In 2005, Kobe scored his 2nd highest point total when he beat the Dallas Mavericks by the 3rd quarter 62-61. Obviously his teammates scored a few points here and there allowing Kobe to rest the entire 4th quarter. Had he not sat down, who knows how many points he would’ve scored, maybe 82?

Enough flashbacks, it’s now 2008 and Kobe just beat the Dallas Mavericks again. Deja Vu it is! As I was concluding my vacation driving back to Los Angeles from San Diego, I was forced to listen to the Lakers game on AM 570 KLAC. It wasn’t a very exciting mood in the car throughout the first half as the Lakers just barely hung around with Kobe shooting 3-10 from the free throw line. How was I suppose to feel about Kobe Bryant and his Western Conference leading team? Knowing I have to blog today, I was afraid that the topic would be depressing and that I would have to start blaming Kobe for the Lakers loss.

Well, luckily, Kobe Bryant turned into, who else, Kobe Bryant. Kobe scored 30 of his 52 points in the 4th quarter and overtime leading the Lakers to a 108-104 defeat of the Dallas Mavericks. The game was back and forth, and let me tell you, listening to Michael Thompson on the radio is not nearly as exciting as watching Stu Lantz on tv. There is one major downfall with sports on the radio. When Sasha puts a shot up, and you hear the entire crowd cheer, you know the shot went in and you don’t have to wait for Thompson to yell, “and its good, Sasha has opened this overtime period with a quick three… that a’way Sasha.” However, the theory also stands for every Lamar free throw for as he shoots, and misses, the crowd is quick to boooo. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that Lamar just missed another one.

I had the chance to watch plenty of SportCenter last night and watched several recaps of the Lakers game from earlier in the afternoon. Simply put, the game was an exciting one and I would’ve been willing to cancel my entire vacation just to watch this entire game in real time in HD on ABC. I am proud to report a win for the Lakers, but this is a win thats a bit strangely skewed. In the past, we saw Kobe go off for big games and it wasn’t a big deal to see a bench with hardly any contribution. With the Lakers recent team efforts and team victories, it seems somewhat awkward to view box scores like the one from yesterday’s game. Kobe had 52, Pau had 17, and the other three Lakers starters Luke, Lamar, and Fisher combined for 9-27 shooting, a lousy 33.3%. Derek Fishers shooting slump continued with 3-11 and I wonder whether this is the new look, or just a shot groove that I should be happy about getting over with now rather than during the playoffs. The bench didn’t do much better with 8 points coming from Sasha and 3 from Jordan.

Mark Stein has moved the Lakers to second place in the Power Rankings and San Antonio has taken over the #1 spot. It is unfortunate that our obvious competition is once again the Spurs, but I look forward to finally being able to compete with them which in years past, we have not been able to do.

The upcoming schedule for the Lakers is quite easy with a few games against Sacramento, who we play this Tuesday, the Clippers, and a few more below par teams. Hopefully we can continue to build our record as we work hard to achieve the #1 seed in the Western Conference.