The game was decided by the Spurs big run at the end of the first half. Let's thoroughly break down two of the most demoralizing baskets the Spurs made during this run. The first was a Matt Bonner three that made it 51-36. The second was a Bruce Bowen three that made it 54-38. Both were wide-open shots.

Bonner's three that made it 51-36:
Kwame misses over Duncan. Spurs get rebound and come back. Odom gambles and goes for a midcourt steal on Parker but whiffs. Fisher was already back to contend with Parker. Odom is left stranded and now Ginobili gets the ball on the wing. The domino effect has already begun. Who's the only one available to guard Ginobili? That's right. Kwame Brown. Now Kwame makes a mistake. He gambles by trying to steal Parker's pass to Ginobili instead of simply staying between Ginobili and the basket. Ginobili's going to beat him one on one anyway, but if Kwame doesn't gamble and stays between Ginobili and the basket, that buys a few seconds for the rest of the Lakers to get back on defense. By going for the steal and missing, Kwame leaves the entire left baseline open for Ginobili to take and attack the basket.

Kobe has to leave Bowen to protect the basket, allowing Bowen to leak into the right corner where he's wide open for a three. Here's where Odom makes his second mistake of the play. Turiaf, Kobe, and Fisher already have recovered to protect the basket area, but Odom desperately tries to get back and cover the basket also, leaving Matt Bonner wide open out in front for the dagger three. You have four Lakers in the lane within ten feet of each other guarding two people. Kwame is stranded out on the wing after Ginobili went by him. Not only is Bonner alone, but Parker and Bowen are also both alone in three-point range! If Bonner didn't hit it, Parker or Bowen would have. At least if Lamar had hovered closer to Bonner, the Lakers might have been able to have enough time to have someone rotate over to Parker and Bowen. Two mistakes by Lamar + One by Kwame + Spurs knowing how to exploit it = disaster and a 51-36 deficit.

Bowen's three that made it 54-36:
Odom is matched up with Parker because Spurs just got an offensive rebound. Lakers had a split second to have Fisher run out and take Parker but Fish didn't because he probably didn't know Lamar was right behind him and could have taken Ginobili. Smartly, Ginobili and Parker walked away from each other right after that so switch couldn't be made. So now floor is spread when Kobe makes a mistake. He leaves Bowen alone in the corner to help Lamar on Parker underneath. This is a pick your poison situation. If he doesn't leave Bowen, Parker scores on a lay-up, but that's still better and less demoralizing than Bowen hitting a wide open three. Mistake on Kobe's part for sure. Odom still was in decent shape to contest Parker. Also, looking at Kobe's body language, he looked a little too eager for a block opportunity there. He was raising his hands and ready to jump. It looked like he was so eager for another spectacular block, he forgot all about Bowen.

Another key contributor to this run was, believe it or don't, Matt Bonner. He actually scored a majority of points during the run, by simply making a few extremely heads up cuts, which will be detailed later.

Here are a few more general observations:

· I think the Lakers have two main defensive problems right now. One is gambling defensively ... going for a steal when the risk is too great if you come up empty. The other is not weighing defensive options correctly. Examples were Radmanovic leaving Stojakovic alone twice last week for threes, and Kobe leaving Bowen alone in this game. Sometimes you have to pick your poison. Lakers are trying to cover the "poison" that will hurt them the least, and leaving alone the "poison" that has the opportunity to hurt them the most.

· Despite that, Lakers are still much better defensively this year than last year. They are giving a much harder collective effort, and are constantly trying to communicate and rotate. This was not the case last year when they were out of sync and being out hustled.

· I know I might sound silly saying this, but I don't think that getting broken down off the dribble is a big problem right now for the Lakers at all. When Parker penetrated in this game, he wasn't doing it against Fisher one-on-one, he was doing it mostly with help via screens. A screen doesn't allow you to beat your player completely with a dreaded "blow-by", which the Lakers allowed a lot last year. It gives the point guard a split second advantage. Trouble is guys like Parker and Chris Paul can exploit that split second more than others around the league.

