November 30, 2010
The Lakers had "Get back on track" written on the board in their dressing room. Mike Conley and the Memphis Grizzlies wouldn't let that happen against them.
Conley scored 10 of his season-high 28 points in the fourth quarter, and the Memphis Grizzlies beat the Los Angeles Lakers 98-96 on Tuesday night, sending the defending champs to their third straight loss.
It's just the second three-game skid for the Lakers since they traded with Memphis for Pau Gasol in February 2008 to team him up with Kobe Bryant and first since March.
The Grizzlies now have won four straight at home and four of five overall.
"Our team came out and competed against one of the best teams in the NBA, and they competed well enough to get a win," Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said.
The Lakers had a chance to at least tie the game or win at the end. Conley lost the ball when he drove the lane and crashed into Pau Gasol. Bryant passed to Ron Artest for a 3-pointer for the win, but Rudy Gay blocked the shot as the Grizzlies held on for their second win in four games against the defending champions. Artest credited Gay with great defense.
"It was well-executed. I learned something from that today ...," Artest said of Gay's block. "That was great execution. His close out was perfect ... He closed out, chopped his feet a little bit. Stayed low, didn't go totally for the head fake and recovered."
Gay, who finished with 14 points, credited his teammates with helping O.J. Mayo defend Bryant who wanted an open look at the end. Gay realizes he's known as a scorer but wants to play better defense.
"The type of defensive-minded team we are here in Memphis, the sky is the limit. We all have aspirations of the playoffs. You have to play defensively every night," Gay said.
Zach Randolph had 13 and eight rebounds for Memphis. Xavier Henry had 12, Marc Gasol had 10 and nine rebounds. Mayo had 11 points off the bench.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson didn't call a timeout, preferring to let Bryant run down and take an open shot.
"I went middle and I had the shot that I wanted, but I lost the handle on the ball while I was going up, so I kicked it to Ron," Bryant said. "Ron took a dribble and shot."
Bryant finished with a game-high 29 points but was 9-of-25 from the floor, including 1-of-6 outside the arc. Pau Gasol had 15 points and 14 rebounds playing mostly against his little brother.
"I think he felt like he had to carry a little bit of the load," Jackson said of Bryant's recent shooting woes. "Kobe's going to come out there and attack if no one else is aggressive enough. He's going to test the defense, and the other guys are going to have to step in."
It looked like it would be a tight game early as the teams swapped the lead 17 times with 13 ties until Marc Gasol's three-point play put Memphis ahead to stay with 3:18 left in the first half. The Grizzlies led 51-49 at halftime and opened the third quarter with a 13-4 run started by consecutive buckets by Conley.
Jackson said his team's problem in this skid is starting sluggishly in the second half.
"Third quarters have been a real problem for us, coming out and having the right energies. Carrying the attack," Jackson said. "We start games relatively well. Our bench has had a little of a struggle right now, and that's the other denominator that's probably common."
The Lakers pulled within 70-65 at the end of the third quarter. Greivis Vasquez opened the fourth with a 3, Mayo hit a 3 and Sam Young hit two free throws for a quick spurt that gave Memphis the biggest lead of the game at 78-65.
The Grizzlies still lead 89-80 and had fans chanting "Defense, defense" when it appeared Bryant had completely missed the bucket with an air ball. The teams were starting to head back down court when an official ruled the Grizzlies had touched the shot, giving it back to Los Angeles.
The Lakers struggled to get a shot off until Shannon Brown's deep 3 beat the shot clock with 4:07 left. That seemed to energize the Lakers who started trimming that lead down. Brown scored again, Bryant hit four straight free throws, then Lamar Odom hit a pair.
But Conley kept answering first with a jumper, then his 3 with 1:41 left. Artest hit a 3 with 59.3 seconds left, and Bryant drove for a layup to pull the Lakers the closest since halftime.
"Defensively, we had trouble keeping in front of him," Jackson said of Conley. "A lot of that's help from the big guys, and a lot of it's his talent."
Los Angeles had its biggest lead of the game at 43-37 on a 3-pointer by Artest with 6:29 left in the second quarter.
The Lakers stayed in the game in the first half thanks to the free throw line, hitting 12-of-14. Bryant made more free throws by himself (6-of-8) than the Grizzlies (5-of-8).
One of Memphis' highlights in the half came when Hasheem Thabeet, the No. 2 pick overall last year, took a charge from Bryant in the final minute of the first half.
