have potentially the best owner in sports, you're friends with the biggest FA prize in NBA history, and you're not going to recruit him? I assume this is 100% posturing. Either that, or Prokorov needs to have some of his friends visit Jay-Z and sort this out. Get a couple of hard-piping, etc.

Posturing, especially with Stern going bezerker with the tamper-hammer.

prob trying to avoid fines. watch him get fined away

There's no question Jay-Z is recruiting him behind the scenes. Mark Cuban has 100k reasons why he shouldn't say it though.

The lakers really do take a lot of shots in the paint that aren't in the immediate rim area.

Player Name	shot type	M	A	PPS
Kobe Bryant	16-23 ft	182	439	0.82
Pau Gasol	At Rim	241	376	1.28
Andrew Bynum	At Rim	258	370	1.39
Kobe Bryant	At Rim	208	355	1.17
Lamar Odom	At Rim	190	325	1.17
Kobe Bryant	Threes	99	301	0.99
Ron Artest	Threes	105	296	1.07
Kobe Bryant	10-15 ft	145	292	0.99
Ron Artest	At Rim	127	251	1.01
Pau Gasol	<10 ft	109	242	0.90
Jordan Farmar	Threes	86	229	1.13
Derek Fisher	Threes	78	224	1.04
Derek Fisher	16-23 ft	90	215	0.84
Andrew Bynum	<10 ft	96	207	0.93
Shannon Brown	Threes	62	189	0.98
Lamar Odom	Threes	58	182	0.96
Shannon Brown	16-23 ft	72	177	0.82
Kobe Bryant	<10 ft	78	169	0.92
Shannon Brown	At Rim	86	148	1.16
Jordan Farmar	At Rim	76	134	1.13
Ron Artest	16-23 ft	47	130	0.72
Pau Gasol	10-15 ft	53	120	0.88
Pau Gasol	16-23 ft	49	102	0.96
Lamar Odom	16-23 ft	37	98	0.76

edit: Lakers take about an avg number of shots at rim.

IH with the massive occam's razor fail

whichever one of you clowns invited texarcher and other such lakers fans to the skype chat need a kick in the nads

+10000000000

HOLDDDD

Never the less, I'm glad I read it and I don't think the book was completely useless. There were still some amusing anecdotes and it was a good eye opener into how shady every referee is. It didn't really matter to me whether Donaghy rigged games or not because I wouldn't really believe him anyway.

so preeeety

Nobody in history ever sold fewer books on 60 Minutes than Donaghy. The guy's a human Quaalude.

i know what Quaaludes are, if only because of the Descendents. I'd be shocked if tud didn't know all about 'em.