By J.A. Adande
ESPN.com
Kobe Bryant and the Lakers took charge of the West race with a 106-85 win over a Spurs team struggling without Manu Ginobili. The Lakers can clinch the No. 1 seed with a win Tuesday.
In First Place, Lakers Look Second To None In West
LOS ANGELES -- It's foolish to draw any conclusions in the Western Conference, where the playoff picture changes in the time it takes to click the refresh button on your browser. But as the regular season draws to a close the Los Angeles Lakers are starting to match results to their ability, which would make them the team to beat. They're starting to think in those terms, too.
"We've put ourselves in position to firmly believe," Lakers guard Derek Fisher said.
They also put themselves atop the Western Conference with a 106-85 victory over the San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center Sunday.
The strange thing was how unplayoff-like it felt at the end, with Kobe Bryant sitting out the entire fourth quarter and Tim Duncan heading to the bench for good with 6:40 remaining. But the lack of suspense at the end came about because the Lakers dominated the third quarter, playing some postseason-caliber defense, holding the Spurs to 14 points on 3-for-17 shooting. Defense has been the biggest question mark for the Lakers. They've been burned by quick point guards (Tony Parker was at it again in the first half, when he scored 18 points). They have failed to rotate out to 3-point shooters. They haven't had a full-time presence in the middle since Andrew Bynum went down in January.
That changed in the third quarter Sunday. They stayed in front of Parker, who scored only two more points. Pau Gasol blocked a Duncan hook shot, one of 13 misses by Duncan.
"I think we've found our defensive identity," Bryant said. "We're very aggressive. We have a tremendous amount of versatility in wings and bigs who are athletic and long. We can get after guys."
Lamar Odom continues to do work on the defensive boards. He grabbed 12 of them Sunday, his third consecutive game with double figures in that category. Ronny Turiaf provided the usual boost of energy off the bench. And Fisher's torn tendon in his foot is feeling well enough that he went to Jackson and requested more playing time last week.
The Lakers had some doubts about their playoff readiness as recently as coach Phil Jackson's pregame media session Sunday, when he lamented, "We're playing minutes well, we're not playing large segments of games well."
The second half of a nationally televised game against the defending champions should count as a large enough segment. Afterward, Jackson called it a complete victory, with Vladimir Radmanovic the only member of the Lakers' top nine players who didn't make a significant contribution.
Fisher made an interesting comparison to the Lakers' three-peat teams of the start of the decade. They were built around Shaquille O'Neal, with Bryant able to play off him, and veterans around to plug in the gaps.
Now, "We're built to play as a team and not rely on individual talents of other guys," Fisher said. "Hopefully that can carry us a long way." Bryant has been more than happy to involve everyone and not carry the load himself. As a result he'll be fresher for the playoffs, when superstars have to make the difference.
Bryant had 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes Sunday, and was already icing his knees as the final minutes elapsed.
Instead of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with Bruce Bowen, then contending with Duncan at the rim, Bryant whipped passes to Fisher or dumped it inside to Gasol. Occasionally Bryant pulled up for a jumper of his own. And he capped the third quarter by gathering a lead pass from Gasol, collecting himself just behind the 3-point arc and shooting a shot that dropped through the net with 0.1 seconds left.
"Estamos aqui," he said to Gasol back on the bench ("We're here"), as Bryant gestured to their eyes.
The Spurs could have used some more Spanish in their lineup. Their star from Argentina, Manu Ginobili, sat out with what the team called a strained left abductor. In addition, Brent Barry and Robert Horry missed the game with injuries.
"I'm really concerned about Robert," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "I don't know when we're going to get him back [if] at all. The knee is really bothering him.
"And Brent has been gone forever. I'm hoping I can get him some minutes either tomorrow night or the Utah game."
It's possible the Spurs could go into the playoffs banged-up and without home-court advantage. They have enough experience to win on the road, but would they wear down from the extra travel?
And can they beat anybody in the competitive West if they don't address the offensive problems and defensive lapses they showed Sunday?
"Sometimes we get in ruts when we're not moving the ball," Bowen said. "Third quarter, it was evident today.
"We didn't do a good job on [defensive] transitions today and it's evident in a lot of 3-point shots they got in transitions or the lay-ups in transitions. Those are our areas that you can correct, fortunately. This was a game that we wanted to compete better than we did today."
They can get Ginobili back, they can get their championship ways back. The thing is, this isn't the time to go on a search-and-rescue mission. You want to have everyone and everything accounted for, peaking for the postseason. Like the Lakers are.
At the end of March the Lakers lost back-to-back home games to Charlotte and Memphis. Since then they've won seven of eight, including victories over playoff-bound Washington, Dallas, New Orleans and now the Spurs.
"Going into the playoffs it's about momentum," Bryant said. "It's about who's playing well. We sure are playing good basketball right now."
J.A. Adande is the author of "The Best Los Angeles Sports Arguments." He joined ESPN.com as an NBA columnist in August 2007 after 10 years with the Los Angeles Times. Click here to e-mail J.A.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Lakers on a roll going into the 2008 NBA Playoffs
Kobe leaps over a speeding Aston Martin coming straight at him in LA!
