Lakers Lose to Cavs as Kobe-LeBron Rivalry Ends

Welcome in to the full recap of the Lakers matchup vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers where two MVPs and two  future Hall of Famers, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James battle one last time in Kobe Bryant's final season in the NBA. The two put on quite a performance, but at the end of the day, LeBron's Cavs bested Kobe's Lakers 120-108.

As a young, brash high school teenager back in the day when the Kobe-LeBron rivalry was at its peak, I'd hate it when the Lakers would lose to the Cavs and later, the Miami Heat during the Big 3 era because LeBron would "one up" Kobe in head-to-head matchups and we wouldn't hear the last of his fans. I tell you guys like I said when I posted up the quick recap in the earlier meeting between the Lakers and Cavs in February, it was war back in the day. It still is, but I think there's beginning to be mutual respect considering Kobe is retiring and LeBron is almost at the tail end of his career. Despite the end result of the Cavs beating the Lakers, the main headline was Kobe vs. LeBron and tonight's game and the brilliant showing by both MVPs brought back the glory days of this rivalry. It doesn't get any better than that.

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Kobe Bryant, 26 points, 5 rebounds, 11-16 shooting. If we want the perfect final chapter of Kobe vs. LeBron, we wanted to see Kobe Bryant, the player right now be the old Kobe Bryant and bring out the best while LeBron brings out the beast. Man, did we get what we want on this night. I say this time and time again outside my blog, he's not the player he once was, but when he delivers vintage performance like this, we have to appreciate it because we're not going to that a lot this season. His arsenal of skills was on full display, faking out defenders, posting them up, hitting jumpers with a hand in his face. Perhaps the one highlight of this game that we'll all be cherishing is when he faked LeBron out of the ground for an easy layup. That'll be timeless to replay over and over again.

Marcelo Huertas, 13 points, 6-10 shooting, 5 assists. Huertas has done it again. He's not going to fill out the stat line with magnificent numbers, but his presence on the court allows more flow to the offense. Again, he's a proven point guard overseas. I could tell that the Cavs' defense throughout this game were anticipating his every move based on his court vision on where he will feed the ball to. They were daring him to take a shot instead of looking for the extra pass and 13 points, 6-10 shooting? Hey, he can score too.

D'Angelo Russell, 24 points, 8-19 shooting. Shooting-wise, it was not great night for Russell, but he made some buckets that kept the Lakers afloat when the Cavs were looking to make their lead insurmountable. 24 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, it's a pretty decent stat line for D'Lo.

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Defending beyond the arc. LeBron didn't have to be full on beast mode for the Cavs if the 3 point shooting was off the charts. Well, maybe not off the charts, but the Lakers could not find a way to shut down the Cavs' 3 point shooting. They were having a tough time keeping Channing Frye, who accounted for a majority of the Cavs' 3 pointers, away from beyond the arc. To make matters worse, J.R. Smith, Kyrie Irving, and even Matthew Dellavedova started hitting 3's to put this game away. The Cavs successfully spaced the floor against this Lakers defense.

Jordan Clarkson, 5 points, 2-12 shooting. I'm sure this was a night Clarkson wanted to forget about. He started the game 0-7 and missed a couple of great looks at the basket early on. The two shots he finally made were all in garbage time. It was just a horrendous off game for Clarkson.

Conclusion

2016, the year great head-to-head rivalries between two great players dies. After late January, we are never seeing a Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady head-to-head matchup ever again and after this game, we are never seeing a Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James head-to-head matchup ever again. As sports fans, we are spoiled with a lot of fond memories. For what it's worth, no matter which team won or lost this game tonight, the performances of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James entertained us whether we were at home watching on TV or attending live. And so, the story ends and the book closes. I'll see you guys later.