Credit: ESPN AP
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November 29, 2010
The Lakers (13-4) played host to a struggling Indiana Pacers (8-7), a welcome home game after a tough loss in Utah. The Lakers have owned the Pacers as of late, winning eleven consecutive and have never lost a game to them at Staples. It’s a brief stay as the Lakers start back-to-back games on the road at Memphis and Houston.
Bryant came out the gates firing, hitting a free throw extended jumper over Brandon Rush as the shot clock expired on the first play of the game. Two trips later Bryant used his quickness advantage as he crossed over Roy Hibbert on the secondary break and finished the play after the contact, ultimately converting the three-point play. At this point one could tell Bryant was going to start testing Rush, as he started to get great low post position, then go to work. Making a couple tough shots, one where he felt Rush on his left shoulder right block, two dribble fade into the lane using his left and finishing over Hibbert. Kobe is great at using what the defense gives him, and took control of the defender with multiple ball fakes and drives to the basket. Bryant must have had three different shots in the first half that he converted after the initial bump. His body control is very exceptional, along with his mid range game. There were a couple tough floaters that he hit after numerous hesitation moves. Bryant connected on a three pointer from the top of the key to end the second quarter down five (52-47). He had 18 at half, but is need of help, as his bigs didn’t come to play. They got out hustled to the boards and let the youthful Hibbert have his way around the basket.
Not much changed in the second half as Kobe hit a few threes, converted an amazing drive to the basket reversed the lay up and finished on the opposite side of the rim. It was the perfect time for that shot because the fans needed something to cheer about, as he converted the three-point play. The Lakers were down by as much as fifteen in the third, so the kind of shots he was making were important. Kobe worked hard in the fourth, knocking down tough jumpers, scoring enough to keep the Lakers within a three point attempt at the buzzer to tie the game. This was a tough loss as it’s the second in a row and first time the Pacers have ever won in LA.
Kobe finished with 41 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists, not enough to edge out the win. There was not much help as Odem scored 15 and Gasol struggled only connecting on 5 of 15. Roy Hibbert, one of the most improved players in the league really gave Gasol the fits. He finished with a team high 24 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists. The Lakers look to rebound in Memphis (8-10) and get back on the winning track.
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November 26, 2010
The Los Angeles Lakers (13-2) are red hot winning their last five in a row and going a perfect 8-0 to open up the season. They have been playing great basketball and are looking like defending champs should. The Utah Jazz (11-5) are a mediocre 3-3 at home, but are playing solid ball and really trying to find themselves after big off season moves and recent injuries, as they have won five of their last six, and now find themselves playing host to the rival Lakers.
“They are a great team”, said Bryant, who before the game called Williams the best point guard in the league, “they got a lot of talent, they play that was all the time. You can take the softest player in the league and put him on the jazz, he’ll turn into a tough guy”
Kobe opened up the game with a sweet no look pas to a cutting Lamar Odom after a great penetration move to the basket, he changed pace on Derron Williams and executed on the drop off as Odom had an easy two early. Anytime Bryant touched the ball the fans haunted him with boos, Utah is a very hard place to play, but Kobe seemed to thrive off negative energy as he immediately went to work on Raja Bell in the post and was on target hitting a beautiful step back fifteen footer, followed by a reverse lay up. Kobe sealed Bell by the basket where he received a great pass from Gasol, which allowed Bryant to lay the ball up without even looking at the rim. Kobe was feeling his shot as he helped push the Lakers to a 33-17 lead at the end of the first quarter. His mid range game looked effortless as he came from either side of the basket and drilled the shot. Bryant seems to be real comfortable at Energy Solutions Arena, as he loved to quiet the chanting fans with unbelievable shots and deadly moves.
He continued the second half as he opened the game, connecting on a jumper off the glass from about 17 feet, with a hand in his face, showing the concentration and complexity of his game. He really understands what the defense is giving him and will take full advantage of the defender as he did on Andrei Kirilenko late in the fourth with an aware move (swing thru shot attempt), pulling up for the three and getting to the free throw line. He is shooting over 86% for the season and thrives off getting there. Kobe continued difficult and utterly amazing shots as he connected on back-to-back contested threes and knocked down a difficult floater over the outstretched arms of two defenders. Shots like that show why he is hands down the best offensive player in the game. Kobe single-handedly kept the Lakers in the game scoring the last 14 points of the game.
