Kobe's miraculous four-game streak of 50 or more points ended last night with a victory over Golden State. L.A. is currently the sixth seed in the Western Conference and sit 6 games behind Houston for the fifth seed.March 26, 2007
OK people, move along, nothing to see here. Kobe Bryant scored only 43 points Sunday night.
What's up with that?
"I had an off night," Bryant said.
And the Lakers are better off for it. His four-game streak of 50 or more points served its purpose, got the Lakers back to winning and got the Bryant discussion back to his ranking among the game's greatest scorers instead of its dirtiest players. (Bryant said a change in his follow-through precipitated the 225-point binge; apparently not whacking people in the head anymore helped).
But by Sunday, the points-fest became detrimental as the Lakers veered out of the normal realm of basketball and became just as Kobe-centric as the fans at Staples Center calling for him to shoot every time he touched the ball.
It led to strange things, like Luke Walton bypassing an open path to the hoop on the fastbreak, dribbling to his right and feeding a bounce pass to Bryant. Or Sasha Vujacic heeding Bryant's command to throw him the ball, even though there were three defenders around Bryant, any one of whom could — and did — knock the ball away.
The Lakers really had become a one-man team, and when Bryant cooled off after scoring 19 points in the first 13 minutes, so did the Lakers. They went from a 19-point lead in the second quarter to a 10-point deficit in the second half before the old Lakers reappeared.
Remember the team that looked like one of the four best squads in the Western Conference? It put in a cameo appearance in the fourth quarter. Familiar sights such as Walton creating shots for his teammates, Ronny Turiaf taking to the air or hitting the deck to grab the ball, Lamar Odom making timely plays and putting up All-Star type numbers (24 points and 19 rebounds).
Fun time is over.
"The streak's been so fun and he's been so on fire, it's like, 'Let's keep getting him the ball,' " Walton said.
But in the fourth quarter, "We had to come up with some stops on D and make plays, as opposed to throwing it to Kobe and seeing what he could do."
That's the mode they'll have to get back to down the final regular-season stretch and into the playoffs if they want to even duplicate what they did last year.
That said, let's pause for a moment to appreciate what we've just witnessed. If you're in Generation X or younger, you never got to see Wilt Chamberlain wreaking havoc on the league, so this is the closest approximation we've had. That's saying something.
How did the streak affect your life?
It had me online checking the live box score of the Lakers-Hornets game while covering the USC-North Carolina NCAA tournament game.
Sunday my cell phone battery was dying, but I was afraid to run to the Chick Hearn Press Room because I was afraid I might not get back before the timeout ended and Kobe would have another six points.
Bryant's run even put him back in the most valuable player discussion, which had been a two-man race between Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash. The problem is it's impossible to ignore the losing streaks of six and seven games that occurred on his watch this season.
An MVP should be a component of a great team. People who score such a large percentage of the squad's points usually aren't a member of a great team.
A bad sign for the Lakers: None of the other players with streaks of three or more games with at least 50 points (Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Michael Jordan) won championships in those seasons.
Another bad sign: This 50-point spree brought to mind his run of nine consecutive 40-point games in 2003. That was his best season to that point, the first (and only) time he played in all 82 games, averaging a then-career high 30 points. In the off-season he needed knee surgery.
Last year Bryant averaged 35 points, going for 40 or more 27 times. He launched 2,173 shots. And in the off-season? Knee surgery.
Continuing at this pace, playing at least 44 1/2 minutes every night, putting up 30-plus shots, would wear him out.
Before the game I asked Phil Jackson if and when he would tell Bryant to end the party.
"He's going to know whether he's hot or not at some point," Jackson said. "He's going to know when enough's enough. He's been around this game long enough and shot enough shots to know when it feels right."
Apparently that point arrived after Bryant shot three for 10 in the third quarter. With his meter on cool and the Warriors sending extra defenders his way every time he touched the ball, Bryant took only five shots in the fourth quarter. And the Lakers still outscored the Warriors, 30-25, to pull off a 115-113 victory.
There's still a five-game winning streak to discuss.
And besides, as Odom said, "43 ain't bad."
J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Adande, go to latimes.com/Adande
No comments:
Post a Comment