|
LOS
ANGELES—Kobe Bryant stared down the crowd as if he were
staring down his teammates.
He
shouted into the cavernous arena as if he were shouting
into a huddle.
“I love
you,” he screamed. “Now let’s get this party started!”
And so
they did, the Lakers, the fans, everybody following
their leader these days into this growing notion of
greatness.
Wednesday was supposed to be Bryant’s Most valuable
Player (MVP) celebration, but, typical of his MVP
season, he shared it with everyone else.
Derek
Fisher brought the steamers, throwing in 22 points on
soaring shots that seemed to scrape the scoreboard
floodlights.
Lamar
Odom brought the stick to break the piñata, muscling
inside with a sweat-stained shirt, a strangely fierce
stare and 16 rebounds.
Bryant
was, as usual, the candles, a constant burn of 34
points, eight rebounds, six assists, MVP, MVP, MVP.
Now, and
you knew this last metaphor was coming, there is icing
on the face of the Utah Jazz, who lost Game Two of this
Western Conference semifinal, 120-110.
Utah also, incidentally, may have also lost a series that
they now trail two games to none.
Even
traveling back to the toughest homecourt in
basketball—they lost just four times there this
season—the Jazz are also surely carrying a sense of
dread.
They’re
not playing that bad. They’re not playing Denver dead.
They pound hard and pass well and always stay somehow
connected.
But
still, it seems as if they never really have a chance.
It seems as if the Lakers are operating at a different
speed, with a different intensity, in a completely
different league.
Take the
Jazz’s last great threat, when they closed to within
five points with 5:38 remaining in the game.
What
happens?
Kobe happens. The Lakers happen. The party happens.
Bryant
goes sprawling into the lane, throws a pass to Sasha
Vujacic from his back, and Vujacic hits a jumper.
Carlos
Boozer goes down the middle of the lane at the other
end, throws up a shot that Odom blocks, throws up
another shot that Pau Gasol blocks.
Back on
the Laker end, Odom whips the ball to Vujacic, who whips
it to Fisher, who hits another sky-diving three pointer.
Had
enough? Not the Lakers, who finished their late push
when Bryant dribbled around one, two, three
Utah players into the lane, doing a 360-degree spin.
Then
passed the ball.
To Gasol,
for a dunk.
MVP,
MVP, MVP.
No
answer for Kobe
So it
has gone for both teams during a series in which the
Jazz’s best inside threat, Boozer, can’t stay out of
foul trouble or in steady motion against the Lakers’
active big men.
Meanwhile, their outside leader Deron Williams can’t
seem to shake Fisher, who is acting like he has lost 10
years and gained two more hands.
“[Fisher] is such a smart player…we’re just trying to
make this as tough as possible for [Derron],” Bryant
said.
And, of
course, the Jazz have absolutely no answer, anytime,
anywhere, for the finding-a-new-level-daily Bryant.
Before
the game, he was honored in three ways previously
unimaginable.
David
Stern, National Basketball Association (NBA)
commissioner, showed up to hand him the MVP trophy.
The fans
wore a shirt that honored
Kobe
with the word “Our” on it, as in, “Our Team. Our Time.
Our MVP.”
And, as
perhaps the coolest honor of all in a town filled with
the world’s best screenwriters, the giant pregame sheet
video once again displayed Kobe’s prose.
It was
one of his quotes from earlier in the postseason.
“You
shake the tree, a leopard’s gonna fall out.”
Yeah,
leopards really do hang out in trees. And, yeah, Bryant
is not only the symbol for this team, he is also now
it’s voice, less than a year after everybody just wanted
him to shut up.
The
change is dramatic but, as Stern said before the game,
“Hey, it’s the NBA, it’s crazy.”
Bryant’s
interest awakened
Even
Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who once ripped Bryant in a
book, recognized the change in attitude.
“I think
there’s some people who turned their thumbs down on Kobe
after the 2003-04 season, they washed their hands of
being Kobe fans,” said Jackson. “That happens to stars
in this game. Familiarly breeds some kind of
contempt....We awoke the interest in him again this year
by the team’s play.”
That
play has reached a new level not because Bryant is a
more skilled player, but because he is a more involved
player, shoving his teammates to the front of the stage
time and again.
He
clearly trusts them more. And so they trust themselves.
Before
the game, somebody asked the plain-speaking Jazz coach
Jerry Sloan why he didn’t double-team Bryant.
“Because
he just throws it to somebody else and they make a layup,”
he said, pausing. “I don’t know if that makes any sense
or not.”
A couple
of years ago, that would not make any sense. Now it
makes perfect sense.
In the
final seconds of the third quarter Thursday, it took
perfect form.
Odom
grabbed a rebound in front of the
Utah
basket. Bryant dribbled it around the Laker three-point
line, shooed away defender Matt Harpring, spun around,
found Fisher in the corner then watched Fisher hit a
three-pointer for a 13-point lead.
“There
are times when people don’t realize what they do for the
game and what the game does for them until they are
retired,” Stern said. “I’m glad to see when players come
to that understanding earlier.…Kobe seems to be at that
point now.”
Finally,
typically, when Bryant was given his pregame award, he
requested that that his teammates come to center court
to join him.
“I’m so
thankful, I’m just, gosh, I’m at a loss for words,”
Bryant said.
The fans
helped him.
MV…well,
you know.
Lewis,
Orlando magical
In
Orlando, Florida, Rashard Lewis scored a career
playoff-high 33 points Wednesday and Orlando beat
Detroit, 111-86, in Game Three of the Eastern Conference
semifinals, the Magic’s first win in the series.
The
Pistons lost point guard Chauncey Billups just four
minutes into the game when he drove to the basket and
got tangled up with Orlando’s Jameer Nelson. Nelson’s
leg caught Billups’ foot, and Billups fell hard to the
court with a strained right hamstring. Billups was
averaging 17.5 points in the postseason and had 28
against the Magic in Game Two.
Game
Four is Saturday in
Orlando. |