In the first 43 min of the game Kobe scored 17 points on 6-17 from the field and 0-2 from behind the arch, in the final 5 min of the game he caught fire scoring 14 on 4-4 fga and 3-3 from three. It was an unbelievable performance, as he led the Lakers with 31 in a loosing effort. Pau Gasol had a great game scoring 21 on 9-14 from the field, collecting 11 rebounds and dropping 5 dimes. Odom had a double double with 16 and 10. It was the overall production of the Jazz bench that ultimately sealed the victory, outscoring the Lakers bench 20-13, out rebounded them 12-6, and out assisted them 7-2, as they pulled off the 102-96 victory.
The Lakers look to get back on their winning streak Sunday night versus the Pacers, a team they have owed of late, especially in LA where they have never lost to the franchise.
By Alexious Osumenya
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November 23, 2010
Out of nowhere one afternoon, Michael Jackson made a call to the irrepressible and isolated Kobe Bryant, and so much changed for him. From a distance, the King of Pop could sense so much of his own obsessive genius within the prodigy. Bryant was the 18-year-old wonder for the Los Angeles Lakers, and no one knew what to make of a restlessness borne of a desperate desire for greatness.
“He noticed I was getting a lot of [expletive] for being different,” Bryant said.
They would talk for hours and hours, visiting at Neverland Ranch, and Bryant has long been fortified by the lessons Jackson instilled about the burden of honoring true talent, about the ways to open your mind to be smarter, sharper and insatiable in the chase.
“It sounds weird, I guess, but it’s true: I was really mentored by the preparation of Michael Jackson,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports.
Bryant isn’t much for nostalgia and sentimentality, but it hung in the air as he cut into his steak over dinner recently in the fourth-floor restaurant at the Graves Hotel. Jackson is gone, but Bryant is going on 15 years with the Lakers.
“We would always talk about how he prepared to make his music, how he prepared for concerts,” Bryant said. “He would teach me what he did: How to make a ‘Thriller’ album, a ‘Bad’ album, all the details that went into it. It was all the validation that I needed – to know that I had to focus on my craft and never waver. Because what he did – and how he did it – was psychotic. He helped me get to a level where I was able to win three titles playing with Shaq because of my preparation, my study. And it’s only all grown.
“That’s the mentality that I have – it’s not an athletic one. It’s not from [Michael] Jordan. It’s not from other athletes.
“It’s from Michael Jackson.”
Bryant wore his Lakers varsity jacket, purple gold. It had several championship trophies across the back. For all the cynicism the years have brought him, a lot of that teenager still lives within. Kobe Bryant is 32 years old now, and he keeps coming and coming like nothing witnessed since Jordan himself.
He’s chasing his sixth championship, a second three-peat, and still, Kobe Bryant doesn’t want to talk about Twitter followers. He doesn’t want to talk about all the Hollywood acting roles he has turned down, the parties and nightlife that he has mostly forsaken in his career. He’s chasing a ticking clock, chasing the ghosts before him – Jordan and Magic and Russell.
The world has changed around Bryant in this modern NBA, but his core basketball values have remained largely untouched and unimpeachable: His will stays greater than yours; his talent evolves but hardly diminishes. His single-mindedness remains maniacal.
“Guys have voices now, want to build brands,” Bryant said. “I don’t identify with it, but I understand where it’s going, why it’s going there. That’s not for me. I focus on one thing and one thing only – that’s trying to win as many championships as I can.”
Yes, he’s got five, and the Lakers stand as a favorite to get him his sixth this season. The false god of celebrity still isn’t intoxicating to him like the grit, the grind of greatness. He still loves the work, craves the pain that comes with pushing himself – pushing everyone. The craft, he calls it: Honor the craft. On the night before every game, he still downloads video into his iPhone from Mike Procopio in Chicago about how opponents may attack him, the way the defenders will rotate to him, the spots where he can feed his teammates the ball – small things beyond the Lakers’ own scouting reports, another edge. Sometimes, they’ll email thoughts back and forth past midnight, which isn’t such a big deal because Bryant seldom sleeps more than three hours a night.
For him, so much of the genius remains in the details.
So when you start a question, “I know you don’t see the end coming … ,” Bryant corrects you quickly. “But it’s a lot closer; I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
And you won’t be the one to stay too long, to make them rip the jersey off your back?
“Just thinking about some of the guys that I take advantage of now, taking advantage of me later – that doesn’t sit too well with me,” Bryant said.
In a lot of ways, Bryant believes he has never been better. Every time he sees Boston Celtics great Bill Russell, they talk about the ways that you grow, about the ways you take your team and mold and push and prod it. The biggest revelations, the epiphanies, have come out of Bryant’s own trial and error, his own successes and failures.
For the modern athlete, his recovery from the scandal of the Eagle, Colorado, assault case has been one of sport’s most remarkable.
