I made a little mention in my story tonight about Jazz guard Deron Williams being quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune calling second-year teammate Ronnie Brewer the “Kobe Stopper” after Bryant’s 4-for-16 shooting in the teams’ Oct. 24 exhibition game. Bryant (13 of 19 in this Lakers victory) obviously did a little better this time despite his right wrist still hurting from that exhibition game.
Here’s what Williams said after this game: “It was a little frustrating. I mean, Ronnie did a great job of contesting a lot of Kobe’s shots. And it’s frustrating when guys that you don’t expect come in and contribute like that, come in and hit shots like that.”A lot of opponents can accept that Bryant will get hot and take over games at times — especially toward the end. But there’s no doubt that Lakers opponents do not believe they should be losing to Jordan Farmar, Ronny Turiaf, Andrew Bynum, Vladimir Radmanovic, etc. (even though I’ve been saying here from the beginning that the Lakers’ depth is more impressive than people grasp).
Utah’s Carlos Boozer said: “He (Bryant) was being unselfish, and other guys stepped up and had a great game.”
Here is hoping Lakers keep this up!!
Lakers look deep and that’s with Odom out, Mihm not being at his best and a players (whose name I would not mention) looking quite dispensable.
The next game against the Hornets will prove to be quite a challenge and I am eager to see how Lakers play. Chris Paul always had our number in the Smush Parker era, but things might be different with our new lineup. Chandler has had 20 rebound games against us, so I would be curious to see what out frontline does.
I’m a Laker fan but a bit skeptical still because they beat both Phoenix and Utah on the 2nd of back-to-back playing nights while Kobe and Co. were on fresh legs.