Thing That is Entirely Not Surprising
To begin with, Kobe Bryant scoring ridiculous numbers is fairly common. Also, Kobe doing amazing things while under intense scrutiny and pressure is a well-established happening. So given the situation with Andrew Bynum, we should have known Kobe would have a 60 point game waiting.
Oh yeah, he did it in Madison Square Garden to set a record.
How did no one guess this would happen? Kobe’s ego is the biggest in the NBA since Jordan (both deservedly so), and that drives him to show that he’s the best player on Earth. On a big stage, in a big spot, there’s exactly one player who should be expected to go bonkers: Kobe Bryant.
I’m just sad I missed the first 22 minutes watching the Blazers.
Another Thing That is Not Surprising
Remember that meme about the Spurs winning championships in odd years? Remember how this is an odd year? Remember how the only team that could challenge the Lakers this year are the Spurs? Remember how the Spurs struggle against the Hornets? Remember how we found out that the Lakers were losing Andrew Bynum, and on the same day Chris Paul got hurt? Remember how at the same time Manu Ginobili was getting back to playing like himself after returning from injury?
When the Spurs are celebrating their title in June, just remember Groundhog’s Day.
Thing That Some Idiot Columnist Will Probably Write
Sure Kobe Bryant scored 61 points, but how come he didn’t grab any rebounds? And why didn’t he have more than three assists? His ball hogging ways are the reason that the Lakers struggled with the Knicks. If he would have got his teammates involved, the Lakers would have won by more points. However, Kobe is too selfish to do that.
Which columnist is going to write that exact paragraph?
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probably someone with the initials JH, who also said that the lakers would’ve won the jan 22, 2006 game against toronto with a bigger margin had kobe not scored 81 points.
Paul Forrester on CNNSI has written that this article this morning. Here’s a paragraph from his article…
With news of Andrew Bynum’s two-to-three-month absence (due to a torn ligament in his right knee) still ringing in the Lakers’ ears, Bryant hatched a new gameplan that is all too familiar, calling his own number to the exclusion of his 11 teammates. Though breathtaking in his offensive dominance, Bryant offered a mere three assists while ignoring open teammates all evening long.
You can find that article here
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/paul_forrester/02/03/kobe.scores.61/index.html?eref=T1
I guess my comment got moderated because I quoted an article. Lesson learned.
Everyone should check CNNSI out though. That paragraph was written last night in an article on there.
The worst part of the article was:
“…after the Lakers entered halftime with only an 11-point lead.”
Only an 11 point lead?
Kobe clearly had the Lakers all out of sync as evidenced by the double-digit lead LA had most of the night and the way they were up 18 or so late in the 4th quarter. Also, Kobe’s insanely high shot total of THIRTY-ONE(!!!) led to the rest of his teammates doing practically nothing (see Pau Gasol’s meager 31 point, 14 rebound effort). If Kobe hadn’t been shooting so well, maybe the Lakers could have scored upwards of 140 points last night, instead of only getting 126. What an asshole.
By the way, I’m still not buying the Spurs as a viable contender, and it comes down to how much they’ve fallen off defensively from where they were even a year ago. Sure, last year against the Lakers Manu was hurt, but this year if the Spurs can’t defend the way they used to, do you really see them outscoring LA with the roster they have? Even if TP, Duncan and Manu go off for 30 a game each, that’s still only 90 points. If they can’t stop LA from scoring 110 on them, they’re done.