Last Night Kobe Came to Town and Stole the Show.  I wrote about the feel of the event a little bit this morning and I’m sure you’ve heard about the events elsewhere (if you haven’t, Kate Fagan’s gamecap HERE, Tom Moore’s is HERE, Kevin Tatum’s is HERE, and the AP’s is HERE, with video), but I took notes throughout the game and hopefully one or two of them are worthwhile. 

ATJ, thoughts and observations from a surprisingly entertaining blowout.

First Quarter

The Sixers start hot, and start hot in an odd way.  AI2’s unwillingness to look for Thad has become somewhat of a running joke in basketball circles - no one really thinks last year’s small forward is freezing out this years edition, and TY doesn’t get played called for him, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that Iggy at least seems to go the other way an inordinate amount - but he starts this one with two straight assists for six points from the suddenly sharp shooting forward.

Pregame Iguodala admitted that this is one of the game’s he circled on the calander and it showed early.  AI2 is going straight at Kobe with a passion rarely seen this year.

I go on record saying the 76ers won’t get 85 points in the game and they put up 17 in the first 5 minutes.  Of course they do. 

God, the Lake Show is deep. LO just passed up an open shot to get Pau Gasol an open dunk.  On the other end, the Sixers have managed just one shot in their last possessions.  It missed.

AI2 last second jumper makes it 25-31 at the end of 1.

Second Quarter

The Lakers 2^nd unit is just outclassing the Sixers.  They’re a deep team, and on the wrong end of a back-to-back (for both teams) that matters.

Jimmy Rollins and Jimmy Rollins’ wifey/GFS product Johari Smith are taking in the game.

With 6:30 left in the second quarter a rested Kobe checks back in on defense.  He gets the bucket and the extra fifteen seconds later.  He hits it, making it a 15 point game.

EB scores in transition.  First time for everything I suppose.

So it turns out a healthy Luke Walton gets no burn on this Lakers team.  They’re loaded.

61-51 at the break

Halftime

Ice Cream Day in the press room! The media rejoices. This supersedes any need for mid-game thoughts.  

Third Quarter

Lakers shot 60% for the half and Sixers were just over 50.  Look for both those numbers to drop, but as the teams get tired don’t be shocked if the turnovers home up

Andrew Bynum is young, but he’s polished.  With a couple minutes gone in the 3^rd Dalembert gets the ball in the post, took one dribble and lost the ball because of it.  It’s the type of play that only experience can fix, and the type of play Bynum isn’t making.  You can tell he’s been playing (and been big) forever.  On the other end he gets the ball in a similar position and rotates.  He keeps the ball high and gets an easy bucket because of it.

In my season preview I predicted that within 20 games Kareem Rush would have taken Willie Green’s job.  It looks like I was missed on that call, but not on one Sixer backup guard taking anothers.  Royal Ivey finishes with more minutes than either backup guard, and more than Lou Will has seen in weeks.

Kobe takes over.  Game in the third. 85-69 to end the quarter.  The Sixers problem was just that the Lake Show is really fucking good.  That matters in this game. 8-11

Forth Quarter

According to 82games.com, which really has no reason to lie to me, here is Samuel Dalembert’s shooting %s depending on where he is on the court

Jump Shot:                                                      31.8% (41% of all shots)

Close (i.e. layups, hook shots, etc.):                31.6% (26% of all shots)

Dunks:                                                             100% (18% of all shots)

Tips                                                                 66.6% (6% of all shots)

Wow. Can’t have that.

Mo Cheeks empties his bench damn near every quarter.  He can’t build continuity because of it. It’s especially odd because Cheeks also isn’t hesitant to sit the cold hand. Speights will get just five minutes tonight after 20+ the night before.

With 2:30 to go in the game Andre Miller has taken three times as many shots as Elton Brand. He’ll end the game that way as EB will not reenter

Kobe puts the exclamation point on the game with a couple of meaninglessly great plays late

Willie Green finishes with a +/- of -22 in just 13 minutes.  Serves him right for trying to wear Kobe’s high school number in Philly.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 1:25 pm and is filed under Sixers, game notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.