Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryantis an American retired professional basketball player. He played his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association. He entered the NBA directly from high school and won five NBA championships with the Lakers. Bryant is an 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, and 12-time member of the All-Defensive team. He led the NBA in scoring during two seasons, and ranks third on both the league's all-time regular season scoring and...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBasketball Player
Date of Birth23 August 1978
CityPhiladelphia, PA
CountryUnited States of America
I think Lamar is a great facilitator in orchestrating the offense a little bit, which frees me up a lot more to attack and do some of the things I've been doing.
We know this is the way we want to play because we can attack them inside. So this is what we want to do. Personally I get to the basket, get some free throws, and all I need is one jumper to go and I'm hot.
I was so frustrated with our last loss I said I'll fix it. Tonight I just wanted to attack and send a message. The reason I scored 62 points was because I wanted to win so bad. I just felt that I could continually attack these guys. It's a great feeling that I could do it here in front of our fans and give them an early Christmas present.
During the regular season, when everyone was trying to learn the offense, Phil and I both knew I was going to have to shoulder the scoring load. Now in the playoffs, everyone has a rhythm for the game and we can start attacking as a union.
During the regular season, we were trying to find our rhythm and I had to shoulder the scoring load. We know we can start attacking teams as a unit and not me going out there trying to score 40 or 50 points.
I wasn't really looking to attack or to assert myself. I think we had a lot of things we could take advantage of, and we did that. We had them right where we wanted them, just a couple of bounces didn't go our way.
They came out and they zoned up and they trapped and they doubled, and we just continued to move the ball. It took me three quarters to kind of get the rhythm down on what they were trying to do defensively so I could go into attack mode in the fourth quarter, where I was able to start attacking the basket a little bit and get something going.
I was aggressive. I saw how they played defense and decided to come at them.
I thought we'd have our ups and downs being that it's a new system, trying to learn it. It's just moving the ball, spacing, timing, rhythm, things like that. I knew it would kind of be like a roller-coaster ride.
I think that from the start of this series we have just been playing extremely well and we are moving the ball around really well. We have just evolved into this from the start of the season, it has been process. We are just playing so well together.
It gives us confidence. It shows that our play is not a fluke. We move the ball consistently and play defense consistently. This bodes well for our confidence.
It is a physical game and especially in the playoffs it steps up to another degree. It is fun to be a part of those types of games. It is nothing personal.
Ooh, ... you just gave me goose bumps.
We executed a lot better in the second quarter. Defensively we did a great job. We played hard. Lamar had a great game.