2005–06 Los Angeles Lakers season

The 2005–06 Los Angeles Lakers season was the 57th in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and 60th overall. The Los Angeles Lakers finished in third place of the Pacific Division and as the seventh seed of the Western Conference playoffs. The season ended with the team being eliminated in seven games against the Phoenix Suns after holding a 3-1 series lead. After a year absence, Phil Jackson announced his intention to return to coach the Lakers. He would later lead the team to three more Finals appearances (2008-2010) before retiring in 2011 in which the Lakers were swept by the eventual champion Dallas Mavericks, ending their hopes of a third "three-peat" and a possible 17th championship.

Draft picks

The Lakers had 3 picks going into the 2005 NBA draft. The Lakers picked seven footer Andrew Bynum as the 10th pick of the draft. Los Angeles also picked Ronny Turiaf and Von Wafer as the 37th and 39th picks respectively.

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	School/Club Team
1	10	Andrew Bynum	Center	United States	St. Joseph HS (New Jersey)
2	37	Ronny Turiaf	Forward	France	Gonzaga University
2	39	Von Wafer	Guard	United States	Florida State University

Roster

2005-06 Los Angeles Lakers roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Ht. Wt. From 5.5 !F/C 54 USA ! Brown, Kwame 7000210820000000000♠6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 270 lb (122 kg) Glynn Academy 2.0 !SG 8 USA ! Bryant, Kobe (C) 7000198120000000000♠6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 220 lb (100 kg) LMHS 6.0 !C 17 USA ! Bynum, Andrew 7000213360000000000♠7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 275 lb (125 kg) SJHS 4.5 !PF 43 USA ! Cook, Brian 7000205740000000000♠6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) 258 lb (117 kg) Illinois 3.0 !SF 3 USA ! George, Devean 7000203200000000000♠6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 220 lb (100 kg) Augsburg 2.0 !SG 11 USA ! Green, Devin 7000200659999999999♠6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 210 lb (95 kg) Hampton 3.0 !SF 24 USA ! Jackson, Jim 7000198120000000000♠6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 220 lb (100 kg) Ohio State 1.0 !PG 2 USA ! McKie, Aaron 7000195580000000000♠6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 209 lb (95 kg) Temple 4.5 !PF 14 UKR ! Medvedenko, Stanislav 7000208279999999999♠6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 250 lb (113 kg) 6.0 !C 31 USA ! Mihm, Chris 7000213360000000000♠7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 265 lb (120 kg) Texas 4.5 !PF 7 USA ! Odom, Lamar (C) 7000208279999999999♠6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 230 lb (104 kg) Rhode Island 1.0 !PG 1 USA ! Parker, Smush 7000193040000000000♠6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 180 lb (82 kg) Fordham 2.0 !SG 9 USA ! Profit, Laron 7000195580000000000♠6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 204 lb (93 kg) University of Maryland 4.5 !PF 21 France ! Turiaf, Ronny 7000208279999999999♠6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 249 lb (113 kg) Gonzaga 2.0 !SG 18 Slovenia ! Vujačić, Sasha 7000200659999999999♠6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 195 lb (88 kg) Slovenia 2.0 !SG 23 USA ! Wafer, Von 7000195580000000000♠6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 210 lb (95 kg) Florida State 3.0 !SF 4 USA ! Walton, Luke 7000203200000000000♠6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 232 lb (105 kg) Arizona	Head coach Phil Jackson (North Dakota) Assistant coach(es) Frank Hamblen (Syracuse) Kurt Rambis (Santa Clara) Brian Shaw (Saint Mary's/UC Santa Barbara) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (UCLA) Craig Hodges (Long Beach State) Jim Cleamons (Ohio State) Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured Roster

Injuries

• Wednesday November 16, 2005: Stanislav Medvenko was sidelined for the rest of the season after he suffered a herniated disc.^[1]
• Friday November 18, 2005: Kwame Brown strained his right hamstring and was sidelined for two weeks.^[2]
• Tuesday December 20, 2005: Laron Profit ruptured his Achilles' tendon during a game against the Dallas Mavericks.^[3] He underwent surgery on December 23, 2005. He was unable to play for the rest of the season after the surgery.

Player salaries

Regular season

The Lakers opened the season with an overtime victory against the Denver Nuggets.^[5] Despite dipping below .500 during the November, the team recovered and finished 2005 with a 15-14 record.^[5] The team went into the All Star Break with a 26-26 record^[5] The Lakers did not maintain any long winning streaks nor were they in long losing slumps; their longest winning streak of the season equalled their longest losing streak of 5 games.^[6] The team finished the season with a 5-game winning streak, the longest of the season, and an overall 45-37 record.^[6] The Lakers finished third in the Pacific Division and qualified for the playoffs as the 7th seed in the Western Conference.^[6] In a January home game against the Toronto Raptors, Kobe Bryant scored 81 points, the second most in a single game in NBA history, behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100.

