What have we done?
What has he done?
31 Shots. 20 free throws. 0 Rebounds. 3 Assists. 2 Turnovers. 1 Block
61.
The number that matters.
I caught up to him at 27. And it was different. Today you’ll read about his greatness, about taking his place in the annals of the Garden. About his brilliance, and the way he yoked this team after the doom and gloom of Bynum’s injury.
And all of them will overlook what he has wrought.
His name is Kobe Bryant. And hell follows with him.
Maybe we’ll get lucky, and he’ll go back to how he’s been playing. Fun, freewheeling, loving his teammates, ruffling Sasha’s hair, making lightning behind-the-back passes, dicing, slicing, picking his spots. Maybe we’ll see the team leader of a fun and exciting team. I can hate on them all I want for their interior softness and lack of resilience. But it doesn’t change the fact that the Lakers have pushed the boundaries of what’s possible, and Kobe’s redefinition of himself has been a huge part of that.
But this?
This was something else entirely. It was like some sort of mutant form of the old Kobe we used to mock for jacking up shot after shot. He destroyed the Knicks. Floaters. Leaners. Layups. Dunks. And free throw after free throw after free throw. Jordan still sticks out to me, because, come on, I was a kid, and he shot half as many free throws. But they could have let the Knicks hit Kobe with a 2X4 and he likely would have simply banked it off their faces into the net. But there was something resoundly different in it.
There was no joy.
He looked positively weary. Jeffries wraps him up and nearly throws him into the second row on accident and all he does is exhale and walk to the line. He is become death, the destroyer of worlds, and it’s clear to him now.
With this, the tall Spaniard who can score 25 points in a game and still have David Lee make him look like he should be wearing a tutu, with Odom the head case who might fall into paroxysms of laughter at any point, with Ariza who makes such great hustle plays and then throws the ball out of bounds in the backcourt with no pressure on him whatsoever, and Fisher, who defenseses are more and more focusing on to force him into offense outside of a perimeter open shot, and with Bynum, who was frustrating, then brilliant, now injured.
With this, without Bynum, he is out of options.
And you can marvel at the science, at the blinding flash of progress, but recognize that eventually you’ll be in the target radius, and from this?
There may be no witnesses.
Also, the arching, step back, looping fadeaway was positively sickeningly brilliant.
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The only novas I can remember from this season are Bynum and Kobe. What have we become, Paroxites?
Bynum’s back in 8-12 weeks… Do they think he’s going to be in playing shape by the time the playoffs roll around?
…The same playing shape he was supposed to be in for last years playoffs.
I kind of wish they were full strength just so they have no excuses when they lose.
Does that make him Silver Surfer, or the other guy?
actually, i think kobe will realize that the bynum injury gives him the best of both worlds… he will blow up and make his repeat mvp push, and then get bynum back for the final puzzle piece for the championship.
of course this is assuming bynum heals in 8 weeks.
[...] and did you hear Kobe dropped 61 on the Knicks in MSG? According to Hardwood Paroxysm that qualifies him to become Death, The Destroyer of Worlds. And [...]
George, it’s clear the Lakers don’t need Bynum to make it to The Finals (they proved that last year). That means that if Bynum comes back on April 1st and isn’t in great game shape for the start of the playoffs, it probably won’t matter. What will matter is what kind of shape Bynum will be in when June rolls around and he’s had two months of playing time to get back to form. If Bynum comes back on schedule this year then the Lakers won’t need any excuses.
Kobe did take 9 more free throws than Jordan. But he also took 6 fewer shots (Kobe was 19-for-31, Jordan was 21-for-37).
If you convert Kobe’s final 9 free throws into the 4 shot attempts they represent, you still have Kobe scoring 61 points on 35 shots, while Jordan scored 55 points on 37 shots — 3 more shots, 6 fewer points.
As far as I can tell (haven’t been able to find a game log for Jordan’s 55 — probably doesn’t exist), Jordan’s 11 free throws represent 5 fouls, while Kobe’s 20 free throws represent 10 fouls. Given the 5-foul difference, that still means it took Jordan 42 real-world shot attempts (i.e., counting shot attempts that result in free throws) to score 55, while it took Kobe only 41 real-world shot attempts to score 61.
Any way you look at it, that’s more points, less shots — more efficient.
And besides all of that, can someone explain to me why taking free throws is considered a detraction from the overall performance? A pair of free throws usually represents a shot opportunity that the player wasn’t given a legit shot to complete. In many instances, it represents a situation in which the player had beat the defense, which was forced to take a foul, rather than giving up an easy bucket. And that was the case on several occasions last night.
cmon mate. Jordan in his many scoring binges of the 80′s and 90′s used to get to the free throw line a staggering number. check it out.