Still at the in-laws on vacation — I can’t beleive I missed this game (not on in Vegas).
I just caught the ESPN News highlights. I looked at the box score, Kobe had a true shooting percentage of 74% tonight (the league average is 53%) and it looks like he couldn’t miss. Those of you that saw the game let me know, was the Raptor defense part of this, or wouldn’t it have mattered? Kobe was also +23. I also have the rest of the Lakers outside of Kobe shooting just 36.9%? Were they off, was this a case of Kobe needing to take over, because they were down for a while.
Fill me in, tell me what you saw (Gatinho, who is doing a great job filling in as guest blogger, may have a more informed post than this up before then). I’ll be back with a post on Tuesday and a mid-season report card for the team later in the week.
Kurt
TC says
81. Geez, just say the number to yourself a few times. I didn’t see the game, turned on my computer with 75 and had to look at the box score another time just be sure I hadn’t read it backwards or that my computer wasn’t acting silly. Holy crap.
Michael G says
This game was incredible. I just found this blog on 82 games.com, so I thought I’d check it out…
As for the game? the Lakers were being outplayed badly on both ends of the floor. Our first half defense was atrocious. We gave up like 63 points or something Starting the third, the lakers lost the first 5 minutes, and were down by like 15,17,etc consistently. Kobe really started to take over, driving and stepping it up on the defensive end. Phil had him play pretty much the whole game, and he was just unstoppable. I am 21 years old, I’ve been watching the lakers since I was 3, and I have never seen anything like this. Staples was going nuts, and so was i. The entire second half kobe was dominating (55 pts in the 3rd and 4th).
Great game… Kobe for MVP.
wilzuvsteel says
Kobe was incredible. I’m sure the highlights on ESPN put everything in perspective. But watching the game you would not have expected this to happen. They were sorely getting outplayed in the 1st half. They gave up 63 pts. They were giving up lots of wide open 3’s and on offense only Smush and Kobe were getting off. Phil must have emphasized defense at the half as they came out with a lot of intensity. They forced turnovers and low percentage shots and then Kobe began to start the avalanche of pts that Toronto could not stop. Kobe did stop his free throw streak in this game but it appears he spoke with Craig Hodges before the streak and from there he began the franchise record.
Kobe’s 2nd half scoring barrage was all drive and determination. I thought he was working too hard for them at first but then he kept rollin. In that aspect it was just like the Dallas game. He broke the will of Toronto as he got to the line, made field goal after field goal, and made 3’s. The Staples center was in awe. People were looking at him like MVP! but beyond. They couldn’t contain themselves. Kobe was like Iverson within the triangle. It was like once he got the ball he knew where to go within the offense and get his shot. Peterson who was guarding him most of the night could not handle Kobe. He got in foul trouble as Kobe played him like a puppet.
My concern as I’m sure most Lakers fans are is Odom’s lack of scoring punch. Against a team like Toronto he should be handling his business. He needs work on his midrange game and finishes at the hoop. Kwame was a liability on offense. He needs to get his eyes checked because he seems to miss passes to him regularly. And he just doesn’t seem to finish at the hoop. Mihm was holding his own. He played good defense in the 2nd half that helped jump start the Lakers comeback. Smush was very dependable on this night. Devean, Sasha and Luke were so so. The bench didn’t do much in this game. They seem to be gun shy and very apprehensive when they are on the court. Definitely confidence issues.
Overall I the loved the game. But my gut feeling is I wish Kobe can make everyone else better. The team when Kobe is on the bench seems to flow in the triangle. But I notice they seem to become stagnant when Kobe comes back. They are not comfortable in the triangle with him yet. Nobody has their spots where they can attack. All I’ve seen is the team shooting from the 3 spot. Nobody drives down the lane with determination like Kobe. Nobody has the midrange jumper open on a regular basis. Nobody is slashing to the hoop, Kwame and Mihm are not getting alley oops on a regular basis. They are not taking advantage of teams weaknesses on a consistent basis. They need Kobe’s grit. Once they climb aboard this team can get to the next level. If not they will be talking about all the games that they played that were lost by 6 pts or less.
chris henderson says
I was watching the game, got pretty dissgusted at the (lack of) effort in the first half, so I tivo’d the second half and watched a movie with my girlfriend. I couldn’t believe we were playing so flat against a team we HAD to beat, especially coming off those last 2 games, we needed this one for our heads to get straight.
