The mighty Kobe Bryant comes to the Ford Center Saturday 2/3 at 7:00 p.m., together with the rest of his team, the Los Angeles Lakers. This will be the 1st meeting between the teams this year and we need to give the Lakers a VERY FINE FORD CENTER WELCOME!

The game is a sellout and will doubtless be another SRO affair, but the game is on Cox ... and can be seen at Buffalo Wild Wings, of course.

The Hornets are on a roll, having won 8 of their last 11 and at 23-22 (0.511), 3 in a row (@Memphis, Milwaukee, and Chicago, last night) and will have held the 8th place playoff spot for a week when Saturday night rolls around. Here’s the present Western Conference standings, as of today.

http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/standings6.gif

After Kobe’s 81 points at home against Toronto on 1/22 (the Lakers winning 122-104), in yesterday’s blowout loss at Indiana (79-105) Bryant scored 26. See the SI report for that game: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/basketball/nba/02/01/bc.bkn.lakers.pacers.ap/index.html

The Lakers are presently 12-13 on the road, 24-21 overall, at 0.533. Probably by this Saturday they will be 13-13 on the road, 25-21 overall. They are presently ranked #7 in the Western Conference and are 3rd in the Pacific Division: Phoenix (30-16), Clippers (26-17), Lakers (24-21), Golden State (20-24), and Sacramento (19-26). They have had a good January, 9-6, with wins over Philadelphia, Clippers, Indiana, Cleveland, Golden State (2), Miami, Toronto and New York, and losses to Utah (2), Portland, Sacramento, Detroit and Indiana. The Lakers play at Charlotte tommorw night before traveling to Oklahoma City.

Assuming that the Lakers beat Charlotte tomorrow, and if the Hornets beat the Lakers in this game, the Lakers will be 25-22 (0.532) and the Hornets will be 24-22 (0.522).

Starters in their last game (at Indianapolis were): Kobe Bryant (#8, 6-6, Lower Merion HS PA; 36.0 ppg (1st in the NBA); 5.5 rpg, 4.3 apg); Lamar Odom (#7, 6-10, Rhode Island; 14.1 ppg, 9.5 rpg, 5.4 apg); Smush Parker (#1, 6-4, Fordham; 11.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 3.1 apg); Chris Mihm (#31, 7-0, Texas; 10.5 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 0.9 apg); and Kwame Brown (#54, 6-11, Glynn Academy HS GA; 6.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 0.9 apg). Good bench support came from Brian Cook (#43, 6-9, Illinois; 6.8 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 0.8 apg), with 12 points. That is all from that game that is worth mentioning. If you want to see for yourself, here's the box score: http://www.nba.com/games/20060201/LALIND/boxscore.html

http://www.nba.com/media/act_kobe_bryant.jpg http://www.nba.com/media/odom_140_050126.jpg http://www.nba.com/media/act_smush_parker.jpg http://www.nba.com/media/lakers/mihm_140_041211.jpg http://www.nba.com/media/act_kwame_brown.jpg http://www.nba.com/media/act_brian_cook.jpg

Fan support is excellent (#6 in the NBA at 18,868 per game) in the 18,997 capacity Staples Center. The Clippers, though having a better record, are #14 at 17,065 in the same arena:

http://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/LosAngeles.Staples2.jpghttp://www.dougloudenback.com/hornets/LosAngeles.Staples3.jpg

After Saturday’s game, the Hornets travel to New Jersey (now 23-21) on Monday, then return home for a 2 game stand against Seattle (now 19-26) on Wednesday and New York (now 14-30) on Friday.

GO HORNETS!

Can't wait for this game.. nosebleeds or not.. I don't care.

I have never been to a Hornet's game that I didn't absolutely love.

Go Hornets!

Anyone up for a roadtrip to L.A. The tickets for the last game of the year at the Staples Center are cheaper than OKC on eBay. You could get airfare and a ticket for about the same price as the LL tickets here. What a great game and victory that leaped us over the lLakers in the playoff race.

Incredibly awesome game!! Was that loud or what??

I thought I was going to fall over the balcony a few times.. the seats were great..

fun fun fun!!