The Lakers looked dreadful last night in the second half, losing big at home to Denver, 126-113, Kobe scored 33 points on a bum ankle after re-aggravating it in their win Wednesday night against Charlotte.
But after last night's game, the Laker's finally decided today that Kobe needed a rest, so he was given a night off tonight in Portland. Well, benching Kobe against a team they usually don't play well against in their building didn't seem like the right thing to do, and the odds were certainly stacked against the Lakers for a win, but lo and behold, they buckled down, and others stepped up in Kobe's absence, and the Lakers took care of business at the Rose Garden tonight, winning 99-82.
Lamar Odom, starting in Kobe's place, scored just 10 points but grabbed a whopping 22 boards. Ron Artest led the Lakers with 21 points and Shannon Brown added 19 off the bench.
I didn't get to see any of the game here, and there is no recap posted on the ol' www yet, so I am curious as to why Andrew Bynum only played 9½ minutes tonight.
Regardless, this was a much needed "team" victory. Hopefully they can use this win without Kobe as motivation because they'll need all the help they can get if Kobe doesn't play Monday when they host the Spurs.
No comments:
Post a Comment