I snuck a peek at the game at what would have been mid-way thru the 3rd qtr and saw Kobe hit something like 3 or 4 “3-pointers” in a row, bringing the Lakes back within 10 points…so I was now looking forward to catching the game after the movie.
one thing I noticed was that Kobe had a hard look on his face, like “no more mister nice guy’ even to his teammates after they f*’***d up in some way, miss, turnover, etc. In the 3rd qtr, he got in a zone like I’ve never seen before, it felt like he made like 30 points in a row, and yeap, the rest of the team started standing around, watching, and feeding him every time down, (but in this case, he WAS hitting almost everything he tossed up). Toronto was at this point, doubling every time down, and sometimes tripling, and NOTHING stopped kobe, many of these shots seemed impossible, and like we’ve seen a million times, they somehow went in.
After the third, and into the forth, now it was like Kobe was saying, “just get me the ball and set some picks, or get out of the way, cause i’m gonna shoot it”…and he did…and they just kept going in…i’ve never seen a player stay in “the zone” for a whole half, early in the 4th, we felt like we were going to see history get made.
I kept kicking myself in the a**, since we live downtown, I’d been looking to get a couple tickets for last nights game, then i just sort of said, “well, next game”…
Could’ve seen history…
Now, the question is, how does the rest of the team respond for the next game. I have to say that while watching the Phoenix game, it became so clear to me that all we do is run a play to try to ge some outside shot, or hope a clear out for a drive to the hoop, while Phx runs plays for a lay up, and they were getting them. Our offense seems to be stuck, trying to get Kobe a shot, against double and triple teams, no motion at all.
If Nash can be so effective, seems to me that we need to play more of getting shots to the open guy when Kobe is getting so much attention. and why have we stopped trying plays like the “Pick and Pop’ with Cookie? or a low pick and roll, with Kwame diving to the hoop? (I know…bad hands…but gotta work through that)
Right now, we seem to live and die by the consistency of Kobe’s outside shot, if he’s hot, we win, cool, we lose…and that’s not gonna get up very deep when it counts, like playoff time, we all know good teams will shut one player down, we need the rest of the team to “rise up!”,phil will also have to “rise up!”, and get the rest of this team to believe in themselves, that they can and should be a playoff TEAM, the second half of the season IS UPON US!!!
ST625 says
So I had this game on the DVR and started watching it late, at the end of the second I was screaming at the TV and at the half I thought I might fast forward through the 3rd to get to the 4th…but we all knew in the back of our minds Kobe wouldn’t let this happen. Not after Sacramento, Not after his performance against Phoenix, NOT in his building and NOT in front of “Our people.†So all of the sudden we started playing team defense and Kobe started taking shots, and making shots. 55 in the second half!
We take this player for granted so badly, and he does these amazing things so effortlessly I don’t think anyone knew what was happening until it was actually happening. Phil wanted to take him out in the 4th when Frank Hamblin (and there is no way he said this with a straight face) informed Phil “I don’t think you can do that, he’s got 77 points.â€
How do you change the perception of yourself to an entire league and an entire group of Hoops fans that only wish you bad? After you drop 8! points you cut your news conference short to go home and give your daughter a bath! He jiggled the Jell-O, he cooled the eggs, he broke the lights and he slammed the door when he was through scoring.
Thank You Kobe.
Jason says
My favorite postgame Kobe comment was that his desire was to “demoralize our opponents.” Not just win: demoralize. Awesome. Go Lakers.
I’ll be there to see the Lakers try to demoralize the Warriors.
young says
its got to be the new shoes man! before xmas, his shooting average was around 32%. from xmas on, he has been shooting a whomping 44%, excluding the 2 days of suspension. even if you include the two days of no production, he would be still shooting around 38%! insanity man!
nick h. says
hello all. i am a big laker fan in Tokyo, Japan (used to live in SD) and just wanted to say, though i was only able to catch the action on radio, his effort brought some tears into my eyes. the will to win was great. touched me, big time.
enjoying your site all the time.
go Lakes!