Jeremy Lin Upstages Kobe Bryant As Lakers Lose To Knicks
Who is this Jeremy Lin cat? Doesn’t he know an understudy isn’t supposed to steal the show from the lead? Normally it’s Kobe Bryant who headlines the Garden when the Lake Show is in NYC. But that’s not the case when a new named Linsanity show is all the rage on Broadway.
Before tonight Bryant said didn’t know anything of what Lin had been doing over the last week. Don’t call Kobe a hater. You’ll excuse him if he hasn’t had time to catch a late night highlight show during this season long road trip for Los Angeles.
However after tonight that has all changed as Kobe and the Lakers got a front row seat to the hottest ticket in the Big Apple. Linsantiy didn’t fail to live up to the hype. The Cali native dropped a career best 38 in an electrifying performance nobody in attendance will soon forget. Lin was dropping dimes in the open court, hitting monster shots at key moments and couldn’t be kept out of the lane.
All that Lin almost made Kobe an after thought. Almost…
Bryant still did his thing at MSG. He got off to a sluggish start scoring 10 as the Lakers slumped through and ugly first half. The second half was when KB24 got it going as he dropped 24 of his 34 in the second frame. Toss in 10 boards is wasn’t exactly an off-night but it was definitely a struggle for Kobe and the Lake Show.
It was an uphill battle all night for L.A. as the offense sputtered and was downright lazy. 24 three point attempts to just 6 makes. Please Mike Brown, don’t let this team get comfortable behind the arc. When that happens you know it’s going to be a long night.
Nobody had a worse night than Andrew Bynum. This is one of those games when you wonder how a physical seven footer like Drew can vanish before your eyes. 3 points on just 8 attempts is about as offensively inept as it gets for a big man with Bynum’s game. He hit the boards but in game that featured some rugged offense there were plenty of rebounds to go around.
When one of the Lakers’ big three has a bad night you know there is not chance. Still, this game was there for the taking late in the fourth. That was until Lin got going again. His energy is infectious, so is his inexperience though. Some careless Knick turnovers almost got the Lakers back into this one.
In the end there was no answer for Lin and no rhythm for L.A.’s offense.
You can understand the Lakers struggling after a tough contest in Boston one night before. That is no excuse for being lazy on offense, settling for long shots and not taking advantage of the size in the post. It’s not like Pau Gasol and Drew weren’t getting touches. They just weren’t aggressive enough.
Coach Brown needs to start getting his team dialed in. Preparing for the opposition is difficult given the nature of the schedule. But that doesn’t excuse not giving maximal effort. The Lakers might not have had a book on Lin but nobody does at this point. Playing solid team defense and executing on offense are something that should happen no matter the opponent.
With one stop left on the Grammy trip the Lakers are now off to Canada. Toronto might not have Linsanity playing but I guarantee a Laker loss if they play this flat again.