Bryant is Back!

Tonight, Kobe Bryant joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only other player to score 50+ points in 4 consecutive games. It has been an amazing experience and privilege to be a fan of a team with one of the most prolific scorers in the NBA. There has never been a dull moment.

At the start of the season, I really respected and applauded Kobe for changing up his game and allowing players such as Lamar and Luke to take more responsibility for the triangle offense. It was a needed adjustment if this team were to ever contend for a title again. It didn’t take very long before the Lakers were clicking on all cylinders and they were performing like true contenders in the West. During the first half of the season, they beat all the elite teams in the west including the Spurs, Mavericks, and Suns. The Lakers proved to all their critics that they could compete.

Unfortunately, this was not sustained because of the the rash of injuries during the course of the year. Lamar was out for a couple months, Luke and Kwame both twisted their ankles, and the offense just shut down. During that stretch, the Lakers had two of their worst losing streaks. A losing streak of six, followed almost immediately with a losing streak of seven.

Phil Jackson finally had enough and he has officially released the Black Mamba. So far, the Mamba has delivered. Its great to see Kobe performing at such a high level. The Lakers really needed this push. As much as I would like to see Kobe continue to go on this scoring binge, we all know that in order for the Lakers to make a push in the playoffs, the rest of the team has to get involved.

Hopefully with the recent return of Odom and Walton, the Lakers will get back to their winning form. I would really like to see them push past the 1st round. We were so close last year! In the meantime, its time for us Laker fans to enjoy one of the greatest scoring outputs in NBA history. Thanks Kobe.