But the jersey that the number was printed on was far from perfect.

The team mistakenly put O’Neal’s last name and number on the front of a jumbo-sized replica Lakers home jersey, rather than on the back. The oversight stood out next to the eight other retired jerseys because of the V-neck on it. O’Neal was commemorated with a post-1999 Lakers jersey after the uniforms were redesigned. All the other retired numbers appear on scoop-neck style jerseys where the back is pretty much identical to the front.

The Lakers have acknowledged the mistake and plan to correct it.

“The new jersey will be ready and installed prior to Friday’s game,” a team spokesman said in an email Wednesday.

The Lakers host the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday.

The Lakers also will have to replace the O’Neal jersey recently hung up at the team’s practice facility because of the same error.

The post Shaq’s retired jersey has error appeared first on IdealCapper.

“I’m not criticizing anybody, but it’s part of the rules that’s just not great,” D’Antoni said before the Lakers played the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. “We’re an entertainment business. That’s not entertaining for anybody.”

The Lakers beat the Magic 106-97 with Howard tying his own all-time NBA record for free throw attempts in a game, going 25 of 39 from the line.

After the game, D’Antoni said Orlando coach Jacque Vaughn’s tactic created an inferior product for the paying customers in the seats.

“I hate it for the fans,” D’Antoni said.”They can come to practice for free and watch them shoot 40-50 foul shots. They don’t even have to pay for tickets. I’ll invite them all.”

It wasn’t the first time Vaughn used the game plan. He employed it when the Magic beat the Lakers 113-103 at Staples Center on Dec. 2, and Howard went 9 of 21 from the line.

“You try to win, I understand that, coaches got to do what they do, but it might be something that you can look at down the road,” D’Antoni said. “Especially [because] I’ve got non-shooters, I’d vote for [banning] it. If I had shooters, I wouldn’t vote for it. That’s how we work as coaches.”

Howard said he’s no big fan of the strategy but understands why it’s used.

“It is boring, it’s not a fun way to play and it’s not fun for the fans to watch, but for the other team they’re trying to win,” Howard said Wednesday night. “We can’t get upset with it. I don’t want to just have to take the ball out as soon as I step inbounds, they foul me. That’s not fun, but guys will do what they got to do to win.”

Howard believes it’s not the way the game was intended to be played.

“Nobody wants to play where it’s just fouls repeatedly, but like I said, that’s another team’s strategy,” Howard said. “I don’t think we’ll ever do that here on our team.”

The strategy is nothing new to D’Antoni. San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich used it against Shaquille O’Neal when he was the center on D’Antoni’s Phoenix Suns in the first round of the 2008 playoffs.

“Shaq would try to run through people, which is kind of different,” D’Antoni said. “He punished the guy. I felt sorry for the guy who had to go give the foul because he tried to hunt him down and kill him.”

The NBA Coach of the Year in 2004-05 doesn’t feel right having his teams play that way.

“I’ve tried it; it’s just kind of like I don’t like it,” D’Antoni said. “If I can’t beat them, I don’t want to [do that]. But, I understand why you would do it.”

The NBA’s 10-man competition committee would have to review D’Antoni’s claim in order for the league to make a change to the rules to prevent intentional foul situations from continuing in the future. Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak is one of four GMs on the committee along with two owners, three head coaches and one representative from the National Basketball Players Association.

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The defending Stanley Cup champions are on another roll, and the chemistry they developed during last year’s title run is starting to show.

Kopitar scored on a slick pass from King with 4:48 to play, and Los Angeles rallied from a third-period deficit for its fifth straight victory, 2-1 over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday night.

Los Angeles is on its longest winning streak of the season, capturing seven of eight overall after a 3-5-2 start to its title defense. Jonathan Bernier made 32 saves for the Kings, who are succeeding with the formula that won the Cup last season: stellar goaltending backed by opportunistic offense from all four lines.

“I think we’re putting together a pretty good streak here, and we’ve got to keep it going,” Kopitar said. “We know we had a bit of a slow start and we’ve got some catching up to do.”

One day after trading seven-time, 20-goal scorer Simon Gagne to Philadelphia for a conditional draft pick, the Kings began with 50 scoreless minutes against Jimmy Howard, who stopped 27 shots.

The Kings finally tied it with 9:34 left on Jeff Carter’s goal during a two-man advantage. King then made a spinning pass from the boards in front to Kopitar, who beat Howard for his sixth goal of the season.

Late goals from two veteran stars thrilled the sellout crowd at Staples Center, where the Kings completed an unbeaten February run — albeit in just four home games. Los Angeles also avenged a last-minute loss to the Wings in Detroit 17 days earlier.

