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uhh
they still have a game to win
I am going to be in heaven if the Magic win the next 3 games.
Sensing Victory, Bryant Lets Down His Guard
Howard Beck
New York Times
ORLANDO, Fla. — The facade finally cracked, 10 days and 4 games after the quest began. In his 11th interview session of the N.B.A. finals, Kobe Bryant smiled and chuckled and made a joke. His chin and jaw were back in their normal alignment.
“I’m just really happy to be in this moment right now,” Bryant said Saturday, his mood clearly enhanced by the proximity of a fourth championship.
For nearly two weeks, Bryant had been locked in a perpetual scowl — his demeanor dark and his answers clipped. He did strange things with his chin.
But the Los Angeles Lakers now hold a 3-1 lead in the finals, and the grimace has faded as quickly as the Orlando Magic. The Lakers can clinch the championship Sunday night at Amway Arena.
le talk was off limits for the last two weeks. Bryant gently embraced it Saturday.
“I think this one is special,” he said, “because you rarely have the opportunity to get back up the mountain twice in a career.”
The Lakers won three championships from 2000 to 2002, but that was a different time and a different team. Shaquille O’Neal dominated, in play and personality. Bryant gritted his teeth and played understudy. Veterans occupied every corner of the locker room. Coach Phil Jackson had a soul patch.
It has been seven years since they celebrated anything. Jackson has since retired and unretired. The Lakers missed the playoffs once, were eliminated in the first round twice and so frustrated Bryant that he demanded a trade.
This is Bryant’s time and Bryant’s team. He has been a forceful scorer in this series (33 points per game) and a skilled playmaker (8 assists). Only Michael Jordan in 1991 and Jerry West in 1970 have averaged 30 points and 8 assists in the first four games of the finals.
If the Lakers win the championship — and no team has lost the finals after taking a 3-1 lead — Bryant will be a lock to win his first finals Most Valuable Player award.
It would be the franchise’s 15th championship and Bryant’s fourth, but his first without O’Neal. That topic was among the many that evoked cold sentence fragments from Bryant when the finals began.
“It definitely means a lot to him,” said the former Lakers guard Tyronn Lue, who now plays for the Magic. “He’ll probably say it doesn’t, but the compe or he is, he definitely wants to win without Shaq to prove everybody wrong.”
O’Neal earned his fourth championship in 2007, with Miami. With his next ring, Bryant will join O’Neal and the San Antonio Spurs’ Tim Duncan as the most decorated superstars in the post-Jordan era. He will move that much closer to matching Jordan’s set of six.
Someone mentioned the possibility, and Bryant batted it away, but this time with humor.
“I’m trying to get this damn fourth one,” he said with a laugh.
Even discussion of Bryant’s future, a subject that usually irritates him, became fodder for one-liners.
“I have a decision about my future?” he said, coyly. (Bryant has an option to terminate his contract this summer.)
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
When another reporter probed further — “because you just brought it up” — Bryant quickly corrected him: “I didn’t bring it up. I deflected.” More laughter.
But no, Bryant said, he cannot imagine playing for anyone other than the Lakers, which should be comforting to Los Angeles fans, though not surprising.
This is the best supporting cast Bryant has had since O’Neal was traded in 2004. Pau Gasol is averaging 19.8 points and 7.8 rebounds in the series, and converting 58.8 percent of his field goals, the perfect inside complement to Bryant’s perimeter game. Lamar Odom, despite his usual inconsistency, is averaging 12.5 points and 7.3 rebounds. Trevor Ariza, a former spare part for the Magic, supplied a critical scoring boost to help lead a Lakers comeback in Game 4. Derek Fisher, derided as too old by some fans, hit two series-changing 3-pointers in that victory.
The Lakers seem grateful to be back on this stage, with the Larry O’Brien trophy waiting in the wings and Champagne chilling down the corridor.
“It feels like the first again,” said Fisher, Bryant’s only remaining teammate from 2000.
Fisher noted, a little sheepishly, that some of his current teammates were in junior high school when the Lakers last won a le.
“It’s a lifetime from the last championship won,” he said. “It feels new again. You know, that’s why I’m laying everything that I possibly have out there to try to help this team.”
uhh
they still have a game to win
I am going to be in heaven if the Magic win the next 3 games.
I'm not worried about kobe letting his guard down. As long as he keeps everyone else in check.
Well expect to stay in .
Yeah, if the lakers lose the fianls, this will be, without a doubt, the biggest choke job in the history of the NBA.
Don't expect it to happen
Killer Instinct. The Lakers have it, and the Magic don't. Otherwise, the Magic should be up 3-1 instead of down 1-3 right now. Should have won game 3 and game 4.
Here's NBA.com's take on how the Magic can win Game 5.
Bench Nelson, start Rafer Alston and Anthony Johnson but...it's too late for the Magic now.
Lakers havent lost 3 games in a row since Gasol joined the team..Aint Happening, but Laker haters can wish cant they?
Kobe's a jerk. It's very easy to let your guard down when your team is winning and things are going your way. If he would have shown as much class and dignity when he was playing on those losing teams during those pre-gift Gasol days, I'd have a lot more respect for him. You can't just show up and be nice and things are going your way. You should have been this way all along.
Translation: My end of game choke jobs in 3 of 4 games has been overcome by either
a. Orlandos greater choke job. or
b. my beloved zebras stepping in when i needed them.
So now i can continue my charade and play the role of Mr Nice Guy to the media.
Secretly i hope that Gasol does not have a good game combined with an Orlando letdown so i can stat pad like never before and steal the *MVP* of the series.
Barf.
Kobe's choke jobs in these games have been predictable. Pietrus owned him, Hedo owned him, etc
anyone else most likely would... but this is kobe remember.
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