Season standings

Playoffs

The Lakers met the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA playoffs. After taking a 3-1 lead, Los Angeles lost three in a row and was eliminated from the playoffs.

West First Round

(2) Phoenix Suns vs. (7) Los Angeles Lakers

Phoenix got off to a good start by ending the first quarter with a 10 point lead. The Lakers trailed the Phoenix suns by as much as 14 points during the second quarter.^[7] Kobe Bryant had an off shooting night. Although he averaged more than 42 points against Phoenix, Kobe Bryant scored only 22 points on 7-21 shooting.^[8] During the late stages of the fourth quarter, the Lakers went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 98-95 with 2:12 remaining.^[9] However, Steve Nash sealed the game with a three pointer and two free throws in the last 67 seconds of the game ^[8]

Los Angeles took advantage of poor shooting by Phoenix to take Game 2.^[10] The Lakers opened a 36-22 lead in the second quarter.^[11] The Suns went on a 20-6 surge to get as close as 61-58. Los Angeles responded by making four straight baskets to rebuild the lead back to double digits^[11]

The Lakers used a balanced attack to take a 99-92 victory over the Suns. All five starters from Los Angeles finished the game with double figures.^[12] Los Angeles took advantage of height defferences and outrebounded Phoenix 53-34.^[13] The game was intensely physical; a total of three technical fouls were called.^[13] During the first quarter, Los Angeles' Walton and Phoenix' Thomas got into an altercation and had to be separated; Walton was given a flagrant foul.^[14] In the third quarter, Lakers' center Kwame Brown elbowed Boris Diaw leading to a heated exchange between players. Brown and Diaw received technical fouls. The third technical foul was given to Raja Bell.^[14]

In terms of scoring, Game 4 was the closest in the series. The Suns held a 90-88 lead with eight seconds left in the fourth quarter. Capitalizing on a Steve Nash turnover, Kobe Bryant made a basket with seven-tenths of a second left in the fourth quarter to force overtime.^[15] During overtime Bryant made a jumper at the buzzer to ensure a 99-98 victory.^[16] With this victory, the Lakers placed the Suns one game away from elimination.

Despite shooting better than their opponent, the Lakers lost Game 5. Phoenix took advantage of 20 turnovers committed by Los Angeles and easily rolled to a 114-97 victory.^[17] The Lakers fell behind by as many as 22 points but closed in to 86-73 with an 11-2 run during the fourth quarter.^[18] Bryant was ejected from the game after receiving his second technical foul with 3:11 to play in the fourth ^[17]

With 6.3 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Tim Thomas made a three pointed to force the game into overtime.^[19] Kobe Bryant scored 12 of the Lakers' points in overtime for a total of 50 points; his personal playoff record and the highest by a Laker since Jerry West in 1969.^[19] The Suns scored efficiently during overtime by making baskets on seven of their first eight possessions. Thomas' three pointer with 1:41 left sealed the game and guaranteed a Game 7 in Phoenix.^[20]

The Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated and overwhelmed by the Phoenix Suns' offense in a 121-90 loss. The Suns became the eighth team in NBA history to win a series after trailing 3-1.^[21] The Lakers shot 35% in the game while the Suns shot 61%.^[22] Bryant had 23 points in the first half but only scored one point during the second half.^[21] Last Playoffs meeting: 2000 Western Conference Semifinals (Los Angeles won 4–1)

Player statistics

*Total for entire season including previous team(s)

Awards and records

• Kobe Bryant, All-NBA First Team
• Kobe Bryant, NBA All-Defensive First Team

Transactions

• On June 14, 2005, the Lakers re-hired head coach Phil Jackson.^[23]
• On August 2, 2005, the Lakers traded guard/forward Caron Butler and guard Chucky Atkins to the Washington Wizards in exchange for forward Kwame Brown and guard Laron Profit.^[24]
• The Lakers traded guard Kareem Rush to the Charlotte Bobcats for two future second round draft picks (Ronny Turiaf and TBA). The Bobcats have acquired a second round pick (Ronny Turiaf) in the 2005 NBA draft from Atlanta in exchange for forward/center Predrag Drobnjak. Atlanta Hawks acquired centers Michael Doleac (from the New York Knicks) and Joel Przybilla (from the Milwaukee Bucks), along with a 2005 second-round pick from the Knicks (Ronny Turiaf), while sending center Nazr Mohammed to the Knicks in the three-way trade. The 2005 selection will be the better of the two second-rounders the Knicks currently own.^[25]
• On October 26, 2005, The Lakers traded Jumaine Jones to the Charlotte Bobcats in exchange for a 2007 2nd round pick (Sun Yue).^[26]
• Laron Profit was waived on January 16, 2006.^[26]
• On March 6, 2006 Jim Jackson was signed as a free agent.^[26]

References