Beating the Lakers is always tons of fun. Winning a bet and seeing that picture on the best Lakers blog there is - well that's just gravy.
Honestly, that was fantastically fun game to watch. As Doug Collins kept saying, it was really tight the whole way through - until overtime, the biggest lead for either team was 8. That makes for entertaining ball, no matter who comes out on top.
That said, here are my still somewhat out-of-control thoughts:
- Lamar Odom should be the centerpiece of ad campaign telling kids why they shouldn't smoke weed. By all indications, dude gave up the sticky icky a couple years back. He has no zero ability to concentrate it would seem.
- Kwame Brown is getting butchered this morning about not defending the three-pointer. But the Lakers covered Bibby and Peja well on the play - they can't feel too bad about forcing the Kings' center into a spot-up three, can they? Well, they lost, so I guess so. Still, besides some horrible missed layups, I don't think Kwame played too poorly.
- Speaking of that game-tying play: Francisco deserves the game ball for not hoisting one up. I was quite nervous.
- After Brad Miller's hard third quarter foul on Kobe (the most grin-inducing play of the game), Mamba went 7-for-18. He was 10-17 before that. Not necessarily a cause-effect thing, but still.
- Can we get a slow clap for Kenny Thomas? Pretty much a perfect game from him, and he gets the triple-double (16, 12, 10) for his troubles. And most importantly, he made the evil and infuriating Luke Walton his bitch. All in a day's work, right?
- Mike Bibby came pretty close to matching Mamba shot for shot down the stretch. MB10 had a true shooting percentage of 59.8%, Bryant's was 62.6%. But Phil never decided to double Bibbilicious.
- Shareef Abdur-Rahim: already got himself a top-5 spot on the Sacramento Kings' All-Tough Team. Bobby Jackson, Brian Grant and Olden Polynice are charter members.
- Smush Parker played three more minutes than Kobe Bryant. How does that happen?
- Francisco Garcia played tremendous on the defensive end. On the offensive end, he hit a couple of bombs and held himself to one turnover in 38 minutes. Well done.
- Collins criticized the alley-oop attempt on the inbounds, but the kids have been doing that once a game for a couple weeks now. I don't think it's been fouled up before last night. Had it went down, the crowd would have absolutely erupted. I think it was a good call.
- Back to Shareef: I'm not sure I'd go to work with my jaw wired shut, and I sit at a desk. I love this guy. Got the line on two times fewer than Bibby, too, and more than everyone who played except Bibby and Bryant.
- Also, the fantastic Get Buckets Brigade has posted Carnival of the NBA #23. It's quite large.
Be back later with a preview of the six-game roadie, and perhaps an ode to Shareef and/or KT.