· On a lot of the Spurs baskets in the first 18 minutes of the first half, I didn't feel the Lakers were that bad. As you can see from my notes, more often than not I gave credit to Parker and Ginobili for their ability to finish difficult plays around the basket. The Lakers for the most part, at least made them earn those buckets.

· Why don't Lakers try more pick and rolls??????????? It worked spectacularly out of the timeout where Kobe found Kwame for an alley-oop dunk ... with Fisher wide open on the weak side for a three-pointer.

· Turnovers were gigantic tonight as well. Unlike the Minnesota game, Lakers turnovers are coming off ballhandling, with traveling violations, etc. In Minnesota game, it was mostly on ill-advised passes. Still inexcusable though.

· Offensively, the Lakers for the most part continued to pass the ball around well, but they need to run more off the ball. A lot of times, they were just standing around or only one guy was moving. If you'll watch the Spurs, a lot of times, many people are moving off the ball, constantly threatening and putting pressure on the defense with cuts to different areas of the court.

Finally, here are some of the raw notes I took while watching the tape of the decisive first half:

Against pretty much everyone, but the Spurs in particular, you do not want to give up lay-ups and open threes. You will settle for two-point jump shots all night.

Turiaf tries to lob a pass to Odom over the top on the low right block. Odom is being fronted by two defenders and is leaning into them. He's not ready for a pass, Turiaf throws it anyway, and it's a bad pass to boot. Too risky for the situation.

On pick and roll, Fisher goes underneath Duncan. Mihm doesn't go out on Parker, so Tony nails wide open J. Duncan's not going to hurt you with an alley-oop jam like Tyson Chandler would, but it's still better than a Parker lay-up or a wide open Bowen three-pointer. By the way, why is Kobe sagging off of Bowen so much? He's twenty feet away from him.

Kobe leaves Bowen when he screens across to the weak side to steal from Duncan's blind side on the low block. These are the kinds of defensive gambles that are much better for Kobe to take. He's making a concerted effort to make steals in these kinds of situations this year. There's less risk here because the man he's leaving, Bowen, is going to the opposite side of the floor. Duncan has his back to that side anyway, and there's no angle for him to get Bowen the ball, so in these situations, it's not very risky for Kobe to go for the steal.

Bad sign. Spurs are 1-9 from the field but the Lakers are only up two.

On lay-up that ties it at 6-6, Lakers play original Duncan pick well, as Mihm switches on to Parker, and then switches back onto Duncan. But then Parker is able to drive by Fisher. Lakers have it defended well but Parker scores on tough lay-up. Fisher was beaten by Parker's speed clearly here, but Fish was still recovering from the original pick, so I don't blame him that much here, as much as I credit Parker. Fisher's weight was still leaning one way, and Parker drove the other way.

Remember the old phrase, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain? In basketball, pay attention to the weak side of the floor. Here Duncan sets a weak side screen for Finely to get the ball. Meanwhile, on the new weak side of the floor, Oberto and Bowen set a double back pick for Parker, losing Fisher, and making Kobe switch onto Parker. Kobe is not quick enough to plug middle for Parker's penetration. Mihm and Turiaf did a good job of recovering late, but Parker makes brilliant pass to Duncan for basket and one. Lakers are actually recovering well and defending well down low, but Parker has made a couple of great plays that most other point guards couldn't make.

Uh-oh. Ginobili's in.

Kobe turns it over on drive to the basket. Risky drive. Spurs have it covered, he's driving away from the basket, and there are no passing angles. Not a good decision to drive there in my opinion. Why not peel back out to the wing and reset the offense? If he shoots anyway, there's one Laker to rebound there against three Spurs.

Poetic justice. Ginobili blatantly shoves Kobe away and gets away with it off inbounds play. Ginobili cuts to the basket. Kobe yells "Help! Help! Help!" and Bynum picks him up. Kobe has to guard Duncan off the inbounds pass but winds up making steal and breakaway dunk.

