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blah blah blah...
Come play the Spurs, overrated Lakers.
You'd think they would know this by now. Kobe is one of the few in the NBA who will Punish you when he is mad..the rest just becomes bad players. I hope Denver fans chant some crazy stuff. That will get him going.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns
Nuggets should know better than to rile Bryant
By Johnny Ludden, Yahoo! Sports
LOS ANGELES – You think by now the Denver Nuggets would know better. That the 32 points Kobe Bryant hung on them three days earlier would have been convincing enough. That after Bryant began peppering them with jump shot after jump shot they would have heeded the warning. Even when Bryant drilled one last 30-foot, end-of-the-clock dagger the Nuggets had ample time to drop their heads and slink to the locker room without incident.
They didn’t, of course. These Nuggets never go quietly. So there was J.R. Smith standing next to Bryant Wednesday night, yapping away.
Bryant grinned. Then he took the ball and Smith to the rim, bumping the Nuggets guard back as he banked in a tough layup and collected the foul. Bryant simply shook his head as he stepped to the foul line and swished the last of his 49 points.
“He’s one of those players you don’t really want to make mad,” Lamar Odom said.
The rest of the NBA seems to know this, so the Nuggets have only themselves to blame. Unable to guard Bryant, they choose instead to anger him. Kenyon Martin ran his mouth on Sunday and Smith followed by opening his Wednesday. Bryant punished them both, along with everyone else the Nuggets threw at him, leading the Lakers to a 122-107 victory that gave them a 2-0 advantage in the teams’ first-round playoff series.
The next two games will be played in Denver, and if the Nuggets have any hope of making this a compe ive series, they would be wise to follow this advice:
Shut up.
K-Mart couldn’t do that in Game 1. Bryant opened the playoffs by missing eight of his first nine shots and Martin apparently let him know it. Even after Bryant found his shot in the second half, the two continued to trade words. For the next three days, Bryant then had to listen as his 9-for-26 performance was attributed to impressive defense by Martin.
Bryant naturally didn’t see it the same way, and he didn’t need long Wednesday to show why, scoring 20 points in the first quarter alone. He made 10 consecutive shots during one stretch as the Nuggets shuffled through defenders, moving from Martin to Linas Kleiza to Smith.
“The way he was going,” Allen Iverson said, “we could have put 10 people on the court and probably not been able to stop him.”
Bryant instead slowed himself, shifting from scorer to facilitator in the third quarter. After the Nuggets switched to a zone defense that lulled the Lakers into hoisting too many jump shots, Bryant took over the game with his passing. He set up Luke Walton for a three-point play, fed Vladimir Radmanovic for a dunk. Over the next eight minutes, he handed out seven of his game-high 10 assists.
In previous seasons, Bryant would have been more inclined to keep firing. Passing never seemed like such a great option when Smush Parker was on the receiving end. These Lakers, however, have earned Bryant’s trust.
“It’s just that my guys knock down shots now,” Bryant said. “We’ve upgraded.”
The Nuggets, meanwhile, hardly seem to have matured at all. Iverson was ejected near the end of Game 1 for barking at an official then picked up another technical Wednesday, moments after Smith was hit with his own. Carmelo Anthony also committed an unnecessary offensive foul in the sequence, allowing the Lakers to double their lead from seven to 14 in less than a minute.
“As a team,” Anthony said, “I think we lost our focus, lost our composure.”
That didn’t stop Smith from insinuating afterward that the referees have favored the Lakers. “It’s tough going 5-on-8,” he said.
These Nuggets have always talked a better game than the one they played, and that goes for their coach, too. In the first round of the playoffs three seasons ago, George Karl complained that San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili was “difficult to watch” and that his daring herky-jerky style was ruining basketball. The criticism only fueled Ginobili that much more and the Spurs went on to win the next two games and close out the Nuggets.
“I was just trying to shake him a little,” Karl said the following season, “and I picked the wrong guy.”
The Nuggets’ showmanship has continued to get the best of them. Last season’s brawl between the Nuggets and New York Knicks started because Isiah Thomas thought Karl had left his starters on the floor too long in a rout. When Seattle beat Denver this month, Kevin Durant said the Sonics were motivated because of the way the Nuggets had acted while scoring 168 points against them in an earlier game.
If the Nuggets had won that rematch with Seattle? They would have avoided playing the Lakers in the first round.
The Nuggets chirp as much as any team in the league, and yet they have little to chirp about. They’ve lost in the first round each of the previous four seasons and are now on the fast track for their fifth consecutive early exit. They score in bunches, but give up nearly as many points because too many of their players seem too inclined to play only one side of the floor. Smith, in particular, is what scouts like to call an “unwilling defender” – all talent and athleticism, little effort.
