Baron Davis looked good in his Clipper debut, scoring 12 points and dishing out seven assists to help the Clippers to a 107-80 rout of the Lakers in Fresno. His backup guards were sharp as well, with Mike Taylor scoring 20 points and playing some solid defense. The final score of just the second game of the pre-season isn't really something you can point to as far as an indicator of success, and in Baron's 10th season, he knows this as well as anybody.
"It's good to play against someone besides yourselves. We've been going at each other for the last two weeks. We know we've got a long ways ahead. This is no indication."
While the final score may not be in an issue for the Lakers in a game that doesn't count in the standings, they definitely have a lot of things to iron out over the next three weeks before the start of the season. Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol played together in a game situation for the first time, and looked anything but comfortable together. Bynum finished with six points, nine rebounds, and three turnovers in 21 minutes.
Lamar Odom continued his uninspired play, going scoreless in 16 minutes with one assist and three turnovers. Similar to his effort against the Jazz, where his first shot attempt didn't come until the third quarter, it's really puzzling to see a player with Odom's skill set go scoreless in an NBA game, even if it is only the pre-season. Phil Jackson declined to continue to jab Odom, and said he wasn't going to "name names" when mentioning that he was unhappy with certain performances. At this point, it's unclear whether Lamar's contract year status or the criticism from his coaches is what's causing him to seemingly mentally detach from these games right now. But for the Lakers' sake this year, it's something that needs to get figured out one way or the other fairly quickly.
