Chauncey Billups hit 9-13 from long range en route to a 39-4-8 night against the Lakers. The win is mightily impressive, especially considering the Nuggets were without Carmelo Anthony.
Oh, and Ron Artest almost punched Joey Graham. Almost. Take a look…
“[The Cavaliers] were the hungrier team and I think that they sense that they want to win a championship, they want to go after it, so they’re playing with a sense of urgency that we played with last year. We have to make some adjustments, we have to make some improvements. Our mentality has to change a little bit playing against these teams. These teams are physical, tough-minded and hard-nosed type of teams and we need to make some decisions.”
— Kobe Bryant, via ESPN Los Angeles
Dave McMenamin titled this post, “Bryant Lashes Out At His Teammates,” but I have no problem with anything that Kobe said. It’s 100% true. The Cavs are hungrier and there is no getting around it. It will be very difficult for the Lakers to match that hunger since they just won the title last year. So to beat the Cavs, they have to play tougher and execute better. Pau Gasol looked like a big white bedsheet on a clothesline, flapping around in the wind. And Lamar Odom is not known for his toughness either. Both players have to finish their shots inside and rebound well to offset the Cavs’ hunger (or any other opponent for that matter).
That said, let’s not forget that Kobe missed 19 shots last night and went just 1-5 in the fourth quarter. If he shoots 45-50%, the Lakers probably win that game.
Per the Los Angeles Times, every season, Phil Jackson gives his teams books to read during extended road trips…
Kobe Bryant, who rolls his eyes whenever Jackson gives him a book, probably won’t be perusing what Jackson handed him: “Montana 1948,” a Larry Watson novel about a middle-class Montana family torn apart by a scandal in the late 1940s.
“He never reads my books so I got him a book about Montana,” Jackson said Thursday. “I’m not looking forward to having a review from him. It was about a part of the country I grew up in, so it was something special for me to give it to him.”
I don’t know why, but this story really cracks me up. As much as I dislike the Lakers as a franchise, I do like Jackson’s style. I find it hilarious that he would give Kobe a book that he knows he won’t read, and that somehow the exchange is “special” for him.
With 0:24 to play and his team nursing a two-point lead, LeBron is on the sideline waiting to inbound the ball and this is what he’s doing.
He got fouled a few moments later, made his first free throw and then missed the second.
Update: Just looked on iTunes and the track is called “Forever” by Drake, and it’s on the “More Than a Game” soundtrack. Now it all makes sense…
I’m not a professional lip reader, but after LeBron James took five or six straight jumpers in the fourth quarter (hitting most of them), Shaq came up to him at a timeout and said, “Go to the f**kin’ hole.” On the next possession, LeBron did just that and threw the ball out of bounds. But two plays later with under a minute to play in a tie game, LeBron attacked the glass in secondary transition and gave the Cavs a two point lead.
Kobe Bryant sat for the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter, and when he finally came in, he was ice cold, missing four of his five shots in the final period. Pau Gasol also played weak inside and missed several shots from close range. After LeBron’s driving layup, Gasol had a chance to tie the game with 0:24 to play, but missed both free throws. (He’s an 86% shooter on the season.) Cleveland just showed more toughness down the stretch.
It was an impressive win for the Cavs, who were playing without (arguably) their second best player, Mo Williams, who will be sidelined 4-6 weeks with a separated shoulder.
One thing that struck me as odd: After Gasol missed those free throws, LeBron was on the sideline lip-syncing all of the lyrics to a Eminem song — almost to the point when the ref threw him the ball. I realize he’s just trying to have a good time, but the old schooler in me just shakes his head. A few moments later he went to the line and missed one of his free throws.
Still, it’s hard to complain about a guy who just posted 37-9-5 against the defending champs.
Update: Here’s video of LeBron doing his rap…
Photo from fOTOGLIF
© 2026 The Scores Report – The National Sports Blog
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
