source: www.spin.ph
MINNEAPOLIS — For 17
years, Kobe Bryant has been a supremely confident, ultra-aggressive offensive
force who believed that the more he scores, the better the odds the Los Angeles
Lakers win.
Even by his standards,
Bryant was on a blistering run to start this season. He averaged just over 22
field goal attempts, right up there with the highest averages of his career. He
took 31 shots in a loss to Houston, 41 in a win over Golden State and 32 in a
loss at Toronto.
Off to a 17-25 start,
and with the playoffs slipping away, Kobe has revamped his game. He's
channeling more Magic than Michael now, becoming the Lakers' chief playmaker to
jumpstart the struggling team. After posting double-digit assists just once in
his first 42 games, Bryant is averaging 11.2 assists over the last five, a
stretch that has produced four victories to offer some hope that all is not
lost.
"It feels
good," Bryant said on Friday (Saturday, Manila time), when the Lakers beat
the Timberwolves. "You're just trying to do whatever it takes to win.
Trying to figure things out, even if you're adjusting your game as dramatically
as I have, it's just doing whatever it takes to get your team to win."
Passing hasn't exactly
been absent from Bryant's game over the years. It just hasn't been at the
forefront of his approach to breaking a team down. He's always thought of
himself as the best one-on-one player in the world, and that mentality has
fueled a get-out-of-my-way approach that has helped him fly up the career
scoring chart.
He's averaged a healthy
4.7 assists for his career and was right at that number through the first 42
games this season. Bryant has more career assists than any of the five players
who have scored at least 30,000 points. But he has completely changed his role
in the last two weeks.
In the four-game losing
streak that preceded the Lakers' mini-surge, Bryant attempted 25, 32, 22 and 23
shots and dished out a total of 14 assists.
In the last five games,
he's taken 10, 12, 12, 17 (the only loss) and 13 shots and picked up 56
assists.
"I just try to
dominate the game through passing and getting to the rim and scoring when the
opportunity presents itself," Bryant said. "There's many ways to
dominate a game."
For someone as
notoriously stubborn as Bryant, it's quite an eye-opening transformation.
"It's not the
easiest thing in the world to change a mentality," Lakers coach Mike
D'Antoni said. "But he's definitely trying."
In the twilight of his
career, and with Steve Nash and Dwight Howard not close to the All-NBA players
they have been, it's also been absolutely necessary for the Lakers' survival.
They are 21-26, good for 10th place in the competitive Western Conference.
"It's different now
playing against him than watching him on TV," Wolves forward Derrick
Williams said. "He's just a deadly weapon. If you leave a little space
he's going to knock down a shot. If you get too close to him, he's going to hit
people with backdoor passes."
His teammates are
feeding off the newfound unselfishness, too. Pau Gasol had struggled for most
of the season, but he had 22 points and 12 rebounds against the Timberwolves on
Friday night. Antawn Jamison has scored in double figures in four straight games,
and Nash is adapting quite well to playing off the ball and knocking down all
the open shots that come when Bryant draws so much attention from the defense.
The Timberwolves
certainly didn't have an answer for his new game Friday. In the first quarter,
he relentlessly backed down the overmatched Luke Ridnour in the post, drawing
double teams from a scrambling Wolves defense. Bryant easily surveyed the
scene, kicking to wide open shooters on the perimeter for easy shots. The
Lakers hit eight of their first 10 3-point attempts to build a 29-point lead in
the second quarter.
Bryant said he studied
Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson and John Stockton as much as he did Jordan while
he was growing up. And whenever he's asked about Magic — widely considered Bryant's
biggest competition for title of the greatest Laker — he smiles broadly.
"That's the thing
that gets lost as the years go on," he said. "People forget how good
he was and some of the passes he makes. You go back and look at some of that
(stuff) he was throwing around out there, it's outrageous. Some of the things
he sees. And me growing up a huge Magic fan, I'm very familiar with that."
If Bryant can somehow
dig these Lakers out of the rubble and take them to another title, it will be
the sixth of his career — tying Jordan and moving him past Magic on the ring
count.
"We're trying to
find that balance a little bit," he said. "We're obviously not
reaching our full potential if I go through a full half without really shooting
the ball. But at the same time, I think the most important part is to get
everybody in rhythm. I can always find my offensive rhythm throughout the
game."
That's an ongoing
conversation with D'Antoni.
"You need to be
aggressive and make the right play," the coach said. "When you take
off and they collapse on you, make the pass. If they don't, then score. I think
you need to do it for four quarters. You can't come into a game and be a facilitator
for a quarter, (then say) 'OK, now I'm going to be a scorer.'"
Bryant is getting more
and more comfortable with each passing game, and all of a sudden these Lakers
have new life. Once buried under a pile of injuries and dysfunction, they're 3½
games behind Houston for the eighth seed and charging. They're close enough
that Bryant is starting to peek at the standings again.
"A little bit now
because you kind of want to have in your mind's eye what's going on," he
said. "But we'll catch up."
