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Headed up the 110 for the Lakers\/Hawks game last night, a kind of Christmas\/Valentine’s\/Birthday present to my wife—if you recall, we were present for the Hawks\/Celtics shocker in the first round of last year’s NBA playoffs, and she’s harbored a soft spot for the Hawks, as well as our beloved Lakers ever since. <\/span>I can definitively say that the Lakers’ 96-83 drubbing of Atlanta was not <\/i>the most exciting Hawks game I’ve ever seen. <\/span>It was my wife’s first Lakers game, though, and the outside-of-game entertainment ended up being just as exciting as anything that happened on the court.<\/span><\/p>\n First, we got their early enough to catch the second half of the D-League game. <\/span>If you didn’t know, they play them at STAPLES prior to the Lakers games, so if you show up early you can walk down to the courtside seats and just chill, even if your tickets are in the nosebleeds (which obviously ours were). <\/span>The D-League game, between the LA D-Fenders and the San Antonio squad, whose name I don’t recall or care enough about to look up, was pretty entertaining—three lead changes off of three-pointers in the final twenty seconds. <\/span>The coolest part was that Phil Jackson came out to watch the third quarter, and Trevor Ariza watched the fourth, and seemed to know some of the players. <\/span>Phil didn’t look particularly interested in any one guy, so no need to start learning new names yet.<\/p>\n The biggest moment of the night, the moment when the crowd had the most juice, and everyone was on their feet, including both benches? <\/span>A fan hit the Mirage Jackpot shot from halfcourt, to win 165 GRAND! <\/span>165 GRAND!!!! <\/span>Cool as ice, too, just nodded after it went in—Kobe was going absolutely nuts (he told the AP after, “It’s about time somebody hit that shot”) and the Laker girls were blushing when he was talking to them after they gave him his check. <\/span>His method? <\/span>Bank shot. <\/span>Pretty? <\/span>No. <\/span>But dude made 165 grand, in case you didn’t hear. <\/span><\/p>\n The in-game highlights were few and far between—probably the coolest was Adam Morrison’s “highly anticipated” debut. <\/span>He got a large round of applause his first time checking in—don’t know if you could hear on TV, but every time he touched the ball the crowd started chanting, “Shoot it!” <\/span>Looked like it flustered him—so much on his first possession, in fact, that he did shoot it. <\/span>And missed it. <\/span>He received another large round of apple-sauce when he hit a free throw, his first point as a Laker. <\/span>Chris Mihm was not so well-received.<\/p>\n All in all, I love live basketball, and it was a fun game, even if it was Kobe’s lowest tally of the year. <\/span>My wife is partial to D. Fish (small but mighty and all), and he put in 14 like a champ. <\/span>Also, hard not to be impressed with how Pau and L.O. have come along this season. <\/span>Next time someone tells you Phil Jackson can’t build players, remind them of Lamar Odom’s ’08-’09 campaign, especially since Bynum went down again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n