by Craig Kwasniewski
"Hey, who's got number 8?!?!"
We at The Association placed a temporary moratorium on Laker posts to show that this is not a Laker blogsite but rather a NBA blogsite, but I have to shelf that idea tonight...
81 freakin' points by Kobe Bryant and I was there! Warning: I am a little pumped from this game, I may bring playoff level hyperbole. Here are a few observations from my view high up in the rafters:
1st Half: Unlike the 62 he dropped on Dallas, there was absolutely no feeling that this game was special by halftime. Toronto was hitting every jumper from 10-30 feet out. Charlie Villanueva, who looks lake a James Bond movie henchman, was killing the Lakers. Mike James was killing the Lakers. Gene Keady's combover was killing the Lakers from the Toronto bench. The Lakers looked tired and disinterested.
At half, I made sure to make an extra stop at the bar so that I can stomach what looked like one of the worst losses of the season. Yeah, Kobe had 26 points, but the Lakers were down 14 at the break.
3rd Quarter: The Lakers started the third quarter with the same lethargic effort defensively from the first half and the game had the makings of a 20 point Laker loss. This is where Kobe took over. At first, Kobe was in "screw you, I'll just score myself" mode. He took Toronto one-on-five and got hot. Kobe knew he was on when he hit a pull-up three from the left side of the court... a total temperature check shot.
As Mamba kept hitting jumpers and driving the lane, his teammates fed off the energy and played better defense. The crowd started buzzing after Kobe dropped several rainbow threes from the right side of the court. Jackson had the Lakers press the Raptors full court and the confusion led to several turnovers including one Kobe breakaway dunk that brought the house down.
4th Quarter: The fourth quarter was all Kobe... literally. As the game was still in doubt, Kobe kept attacking the basket. For a few possessions Toronto didn't communicate on defense and Kobe got some easy lay-ups. Seriously??? It's not like the guy has 60 some-odd points or anything!!! Someone MAY want to pick that man up.
From 6 minutes till the end of the game, the Lakers went to Kobe for every possession; waiting, wanting, hoping that he'd make the shot. At every made basket, the crowd went bonkers and gave Kobe a standing ovation at breaking his career high (62), breaking the Laker all-time high (71) and scoring the second all-time high in the history of the game (81).
-I'll give the artist formerly known as Jalen Rose credit, he really tried to guard Kobe really close during the second half, but Kobe was too scorching hot. This was one of the ten games that Jalen actually tried (17 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds). Too bad he's no longer the cool customer from the Fab Five days.
-Do you think Kobe still feels that the Triangle Offense is boring?
-Finally, I'm a total team basketball guy. Most of my personal basketball memories come from team victories: Purdue winning the Big Ten when I was a student (1994-1995), the Lakers rallying against Portland in game 7, the Lakers winning the 2000 championship... this one ranks right up there...
I was hoping you went since it was the lowly RAPTORS...
Posted by: Dan Sargent | January 23, 2006 at 07:05 AM
I think it's probably acceptable to write about the Lakers when it involves NBA history being made.
Posted by: Brett | January 23, 2006 at 10:25 AM
I refuse to acknowledge this.
Posted by: basketbawful | January 23, 2006 at 07:04 PM
I was there too! i was right by you i guess i was sitting in sec 315 row 7 seat 4. It was my first laker game and i had to go to that one! I'm still freaking out. I'm 16 I've been a Laker fan for about 9 years now and I too got to see this
Posted by: Dillon | January 24, 2006 at 01:38 PM
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Posted by: Air Jordan | July 19, 2011 at 08:42 PM
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Posted by: Air Force One | July 19, 2011 at 08:45 PM