Page 6 December 11, 2014 TORRANCE TRIBUNE The Jewelry Source 337 Main St. El Segundo. 310-322-7110 www.jewelrysourceUSA.com ©2007 “What better team to start with than the team that finished in second place in the Pioneer League standings last year.” • Pediatrics • Neck & back pain • Post-surgical rehab • Geriatric strength & balance • Cancer rehabilitation & lymphedema • Sports injuries – ankle sprains – tennis elbow – rotator cuff – plantar fascilitis – knee pain No doctor’s prescription required Preferred provider for Aetna, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Cigna, Medicare, UnitedHealthcare & many others TAG Physical Therapy 111 Penn Street, El Segundo 310-426-9570 www.tagpt.com OPEN Monday – Friday 8 AM – 7:30 PM Saturday 8 AM – 12 PM Focus Turns to Basketball Adam Serrao Now that the football season has come and gone, schools from all around Torrance are ready to begin anew in a different sport and prove that they are the best team in the city and the best team in the Pioneer League. It was the West High Warriors who lasted the longest in the recently concluded football season, so now Torrance, South and North High have some ammunition coming into what will be longer than a two-month regular season in the game of basketball. The High School sporting world will now leave the open air of the football field and take on a different tone, in a different atmosphere, as our schools from around Torrance will now battle it out in the gymnasium. Though the regular season is already underway for most high school basketball teams across the nation, it has finally become time to take a closer look at the four school’s teams that call Torrance home. What better team to start with than the team that finished in second place in the Pioneer League standings last year. Led by head coach Luke Dupperon, the North High Saxons are back to avenge their loss in the second round of the playoffs last season and attempt to finish above Lawndale, who beat them out in the standings last season. Seniors Ryan Burnett and Aaron Ogata will both be returning to the team for their final season this year. Both players averaged double figures in scoring for the Saxons last year and will look to continue that trend this season. The Saxons started the year with a 75-62 win on the road at Carson, but then dropped two and won two at the inaugural Trevor Ariza Tip- Off Classic tournament last week. Look for North High to be in the mix atop the Pioneer League all season long and in the hunt for the much coveted league championship once again this year. Torrance High recently tried their best to follow in the footsteps of North High by beating the Carson Colts in a game last Saturday night. Senior Devin Kalthoff was the player of the game coming away with 15 points, two steals and one block to lead his team to the two point, 47-45 victory. In a tough Pioneer League this season, the Tartars will look to rebound from an average year last year where they finished in fourth place within their division, going 3-7 in league play. Torrance received a bid into the playoffs, but lost in the first round to Savanna by a final score of 69-63. This year, the Tartars will return six varsity players with the hope that experience will pay off for the club. Kalthoff joins Kyle Polk and Kevin Gonzalez as the starters for the ball club that will look to improve on their final standing from last year and make some noise in this year’s playoffs. The South High Spartans perhaps had the roughest go of things last season, finishing the year off with a 6-20 record and in last place in the Pioneer League. The Spartans went 1-9 in divisional play while losing their last three games of the season and missing the playoffs. Head coach Leo Klemm will certainly not accept anything worse than last season and will use it as motivation to be better this year. Klemm and his Spartans have begun the season with two straight losses this year but will look to pick things up before league play gets started in early January. Senior guard Ajeya Kukreja and Sophomore Jordan Tang are among returning players to the team who will be looking to make a difference and get South High on the map this season. Last but not least, the Pioneer League’s newly inducted West High Warriors will be looking to step forward and make an immediate impact on their division like they did this past football season. The Warriors will be more than happy to leave behind a Bay League division that they went 0-10 in last year before finishing in last place and winning only six games all season long. This year the team will be looking to turn things around for good behind coach Andrew Furuto and a squad that should have plenty of experience, loaded with seven seniors this year. The Warriors started things off in impressive fashion so far this year, beating Port of Los Angeles in the season opener 81-40 and taking down Hawthorne the next day by a 63-50 final. Seniors Christian Jackson and Joshua Staffieri figure to lead the team on the court this season and did so in the opener putting up 25 and 21 points respectively. With a new addition to the league in West High and new additions to each individual team, there is no telling what will happen in the Pioneer League this season. It will definitely be an adventure so follow the ride all season long right here. Next week, we’ll take a look at the girls’ basketball teams from around