They call Shaq 'Superman'.....I beg to differ.
Kobe can claim that title now....enjoy!
1st vs. 2nd in Ultra-Competitive Western Conference (Winner - Lakers!)
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Lakers show both strength and vulnerability in big win
LOS ANGELES -- So the bout went to Kobe Bryant, by decision, not knockout, after the Los Angeles Lakers had Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets down on the canvas but let them back in the fight.
Bryant took a step toward winning the MVP award (more on that in a moment) and the Lakers secured one of the top four seeds in the Western Conference by clinching the Pacific Division with a 107-104 victory over New Orleans on Friday night. But the Lakers didn't erase all doubts about their potential playoff soft spots by allowing the Hornets to chop a 30-point lead down to one. And it looks increasingly doubtful that Andrew Bynum will come back to help them in the middle.
That's the holdup, the one thing that keeps the Lakers from obtaining clear-cut No. 1 status in this crowded field. Even on this night, they looked great at times ... but not invincible.
Bynum met with the media before the game, and the news was that there was no news -- still no estimated date for his return, still not enough improvement in the left kneecap he injured Jan. 13. He has pain in the knee and can feel himself compensating for the imbalance in his legs. He's also wary of doing any long-term damage by returning too soon.
"I'm going to play when I'm ready," Bynum said. "Right now, I'm not."
The optimistic take is that he could return for the second round of the playoffs. But some in the organization are bracing for the possibility he won't be back at all this season.
Bryant said he told Bynum to take all the time he needs.
"The pieces are here," Bryant said, meaning championship components. "No need to rush.
"The unit that we have right now is good enough to get the job done. But with him in there, you can have something that's pretty special."
If you turned off the game in the first half, you must have envisioned a Lakers championship parade.
They pounced on the Hornets and outscored them 39-20 in the first quarter. The Lakers have one of the league's most potent offenses, and they'd had a 39-point opening quarter earlier this season. The surprise was that the Hornets, fifth in the league in points allowed, could be so bad defensively.
"They were aggressive on both ends of the floor, and we didn't match that aggressiveness," Hornets forward Peja Stojakovic said.
When the Lakers were rolling just after the Pau Gasol trade in February, they were putting opponents away. Lately, they've had to keep the starters in the game, and that was the case Friday.
Lakers coach Phil Jackson said the problem was on offense. Even though they were playing with the lead, the Lakers took 14 3-pointers in the second half, making only three, and they had 10 turnovers.
"We just didn't stay precise," Jackson said. "We let them run through passes, get underneath, destroy our screen rolls. We have to work at that as a coaching staff."
The one encouraging sign for L.A. was that after a barrage of Peja 3-pointers nearly made the Hornets' comeback complete, the Lakers came up with three straight defensive stands that resulted in a steal, a blocked shot and a steal.
Western Conference favorites? Who knows? That mythical role changes hands nightly, especially after the Phoenix Suns took another step back by losing at the Houston Rockets. Currently, the Lakers sit in second, one half-game behind the Hornets in a race that could affect not only the conference playoff seedings but the MVP results.
As campaign statements go, Friday night wasn't exactly Barack Obama's speech on race relations for either Bryant or Paul.
"I don't think either one of them had the best games I've seen them play, that's for sure," Jackson said.
Bryant had 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, while Paul had 15 points, six rebounds and 17 assists. In a sense, they played exactly the type of games that have made them top candidates -- not trying to do everything themselves, helping in a variety of ways.
"Anything that your team needs in a big part of the game, that's what those guys provide," said New Orleans guard Jannero Pargo, a former Lakers teammate of Bryant. "I think that's why they're up for MVP. And that's why they're great players."
Bryant scored a smooth 10 points in the first quarter, and Jackson credited him with providing the energy to power the Lakers' early surge.
The biggest knock on Paul on Friday: He didn't score his first points until the Lakers led 63-33 in the first half. An MVP has to do something before the other team scores 63, right?
"I wasn't trying to make no statements, impress no voters or whatever," Paul said. "This is an 82-game season. If we've got to determine how I played or how he played off of one game, then it's a problem."
Bryant said he's just adapting to the unofficial balloting guidelines that led to Steve Nash winning the trophy in back-to-back seasons.
"MVP nowadays is not an individual award," Bryant said. "You really have to make your teammates better and elevate your ballclub. For me to be nominated in that race is a tremendous honor.
"I've been [playing team ball] all year. It's nothing new. I moved the ball, I read the defenses, just stay within the framework of what we do."
He did have a flashback to his early days with an over-the-head dunk in the fourth quarter. He seems to like showing us he still has his athleticism, even if it's enhanced by special effects in that Web video of him jumping over a speeding sports car.
"I have superhuman strength," Bryant said.
"I have a new nickname. My new nickname is 'Cape.'"
Self-appointed nicknames? Isn't that Shaquille O'Neal's gimmick? Maybe he absorbed a little bit of Shaq's mind during the shooting of that other new commercial, in which he shares the screen and words with the Diesel.
"It turned out great," Bryant said.
"It's a great concept. It hypes up the playoffs and it's a lot of fun."
