The Black Mamba is one of Africa's most feared snakes. The venom from this snake ensures it's victim a slow painful death. The human embodiment of this monster is none other than Kobe Bryant. He bit the Nuggets early in the game, and they were induced into a comatose state at the end of it.I have to admit, I haven't praised Kobe enough on this blog. I'm always first to criticize when he doesn't play within the offense, and takes too many shots. But in Game 1, this team needed him to be the selfish player Lakers fans know and love.
Bryant came out with a scorer's mentality, shooting 4-7 FG in the 1st quarter, but the Lakers were still down 31-23 in the 1st.
Early on, it was easy to tell that the Denver Nuggets were no Houston Rockets. There is no defender on the Nugs that can come close to guarding Kobe like Shane Battier can.Right away Kobe started working in the post, something he rarely did against Houston. He abused every victim Denver threw at him. Whether it was Dahntay Jones, Anthony Carter, or Josh Smith.
When it came time for the Lakers to deliver in the the crunch of the clutch, Kobe's fingerprints were all over the ball. He sank six free throws in the final 30 seconds. He grabbed the biggest rebound of the game after Josh Smith's intentional missed free throw. He scored 15 of the Lakers last 23 points, while dishing out the biggest assist of the game to a wide open Derek Fisher from three.
Kobe was the reason why the Lakers won the game and he took 28 shots to do it. Usually, that's a death sentence for the team, but they really needed him to keep chuckin' it up.
Pau Gasol, who was Gasofty for three quarters finally manned up and played some defense in the waning minutes to keep the Lakers in the game. He had a good game, but wasn't too noticeable, because he only took nine shots. Some of that was on him, and some of it was on his teammates, but the Lakers really need to establish their bigs early and often.
After all, Kobe can't do it all. He needs the help of his young talented teammates.
The Black Mamba is the second deadliest venomous snake in the world, after the King Cobra. If the Lakers match up against Cleveland, it will be a battle of the two deadliest competitors on Earth...
2 comments:
Kobe still has what it takes to lead the Lakers to a championship,thanks to Jerry West who said he thinks Lebron is a better player at this point in his career.Jerry might be right but i think he is challenging Kobe to step up his game because he knows Kobe was missing a step in the first two rounds.Lets hope that works.
Very good point. Is Jerry West taking a page out of Phil Jackson's book and using psychology against Kobe? I think so. Let's see how Kobe responds in Game 2.
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