Kobe Bryant only scored 16 points for the Lakers as they played the Suns in Pheonix tonight. Ordinarily, such a low point output from #24 would mean a sure Laker loss, but not tonight... Actually, the Lakers did so well that they could have gotten ZERO from him and still come out five points ahead! Lakers 119, Suns 98. And it wasn't even that close...
As I met up with a few of my close friends tonight for some pizza, sports on the big screens, and comraderie at BJ's, I told them "the Suns are gonna kill the Lakers tonight." And with that, the reverse jinx was put into full effect!!! All was going according to plan the first few minutes of the game - the Suns got an early 8-2 lead... but after that, it was ALL Lakers! It was 33-20 Lakers after one quarter, 63-50 at halftime and 95-67 after three quarters. The lead reached as many as 33 points midway through the fourth quarter before the Suns hit a few shots late to make the score somewhat more respectable... Bryant added 11 rebounds to his 16 points. Derek Fisher was an efficient 7-for-9 for 14 points, while Andrew Bynum added 14 points and 13 rebounds. The victory was a total team effort as no Laker played more than Bryant's 27 minutes, and everyone but Brian Cook (who only played eight minutes) scored at least six points.
The end-game stats also told a story - the Lakers outrebounded the Suns 54-34, and shot 56.5%. It could have REALLY been a lot worse for the Suns as the Lakers committed 20 turnovers to the Suns 13. Steve Nash was a non-factor, contributing only three assists for the home team. Raja Bell was 1-for-8 from the field and Amare Stoudemire was an equally dreadful 2-for-10 - combined they only totalled 12 points!
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