| 12 February 2011
If it's not obvious to anyone at all, Kobe Bryant enjoys playing at Madison Square Gardens. Yet again, Kobe put on a shooting master-class, scoring 33 off 12-17 shooting, in 28 minutes. 19 minutes in the first quarter, #24 took the game right to the Knicks after New York established an early lead.
In a night laden with nostalgia (LA wore early 70s throw-back yellow jerseys again, and the Knicks wore uniforms from the 1969-70 championship team that Phil Jackson played on), that the Lakers could play with passion and intensity on the back of an extremely hard-fought and tenacious win in Boston the night before is a very good sign.
There were other solid performances by the Lakers - actually... the truth of the matter is that there were almost no bad ones. Almost... Artest's shooting woes continued. It's hard not to look forward to the return of Matt Barnes, as much as I've come to like Ron.
Most of the starters sat out for large stretches of time. Only Gasol and Bynum broke 30 minutes (Gasol at 32, Bynum a smidge over 30).
But the night belonged to Kobe. Even when he was stationed on the pine throughout the entire 4th, watching LA continue to be simply too good for the Knicks - even sans Bryant.
The highlight of the night belonged to someone else however. Whilst Kobe was sitting during the 4th, Shannon Brown reached behind himself on a Steve Blake alley-oop, and slammed home a ferocious dunk.
Next up, Orlando on Monday, with Charlotte on Tuesday.
