You have to admire Kobe Bryant’s tenacity. Despite the effects of the flu, he played more than 43 minutes and kept his team in the game with 40 points and 10 rebounds. The only indication that he wasn’t 100% is in the AST/TO ratio, an uncharacteristic 3/10. Dwight Howard (17 PTS, 8 REB, 4 BLK) wasn’t to blame for the home loss to Indiana, but the other three L.A. starters combined to shoot 3-for-23 and Antawn Jamison cooled off (3 PTS in 22:42) after a couple of promising games.
The Pacers were hardly great; their 36.7% shooting was simply not as awful as the 31.7% the home team managed. George Hill led the scoring with 19, while David West had a near triple-double (16 PTS, 10 REB, 8 AST, 2 BLK) against the struggling Pau Gasol, whose knee tendinitis may be a bigger problem than we thought. It was not a classic by any means; when neither team breaks 80, fantasy teams suffer.
Other November 27 Games
DAL @ PHI: A major lineup shuffle for Dallas saw Dominique Jones start at PG, with Darren Collison relegated to the bench. Elton Brand also lost his starting job, with rookie Jae Crowder getting another look. It almost worked, despite DoJo and Crowder scoring just two points apiece. Brand had his best game of the season (17 PTS & 8 REB in 19 minutes) against his former team, Collison (12 PTS, 6 AST, 5 STL) still got 30 minutes and Shawn Marion stepped up (17 PTS, 8 REB) but the Mavs lost by two. Jrue Holiday (18 PTS, 7 AST, 5 STL) is the Sixers’ new leader and Evan Turner (22 PTS, 4 REB, 4 AST) had another strong game, with Thaddeus Young adding 20 points and 7 boards.
TOR @ HOU: It was a surprisingly subdued and ineffective Kyle Lowry in his return to Houston — just 7 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists —while Jeremy Lin (16 PTS, 10 AST) played very well. James Harden (24 PTS, 12 REB, 6 AST, 3 STL) was outstanding and Omer Asik (13 PTS, 18 REB) won the battle up front against Jonas Valanciunas (12 PTS, 5 REB) as the Rockets scored 61 points in the first half and cruised to an easy win. For Toronto, Andrea Bargnani bounced back from a nightmare game with 21, but the big fantasy news was rookie Terrence Ross getting 35:44 off the bench and scoring a career-high 19 — he’s a great FA pickup with a chance to stay in the rotation, as both Dominic McGuire and Linas Kleiza have been useless.
As soon as I heard the media stories and tweets about Kobe bravely playing through the flu, I knew he was going to try and do an MJ and sure enough he shot and shot and shot and shot….
10 turnovers, a poor shooting percentage, and a free throw count inflated by a couple of iffy calls. If writers want to praise that game, go ahead.
The only thing which makes it look halfway decent is how awful his teammates played (and not because Indiana was great; couldn’t believe Gerald Green took a 16 foot jumper when Indiana should have held for the final shot in Q3, among many terrible decisions). On the other hand, Dwight was much more efficient and the Indiana bigs had foul trouble as it was- they couldn’t afford to do “Hack a Howard” much more than they did in the game. If a few more of Kobes touches go inside, the Lakers win despite how poor they were.