In the NBA, being late by a fraction of a second can cost you the play. Here San Antonio has an outnumbered attack. Walton gambles for a steal in transition on Ginobili and comes up empty. The domino effect begins. Walton is still able to stay with Ginobili, but the decision to gamble costs him the split second he needed to stay in front of him. Now Fisher has to leave Parker to plug middle. Kobe has to leave Bowen to take Parker, and it leads to wide open three by Bowen off domino effect. It also didn't help that Odom, once he got back on defense, had no idea that Bowen was wide open on the sideline for three. He's sitting there watching Parker do his thing in the air, and doesn't even try to close on Bowen. I'm also wondering if Fisher should have confronted Ginobili in transition and instead just gone to Parker. But credit Spurs for running break perfectly. Whenever that happens, Bowen just heads to the corner and chills out, waiting for a pass and an open three.

Good halfcourt rotation by Lakers defensively this time. Excellent, in fact, with everyone hustling. Lakers biggest defensive problems so far have pretty much all come in transition.

Here's one play that shows how good Ginobili is. He's free off an Elson pick to drive to the basket. Luke leaves Bowen in the corner to plug the middle. Walton has Ginobili blocked off from a lay-up, so Ginobili fakes a pass to Bowen in the corner. Luke has no choice but to lean towards Bowen, leaving the lane free for Ginobili. Bynum does a great job closing but Ginobili scores anyway on a tough shot. Again, Lakers bigs have done an admirable job of making things tough for Parker and Ginobili around the basket. Against most other personnel in the league, that would have been enough.

Back to that same play. Radmanovic clumsily stepped out and gave Ginobili a cursory trap, and then went back to Francisco Elson. Why was he in such a hurry to go back to Francisco Elson? Duncan and even David West, I can understand, but Francisco Elson? Watching it in slow motion, Radmanovic's clumsiness is even more glaring. He doesn't even seem interested in stopping Ginobili. He is running back to Elson while Ginobili is still driving on him.

On next Bowen three, domino effect is started when Washington is given a step on a pick and roll out high. Not surprisingly, Radmanovic is involved. Bynum is slow to plug Washington in the middle. Walton leaves Bowen when he probably should have stayed at home on him, and Bruce hits the three. Lakers are just a little bit off on a couple of occasions, but Spurs still burn them.

Sometimes a more important stat than field goal percentage is field goal attempts. The Lakers have a better field goal percentage after one, but the Spurs have eight more FGA because of nine Lakers turnovers. Shooting 4 out of 15 from the field is better than shooting 3-6 from the field. Lakers had five blocks and were plus eight in rebounds, but are still down six.

Man is Ginobili clever. Lakers have switches covered pretty well off pick and roll and are communicating well, but Bynum leaves Manu just a split second too early. While Evans is trying to get back to him, Ginobili uses Bynum himself as a screen on Evans! Lakers still are able to recover but he makes nice pass to Oberto for basket.

Again, for the most part, the Lakers are hustling, and trying to communicate with their rotations. Ginobili and Parker are just too good at finishing and making difficult passes in traffic.

Wow! Bynum goes up for rebound and jam in traffic. Outstanding strength and aggressiveness.

Wow! Farmar elevates for jam! Love the confidence and aggressiveness.

Terrific straight up defense by Bynum on Duncan there.

Another spectacular block by Kobe. But more importantly a good decision. He left Bowen alone in the corner to shoot a three, but was sure that Duncan was going to go up for a shot without hesitation and wasn't going to pass to Bowen. Duncan didn't even realize Kobe was so close.

On next play, Kobe makes great cross court pass to Fisher, initiated by? That's right, a screen roll.

Parker lay-up off penetration. Fisher is not getting blown by when straight up against Parker out in front. Parker is always penetrating on some kind of screen or curl. That happens here and Turiaf and Brown can't plug middle enough.

Lakers have 14 turnovers, but are only down by three.

Matt Bonner catches Ronny off guard for a split second and beats him with a backdoor cut for a lay-up. Again, all it takes in the NBA is a split second. And maybe I'm nitpicking, but why doesn't Kwame have his hands up when guarding Duncan? Duncan is easily able to pass to Bonner because Kwame offers no resistance.

