Kobe has seen it before. On much bigger stage.
He knows how a Tom Thibodeau team is going to defend him. Whenever and wherever he got the ball Tuesday night he patiently waited to see where the double would come from, then he would try to pass to the cutter. Or he kicks it to a pressure-release guard and watches the ball get whipped quickly to the weak side for an open look. Or if the double doesn’t come he goes to work.
He knows how to beat it. The Bulls are a solid defensive team but they don’t have Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo making life even harder, really taking away those passes and punishing cutters. Kobe was able to execute, to facilitate. And he did it best when it mattered most.
Against the Bulls he had 20 points and an unknown but impressive number of hockey assists. A couple of those came on a string of threes in the fourth quarter from Shannon Brown, Matt Barnes and Steve Blake that sparked the Lakers 98-89 win over the Bulls.
The threes were the show but the real key to the Lakers pulling away was a defense that held the Bulls to 18 fourth-quarter points.
“I think we packed it in a little tighter, we didn’t let them extend us out (on the pick and roll) because (Rose) was breaking us down,” Blake said. “I think it was a little but of us, but at the same time they probably didn’t play as well in the fourth.”
Brown continues to just blow people’s doors off this season. The guy known for high flying dunks hit his first four three point attempts and finished with 21 points, mostly from the outside.
“He’s shooting the ball well this year and he’s got a lot of confidence,” Derrick Rose said of Brown. “He’s doing great for them. We should have made him a driver.”
That somebody said they should make Brown a driver tells you just how well he is shooting.
Rose had 30. An impressive 30, but that is the usual for him. He is one of the guys in he league that if you can you should pay to see live. You know he’s quick from watching him on television, you’ve seen the highlights of the crossover, but in person it just wows you. The jaded crowd at Staples Center — which gets to see Kobe heroics and Brown fly — audibly gasped at Rose’s crossovers. His herky jerkey drives are a beautiful creation of space his body control unmatched.
Ron Artest came out on Rose and did a good job with ball denial and keeping Rose from getting comfortable. As opposed to later in the first half when Steve Blake was on him and Rose was as comfortable as your dads recliner in front of the television. He was going to get his.
Joakim Noah did a good job limiting Pau Gasol to 12 points on 3 of 10 shooting. What Gasol did have was five blocks — he’s a better defender of the paint and rim than he gets credit for.
He helped anchor the Lakers defense, and that is still not bad. Combine it with a patient and smart offense, and there is a reason the Lakers are 13-2.
