Bryant Single-Handedly Humiliates the Spurs

I know the Spurs were stuck in an airplane at some point, and just coming off a seven-game series. But dang, that was embarrassing. Up by 20 on the road, the Spurs plain shut off. And what’s more, Kobe was just then starting to go to work. They knew it was coming, he knew it was coming, and well, what followed was a little uncomfortable to watch:↵

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↵Bryant scored at will on Bowen and Udoka (Bowen 2), with even his most ridiculous shots looking more like a roundabout way to realize the inevitable. While he was bloodthirsty as ever, he never forced it, set up Gasol with ease, and was such a fine-tuned basketball machine that, by comparison, Duncan came off as sloppy. There’s no way to understate how sick Kobe’s performance was, an instant classic in a way that James/Pierce jumper-fest could never get close to. It was almost otherworldly, Bryant drifting into the game right before the end of the second, and then going at the Spurs like it was a walk in the park. Relentless, yet casual.↵↵Of course, this being these playoffs, a home win means nothing. I almost feel like the Spurs are in their element when all that matters is the absolute final bottom line. Who knows whether this sort of thing affects San Antonio. For those of us watching, though, this was a great player treating the defending champs like so much dirt on his shoulder, and perhaps the perfect one-game encapsulation of what makes Kobe Kobe.↵

↵↵I’ll go out on a limb and call that the definitive one-man heroics of the 2007-08 post-season. ↵

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