Bonner hits wide open three. The play began on an offensive rebound that bounced long to Ginobili. After an offensive rebound, the defensive team is often not matched up properly. Ginobili makes a brilliant play here that is hard to notice. He's in the corner, and Bonner is on the wing. He tells Bonner to switch places with him because Bonner is a good three point shooter. Parker, off mismatch on Turiaf, is able to drive past him easily. Odom leaves Bonner to cover basket, and Bonner, now in the corner just like Ginobili told him, nails the open three. Alternative was to give up a Parker lay-up. Can't really blame Lakers here. They were unlucky. The domino effect began with the ball bouncing long for an offensive rebound, which they couldn't really control.

Turiaf and Brown both go to Duncan when only one of them should have. Brown is caught in no-man's land for a split second and Bonner exploits it, presenting himself for a pass by running out towards Parker, and hitting the open turnaround jumper. I'd rather have Bonner beat me than Duncan or Parker. Terrific recognition by Bonner. He sure knows when to cut at the right time. Kwame still recovered and at least contested the shot.

Parker nails outside jumper. Fisher played off him to help out Turiaf on Duncan. Spurs cleared out to run two-man game with Duncan and Parker on strong side. If Fisher doesn't help Duncan, Duncan probably hits jump hook over him anyway. Lakers now down 12.

Lakers offensively are standing around. No one moving. No one putting pressure on defense. No one cutting. No quick passing.

I screened all of Chris Paul's assists and all of Peja Stojakovic's three pointers, a total of 24 field goals (Paul assisted on seven of Stojakovic's 10 three-pointers). I have comments on all of them individually below.

On 10 of the field goals, I felt there was really nothing the Lakers could have done, and that credit had to be given to Paul's brilliance and the way the rest of the Hornets shot the ball and spaced the floor.

There were only two of what I would consider bonehead defensive plays, both made by Vladimir Radmanovic, leaving Peja Stojakovic for open threes when he didn't need to.

Other than that, the Lakers biggest defensive culprits were:

· Gambling defensively three times, all by Kobe Bryant.
· Leaving someone alone to cover someone who already had defensive help, or leaving someone who the ballhandler (usually Paul) had no angle to find (four times).
· The dreaded domino effect. Poor execution of the triangle offense, leading to an absence of potential offensive rebounders. Then you're out of position in transition defense and can't match up and the offense has already got you in a deficit situation (three times). The best transition defense is a solid offense, so even if you miss, if you are in your offense properly, you are automatically deployed to be in good shape defensively when the opponent gets the rebound.

A few other points:

· If a defender is a split-second late doing something anywhere on the floor, Paul can exploit it as well as any point guard I've ever seen.

· The Hornets personnel complements Paul's skills perfectly. He's got Chandler for alley oops off pick and rolls, and Stojakovic, West, and Butler for three-pointers. It's almost pick your poison.

· If the Hornets stay healthy, they are going to take the spot of one of last year's playoff teams ... let's hope it's not the Lakers.

Here are the notes I took on each individual basket as I screened the video:

Peja 1st 3 - Kobe reaches for Chandler in backcourt after Tyson gets defensive rebound under the basket. Kobe loses his balance and is caught in transition. On 5 on 4 Mo Pete, Kobe's man is open. Luke rotates to him, that leaves Peja wide open. Gamble on Kobe's part. Risky but not blatantly risky.

1. Chandler alley oop jam beating Mihm in transition.

2. West face up jumper from distance, Turiaf backed off.

3. Off Chandler pick on Fisher, defense collapses off a penetrating Paul, West the trailer knocks it down.

4. Peterson creates off balance shot.

5. Mo Pete 3P in transition. Kobe leaves him to cover middle where there is help already, then doesn't get up on Peterson, giving him the shot.

2nd 3: Peja floating on wing. Kobe playing off him. Tries to close, does a little bit, but Peja gets it up over him. Contested a little bit.

6 + 3rd 3: Farmar crashes offensive glass and is caught just a little bit out of position. Bynum forced into bad shot with shot clock running down and Turiaf not in position to rebound. Domino effect. Paul has Jordan beaten in transition all the way down the floor. Defense collapses on him, and he makes extraordinary pass to find a wide open Peja.

