Lakers beat Suns & Jazz As Kobe Drops a Combined 88 points

Lakers 99, Suns 83

I’ve been noting lately that Kobe has been taking more than twice as many shots as Andrew and Pau combined. I also mentioned that it wasn’t a winning formula. It still isn’t. At least against a good team, defined as a team that will probably make the playoffs—unlike the Lakers’ last three opponents: Golden State, who the Lakers beat last Friday, Memphis on Sunday and Phoenix on Wednesday. Any cockamamie strategy will work if your team is clearly better than the team you’re playing. Kobe hit for 48 points. The Lakers won. Ergo, Kobe should keep throwing up 31 shots (while Andrew Bynum takes eight shots)? I don’t think so. Unless you think that the Lakers would have lost to the Suns if Kobe had taken ten fewer shots and Gasol and Bynum had taken them instead.

Whether he should have taken them or not, Kobe hit an exotic assortment of difficult shots–18-31 from the field, 12-13 from the foul line. Kobe took more foul shots (13) than the entire Suns team (12). Only Kobe can stop Kobe, and that’s the rub.  It worked last night. Then again, the Lakers could play a four-corners offense and still beat the Suns. And explain to me one more time why Kobe, the most injured-but-playing-anyway player in the league, logged 39 minutes in a game won by 16 points.

Noted: Gasol had a 16-point, 12-rebound night and Matt Barnes had a productive 28 minutes with seven boards, seven assists and only one turnover. Luke Walton was also productive, hitting 3-7 from the field, with eight rebounds, five on offense.

Lakers 90, Jazz 87 (OT)

This is the Lakers’ fourth straight game against non-playoff bound teams. Yes, the Jazz are better than the team that the Lakers saw on December 27. I anointed them “worst in the west” when they got pummeled 96-71 and Al Jefferson went 2-16 from the field. Yeah, they’re better, especially at home but they still aren’t a playoff team. I’ll spare you the details except to say that Jefferson shot 5-17 from the field this time.

On a night when your average superstar like Dwight Howard shot 3-12 from the foul line, which almost blew a win against the Blazers, and LeBron James shot 9-17 from the foul line as the Heat lost in overtime, Kobe was hitting every one of his eleven foul shots, just enough to put his team over the top. If he goes, say, a respectable 8-11 from the line, the Lakers lose. Kobe Bryant is (still) the most valuable player in the NBA, not Howard, not James, and last night showed why.

Yes, once again he took more than twice as many shots (31) as Pau (14) and Bynum (13) combined. Though the Lakers got the win, and a win on the road is always cool no matter who you play, couldn’t they have done it with a better distribution of shots, with Kobe playing fewer than 42 minutes, with Bynum playing fewer than 39 minutes, with Pau playing fewer than 46 minutes?

Except for Matt Barnes (11 points and 7 boards in 27 minutes), who is thriving as a starter, only Kobe had a good night. Pau and Bynum shot poorly, scoring well below their average, and though they made big plays at the end, they didn’t dominate.

The Cleveland Cavaliers (“Least in the East)” are coming into Staples tomorrow night. This game should provide the Lakers with a chance to rest their stars. Darius Morris, who got his first minutes last night, should get more against the Cavs. Ditto Goudelock and Ebanks. If the Lakers had a backup center, they could give him some minutes, too.

After Cleveland, however, the deluge—six tough games in a row. Then we’ll see if Kobe shooting twice as much as Pau and Andrew combined is a swell idea or not.