It’s as simple as that. Kobe went Kobe on them. Yes, you read that right, he went Kobe on them.

What does it mean to go Kobe on them?

Simple. It’s when a guy name Kobe Bryant plays consistently throughout the game, dishes out 13 assists, pulls in 7 rebounds, and when the game is on the line, makes a fade away jumper.

Hopefully that explains it better. If not, you can take a look at how Indy Cornrows felt about the game between the Lakers and Pacers last night.

After exchanging a few questions and answers with Indy Cornrows, I settled in for the game. The game turned out to be absolutely ridiculous.

The last time these two teams matched up, the Pacers ran off the court, literally, with a win as Troy Murphy tipped in a shot with no time remaining on the clock. The Lakers lost 118-117 accounting for only their 2nd loss of the season.

It was a game that the Lakers didn’t really deserve to win as they let a 16 point lead in the 2nd half slip away. Championship caliber teams don’t deserve to win games like that, and they didn’t.

Coming into the rematch, this time at Staples Center on the Lakers homecourt, the fans expected to see a beatdown as revenge. That’s not quite what happened.

Instead, the fans saw one of the most ridiculous shooting displays. This game was insane and the shots were just dropping from everywhere and anywhere on the court. The first quarter ended with the Lakers ahead 41-36, shooting 71% from the field. The crazy part, the Pacer shot 75%.

The game was extremely high scoring with a halftime score of 68-66 Lakers. As a Lakers fan however, this wasn’t a good sign. We all know the Lakers can get into a crazy shooting slump in the matter of seconds. I was personally a bit worried heading into the 2nd half, but the Lakers ended up playing some defense, getting a few stops, and jumped out to an 8 point lead in the 3rd quarter.

Again, the Pacers would have none of it. This game was beginning to look a lot like the previous meeting. The Pacers tied things up everytime shortly after the Lakers took a minor lead. In the final seconds the score was looking awfully similar to the first game and I know all us Lakers fans had the same thought running through our minds. Even Stu Lantz had a flashback to the previous game.

After a random, incorrect may I add, call by the refs, the Pacers tied things up. The play was a personal foul by Vladimir Radmanovic, in which he got tangled up by Jeff Foster, and eventually got a Technical foul assessed for. With the game tied, the Lakers made their way out to a three point lead once again.

But again, the Pacers would come back. With 26 seconds remaining, Lakers up by 3, the defense collapses as Radmanovic and Vujacic get caught guarding the same player leaving Mike Dunleavy wide open. Surely enough, Dunleavy buries the 3 ball and the game is tied again 119.

With 2 seconds more on the game clock than the shot clock, the Lakers couldn’t take any chances. The plan: run the clock down, put the ball in Kobe’s hands, and let him go to work. And to work he went.

With 8 seconds remaining on the game clock (6 seconds on the shot clock) Bryant went toward the basket. He dribbled within 20 feet, turned around, backed up a few more feet, turned around and buried the fade away jumper. With 3 seconds left on the clock the Lakers were up by 2 points at 121-119.

Stu Lantz made a great point at this time. We are all so glad that Kobe hit the jumper, but did he hit it too early. The common rule around the league is that the road team, down by 2, goes for the three to win the game. With 3 seconds left on the clock, there was enough time for an inbounds pass, and either a clear out, screen, or even a pass back to the inbounder.

The drawn up play seemed to be an inbounds pass followed by a give back to the inbounder and a three. Things didn’t go quite according to plan though. The inbounds pass went in to Jeff Foster. Foster stood on the right wing about 20 feet from the basket lost. He turned in every direction looking for the open man to pass it off to. Unfortunately, none of his teammates ever opened up as the Lakers finally managed to play strong pressure defense. The game ended with Foster holding the ball until time expired, then released a shot that fell about 3 feet short of the rim (even if it went in it wouldn’t have counted).

Here is my thought for this game. Jeff Foster has been in this league for a really long time and his final mistake was far too crucial. To not even get a shot off within the last 3 seconds is extremely sad.

In regards to the Lakers, Kobe had a great game. Bryant finished with 36 points, 7 rebounds, and 13 assists shooting 15-17 from the free throw line. I didn’t even realize that he was racking up all those assists until I saw the box score with a few seconds remaining in the game. Kobe’s game was quite impressive and very complete. After Lebron put on a clinic beating down the Boston Celtics, Kobe had to one up the other MVP candidate (or frontrunner most likely) to remain competitive.

Although Kobe had such an impressive game, there was another very impressive component to this victory. Pau Gasol finished with 21 points while Andrew Bynum finished with 20 points. They shot a combined 17-23 and pulled in 16 rebounds (11 for Gasol). Pau also dished out 4 assists. Other quick stats were 50% shooting from Radmanovic at 3-5, 2-4 from deep, and Derek Fisher at 3-6, 1-2 from deep. Josh Powell also came off the bench to play 19 minutes, finishing with 10 points on 5-7 shooting and 2 rebounds. I’d say overall this game was solid and a great game to learn from. I’d really prefer to see the Lakers dominate games more often, but coming away with a win over a team that clearly had a mental edge (due to the last meeting) is very important.