“You don’t have a choice,” Bryant said. “You come out of it and you come out of it better than you were. You can crawl up into a little ball like a coward – or you can fight it.”
Well beyond his most trying personal test, Bryant sees the growth within his professional self in the oddest moments and times. Just a week ago, on a cold night in Milwaukee, he had gone to the scorers table to substitute for Shannon Brown. Only, Brown was hot. He hit a 3-pointer, and another, and another, and soon Bryant – waiting to check into the game with Lamar Odom – told Odom that he should take out Luke Walton, and Bryant would get Matt Barnes.
Said Bryant: “Because now I understand: ‘Let him go; let him ride that.’ Back in my younger days, I never would’ve thought about that.”
Ask him what he embraces in his early 30s that he never understood in his 20s, and there’s no hesitation: It’s what everyone insisted he had been a failure with, a perception that he has transformed with two post-Shaquille O’Neal championships.
“How to truly make players better, what that
really means,” he said. “It’s not just passing to your guys and getting them shots. It’s not getting this or that many players into double figures. That’s bull[expletive]. That’s not how you win championships. You’ve got to change the culture of your team – that’s how you truly make guys better. In a way, you have to help them to get the same DNA that you have, the same focus you have, maybe even close to the same drive. That’s how you make guys better.
“I’ve never understood this stuff, where a star player sits out and a team goes into the tank. Well, they need him because he makes them better. Well, if he’s making them better, they should be able to survive without him. That’s how you lead your guys. You’ve got to be able to make guys suffice on their own, without you. If you’re there all the time and they take you away, they shouldn’t need a respirator.
“Once I understood all that, I looked at things completely different. I took my hands off. I didn’t try to control them. I let them make decisions, make their own [expletive]-ups and I was there to try and help them through it.”
As much as anyone, Russell led Bryant to those epiphanies. At an NBA All-Star weekend years ago, Bryant introduced himself to the legendary Celtics center and they’ve never missed a chance to sit and share thoughts and memories since. Things Russell told him years ago made more sense as Bryant grew up, grew older and saw leadership and winning through more advanced prisms. When the rest of the league’s best players were invited to play at the White House this summer, Bryant ended up sitting on the side with Russell because of his knee surgery.
“Bill is always a Celtic, but I think he’s appreciated my thirst for knowledge,” Bryant said.
He’ll never reach Russell’s 11 championships, but he has a chance to pass Magic Johnson’s five championships, pass Michael Jordan’s six and get closest. For as much sense as Russell made to Bryant over the summer in Washington, something else there completely confounded him. As he walked the District’s streets in August, people peppered him with three words: Beat the Heat.
Beat the Heat?
“That’s what I get a lot now,” Bryant said. ‘Beat the Heat.’ ”
Truth be told, it hadn’t occurred to him that would be the mantra for the two-time defending champion Lakers.
“Um, they’re in the East,” Bryant would say.
Which was his polite way of saying: For starters, how about they beat Boston and Orlando? And now, at 8-6, let’s face it: The least of LeBron and the Miami Heat’s worries ought to be Kobe and Los Angeles Lakers.
Bryant won’t call it insulting, only saying: “It’s funny. I get a good chuckle out of it.”
History matters to him, and that’s why you see his eyes grow as wide as half-dollars when the rivalry with the Boston Celtics gets raised. As Bryant attempts to chase down Jordan’s six titles, the Lakers will try to chase down the Celtics’ 17 titles this spring. The NBA scripted the Lakers vs. Heat on Christmas Day, but Bryant is convinced that these things can be so easily manufactured, made to matter because of television marketers.
“It’s another game,” he said. “I don’t think the masses understand that. It’s just another game. It’s the Heat. I mean, Christmas morning, I’m going to open presents with my kids. I’m going to take pictures of them opening the presents. Then I’m going to come to the Staples Center and get ready to work.
“But I’m not doing anything different. I don’t have to.”
The Celtics?
Yes, the Celtics are different.
“Now that’s a war,” Bryant said. “Boston is a great city to go to, all the history. If you’re an opponent, they hate your [expletive] guts – like New York, like Chicago, all those Eastern cities. That’s the one that gets me excited.
“If you’re a basketball purist, that’s the [expletive] you want to see.”
The Celtics have framed Bryant for history. He sees them as championship peers. He lost in six games to Boston in the 2008 Finals and beat them in seven in 2010. For Bryant, who considers himself a direct descendent of the basketball ’80s, there’s a passage to greatness. To be the best player in the sport, well, Bryant promises there’s a rite of passage which comes with the biggest performances in the biggest games, a rite that comes with titles.
