Thursday Night NBA Viewing Party: Lakers/Kings, 1st Half

- This one's starting soon... I don't know what the deal is with the lines on that Kings dancer picture right there. You'd have to ask the Getty Images people.

- This is awesome. They're talking to Charles before the game ... Kenny's acting like he thought Charles was dead, and is "pouring some out" for him in the studio. Charles said he had some "pointless" meetings earlier in the day with coaches Musselman and Jackson, but other than that, his day had gone well.

- Lakers win the tip, Bynum in the post, Walton cutting through the lane, nice soft pass from Bynum, two for the Lakers. Beautifully set-up.

- Watching Luke Walton body up Ron Artest in the post ... well, that's just not something that's going to work out well for the Lakers.

- Lakers run the same play again, but it's Bynum to Kobe on the cut, who kicks it out to Brian Cook for the open jumper. 4-0 Lakers.

- Chuck's been playing it very straight so far, and he's been pretty good. If he wanted to play that role, and just be a normal, everyday, play-by-play guy, he'd be alright at it. It'd be a terrible waste of what he does in the studio, but ... he wouldn't be bad at it.

- Brian Cook is shooting and hitting from everywhere. 3-on-1 break now, and ... it'll be Cook finishing it. Once again, the "MJD mentions a player, player gets fast-break bucket" trend continues.

- Bibby hits a jumper ... and yeah, he looks weird with that much hair. I think he was just tired of people wondering about his racial makeup, so he decided to grow out an afro, and we're just in the beginning phases of that.

- Brian Cook is 5-of-5 from the floor. 17-6 Lakers.

- Artest against Walton in the post again, and they're not bringing Walton any help... Artest gets by him easily, but Bynum erases the shot ... going the other way, Brian Cook cashes it in. Cook isn't just in the zone, he bought it and now owns it.

- Bynum with a sweet turnaround move in the post... man, Bynum could be the complete package. Such a soft touch, good feel for the game. With Brad Miller out, the Kings are hurting against Bynum.

- BRIAN COOK MISSES. BRIAN COOK MISSES.

- Bynum with Abdur-Rahim on his back... patient, waiting for the cutters, nothing's open... drop set into the paint, one hander, kind roll... three point play. Beautiful.

- Artest scores again in the paint, this time against Brian Cook.

- Barkley: "I hate to be redundant ... Marv, that means I'm repeating myself ..."
Marv: "Excellent. Thank you."

- Bynum rebounds a brick, goes up strong and scores... again, a three-point play opportunity for Bynum. Missed the free-throw, though.

- Maurice Evans, an MJD-favorite, is in the game to guard Ron Artest now... Artest backs him down, and Evans flops like Carol Channing trying to guard Shaq.

- Kobe Bryant is working his ass off to keep the ball away from Kevin Martin.

- Oh, Maurice Evans, that was magnificent... little behind-the-back pass to Luke Walton in the paint. Walton finishes it off the glass and goes to the line. Three-point play. 29-17, Lakers.

- With 1:48 to play in the first, Kobe Bryant takes his first shot of the game. It doesn't go, he gets it back, takes it to the rack, and them dumps it off for the easy bucket. The Kings appear to be screwed in this game, and I'm glad I picked a two-blowout night on which to start this little tradition.

- Bryant has the ball in the high post on a slow break... great vision as he gets it to Turiaf streaking to the bucket. His 4th assist in the quarter. The Lakers are a well-oiled machine right now. The Kings are a creaky, not-at-all lubricated machine. End of the first, Lakers lead by 15.

- John Salmons shows some fight to open the second quarter ... he drives, misses, gets his own rebound, and puts it back up in traffic, plus one. Hopefully, the Kings get it going here ...

- Maurice Evans gets the ball in the middle of the Kings zone, they fail to collapse on him, and it's an easy dunk on a halfcourt set without any kind of remarkable effort.

- The idea of a zone is to make it difficult to get the ball to the paint ... the Lakers have done it twice now, quite easily, by adopting the brilliant strategy of "passing the ball to the middle of the zone." It's Turiaf this time, he doesn't score, but he gets to the line.

- Artest picks Kobe's pocket on one end ... actually, he didn't. Replay shows Bryant just falling out of bounds when Corliss Williamson pulled the chair on him. Artest takes it the other way, and gets to the line. 10-point lead for the Lakers here.

- Mike Bibby's got a "Faith" tattoo on his hand, "Psalms" on his wrist, and a "WWJD" bracelet. I didn't know that Jesus was a member of Team Dime.

- Corliss Williamson drops his shoulder and does that patented, run to the middle and take the little hook shot type of move... he gets it, and one. Barkley: "I'm not sure that was a foul. I've been kissed harder than that." 44-34 Lakers.

- Kobe penetrates and creates a wide-open shot for Smush Parker. Kobe's not scoring a ton, but is playing a fantastic basketball game right now.

- We've got a whistle about every 12 seconds here now. Charles Barkley is begging Andrew Bynum to be more aggressive, and revealing that he's really about 6'4" and a half.

- Whistles, whistles, whistles... I'm getting sleepy.

- The Lakers are getting a ton of points off of putbacks. The latest two come from Brian Cook, who's got 15 points on the evening. His previous season-high was 11, and there are still over 4:00 to play here in the 2nd quarter. The lead is currently 13.

- All these goddamn whistles are putting me to sleep. I can deal with a blowout ... this, I hate. I'm actively rooting for Dick Bavetta to piss off Ron Artest, and then Artest to murder him at midcourt.

- TNT comes back from commercial with a montage of all the famous Lakers/Kings clips, including the Rick Fox/Doug Christie "punch." Charles doesn't like it, saying that one team has to win something before it can be called a rivalry... of course, he can't deny the impact of the Fox/Christie hatred on tonight's game. Every time Brian Cook takes a shot, he yells, "THIS IS FOR RICK FOX, BITCH."

- Luke Walton and Abdur-Rahim get into a little jawing match, which is kind of funny. It can be a lot of fun to watch toddlers fight.

- There have been 39 free throws taken this quarter.

- Kobe goes wildly to the rack, and gets a foul called because he is Kobe... Salmons had some good defense on, Francisco Garcia was in position, but Kobe got stripped, and got the call. 66-54, Lakers.

- Quincy Douby comes into the game for the Kings. Charles: "You gotta like a guy named Douby." Charles is high.

- New Arco Arena record: 47 free throws in a quarter. God, this is brutal. This is the NBA's version of the neutral zone trap.

- Charles is hammering Dick Bavetta for being old... "Hey, I can outrun Dick Bavetta right now." And he also promises to donate $10,000 to Marv's favorite charity if Dick Bavetta could beat him in a foot race, baseline to baseline. I will pay money to see this happen. I'm not kidding. Tell me where to send the money for me to be able to see this happen, TNT.

- Tell you what, I'd take Charles in the sprint. But with any sort of distance, I'll take Bavetta. Apparently, I'm the only one who likes Charles in that matchup. Kenny and EJ both have Bavetta winning that easily. EJ also seems optimistic that TNT could make this happen.

- Kobe hits a couple of shots to close the quarter, and the Lakers are taking a 16-point lead to the half.
- Alright, we'll be over here for the 2nd half of this thing. Seeya there.