Hawks 98, Lakers 95
February 6th, 2008, 6:29 pm · 3 Comments · posted by KEVIN DING, OCREGISTER.COM
ATLANTA – The Lakers might be better with Pau Gasol, but it’s still useful to have a functioning Kobe Bryant.
Without Bryant’s jump shot for the second consecutive night, the Lakers couldn’t pull out a victory against a more energized Atlanta team on Wednesday night. Bryant shot 4 for 16 from the field and had 11 points, the fewest of the Lakers’ starters.
Bryant’s hand injury suffered Tuesday night left him unable to shoot the way he normally does. He missed his first eight shots of the second half, including a driving layup and then a foul-line jumper after Atlanta had taken an 88-87 lead with 3:40 to play.
Derek Fisher (17 points) came up wide left a long 3-pointer at the buzzer that could’ve forced overtime.
NO REST
Even with this being the Lakers’ fifth game in seven days, Phil Jackson held a morning shootaround … mostly so he could have Bryant get on the court to work with the ball and various tape jobs on his dislocated right pinky finger.
KOBE FOR 3
Bryant, who has won the dunk contest and taken part in the skills competition previously, will try the All-Star 3-point shooting contest for the first time Feb. 16. The competition is Daniel Gibson, Richard Hamilton, Nash, Jason Kapono and Peja Stojakovic.
POOR MIHM
Despite going through his shockwave treatments, center Chris Mihm still has soreness in his reconstructed right ankle and is trying to manage the pain as he attempts to return to action.
NEXT
Lakers at Orlando, 4 p.m. Friday, KCAL/9 (5:30 p.m.), KLAC/570
February 7th, 2008 at 3:11 am
Given Bryant’s propensity to shoot the Lakers in and out of games, it was surprising to see such a poor defensive display by him tonight against Joe Johnson.
Granted, it was the 2nd game of a back to back, and having been given “the best player in the game” by so-called pundits, one would expect Bryant to do a better job against JJ.
The last time I checked, a dislocated pinky doesn’t affect the player’s ability to move his feet.
As I’ve noted before, it’s strange how many games Lakers lose to inferior opponents (close games too) given the fact that the Lakers have Bryant. One would assume having his “clutchness” would matter.
I guess not.
Jeffs Aho
February 7th, 2008 at 11:36 am
No one ever seems to understand how many games the Lakers lose at the line. They were 10 for 16. Atlanta 15 for 16. The Lakers lose by 3.
The Lakers seem to feel the points from the charity stripe are no big deal. Everytime they lose a close game you can look to the free throws missed and find the reason. You implied the Lakers faltered after hearing of O’Neals trade to Phoenix. Baloney! I don’t think many of the Lakers are loseing any sleep over Shaq. In fact I don’t see where he is going to add much to Phoenix in point production or defense. I like Shaq but he’s a long way from what he was with the Lakers.
February 7th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
As angry as a loss to the Hawks is, I will accept it and move on. However, one thing that really concerns me is Lakers habit of horrible execution in crunch time. Most of our victories this season have come because we blew out teams early and managed to maintain large leads. However, when it came to close games, we have choked up more often than not. For a team that boasts having the best closer in the game (which I question), that’s simply unacceptable. For a team that boasts the best coach in the game, I wonder what none of the plays Phil draws during crunch time ever materialize, or even allow anybody to get a decent shot at winning games.
As we all know, playoffs games are likely to be very close and competitive games and I don’t think we can succeed with the terrible crunch time execution this team has shown so far.