7. Mihm jumps pick. Chandler rolls towards bucket. Turiaf has to leave West to pick up Chandler, then rotates back to West when Mihm gets back to Chandler but it's too late and West knocks down 20-footer. What makes this work is that Hornets have a 4 with such a good outside shot and not many teams have that at all. Paul also made a great move bringing the ball back and creating the angle to find West. Mihm had already left to get back to Chandler and vacated the passing lanes. I give more credit to the Hornets on this than blame of the Lakers.

8. Off jump ball, Turiaf is tripped by Chandler, accidentally or otherwise. Paul recognizes this lightning fast and immediately figures out how to exploit it, but again it's personnel. What other 4 is going to be able to shoot a 3 pointer?

9. Domino effect of offensive rebound by Hornets, Lakers can't match up after loose ball is saved. Kobe is on Paul. Walton is on West, etc. Chandler sets high screen, that leaves West 1 on 1 on Walton in post and he scores easily.

10 and 4th 3: Kobe gambled, went for the steal on Peterson, came up empty while reaching around. Peterson left him in the dust. Walton left Peterson to plug middle, leaving Stojakovic wide open for a three. Mihm tried to rotate over and almost made it close, but he was being held up by Chandler.

11. Walton misses 3P, pursues rebound/gambles. Comes up empty leading to Paul fast break 3 on 2 and goes behind his back to Chandler.

12 and 5th 3: Ball got stuck with Mihm. Nobody moving, presenting him with a passing target. Walton gets the ball late in the shot clock, posted up against the bigger David West. Walton has to commit a turnover late in the shot clock. Maybe he should have traveled instead of making an ill advised pass. Domino effect of bad offensive execution sequence is fast break. Lakers can't match up. Stojakovic fills wing and hits easy three-pointer. What caused this was Lakers inability to execute the triangle and set up a good shot.

13. Paul circles Farmar around and runs him through a double screen. Kobe could have plugged the lane when Paul penetrated but had to rotate out to cover a three point shooter out in front. In any event, it looked like Bynum and Turiaf had recovered and hemmed in Paul underneath taking away a lay-up, but Paul made a brilliant pass around Bynum to Chandler for a dunk. Radmanovic didn't help on Chandler because he stayed at home on Stojakovic but Paul had no angle to pass to Stojakovic. That was the only thing that could have been considered a miscue, but give credit to Paul. Perhaps Farmar should have originally gotten in front of Chandler as well because he had help off the switch when Paul turned the corner on him.

14 and 6th 3P: All Radmanovic's fault. He leaves Stojakovic alone on the wing to cover the basket area when there are three other Lakers already there! They don't need his help! They need him to stay at home on Stojakovic. Vlad tries to get back but it's too late. At least he was able to challenge the shot.

15 and 7th 3P: All Radmanovic's fault again! He makes the exact same mistake but it's even worse! He leaves Stojakovic all alone again to cover the paint, but Farmar, Bynum, and Cook are already there! There's only one Hornet there and Paul is already sealed off! What are you doing Vlade?

16 and 8th 3P: Domino effect begins with Kobe gambling for a steal in the backcourt but missing. Farmar is able to match up with Paul in transition. Bynum and Cook are getting back in transition but Radmanovic doesn't leave Melvin Ely ... Melvin freaking Ely ... under the basket in time to get out on Stojakovic who was alone on the perimeter again. Vlade's fault, but not as bad as the previous miscues. Better to give up an Ely dunk than a three by Stojakovic at this point.

17. I don't know where to begin here on Butler 3P. Stojakovic sneaks away from Radmanovic. Vlad off pick and roll has to pick up Chandler down low. On the other side of the floor, Cook and Vujacic have to cover perfectly spaced out spot up shooters in West, Butler, and Stojakovic. It's pick your poison. At least it wasn't Peja this time. Credit Paul for the set up. This was a domino effect off a screen roll. Lakers didn't rotate well but it was a difficult set of circumstances. Hornets personnel was perfectly deployed to create advantage. Bynum can't get back on Chandler. Farmar can't get back to Paul, so Radmanovic can't get back to Stojakovic. Total domino effect. Bynum eventually got back to Chandler but by that time Stojakovic was on the other side of the floor and there was no way for him to get back.