“We thought we deserved better in Detroit, so maybe it all comes down to the hockey god, right?” Kings coach Darryl Sutter asked. “I don’t think we had much in the tank, to be honest. The goaltender was the difference in the game.”

Except for a misadventure with his glove on Quincey’s goal, Bernier was outstanding in the backup goalie’s fourth consecutive victory since Feb. 2.

Kyle Quincey scored his first goal of the season on a misplay by Bernier in the first period, and the mistake was the only thing that prevented the Red Wings from getting shut out for the first time since their season opener.

The Red Wings had won two straight after an 0-3-2 skid, but Detroit blew a 40-minute lead for just the second time in nine games this season, while the Kings rallied from a two-period deficit for the second time this year.

“I’ve got to give us a chance to win, but it wasn’t enough,” Howard said. “We were playing a great road game there. We were just grinding it out and making smart plays. (But it) doesn’t matter who you play, you can’t be giving up three 5-on-3s.”

Center Johan Franzen returned to Detroit’s lineup after missing seven games with a hip injury, and defenseman Brendan Smith returned from an 11-game absence with an injured shoulder. Quincey also returned after missing the past two games with an injured ankle.

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock used the injury turnover to shake up his lineup, benching defensemen Ian White and Kent Huskins.

“We built on our last game there with a lot of movement, a lot of shots,” captain Henrik Zetterberg said. “Only thing we didn’t have is goals.”

Detroit dominated play early and scored on a comical misplay by Bernier. After King gave away the puck, Quincey’s high shot toward the net popped out of Bernier’s glove and arced over his head, falling softly into the goal behind him.

Quincey hadn’t registered a point in 17 games this season, and hadn’t scored a goal since last March 19 against Washington.

Los Angeles showed more spark later, but its oft-struggling power play had a particularly low moment in the second period after three consecutive Red Wings penalties. Given two full minutes of 5-on-3 play, the Kings barely threatened Howard and the Detroit defensemen, who got a loud ovation from the red-clad fans crowding the lower bowl.

But the Kings got another 5-on-3 advantage midway through the third period when Pavel Datsyuk received a rare minor penalty for a faceoff violation, and Carter deflected Mike Richards’ shot through Howard’s legs for his 11th goal.

Carter scored a goal in his fifth straight game, one short of the longest streak of his career.

Game notes

Los Angeles LW Dustin Penner played in his 500th NHL game. He recently took the lineup spot of Gagne, who hadn’t scored a goal in 11 games this season. … Detroit D Carlo Colaiacovo is expected to return from a shoulder injury Sunday, which would put nine defensemen on the Red Wings roster. … Irish forward Robbie Keane attended the game along with most of the two-time defending MLS champion Los Angeles Galaxy, who begin their regular season Sunday.

The post Kings overcome late deficit vs. Red Wings to win fifth straight game appeared first on IdealCapper.

Kobe Bryant scored 38 points and Dwight Howard had 21 points and 15 rebounds for the Lakers, who lost for the second time this season to their Staples Center co-tenants.

Bryant carried the Lakers in the fourth quarter when they closed to 99-97 on his 23-foot jumper with 1:29 left. But Paul scored the Clippers’ final eight points to seal the victory and drop the Lakers two games below .500. The Clippers lead the Lakers by 10 games in the standings.

The Lakers continue to struggle under new coach Mike D’Antoni. They’ve lost three of their last four games.

The Clippers shot 50 percent and outscored the Lakers 52-36 in the paint.

Bryant scored 16 points in the fourth, when the Lakers rallied from 19 points down. The Clippers fouled for much of the final 5:51, and the Lakers made 10 of 12 free throws. Howard missed two foul shots but then made two to get the Lakers within four before Bryant’s jumper got the Lakers the closest they had been since early in the game.

But Paul closed with a flourish, including a 6-for-6 stretch at the line, while Bryant’s 3-pointer went in and out with 43 seconds to go.

The Lakers got within three early in the third only to have the Clippers push their lead to 10 points. It was a similar situation in the second, when the Lakers got within five points on Bryant’s 3-pointer before the Clippers ran their lead back to 10 points by halftime.

The first three quarters were punctuated with several highlight dunks from both sides. Paul fed DeAndre Jordan and Griffin on alley-oop slams that had the sellout crowd of 20,179 roaring.

The Clippers had dropped two consecutive road games earlier in the week, when their 17-game winning streak was snapped.

