Arena The NBA Thread

@BillSimmons: Kobe Bean Bryant... GOOD GOD

 

what'd he do?

 

lol, i swear trimaj is the only person on the jc who seems to only have access to this one website.

anyway, it sure looks like kobe is single-handedly going to will the lakers into the playoffs. i honestly think if he does it will be one of his most impressive feats as a player, especially when you factor in his age and all the miles he's already put on those knees. willing them out of the first round on the other hand, now that would be a near miracle.

 

Kobe's 3 3-pointers in the final 2 minutes of the 4th quarter.





His dunk toward the end of overtime.





Another game with 40+ points (41), 12 assists, and a few "Holy ****, holy ****!" moments that still have me grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Not to be forgotten: Nash hitting a rather key 3-pointer with 45 seconds left in OT (22 in total for the evening), Howard's impressive double double (24/13, and added 5 blocks along the way), and Meeks/Jamison/Blake doing all the other work needed to have kept the Lakers afloat last night. Damn, what a thrill!



anyway, it sure looks like kobe is single-handedly going to will the lakers into the playoffs. i honestly think if he does it will be one of his most impressive feats as a player, especially when you factor in his age and all the miles he's already put on those knees. willing them out of the first round on the other hand, now that would be a near miracle.


Shades of the '05-'06 season (in which Kobe should have won the MVP), except the talent is better on this team, but that talent is old, old, old.






Playoffs?

 

@ tom

it's more i knew tunes would post something about it sooner or later. that and i was busy last night.

 

Amare needs another knee surgery.

 

The Grizzlies have won 12 out of thier last 13 games. Yeah, that Rudy Gay trade really sunk this team!

 

yeah, i've seen him do pretty much that exact dunk before. what set this one apart was knight laying flat on his back in the aftermath. just brutal.

 

damn. just damn.

 

So how fast did Wiki take that down?

Edit: The little kids all excited and everything make that vid extra special.

 

ok. this just has to be said. tom, seeing wyatt earp every time you post is just so very, very weird.

 

what's weird is that kurt russell doesn't sport a moustache like that ALL THE TIME.

 

i'd imagine it would get in the way of any number of things.

 

oh god this just kills me.

 

now that is a good tweet.

 

Yeah, that was a rather niiiiiiiiiice dunk, but excuse me if I don't get all sorts of excited over it. This* also happened at Staples yesterday:






They are movin' on up to the 8th seed, and hopefully stay there or rise further. As thrilling as the past two games were, it was a nice change of pace to see the Lakers heading into the 4th quarter with lead & maintaining it. Dwight & Kobe are playing better together (Dwight physically will not be 100% this season, but he seems to be in a better place mentally), and for all of D'Antoni's ills, his decision to basically only play Meeks-Jamison-Blake off the bench has done wonders. 3 games on the road this week: Orlando**, Atlanta, Indiana... I foresee a 2-1 trip.



*Also happening was a convergence of 2 things I can't stand about the NBA: the Noche Latina uni's (shameless pandering in my opinion... wow, so a jersey reads 'Los Bulls' or 'Los Lakers', that means they care soooooooo much about Hispanics!) & the Lakers white Sunday alternates that have plagued the franchise for almost a decade now.



**I wonder if the fans in Orlando will care enough to give Dwight the treatment throughout the entire game as was the case with this player's return to his original franchise:


.

 

The offensive player is bigger and had forward momentum (as opposed to the smaller defender, who just jumped straight up). It's not a big deal.

Why do people act as if it is?

 

I was at that game, Tunick. Took a bus from NYC, got stuck in snow in Buffalo, and still made in time to boo until my voice was gone.

The moment I knew it was gonna be like nothing else I'd ever experienced was when, during the national anthem-- DURING it, when everyone is usually quiet-- shouts of "**** you LeBron!" still rained down from all over the Q.

 

I've yet to be able to go to Staples for a game this season, and in all likely hood will have to wait until the 2013-2014 season to do so.

 

That booing was the loudest I'd ever heard the Q, which includes having been at one of the Boston/Cleveland playoff games the season prior. It was so incredible, I just wish we could have hung in there a bit longer during that game.

 

*


Howard certainly got booed when first introduced, and throughout the game, but the level of vitriol/passion was nowhere near Cleveland levels... it also wasn't good (for the Orlando perspective) that there was a decent amount of Laker fans in attendance. 25/39**... Howard's numbers at the free throw line. 39 attempts! Many of those coming late in the 4th quarter, when the game was out of reach for Orlando, and got me to nearly throw the remote at the television. It's a near miracle he hit 25 of them, but thank goodness he did. Kobe was a little reckless with the ball (4-14 from the field), MWP showed sign of offensive competence (which means he won't do so again for another 3 weeks), and the shortened bench continued to play well, but this game was all about Dwight.




*One of the little things I love about the Laker coverage on TWC SportsNet is their use of the team's logos (as opposed to the generic 'LAL' used on many other networks) on the onscreen scoring bug.


**Dwight may have tied his own/the NBA record with the 39 free throw attempts, but that marks a new Laker record (Shaq had it previously with 31 FTA's in a game).