18. Chandler alley-oop jam off lob from Paul on pick and roll. Bynum rotated over to help on Paul. Hard to stop as Paul threw a perfect lob and Chandler went up high. Not many in the league could pull it off from those angles.

19. Kobe left Butler to rotate onto West. But Paul has no angle to get the ball to West. Kobe is late getting back to Butler and has to jump out in case he shoots a three. Butler simply dribbles past Kobe and knocks down mid-range J. Underlying theme all night long has been perfect decisions by Paul.

20 + 9th 3P: Bynum misses tough shot in a double team with :14 to shoot. Lakers are not matched up in transition, and it leads to Paul finding Peja for an open 3P. Butler and Peja filled the wings perfectly. Walton had some help from Kobe in the middle, but was a step late and off balance getting back to Peja and it cost him the play. Walton should have played the percentages better and dared Paul to beat them on a drive. Then again, if he did, Kobe would have had to pick him up and that would have left Butler open for a three. Pick your poision, but it was started on a fast break in a domino effect because of the ill-advised miss at the other end.

21. West 3P. Off pick and roll, Turiaf has to pick up Chandler, or else it's gonna be another alley-oop dunk. He is a split second late getting back to West, but that's enough time for Paul to find him. This was all off just a simple pick and roll, and I don't know what the Lakers really could have done any better because Paul is so good, and the Hornets space the floor so well with three three point shooters.

10th 3P: Paul didn't get the assist here but he should have. Off Paul/Chandler pick and roll against Fisher/Bynum, Walton stays on Chandler for just a split second too long, and Paul exploits it again! He's scrambling to get back, so Stojakovic lets him fly by and then nails a step back three. Paul should have gotten credit for the assist.

Just got back from Lakers practice. First of all, make sure to check our podcast section for complete and unedited audio of what Kobe and Phil each had to say today.

There is absolutely no "smoking gun" type sign right now that the Lakers are imminently going to trade Kobe Bryant. However, there is enough circumstantial evidence that, when pieced together, makes it plausible to conclude that something is going on. It might lead to a trade this week. It might lead to a trade next week. It might not lead to a trade at all. It's simply too early to tell.

If nothing is going on, why are Kobe and Phil being so careful and cryptic with their public comments? Why did Phil seem relatively grim, and why did Kobe seem so businesslike and matter of fact?

I'll make this analogy, albeit an extreme one. Last year, when the British tabs reported that Luke Walton and Britney Spears were an item, you could tell it was total baloney just by observing Walton's body language and demeanor and how easily he laughed it off.

Why aren't Kobe and Phil laughing it off? Why were they both acting so cautious if there is absolutely nothing behind these rumors? Why didn't Kobe just flat out say that nothing is going on? Why didn't he just tell everyone to relax?

"We can't project anything right now," Jackson said. "I think there's a certain progression of things that we have to go through. We have to see how the feelings are in the situation, see if there can't be some remedies for it. From there, the next step takes place, and that is, how do we go forward as a basketball club?" If this is so innocent, why would he be saying something so indefinite?

If you're wondering about the report we all heard about Kobe's locker being cleaned out, I have no idea whether it's true or not. Kobe denied it. Phil Jackson said, "There's a book sitting there. There's a net bag with some workout clothes that were sitting there this morning. There are things that were out of the locker, I will say that. But he'd have to speak for that himself." That cryptic description could mean everything. Or it could mean nothing.

What do I think is going on? In my opinion, I think Kobe was surprised and upset by Dr. Buss' comments last week. I felt Kobe was under the impression that since he wasn't going to comment on the "Kobe situation" further, management was not going to either. There seemed to be a mutual understanding that all parties were going to focus on the season, and then maybe Kobe's still un-rescinded trade demand would be addressed again next off-season. I think Kobe was upset and that set in motion whatever went on behind the scenes today.

Here's my gut feeling of what is going to happen over the next few days ... nothing. I think it will all blow over. Kobe doesn't have much leverage right now. The only thing he can do is hold out which I doubt is even an option. The Lakers should be in no hurry to trade him until they find the best possible deal for him, which I don't think is realistic to expect would happen in a hurry or overnight.

