Lakers vs. Jazz in Utah

Kobe Bryant scores 40 points in the Lakers win over the Jazz 90-87.

1st HALF

The Kobe Bryant scoring trend, for the Lakers, continued as he scored 14 of the teams 26 points in the first quarter. The Lakers held a 3 point lead to end the quarter. The signs of dominance for Bryant are clear as he picked-up 4 rebounds and 2 assists. That compared to Gasol's 2 points and 5 rebounds, and Bynum's 4 points and 1 rebound.

The second quarter opened with Peace, Walton, Bynum, Blake, and Morris on the court for the Lakers.

The Jazz open the 2nd quarter by scoring the first 6 points to the Lakers 0, prompting coach Brown to call a time-out for the Lakers with 9:01 left in the quarter.

Coming out of the time-out Ebanks replaced Walton in the line-up. With 7:33 left in the quarter, Bryant and Gasol replaced Ebanks and Peace in the Lakers line-up. The Lakers scored 2 points up to that point.

Ebanks and Barns scored for the Lakers before Kobe put in another basket.

With 4:31 left in the 2nd quarter the Lakers have only scored 6 points in the quarter, while the Jazz have scored 12 points. Finally, with 3:54 left in the quarter, Gasol hits a little hook shot in the lane. Some 30 seconds later Gasol hits another little hook shot in the lane bringing the Lakers' point total for the quarter to 10 points. Meanwhile the Jazz have upped their total to 15 points for the quarter.

Then Kobe hits another little jumper in the lane to tie the Lakers with the Jazz at 38.

The Jazz then score 4 points before Kobe hits an 11 foot jumper and one for a 3-point play to end the scoring for both teams for the quarter with the Jazz leading the Lakers 42-41 at the half.

Quietly, what Kobe is doing for the Lakers in the 1st half, Paul Millsap is doing for the Jazz. Kobe has 21 points for the Lakers, while Millsap has 14 points for the Jazz.

Through the 2nd quarter Kobe Bryant has more than half of the Lakers points.

2nd HALF

The Lakers' 3rd quarter scoring balanced out a bit, with Kobe Bryant "only" scoring 10 of teams 25 points for the quarter, while holding the Jazz to 19 points for the quarter. The Lakers led at the end of the 3rd quarter 65-61.

The 4th quarter started real slow for the Lakers. How slow do you ask? Well, with 2:41 left in the game the Lakers had only scored 8 points for the quarter. 4 points for Barns, 3 points for Bynum, and 1 point for Gasol. Lucky for the Lakers the Jazz had only scored 10 points for the quarter. Luck or defense?

Coming out of a time-out, Bryant hits a 18 foot jumper to make the score 76-71 Lakers with 2:31 left in the game.

With 1:32 left in the game Josh Howard hits 2 free throws to make the score 76-73 Lakers.

With 1:09 left in the game Kobe turns the ball over. Off that turnover Josh Howard hits a 3-pointer to tie the game at 76 with 57.1 left in the game.

Bryant hits a jumper to make-up for his turnover with 39.4 left in the game.

Millsap ties the game at 78 with 21.4 left in the game.

After a pair of fouls the Lakers have the ball with 7 seconds left in the game.

Kobe misses a jumper with 1 second left in the game as the game goes into overtime.

OVERTIME

The Jazz opened up the scoring with 4 points from Millsap to take a 4 point lead 82-78.

Kobe Bryant then hits a 3-pointer to cut the Jazz lead 82-81.

Josh Howard answers with his own 3-pointer for the Jazz.

Gasol hits 2 free throws to make the score 85-83 Jazz.

After a Lakers defensive stop, Gasol hits a 3-pointer to give the Lakers a 86-85 lead with 2:02 left in the game.

The Lakers get another stop and a rebound with 1:34 left in the game. Kobe misses a 17 foot jumper with 1:04 left in the game but the Lakers get the rebound.

Kobe misses another jumper but Bynum tips it in for the Lakers to extend their lead 88-85 with 50.1 left in the game.

Millsap hits a jumper to cut the Lakers lead to 1, 88-87

Kobe misses another jumper, but Bynum blocked Al Jefferson's 5 foot jumper in the lane as Kobe grabs the rebound and is fouled with .7 left in the game.

Kobe hits both free throws as the Jazz call time-out with .7 left in the game.

Kobe finishes with 40 points as the Lakers win 90-87.

Dare I say that the way game ended, it has to be called Jordanesque for Bryant.

What is Jordanesque? Just like Michael Jordan did in his career, he took most of the shots, make or miss, and usually won the game at the line for his team. Just like Kobe just did for the Lakers.

mike t.