Alright welcome in to the full recap of the Lakers’ matchup with the Cavaliers and of course the subtitle of this game that has been dormant for nearly five years, Kobe vs. LeBron. Here in this game, Kobe Bryant played a decent all-around game, setting a new career high in assists, but was totally overshadowed by LeBron’s 36 point outburst in the 2nd half as the Cavs beat the Lakers 109-102.
From 2006-2010, this has been NBA’s marquee matchup. Whenever the Lakers and Cavs battle, there is a strong aura of star power and it revolved around Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. At the peak of their careers, they duked it out to determine who’s the NBA’s true MVP? Was it LBJ23 or KB24? Now, these two lions are getting up there in age and this matchup provided a lot of nostalgia factors, especially in prime time. Now onto the game, this has followed the exact pattern of Blazers matchups, Lakers keep it competitive, someone scores 30+ points, and the Lakers wound up losing the game. That is the current norm right now and with LeBron James’ 36 point performance this game, that trend is continuing and all that effort of hanging in there goes to waste.
The Positives
Kobe Bryant, 19 points, 17 assists, 7-14 shooting. Well, like I mentioned before, Kobe Bryant has set a new career high in assists, surpassing his past mark of 15. He was also a little more cautious when to score and when not to score, but his facilitating was working throughout this game and basically kept the Lakers afloat. His facilitating benefitted Davis, Boozer, Tarik Black, and it especially benefitted Jordan Hill, whom I’ll mention later. Kobe played a clean game, shooting 50%, committing only 3 turnovers, a complete turnaround after a lackluster game Tuesday night against the Heat.
Jordan Hill, 20 points, 10-14 shooting. Hill has got to work on keeping that sweet stroking jump shot consistent once this season is all said and done. All credit goes to Kobe for getting him involved early on. When Kobe drew double teams for Mozgov to come in and help his hand, he manages to find Jordan Hill open literally almost every single time and Hill manages to make every shot. Like I said, the Cavs’ front court is not too impressive, and Hill capitalized on that and managed to play a good game scoring-wise.
The Bench. All I can ask to the Cavs is how could you possibly win a championship with a bench like that? Final statistics, the Laker bench outscored the Cavs bench 42-16 and they were a huge difference maker early on to help the Lakers remain competitive and give them the lead, but once LeBron got going, he outscored the bench big time by himself. But other than that, the bench contributed huge despite some poor shooting by certain players, which I’ll mention right now.
The Negatives
Nick Young, 14 points, 4-13 shooting. Whenever I’m posting up a quick recap and I see that Nick Young is not the typical leading scorer off the bench, obviously something is telling me that his head isn’t right. Ignore the double-figure scoring and look at that shooting statistic. He’s not been shooting the ball the last few games and this game, I can’t even describe it with the way he was struggling to contribute big buckets down the stretch. He’s got to find a way to bring back that swagger back and re-earn that Swaggy P nickname back.
Ryan Kelly, 2 points, 1-6 shooting. I can’t completely bag on R. Kelly considering he’s returning from injury, but he was a little too passive this game and not taking a shot when needed. There was one play where he could’ve made a hook shot and he just passed it right back, I couldn’t remember who, but at times those are the shots someone has to take to get their confidence back in the game after an injury and Kelly only has half of that confidence since his return.
Conclusion
Overall, it could’ve been a decent all-around game for the Lakers with the way Kobe’s facilitating, Jordan Hill’s scoring, and how the bench’s scoring (minus Nick Young’s bricks), but LeBron turned loose in the 2nd half and he and Kyrie Irving bailed the Cavs out big time for them to go to .500. For the Lakers, they have to go to Utah tomorrow night on back-to-back sets, so it’s a given Kobe’s going to sit this one out. Anyway, next game to cover is on the 29th against the Bulls in LA, I’ll see you guys for that game.
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