Torrance and see how they should fare this upcoming season. • Lakers More of A One-Man Show By Adam Serrao It’s no longer the “Lake Show.” Now the Lakers have become what is most comparable to a “one-man show.” Perhaps something out of a carnival or Ripley’s Believe it or Not, the traveling circus that has become the Los Angeles Lakers is headed by their ringleader Kobe Bryant. Gather ‘round and watch as he tosses the ball through the air with such incredible frequency that more than a quarter of his shots are destined to fall through the hoop. One quarter of the way through the season, the Lakers have done exactly what they have been expected to do this season. With no real talent on the team and a hungry superstar at the helm, Los Angeles should be poised for what will be one long basketball season. Last Friday night’s game against the Boston Celtics was quite possibly a microcosm of the entire Lakers season in general. The team, coming off of two straight encouraging wins over the first place (Atlantic Division) Toronto Raptors and the Detroit Pistons had reason to begin to be optimistic about the season. Maybe the team just needed a little time to gel. Maybe Kobe needed a little regular season time to recover from his injury and learn the tendencies of all of his new players in order to be the player that he could possibly be. A triple-double with 31 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds against the first place Raptors for Kobe certainly looked encouraging. Fastforward to three days later and those same Lakers wound up losing to the 6-11 Boston Celtics by 17 points on the road. Kobe still led the team in scoring. Of course he did. He’s the one-man show. But his 22 points on the night came at a cost. Not only did he have as many assists as turnovers (three) in the game, but Bryant shot an abysmal 9-21 from the floor, all but negating the rest of his teammates except for the infamous “Swaggy P,” who is going to throw up his fair amount of shots no matter where he is standing on the floor. Nick Young finished with 16 points on 5-14 from the field. Sure, Kobe leads the league in scoring right now, which in itself is always a hard task to accomplish, but I’ve recently discovered a fun game to play at Kobe’s expense. First, go on to Google, type in NBA season leaders, hit the field goal percentage tab and see how many pages you have to scroll through before you get to Bryant’s name. He’s not on the first page. Nope, not the second either. Yes! Finally, there he is, barely making it onto the third page of results at No. 115 out of the 124 ranked players. That’s just below USC’s own O.J. Mayo and right above Brandon Jennings. Bryant has a .391 field goal percentage, meaning that he’s making well below half of the amount of shots that he throws up. Dating back to before last Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans, Bryant had attempted 447 shots while making 175 of them. To put that in perspective, the next most shots attempted in the league belonged to Monta Ellis of the Dallas Mavericks who put up only 374 shots while making 176 (still one more than Kobe) to give him a .471 percentage from the field. The field goal percentage leader in the league is Brandan Wright, also on Dallas, who comes in at .741 (compared to Kobe’s .391). Fans of the Los Angeles Lakers are getting used to losing. After the worst season in franchise history last year, it took five games to get a win for the Lakers this year. “It’s not easy after the games,” first-year Lakers head coach Byron Scott stated. “I think people in L.A. can tell you. They know it’s not easy after a loss.” Well, it’s getting easier and easier as the losing is becoming more and more frequent. While the Lakers are losing, however, Bryant is attempting to prove that he can still dominate the NBA in the twilight of his career. “I’m a true competitor,” Bryant said. “When I say that, I mean, when things are difficult, I compete even harder.” The harder Kobe tries, the more it isolates his own team. Sure, he’s racking up the numbers and will soon pass Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list, but the legacy he is leaving behind is one that is traveling in the exact opposite direct of Jordan’s. Kobe’s triple double made him the fastest player in league history with 30,000 points and 6,000 assists. An incredible accomplishment in its own right, but the individual statistics fail to help the team. He can find shots anywhere on the court and he is one of the greatest players in league history, but what was once a championship Lakers basketball team in the not so distant past has no become a one-man traveling sideshow. Before this year, the Lakers hadn’t started a season with five straight losses since they moved to Los Angeles 54 years ago. The only time it had ever happened, as a matter of fact, was during the 1957-58 season when the team was still based in Minneapolis. The championships have come and gone since then: 11 of them, to be exact. The playoff appearances were many: 51, to be exact. It is becoming increasingly obvious, however, that those days have been left well-behind in the rearview mirror. Kobe being good is good for Kobe and Time Warner Cable. The Lakers, on the other hand, may have to wait a couple more years before they can set their sights on the Larry O’Brien trophy once again. •
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