History dictates the rules, the criteria, and people don’t get to be called the best player in the sport without earning it the way predecessors did. He wouldn’t sit here over dinner and declare himself the best player in the sport, but he’s never conceded it to LeBron James or Kevin Durant.
Validation comes with victory. This rule doesn’t belong to him; it belongs to history.
“In an individual sport, yes, you have to win titles,” Bryant said. “Baseball’s different. But basketball, hockey? One person can control the tempo of a game, can completely alter the momentum of a series. There’s a lot of great individual talent. Oscar Robertson was a great individual talent. So was Elgin Baylor. Part of my frustration was that I didn’t want to go down that path for the second half of my career. I didn’t want to be a Dominique Wilkins. I didn’t want to be an Elgin Baylor and not win. …
“Part of the pride within me was that I won by being the sidekick. I’m going to be the only player in league history that’s won being a sidekick – and I had a lot of responsibility – going to be the only player to do that, and being the main guy. I’m going to show you that I can do that.
“How do I get to the next level? How do I get everyone around me to the next level? Yeah, you’ve got to win; that’s what I had to do. I was a great individual talent but I wasn’t comfortable with that. I wanted to do more.”
Kobe Bryant wasn’t naming names, but hey, if the Nikes fit …
“Michael wasn’t Michael until he won championships,” Bryant said. “It’s as simple as that.”
In so many ways, this has become an NBA of cliques, buddies hanging out with buddies. James wanted to play with Wade and Bosh. Amar’e Stoudemire, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony have toasted to the possibility of playing together in New York. The draft class of 2003 – James and Wade, Anthony and Bosh – has always run as a pack, always been associates more than adversaries.
Kobe Bryant arrived in the NBA as a lone wolf, has played his whole career that way, and that’s how he’ll leave the league. One of the things which Michael Jackson helped him understand was that, ultimately, you’re competing far more with your own standards, your own limits, than someone else’s. Bryant’s never run around in packs of players, never let his career be judged or driven in the context of his contemporaries.
“That’s how I am,” Bryant said. “That’s what made me tough. I didn’t need other guys to push me. This is me. I’m like this with you, and I’m like this without you. Michael [Jackson] was the same way. That was our connection.”
Once the NBA’s twentysomething stars were done with the stage-smoke shows this summer, the preening, the predicting of five and six championships, they were playing ball at the White House with the president. On a tour of the West Wing, Bryant tried to be hospitable in those most-familiar surroundings.
“You’ve got to go to the bathroom? Oh, go that way, take a left and then turn right,” Bryant said, his head bobbing back in laughter now. “Oh, you want the chef? I know where he is, too. We’ve been a few times.”
Yes, Kobe Bryant kind of liked that one. All he knows is this: Between now and the London Olympics in 2012, one of his U.S. teammates ought to do himself a favor and win a championship. Otherwise, it’ll be a long, hot summer of Bryant riding them all. Around Team USA, they’ll tell you that Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade were the two Americans who had the dispositions to dominate in the gold-medal game’s fourth quarter. “Our alpha dogs,” one official said.
Privately, there are plenty of national-team elders and coaches who are curious about how that chemistry will work in 2012. Mostly, they wonder whether James will see it as his time, his team, with Bryant 34 years old. From the return of the Miami clique to the arrival of Kevin Durant, it’ll be a different dynamic, a different vibe.
For a moment, Bryant tried to answer it diplomatically.
“Um, I don’t know,” he said.
Only, Kobe Bryant did know – and finally said so.
“Actually, I really don’t give a [expletive]. I’m not curious about it. Give me my [expletive] gold medal and then let me try to win another NBA championship. Let’s practice, have a good time, and if you need me in the last two minutes of the game, I’ll be coming in to pull the [expletive] out.”
And there you go. Whatever everyone thought would happen this summer, here we are in November and something hasn’t changed in the NBA: They’re still chasing Bryant. Every year, something else is going to stop him. This time, it was the knee. It was LeBron and Wade on South Beach. Something. It’s always something.
“They don’t learn,” Bryant said. “I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. No matter what the injury – unless it’s completely debilitating – I’m going to be the same player I’ve always been. I’ll figure it out. I’ll make some tweaks, some changes, but I’m still coming.”
Bryant is 32, chasing Jordan and Russell the way the rest of the twentysomethings chase him. And now he sits up straight and says it one more time, because he wants to make sure everyone understands the truth of the matter.
“I’m still coming.”
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