Bryant doesn’t have that problem. In the fourth quarter, he scored a staggering 19 points in less than 4˝ minutes. “I take it as a challenge,” he said, “when there’s a lot of talking going on.”
Bryant yapped back. After burying a long three-pointer, he blew on his index fingers as if they were twin-shooter barrels.
“We’re going to keep that in the back of our minds when we get home for these next two games,” Anthony said.
“That’s Kobe,” added Smith. “He’s a showboat.”
The difference: Bryant has earned that right.
blah blah blah...
Come play the Spurs, overrated Lakers.
Don't anger Kobe. He'll rape you.
like he did JR Smith while JR was still yapping. LOL...i hope that play is on youtube.
Priceless coming from those two.Bryant yapped back. After burying a long three-pointer, he blew on his index fingers as if they were twin-shooter barrels.
“We’re going to keep that in the back of our minds when we get home for these next two games,” Anthony said.
“That’s Kobe,” added Smith. “He’s a showboat.”
Highlights of game 2 in HD
http://www.lakersmedia.com/?p=107
"Better learn not to talk to me," Bryant said of Smith's jabbering. "You shake the tree, a leopard's gonna fall out."
LOL
Last edited by TheMACHINE; 04-24-2008 at 01:07 PM.
The lakers don't have anyone that you can hack a shaq, You're ed!
Pop will just tell Bowen to keep hacking at Kobe's pinky until it falls off. Never underestimate how low the Spurs will sink to win. You can expect SAS to pull every dirty trick in the book if they go down 0-2 to start that series.
I loved it when he rocked Najera to sleep before weaving through the lane and letting the denver bench know there is nobody they can send to make a difference.
Kobe is HAS earned the right. That's why I respect him.
And, Kobe has even stated that Bowen isn't dirty. So DaC, STFU because you don't know what the you are talking about.
What's funny is that Kobe knows he can get in the Nuggets' head. He doesn't trash talk with teams like the Spurs because he knows it won't matter.
Treat them like they wanna be treated.
at your sig
We don't need to go dirty to kick you asses.
We're so better than Lakers.
You wouldn't be up 2-0 vs Phoenix.
You're playing Denver...nothing impressive
LOL @ JR crying after he gets sonned.
"He's a showboat"
i prefer when he gets sad and cries.
When the Nuggets are blowing out any team they always talk , dunk unnecessarily, taunt, throw lobs, shoot threes just to demoralize the other team. The sad part about is when another team is returning the favor to them all the players start acting like es including their coach. That team needs a shakeup.
The last two times the Spurs played Denver in the first round, they lost game 1 at home, once against Denver without Iverson.
Yes, but who won the series? 'nuff said...
Wasn't the point of my post. Check what I responded to.
I hear ya...but it is true that the Suns are a much better team than the Nuggets.
Hope to see you guys in the Finals!
I have to admit that you have a point sort of. The Lakers are doing what they're supposed to be doing. Beating the Nuggets 2-0 at home.
At the same time, the Defending World Champ. Spurs are doing what they're supposed to be doing...beating the Suns 2-0 at home.
The next two games will be telling. If the Lakers go 4-0, that's impressive. If the Spurs go 4-0, that's impressive as well.
We will see in a few days.
It's a little different with the Spurs though. The suns were built to stop the Spurs, and in my opinion were never considered underdogs.
Not to mention the past 2-3 series against each other have been very compe ive.
So your saying all the young white women in colorado should come out to this game?
Kobe's a great player. I actually do enjoy watching him when not against the Spurs. But my problem with him is that he's great when the team plays well, but he just as easily throws them under the bus if things aren't going well. A real player sees his team through the good and the bad. You should never throw your teammates under the bus like has has in the past. And you don't go around saying things like "My guys knock down shots now" etc. His quotes about his teammates these days always have a sense of en lement to it and ownership, as if he's solely responsible for them playing above average. But if I remember reading correctly, guys like Farmar have been working hard on their game to be great playing in the D League and stuff. Bynum even has been practicing with a HOF'er to up his game. He has Fischer mentoring the young guys like Vuijic and pulling them together. I don't think Kobe has made these players better. His willingness now to pass the ball more to them and trust them has allowed them to showcase their talent.It’s just that my guys knock down shots now,” Bryant said. “We’ve upgraded
Geez. It's the ing Nuggets we're talking about. A bunch of so called superstars who would have a hard time beating Kansas. A bunch of guys that never met a Defensive Scheme they liked. Don't they give up like 120 to everyone they play?
Not surprising when one of the superstars is out getting DUIs at 3 in the morning during the playoffs. Some leadership they have on that team.
If I was a Laker fan, I wouldn't get overly excited at taking it to Denver. Every other team in the playoffs would have loved to have drawn them in the first round.
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