What do you think? Leave me a comment or post your reaction on the message board.

Just got back from USC football practice.  Nothing has been officially announced yet, but my strong feeling is that Mark Sanchez will start this Saturday against Arizona.

John David Booty was dressed out but did not practice.  He says he threw approximately 50 passes on the sidelines, none longer than 20 yards.  He did not have his thumb in a splint, just wrapped up.  Booty said the finger felt better today than he expected it to, but added that "my accuracy is not quite where I want it to be right now.  I can deal with the pain. It's just whether or not I can be accurate."

Booty will try to do more tomorrow, but if he's limited by how far he can throw it, I don't see how he could play.

If you read between the lines a little bit, it seems like Pete Carroll feels it will be Sanchez who will start this week.  "John might be able to play by Saturday, but then what happens the next week and the next week?" Carroll said.  "How long do we prolong this, you know, a good solid return? If we give him a break maybe he can come back strong and be ready to finish the season. I don't know that. We're just kind of guessing."

Once again Sanchez worked as the first string quarterback for the whole practice, just like Monday.  He looked fine throwing short passes in the flats and underneath, but didn't throw too many long ones.

The quarterback situation aside, during practice the team continued to make the same kind of miscues that occured against Washington and Stanford.  There was an interception, a dropped pass, a fumble, and consecutive field goal attempts that were blocked.

I don't make many bold proclamations, but if you've noticed, when I do ... I'm never wrong.

This was the worst weekend in the history of Southern California sports.

Let's work our way backwards ... just like our local sports teams did.

The Boston Red Sox tearing apart of the Angels was the least egregious (in case Grande is reading this, egregious means "bad") defeat of the weekend. The matchup between the Red Sox frontline pitchers and the Angels banged up offense should have been no surprise whatsoever.

In Game 1, Josh Beckett was unbeatable and nearly unhittable. The Angels best and only look at the series was in Game 2 against Dice-K and company, and they almost pulled it off.

In Game 3, 40-year old Curt Schilling wasn't dominant -- he was just surgically efficient. He made 100 pitches over seven shutout innings, and 76 of them were for strikes! His only walk, to Vladimir Guerrero in the bottom of the third was an "unintentional-intentional" walk with first base open. In case you're wondering, Schilling's career post-season record is now 9-2 with a 1.93 ERA.

Several months ago, Mark Gubicza said on the Joe McDonnell Experience that the Angels offense was good enough to win the division, but that he had reservations about whether they would be successful against the front-line, top of the rotation pitchers they would be facing in October. As usual, "Goobie" hit it right on the nose, even several months in advance.

So now, once again Angel fans will be clamoring for the team to add a big power bat during the off-season. All they have to do to demonstrate the importance of post-season power is to mention Manny and Big Papi. In my opinion, people, it's not nearly that simple. The clutch post-season power hitting of Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz is a once in a generation occurrence. Just because you bring in a few highly paid power hitters does not guarantee you a World Series ring. Look at the Yankees. How many titles have their mercenary Murderers Row power hitters won? Remember, the teams that won four titles in five years even were not built like that.

Alex Rodriguez can hit 50 home runs for you during the regular season, but then go two for 19 in a best of five division series. Every big time power hitter out there is susceptible to a slump like that in the playoffs ... except for Manny and Big Papi. Again, they are a once in a generation exception.

In my opinion, it's much more important to have consistently good situational hitters, which is the Angels philosophy.

I think the Angels should aggressively look for another power hitter during the off-season to protect Vladimir Guerrero, but not at the expense of messing up the balance of their team. I wouldn't risk weakening my bullpen or defense or team speed just for another bat.

One example is the 2002 Giants. They had a magnificent 1-2 offensive punch with Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent, but they didn't win the World Series because their bullpen blew it in Game 6. They also had good starting pitching with Jason Schmidt and maybe Russ Ortiz, but not great starting pitching. The 2007 Angel team could have beaten the 2002 Giants team. The 2007 Angel team could also have beaten the 2002 Angel team because it has much better starting pitching.

