SH Blog: Kobe Passes Michael, Warriors Keep Rolling

On Sunday night, Kobe Bryant passed Michael Jordan for third all-time on the NBA scoring list. On Friday night in a 112-110 overtime victory over the Spurs, Kobe scored 22 points, leaving him eight short of tying MJ and nine short of leaping him in the record books.

He finished Sunday’s game with 26 points and a 100-94 win over the young Minnesota Timberwolves, passing Jordan with an exclamation point. In a season surrounded by uncertainty for the Lakers and Kobe’s future, Bryant has put the media and rumors aside by doing what he does best: scoring.

Earlier this season, he passed Wilt Chamberlain for fourth on the all-time scoring list. Not even two weeks later he became the first player ever to record 30,000 points and 6,000 assists in a career.

With two free throws coming at the 5:24 mark in the second quarter, Kobe need to hit one to tie Jordan, and two to pass him.

Watch how it all went down, and the reaction and respect from the players and fans.

The Timberwolves stopped the game to congratulate Bryant on such an amazing accomplishment. Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor gave him the game ball, as fans and players clapped and cheered at the sight of history being made.

The standing ovation from the crowd is what’s great about basketball. There are rooting interests and fandom that take over, but when you witness history like this, it’s putting all that aside and showing respect for one of the greatest players to ever play the game.

Unfortunately for Kobe, this may be his final ascension up the all-time list.

He still sits some 4,000 points behind Karl Malone for second all-time, and 6,000 behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Kareem’s eye-popping scoring total reads 38,387 career points.

Michael Jordan congratulated Kobe on passing him for third all-time, via Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com:

“I congratulate Kobe on reaching this milestone,” Jordan told the Associated Press in a statement. “He’s obviously a great player, with a strong work ethic and has an equally strong passion for the game of basketball. I’ve enjoyed watching his game evolve over the years, and I look forward to seeing what he accomplishes next.”

Phil Jackson coached both players in the NBA. he won six titles with Jordan’s Bulls and five with Bryant’s Lakers, and he wrote in his book “Eleven Rings” that Bryant was “hell-bent on surpassing Jordan as the greatest player in the game.”

After the game, Serena Winters of Lakers Nation caught up with the Mamba to get his thoughts:

Kobe on passing MJ: “It’s a huge honor its so much work to get to this point, it’s unbelievable.” (on @TWCSportsNet)

— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) December 15, 2014

Kobe on the moment he passed MJ, moving into 3rd all-time: “I’d be lying if I were to say it didn’t mean somehting.” (on @TWCSportsNet) — Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) December 15, 2014

The Lakers have now won three straight, looking to make it four in a row on Monday when they face the Pacers in Indiana.

CAN GOLDEN STATE MATCH ’96 BULLS FOR 72 WINS?

Sunday marked yet another victory for the Golden State Warriors, who are now 21-2 through the first 23 games of the season. Oh yeah, and they’ve won 16 games in a row.

Currently on a three game road trip, the Warriors won their 15th straight on Saturday in Dallas 105-98 in the first game on the road. They traveled to New Orleans for a Sunday night matchup with the Anthony Davis-less Pelicans (more later), needing overtime to land the Pels 128-122.

Seriously, this team is good. Good enough to have media asking first-year head coach if he thinks his team can match the 1996 Chicago Bulls, whom he played for, record of 72 wins.

Kerr’s response? Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN.com has that covered:

When asked if the Warriors could pull it off, Kerr responded, “Oh God, no. No!”

Kerr followed that exclamation with, “We had this guy named Michael Jordan on that team. That year, I think we were 41-3. So if we can go 21-1 the next 22 games, come talk to me.”

Kerr explained why the Bulls’ record will never be matched by chalking it up to Michael Jordan’s personality.

“What I remember that year is there were about 10 games where Michael just decided, ‘We’re going to win,'” he said. “And every other team on Earth would have lost those 10 games. And Michael Jordan was … there’ll never be another one. Nobody has ever come close, and I don’t think anybody ever will. He wanted to break that Lakers record of 69 wins, so he decided we would do it, so we did it. There’s only one Michael.”

I’m sure most people agree with Kerr, as do I.

The Warriors are proving to be a dominant team that can fill it up in a hurry, all while getting stops on the defensive end. The chemistry the team displays on the court is insanely good, especially with a rookie head coach.

However, 15 of their 21 victories have come over teams with losing records to this point in the season. We’ll need to see more wins against good teams to really have a firm grasp on just how good this team can be.

The Warriors do have a tough ending to their three game road trip. They’ll have to travel to Memphis to play the Grizzlies on Tuesday who are 19-4 and currently on a four game winning streak of their own. Memphis sits behind only Golden State for the best record in the NBA.

The Grizzlies are 11-1 at home, their only loss coming to the defending champion Spurs on December 5th. The Western Conference powerhouses face off this Tuesday at 8:00 EST on ESPN.

ANTHONY DAVIS SITS OUT WITH CHEST CONTUSION

New Orleans Pelicans MVP candidate Anthony Davis suffered a chest contusion in the first quarter of Friday’s matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Davis ended up missing the rest of that game, playing only seven minutes, but watched his team pull out the win 119-114 despite 41 points from LeBron James.

The injury led to Davis sitting out Sunday’s tilt with the streaking Warriors. This time the Brow watched his team fall in an overtime loss to give Golden State their 16th straight win, 128-122.

Head coach Monty Williams had this to say regarding his All-Star big man missing time, courtesy of Jim Eichenhofer of Pelicans.com:

“He’s sore still,” Pelicans Coach Monty Williams said of Davis’ status today. “We’re going to hold him out tonight, just so we can be cautious about the situation. It’s a freak deal. We’ve always been cautious about our guys.”

Ryan Anderson will start in Davis’ spot in the starting lineup, joining Jrue Holiday, Tyreke Evans, Luke Babbitt and Omer Asik, against a Golden State team that is 20-2 and has won 15 in a row.

“I don’t think there’s a timetable,” Williams said when asked for Davis’ potential return to the lineup. “Whenever the doctors feel like we should hesitate, we pull the plug. All of our guys always want to play. In situations like this where you’re dealing with a guy’s chest, it’s just weird. There are not a lot of reference points for that. I’m not sure there’s a timetable; I think he’s day-to-day. He probably needs a day of practice to see how he can (respond).”

Hopefully Davis will return sooner rather than later for the Pelicans, who are losing considerable ground in the brutal Western Conference.

MIKE CONLEY MAKES BAD PASS, SPILLS A FAN’S BEER

Mike Conley of the Memphis Grizzlies had a little brain fart on Saturday night when his team went to Philly to face the Sixers. The little lapse in Conley’s mind resulted in a bad pass that found a woman sitting in the front row enjoying a nice cold beer.

Unfortunately for the fan, she wasn’t paying attention to the play right in front of her. If you haven’t seen the video, you can watch it via CSNPhilly.com.

As you can hear in the video, it doesn’t seem like anyone got her a new beer, on top of her having to clean up the mess. Come on Philly, that’s criminal! I hope you’re proud of yourself Conley.

To make matters worse, the Sixers ended up losing that game in overtime after they held a huge lead over the visiting Grizz. And guess who helped get the game to overtime in the waning seconds?