Kobe Bryant Closes a Thriller in the Bay
Everything that last night’s crushing of the Cavs wasn’t tonight’s win over the Warriors was. This one had it all as the Lake Show outlasted Golden State in a thriller.
Early on it was the Warriors and Monta Ellis that took it to the Lakers. Ellis was unstoppable. His cheetah quicks and ridiculous elevation on those rainbow jumpers were just indefensible. Come to think of it, pretty much everything Golden State did in the first half proved a problem for the Lakers
After GSW opened up a 14 point, second quarter lead, Phil Jackson got his squad to regroup and reassert themselves.
A game that began as a sprint slowed to a marathon as Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom began to control the boards. Most important of all was that the defense was dialed up as the Warriors managed just 22 points in the third. With the tempo slowly shifting in favor of Los Angeles it came time for Kobe Bryant to go to work.
The final frame looked reminiscent of those Lakers-Warriors games in the 90’s as both teams combined to drop an amazing 81 points. KB24 and Ellis dueled in an epic back and forth during a drama filled final four minutes.
Bryant got into that unstoppable zone as he took full advantage of his size advantage over Ellis. Mamba moved in for the kill by mixing it up with clutch jumpers, tough shots in traffic and an amazing and-one that had Kobe waving a finger at the doubters in the stands.
Not to be outdone, Ellis did his thing too helping to keep his squad in it right up until the end. Monta should be at the All-Star game with the way he’s playing this year but tonight belonged to Kobe.
After it was all said and done, Bryant bested Ellis 39 to 38 in the scoring department. Both men shot the lights out. This wasn’t one of those ball-hog type deals. Kobe was 13 of 21 from the field with Ellis going an unreal 15-26 as he played all 48 minutes.
Whew…
Thankfully the Lakers have tomorrow to catch their breath. This was a dazzling display of hoops. The type of game we’ve seen take place many times when these two tangle. While it is exciting ball, the reality is that tonight’s 115-110 win was the 12th consecutive the Lakers have claimed over their division rivals from the North. Not exactly a rivalry any more but certainly well worth the price.