Lakers 103, Bulls 91
December 18th, 2007, 7:49 pm · 3 Comments · posted by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
CHICAGO — The Lakers have been waiting and waiting — waiting too much without bold action for an offseason Kobe Bryant’s liking – since re-pairing Bryant with Phil Jackson two-plus years ago for some of that old magic to spark.
Here in the city where Jackson ruled before and Bryant thought he could rule again, something definitely crystallized Tuesday night.
The Lakers played with the sort of controlled solidity that has marked their consistent success the past two weeks and beat the Bulls. The Lakers played well all game and then played great in the fourth quarter – especially with Bryant on the floor with Lamar Odom, Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar and Andrew Bynum.
BOARD ROOM
Odom had nine rebounds in the first quarter … but then didn’t have his 10th until 34.9 seconds remained in the second quarter. He finished with 17 points and 16 rebounds.
FISHER TECHNICAL
Derek Fisher got a rare technical foul for disputing a charging call against him 1:13 before halftime, but Fisher spent part of the halftime break having a long, civilized discussion with referee Monty McCutchen about what happened.
DID YOU SEE THAT?
A happy Bryant said something to a sad Luol Deng with 3:24 to play after Bryant stole the ball and threw a fancy hit-ahead pass for Odom to dunk for a 97-83 Lakers lead.
NEXT
Lakers at Cleveland, 5 p.m. Thursday, KCAL/9, TNT, KLAC/570
December 19th, 2007 at 1:44 am
The Lakers team are beginning to enjoy the game and it is good. This means a more cohesive Lakers team will be on the floor on any given gamenight.
December 19th, 2007 at 2:25 am
Hi Kevin, enjoy reading your blog.
I was wondering if you can tell me why Kobe Bryant, who is considered the best player in the league today, unable to shoot for a higher percentage on his FG attempts?
Is it because opponents gear their defense to stop Kobe? If that’s the case, how were other HOF’ers able to accomplish the feat?
Some friends have suggested to me that it’s because of Kobe’s questionable shot selection. It seems Phil and Tex have both questioned Kobe’s shot selection as recent as this season. So why can’t Kobe raise his basketball IQ like the other HOF’ers and become more efficient on the offensive end? Even worse shooters than Kobe, such as Wade and James, are much more efficient.
Wade and James understand their weaknesses and counters it by going strong to the hoop or shoot shots that they are comfortable shooting. The result? Close to 50 percent for both players since their 2nd year in the league.
Is it because Kobe is stubborn? Is it because Kobe isn’t as good as people make him out to be? Or maybe a little of both?
-Jeffs Aho
December 23rd, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Jeffs:
No doubt that field-goal percentage is one of the stats that stand out if you try to compare Kobe’s and Michael Jordan’s career’s. But keep in mind that Bryant has spent most of his career playing guard, whereas Jordan played small forward in the triangle (it’s a lot easier when you are closer to the basket). Bryant has gotten to play more wing the past two years, but he’s mostly at guard again this season — meaning more perimeter jumpers. Now that he’s older, he is even less inclined to go inside and get banged around a ton — which is logical.
When you compare him to guys like Wade and James, Bryant shoots more 3-pointers first, especially compared to Wade. James, meanwhile, is taller, heftier and way younger than Bryant … all reasons why he takes the ball to the hole way more than Bryant does.