Angel fans should want their team to aggressively pursue one more bat, but I don't think they should bail out on the way the Angels have built their organization so far. Besides, it's not like Boston is Stanford or Notre Dame (more on that in a bit) ... don't be surprised if the Red Sox win the World Series again.

By the way, speaking of speed, one of the statistics that Mike Scioscia monitors closely is slugging percentage, and while you need power for home runs, you need speed as much as power to get doubles and triples.

In post-season baseball, the unheralded players (Scott Spiezio, Adam Kennedy, David Eckstein, Jose Lima, Scott Brosius, Jim Leyritz, Ed Sprague, Francisco Cabrera, Greg Gagne, Scott Leius, Mickey Hatcher, Mike Davis) seem to contribute roughly as much as the stars in terms of timely hits and pitching. The only difference is, they are not expected to. I have always believed that it's better to have many good players than two superstars. In basketball, you can certainly get by, but in baseball and football, you still need more.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was at the UCLA game, and only caught glimpses of the USC debacle on a monitor in the press box.

First of all, give some credit to Stanford. On Saturday's Joe Grande Show, I guaranteed that Jim Harbaugh would turn that program around. However, I did not think it would happen that night. USC's mistakes aside, I was shocked at the poise of the Stanford players late in the game, pulling off a 4th and 20 at the USC 29, and later a 4th and goal from the USC 10 with the game on the line both times.

I don't think USC looked past Stanford. All programs talk about never taking their opponents lightly, no matter what, but at USC they have seemed to actually believe it during the Pete Carroll era.

Unfortunately, I kind of wish they did take Stanford lightly! The real problems they are having are a lot more ominous. For the second consecutive week, USC's toughest opponent was USC, with a shocking amount of penalties, mistakes, and lapses ... going against one of the most fundamental pillars of Pete Carroll's philosophy.

I also think it's a little too narrow minded to blame it all on John David Booty. He's no Carson Palmer or Matt Leinart, but he's no slouch either.

Speaking of slouches ...

More than one person came up to me after the UCLA-Notre Dame slugfest (slug being the key word) and told me they've been coming to UCLA games for 20 to 30 years and that's the worst performance they've ever seen.

The defense was fine, as usual, and one guy who I think has been phenomenal this year is Justin Medlock's successor at kicker, Kai Forbath.

Offensively, though, it was a disaster, even taking the loss of Ben Olson under consideration. The Bruins seemed unprepared for the possibility that Olson could be injured. McLeod Bethel-Thompson tried hard, but was clearly overmatched. Osaar Rasshan was simply not prepared to play. If it's his fault for not being prepared, that's one thing. If it's the coaching staff's fault for him not being prepared, Bruin fans should find that unacceptable.

And besides that, the Bruins should have had better depth at quarterback to begin with. Ben Olson is the only heralded "blue chip" quarterback they've got. This is not McNeese State. This is a big time, Pac-10 program. They simply must have better depth at quarterback. USC, for example, has John David Booty, Mark Sanchez, Michael McDonald, Aaron Corp, and Mitch Mustain. I realize it's difficult because if I was a quarterback, it would be hard for me to pick UCLA if I knew I'd be playing behind Ben Olson for a few years. A realistic and fair expectation would not be so much for the Bruins to have the same depth at QB that USC has, but definitely better depth than they've got now.

As for Karl Dorrell, the jury is still out. I was impressed by the Oregon State win, because they Bruins could have folded after their early struggles, but they didn't. I give Dorrell credit for that, even though the Beavers certainly helped the Bruins out big time with mistakes and turnovers. In the coming weeks, as the schedule gets tougher, I won't so much be looking at the Bruins wins and losses. I'll just be looking to see how they're playing. Are they improving every week? Are they still making mistakes and committing penalties? Do they seem prepared? So far, their grade is still an incomplete.

What do you think about my opinions on the Angels, USC, and UCLA? Am I right on? Probably. Am I wrong? Probably not. Let me know how you feel by leaving me a comment, or by posting on the message board.

Hang in there, Southern California.