Jodie Meeks scored 14 points for the Lakers and fellow reserve Jordan Hill had 13 before he sprained his right ankle early in the fourth.

Game notes

Clippers F Jamal Crawford missed the game with a sore left foot that he hurt in Denver. … Clippers G Chauncey Billups will start working out Saturday after being out most of the season recovering from surgery. … Clippers F Grant Hill is expected to return next week after missing all season because of surgery.

The post Chris Paul pours in 30 points as Clippers hold off Lakers appeared first on IdealCapper.

“Cause we’re old as s—,” said the 34-year-old Bryant when asked why a lack of energy has been a problem for the Lakers all season. “What do you want? We just got to figure out how to play when we don’t have that energy. We got to change things up a little bit defensively. We got to figure out what we want to do offensively, figure out what we want to do on nights when we don’t have those legs or have that energy.”

The 76ers beat the Lakers primarily with the contributions of 22-year-old Jrue Holiday (26 points, 10 assists) and 24-year-old Evan Turner (22 points, 13 rebounds).

“You just saw an old damn team,” Bryant continued. “I don’t know how else to put it to you. We’re just slow. You saw a team over there that was just younger and just had fresher legs and just played with more energy, and we were just stuck in the mud. I think individually we all have to figure out how to get ourselves ready each and every game to have a high level of energy. That’s all that is.”

While saddled by such circumstances, Bryant’s belief that the Lakers can make the playoffs and compete for a championship remains unshaken.

“I don’t think there’s a doubt about that,” he told ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd on Wednesday when asked if the team is built for the playoffs. “The problem is we’ve dug ourselves such a deep hole we got to do a lot of fighting just to catch up and get in that conversation. We firmly believe it’s going to happen but we have to do a lot of fighting just to get there.”

The Lakers are 9½ games behind the 25-7 Clippers in the Pacific Division and are 10th in the Western Conference, 1½ games behind the Portland Trail Blazers for the eighth and final playoff spot. The Lakers can cut into that deficit Friday night when they play the Clippers at Staples Center.

“It’s very deep, we’re very concerned but we’ve been playing well lately,” Bryant told Cowherd in explaining his level of concern for the Lakers. “The last eight games we’ve been playing pretty well but the hole we dug ourselves at the start is very deep, so every loss now cuts a little deeper than it should. So we have to keep focused on how we’ve been playing lately and just continuing to get better from that.”

Following Tuesday’s loss, Bryant, who has managed to lead the league in scoring in this, his 17th season, said every player has to learn to create energy individually.

“It’s figuring it out,” Bryant said. “That’s a big thing when you’re starting to age, is figuring out how to get yourself ready game in and game out. It’s tough. It takes a lot, a lot of commitment.”

Added Bryant: “We didn’t seem to have any energy. You watch the game, we were kind of sluggish, kind of stuck in the mud. When we have games like that, everything is an uphill battle for us. When we play fresh, when we play energized, we’re a completely, completely different team. You saw a lot of those shots tonight falling short, for whatever reason. We got to get the proper rest and get ready for Friday.”

Pau Gasol, 32, agreed with Bryant’s assessment.

“We’re not the most athletic team in the league; we know that,” Gasol said. “But we are experienced and we should create some energy for ourselves out there, and I think it starts by us talking to each other, by communicating, by letting our team really know that we’re there [on defense], and that will create some energy that we need on that end of the floor.”

Bryant sang a similar tune after the Lakers’ previous loss, to the Denver Nuggets on Dec. 26, pinning the 12-point road blowout on how his team looked slow on the court.

“It seemed like we were a little stuck in the mud,” Bryant said in Denver. “We played old, and they played with a lot of energy, a lot of youth, got up and down, and it just seemed like we were in a lower gear all night.”

Not helping things was Dwight Howard, the lone young star in the Lakers’ lineup. Howard, who turned 27 last month, finished Tuesday with just seven points on 1-for-7 shooting to go with 14 rebounds and five blocks as he appeared to labor up and down the court.

“It’s really been frustrating for him because dealing with the injury and trying to come back and expectations that we all have for him,” Bryant said of Howard. “It’s tough to deal with that when you’re not physically the same player that you were a few years ago. It’s been frustrating for him, but to his credit, he’s been battling through it and he’s been finding ways to be effective. I mean, he had five blocks tonight.”

Howard rebutted several inquiries about the state of his back injury, for which he underwent surgery in April, saying he has not suffered any setbacks in his rehabilitation and that his mobility has not been limited by it.

“I thought he got a little tired, probably,” Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said of Howard’s game Tuesday. “Maybe frustrated; you would have to ask him.”

