So in accordance with Kobe's "I'll do as I please" attitude he's displayed this season, he set his mamba eyes on Phoenix, a team Kobe has shown much disdain for ever since they sent the Lakers home in the 1st round two times in 06 and 07. Kobe, despite Grant Hill's best attempt at slowing him down, lit them up for 48 points, the most he's scored since 2009, when he went for 46...against the Phoenix Suns. After the game, Kobe left no doubt about what was on his mind, first was his true hate for the Suns, and second was his "lack of agreement" with a recent ESPN article that listed him as the 7th best player in the NBA. Continuing his improvement since that terrible Denver game, Kobe shot 18 for 31 from the field and added 6 assists.
A surprising performance to along with Kobe's was Luke Walton's return to 2007 form. His rebounding and timely passes were a nice surprise in the absence of Troy Murphy, Josh McRoberts, and Jason Kapono. One player that left more to be desired was Andrew Bynum, who only chipped in 12 pts and 8 rebounds. He struggled with the defensive assignment of guarding the pick and roll with Nash and deadly shooters like Gortat and Frye. Mike Brown ultimately decided that the Suns' bigs could not expose Luke, so Luke got the crunch time minutes. Against a team like Utah however, Bynum will need to come up big. Prediction: Utah Jazz 95 - Lakers 82 :(, the road woes continue.
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