These playoffs don't need any more hype. Every team has strengths and flaws, which is what makes it so unpredictable. The Lakers and Hornets both presented their cases for and against Friday night. You saw a little bit of what makes Bryant and Paul so valuable. Ultimately, the impression was more favorable for the Lakers, and when the Staples Center crowd chanted "M-V-P", it carried just a little more weight this time.
J.A. Adande is the author of "The Best Los Angeles Sports Arguments." He joined ESPN.com as an NBA columnist in August 2007 after 10 years with the Los Angeles Times. Click here to e-mail J.A.
M....V....P!!!! (Lovely hearing this at Staples!)
Monday, April 7, 2008
Why Kobe won't win the MVP
Last week, my partner in crime wrote a column about how uncomfortable she will be when Kobe Bryant receives the 2008 MVP award. Well, no disrespect to Jemele (Ms. Hill to those of us who know her), but Kobe Bryant will not win the MVP this year. And if recent history proves consistent, he might finish behind Alonzo Mourning in the voting.
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| Kobe Bryant is to the MVP what Ralph Nader is to the presidency. |
Which leads us back to the hate: A man averages 35.4 ppg, the eighth-highest average in the history of the league; he gives you 5.3 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.8 steals; he has 27 games of 40-plus points, has one month where he averages 43.4 ppg, scores 81 in one game and outscores an entire team in another (the 62-point game against Dallas where he sat out the fourth quarter); he is on the all-defensive first team (something not one of the other players in the MVP running is included on); and he leads a CBA-built team to the playoffs. The man has a season that no one is likely to see for another generation and he comes in fourth in the MVP voting that year. That same man, the very next year, averages 31.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.4 steals for the "fedora trick"; he has 10 games of 50-plus points, only the second person in NBA history to do so in a single season (including a four-in-a-row stretch that hadn't been seen in more than 20 years); he makes the all-defensive first team again; and this time he takes a YBA-built squad to the playoffs. In a season that many claim is more "complete" than the season before, the man this time comes in third in the MVP voting. How bad is it for Kobe? In a 2004-05 season in which Kobe averaged 27.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 6.0 assists, P.J. Brown -- yes, you read right -- received more MVP votes than he did, and Brown received only one vote. How many games did the Hornets win that year? 18. (And it's not just the sportswriters. In that never-to-be-seen-again 2005-06 season, the GMs around the league, who have their own MVP voting, had Bryant fifth on their ballots.) And nothing is going to make this season any different.
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| Kobe Bryant finished behind P.J. Brown in the 2004-05 MVP voting. Yes, you read that correctly. |
So the reality is this: As nice -- and I mean nice in a This-dude-is-on-some-beyond-Steve-Nash level -- as Chris Paul's game has been all season long (his full name during broadcasts and highlight shows has become "MVP candidate Chris Paul") his season can't compare to Kobe's past two. Yes, he's elevated his team to a height that no one expected, but can you name one player on the Lakers (not including Kobe) over the past three years who is as good or has played as well as David West has this season? Hell, name one who has played as well as Peja Stojakovic or Tyson Chandler. Plus how will the voters justify not giving CP3 the MVP in a season when his numbers are better than Nash's were the two seasons he got back-to-back MVPs? Paul's 21.5 points, 11.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 2.5 turnovers are better in totality than the 15.5, 11.5, 3.4, 1.0 and 3.3 Nash put up in 2004-05 and the 18.8, 10.5, 4.2, 0.8 and 3.5 he posted during the 2005-06 season. And CP's team is in position to do what Nash's team did when he came back to Phoenix: earn the top seed in the West. So if Nash won 62 games and the West in '05-06 with inferior numbers to Paul's, how does the league not give Paul the award if his team wins 60 and has the best record in the West? And trust, CP3's electability is off the charts compared to Kobe's. His MVP approval rating is sic, while Kobe's is sick. So Chris, congrats, enjoy the Maurice Podoloff. The voters love you. And that's not necessarily because of who CP (or KG if you want to toss him into this conversation) is as much as it is because of who Kobe is: the "8" they love to hate. Someone less understood than a villain, and someone for whom those who vote have less tolerance when it comes to separating what he does from who he is.
It's the same reason why upon eligibility into the Hall of Fame, Roger Clemens will receive more first-ballot votes than Barry Bonds. It will have more to do with how much more Roger was/is/remains beloved than Barry by those who will have the power to vote them into immortality than it will race or the level of crime either one committed while playing. Is it right? Fair? Impartial? No. It's life. And for Kobe, it's become his life. In sports, in the end, whether we want to acknowledge it honestly or not, athletes put their legacies in the hands of those who have the power to hate them. And in those situations, what they do on the court or field, whether we are talking MVP or Hall of Fame (or Oscars), what they do takes a backseat to who they are. Their careers become a popularity contest, a "likability" raffle lying in wait for the hate to die. Which it never really does. And in the past five years in professional sports, no athlete (with the exception of maybe Bonds or T.O.) has been more hated and hated on than Kobe Bryant. Don't believe me? Watch what happens when he doesn't win the MVP … again.
Scoop Jackson is a columnist for Page 2.
