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SALT LAKE CITY -- Sometimes selfish is good. No, sometimes selfish is great. So if Kobe Bryant seems selfish at times, even if he seems selfish at some point in the near future, the Lakers and their coaches and front office and fans might want to be a little bit understanding -- even a little bit forgiving.
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| Pump your fist and flash a smile, Kobe. You can take all the credit for this win. (Getty Images) |
With his team reeling and Pau Gasol choking and Phil Jackson doing nothing to justify all that jewelry he's accumulated thanks to Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal and, yes, Kobe Bryant, Bryant took over against the Utah Jazz.
He stopped passing to teammates.
He stopped looking at teammates.
And why not? His teammates sucked. Gasol couldn't hang on to the ball on offense and couldn't grab a board on defense. Lamar Odom had completely shrunk from the moment. The Lakers' bench showed itself to be slow and scared. Jackson spent most of the timeouts, even the ones he called, doodling on his notepad near the foul line while Utah coach Jerry Sloan was doing something revolutionary on the other bench -- coaching to his team.
Enough of this.
You could almost see that thought pass through Bryant's mind with five minutes left and the Jazz within 93-86 and the Energy Solutions Arena sounding like the inside of air horn.
Los Angeles had led 89-72 with less than nine minutes left before Utah reserve Paul Millsap turned the game upside down with eight straight Utah points, and 10 of 12, to get the Jazz within seven.
Enough of this.
With the Lakers' lead down to 93-86, Bryant posted up Matt Harpring 20 feet from the basket, didn't like his options, and passed the ball to Odom. Bryant repositioned himself and demanded the ball right back. Odom gave it, then cut to the basket with his hand up. Bryant scowled at him and shook his head. Pass the ball? To any of those bumbling jokers in Los Angeles jerseys? Hell, no. Twenty-four feet from the basket, Bryant stared down Harpring and drilled a 3-pointer in his face.
Next time down the floor, Bryant and Harpring were talking trash up to the moment that Bryant got the ball on the other wing, rose for a jumper, got fouled and muscled a 20-footer off the glass. Add the free throw, and the Lakers were back in control at 99-86.
And still it wasn't enough. Not with Odom missing a lay-up and Gasol throwing a pass out of bounds and Odom traveling. Not with Gasol being unable to stop one-dimensional Mehmet Okur from getting open 3-pointers. Not with Gasol and Odom -- 14 feet of invisible -- grabbing nary a rebound in the final 10 1/2 minutes, allowing the Jazz to hoist shot after shot until something finally fell.
Kobe Bryant, selfish? Maybe he was. Maybe he is. But selfish is the only thing between the Lakers and Game 7 on Monday night. After his 3-pointer and his 3-point play, Bryant hit six straight free throws in the final 2:12. If his teammates wanted this ball, they were going to have to go all Charlton Heston and pry it from his dead, cold hands.
Left to their own devices, the Lakers of Luke Walton and Jordan Farmar and Gasol and Odom and Phil Jackson -- who still hasn't found a way to stop the deathly slow Okur from standing by himself behind the 3-point arc -- would have let the Jazz roar out of Salt Lake City with the biggest comeback win of the postseason and all the reason in the world to expect to win Game 7 Monday night in Los Angeles.
Instead, Bryant scored 12 of the Lakers' final 15 points -- Odom was good enough to make two free throws with 19.4 seconds left, and Derek Fisher added one with 12.7 seconds left -- to finish with 34 points in addition to eight rebounds and six assists. Because greed is good, the Lakers will have a huge advantage over the team that emerges from the San Antonio-New Orleans series. Those teams will play a Game 7 on Monday at New Orleans, with the winner having to turn around and play the Lakers 48 hours later. And if that winner is the Hornets, only one team in the Western Conference finals will know it can win a game on the road.
That would be the Lakers.
Or the Kobes.
Same difference.