Luckily for the Lakers and for their fans- but not for the red, white and blue version of LA- Kobe came out firing on all cylinders in the third quarter. He outscored the entire Clippers team by himself, 18-17! Kobe was the absolute epitome of his Black Mamba moniker in the third period. He hit shots from all over the court, striking with deadly speed and accuracy after lying dormant offensively for most of the first half. While he didn’t need to make excuses for his elbow because of his strong performance, I still appreciated that Kobe didn’t in his post g
ame interviews and merely remarked on the need to adjust his shot instead.
I can’t describe how beautiful it is to see Kobe play in person. The jab step and pull up three… the spin move mid-range jumper… I feel like I know his game so well that seeing him use moves in person that I’ve witnessed countless times on television is really special.
To be perfectly honest, it’s incredible to watch all of the Lakers play in person. I really enjoyed Devin Ebanks’ alley-oop pass from Steve Blake at the end of the 4th, as well as Derrick Caracter’s pull up jumper. Even though it is garbage time more or less, it is still real NBA experience for our rookies, and very entertaining.
As mentioned earlier the whole team played well and continued their recent trend of stellar jump shooting. The offense worked especially well by utilizing an inside-out approach with dribble penetration and kicking the ball out. There was lots of ball movement as well, with everyone getting involved. A whopping eight Lakers had at least three assists each and the team finished the game with assists on 33 of their 43 baskets!
One of the top plays of the night for me was easily Shannon Brown’s crazy twisting drive along the baseline when he flipped in a shot under the basket for an and-1 opportunity. It was amazing to see his acrobatics up close. I saw on a later replay that the momentum of his crazy movements carried him into a sort of backwards headstand, which is insane.
Next Page: A Worthy Opponent