D’Antoni shrugged off the game as an aberration for the former three-time defensive player of the year.

“That may be one game,” D’Antoni said. “We’ll see if it continues. I don’t think it will, hopefully. We had two days, three days off. So this should not have been a game where we were tired at all. Everybody should have had their legs.”

Howard sat on a chair staring silently into his locker for several minutes after speaking to the media, before leaving the arena for the night.

Metta World Peace, 33, refused to accept the age of the Lakers’ roster as an excuse for their play, pointing out what the New York Knicks have accomplished so far this season.

“That’s no excuse, the Knicks are playing great, so that’s no excuse,” World Peace said. “You can’t use it as an excuse for us. Thank you. Thanks for trying.”

Having an older roster hasn’t stopped the Knicks from starting the season with a 21-10 record, good enough for the second-best mark in the Eastern Conference. The Knicks started the season with an average player age of 32 years and 240 days, the oldest in NBA history, according to STATS, LLC.

The post Kobe Bryant blames Lakers’ age appeared first on IdealCapper.

“They’re real good and they’re having a great streak, so we’ll have to reckon with them and they’re kind of setting the bar of where we need to get to,” D’Antoni said.

The Clippers, who share the Staples Center with the Lakers, came into Sunday with a league best 24-6 record and a win streak that accounted for more victories than the 15-15 Lakers have had all season, but D’Antoni said he doesn’t pay them more attention than he would any other elite NBA team.

“As much as you notice Oklahoma City,” D’Antoni said. “As much as you notice Miami. You watch. They’re a very good basketball team but I don’t get caught up that they’re across town. You can’t help where they are. But yeah, they’re good.”

When asked if the current Clippers team was the best he’s seen in his 17 seasons as a professional basketball player in L.A., Kobe Bryant replied: “I don’t think it’s a question about it.”

“To put together win streaks that are that long, it shows a lot of focus, it shows a lot of unity and a lot of depth because they can beat you multiple ways,” Bryant continued. “If you’re going to have a winning streak that’s that extensive, you have to have guys coming in from all aspects of the game.”

Despite seven of the Clippers’ 14-man roster being new to the team this season (Matt Barnes, Jamal Crawford, Willie Green, Grant Hill, Ryan Hollins, Lamar Odom and Ronny Turiaf), Bryant noted that several of their players had been teammates before wearing the Lakers’ purple and gold.

“They have a lot of guys who have played together before,” Bryant said, referring to Barnes, Odom, Turiaf and Caron Butler. “They’re very familiar with each other, so even if it seems like they slapped a lot of talent together, which they did, but a lot of those guys have been together before and they understand how to play together.”

The Clippers and Lakers play this Friday in a “road” game for the Lakers at Staples Center. If the Clippers stay undefeated between now and then, their win streak would be at 19 games coming into the Lakers showdown.

Does Bryant want the Clippers to stay hot to have a shot of ending that streak as a little payback for the Clippers’ 105-95 win over the Lakers back on Nov. 2?

“I really don’t give a s—,” Bryant said.

Regardless of whether the Clippers are still on their win streak when they play the Lakers, Chris Paul & Co. will still be ahead of the Lakers in the standings. The Lakers are currently 10th in the Western Conference, on the outside looking in at the eight-team playoff picture.

“I’m not worried about where we’d play (in the playoff seeding),” D’Antoni said when asked if the Lakers have a shot at securing one of the top four seeds in the West and thus homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs. “Obviously, we’d like to and that’s our goal. We’ll see. We’ll have to have cooperation from some other teams, so, when it’s not in your hands it’s not always a thing to worry about.

“What we got to worry about is to play well. And, we’re taking some steps. I think the standings will take care of themselves. Obviously, I will look and do look and act like I’m not worried about it. Yeah, I am worried about it, but we just got to keep progressing as a team.”

How realistic would it be for the Lakers to put together a run to try to catch the Clippers, Thunder, San Antonio Spurs or Memphis Grizzlies at the top of the conference standings?

“Every season is different and every team is different, so you can’t say, ‘Well, that’s never been done,'” D’Antoni said. “Well, we’ve never had this team before so nothing is out of the realm of possibilities if you’re playing well at the right moment. That’s what we can control and that’s what we have to do. I think it’s fun to sit around and look at standings and fantasize and watch games and yell at the other team (playing on television), but we can’t control that so that’s not something we have to worry about too much.”

D’Antoni said he’ll have a better feel for the Lakers’ chances after they host the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday, play that “road” game against the Clippers on Friday and finish up the week with a home game against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.

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