Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
61
Let's put Kobe's 61-point game into perspective. Normally, in a situation like this, fans might point out that the opposing team (re: my Knickerbockers) should have defended Kobe a little more aggressively. While I will agree that Mike D'Antoni could have thrown a few more double-teams Kobe's way, there was simply no way of stopping him last night: Kobe was on a mission from God.
Speaketh Kobe:
Coming up the elevator, I was thinking about all the great players who had played here. I was thinking about Willis Reed and Jerry West and all of the great rivalries they had. It makes it very special.Al Harrington, who took a few turns trying to guard Kobe last night, had this to say about Kobe's mindset before the opening tip:
Usually I go up to him and he has something funny to say, but he was all business tonight. I knew we were going to be in for a long one.
You can say that again. Kobe shot an incredible 19-for-31 (61 percent) from the field and a perfect 20-for-20 from the free-throw line. Only three other players in the last two decades have hit 20 or more consecutive free throws in one game-- Rip Hamilton (20/20), Amar'e Stoudemire (20/20) and Dominique Wilkins (23/23). Amazing. Kobe's cold-blooded efficiency was not to be denied. At one point in the first half, D'Antoni told his shell-shocked team that Kobe should come back down to earth at some point in the night, but "if he keeps hitting these shots, we'll just have to go home." Really, what else can you do?
After the game, D'Antoni elaborated on his defensive strategy:
We didn’t really want to double all the time, because he will find other guys. We tried to do the rope-a-dope a little bit, where he might have shot himself out, but he didn’t.
Again, I'm not blaming D'Antoni or poor Wilson Chandler, who had the misfortune of guarding Kobe most of the night. Kobe hit everything, even tightly contested shots, as evidenced in the picture above. It's not like Kobe doesn't have a 60-point game in him. Last night was Kobe's 17th time scoring at least 50 points, and his fifth with at least 60. Jesus. Mary. And Joseph.
Kobe's 61-point ridiculousness was the most points ever scored in a game at the Garden, besting Jamal Crawford's 52, Michael Jordan's 55, Richie Guerin's 57 and, ultimately, Bernard King's 60, the previous Garden record. (King also once scored 52 points and, later, 55 points at the Garden).
Great players, by definition, do great things. Kobe just happened to save his greatest game of the year for his only visit to the Garden-- and there wasn't a damn thing anyone could have done to stop him.
UPDATE: NBAMate has a recap of all of Kobe's 24 regular season outbursts of 50 points or more. Check it out.
Monday, February 2, 2009
If He's the Boss, I Quit
This pains me to admit this, but Springsteen was incredibly lame last night. I was with him at the start, despite the contrived recreation of his iconic "Born to Run" album cover; "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" was a great choice as an opener. I was with him, too, after the chicken fingers and guacamole comment. I stuck with him after his sliding crotch shot. And, of course, during his solid performance of "Born to Run." Not so much for the rest of the set, which featured an abbreviated version of his new single, "Working on a Dream," and an even hokier version of the hokey "Glory Days"-- complete with altered lyrics about football and Hail Mary passes. Then there was the flag-throwing referee, which was about as cool as a middle-age man hitting on a teenage girl. Or about as cool as a middle-age man calling out, "I'm going to Disneyland."
I'm afraid we've stumbled into a terrible new era of Springsteen: "Vegas Bruce."
Sunday, February 1, 2009
A Super Bowl Haiku
Roman numerals:
An entertaining game but
Pittsburgh pulls it out
Steelers 34 Cardinal 28
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