Last night’s loss to the Utah Jazz was ugly to say the least. The Los Angeles Lakers just couldn’t keep up with a motivated Jazz squad led by Paul Milsap. There was a chance the Lake Show could’ve come out on top with a late push in the fourth quarter, but the Lakers fell short with time expiring, 103-99.
Despite only the third loss of the season (19-3 home record) at the Staples Center, All-Star center Andrew Bynum had yet another great game with 33 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Lakers. As a result of his impressive play over the past week, Bynum was named as Western Conference Player of the Week as he continues to make strides as a well-rounded center.
Kobe Bryant on the other hand had arguably his worst game of the season and perhaps his worst performance in recent memory. After shooting an awful 3-for-20 from the floor, the Black Mamba had this to say about his extremely poor shooting via Mark Medina of L.A. Times:
“I had some nice looks,” Bryant said. “But I couldn’t make a shot.”
“There’s plenty of things to pay attention to about than my shot selection,” said Bryant, who’s maintained a league-leading 29-point scoring average. “I didn’t force anything. It was all easy looks. I only took 20 shots.”
Even though Kobe Bryant did only take 20 shots against the Jazz on Monday night, it would be hard to argue that the team wouldn’t have benefited more by giving Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum more touches with Kobe struggling. With Bynum continuing to become more and more of a force offensively, the debate over the team’s first option in the offense will begin to heat up from here on out.
