Kobe Bryant shines as Los Angeles Lakers defeat Cleveland Cavaliers 97 – 92 – NBA Recap
Kobe Bryant has been in stupendous form recently, scoring bucket loads of points and driving the Los Angeles Lakers to victories. That trend continued here at the Staples Center with another massive showing by Bryant propelling Los Angeles to victory over
the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Lakers took a firm grip on the match in the first half and never looked back, eventually running out 97 - 92 winners. Kobe was simply unstoppable in the game as the “Black Mamba” weaved through Cleveland’s defences at will, laying on 42 points.
The Lakers two towers; Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol, put up double-double performances in the game. Bynum had 15 points and 11 rebounds while Gasol netted 19 and collected 10 boards. Derek Fisher ran the game for Los Angeles with his 10 assists.
The Cavaliers were pretty ordinary in response and hung around basically because the Lakers let them. Rookie sensation Kyrie Irving was impressive again though, with the point guard top scoring for his team with 21 points while he also had 4 assists. No
one else made contributions of note for the Cavaliers, with only Omri Casspi, Anderson Varejao and Ramon Sessions making it to double digits.
A high scoring first quarter was also a closely fought won as both sides took turns at making small bursts and the lead changed hands a few times. Bryant scored 7 of Los Angeles’ 9 points at the end of the period helping them finish ahead at 32 – 28.
The Lakers wouldn’t be caught after that. It was hard enough for Cleveland to deal with Kobe in such ominous form; the Lakers defence sprang into action to make things even worse for them. Cavaliers scored just 13 points in the second period, while Los Angeles
went for 27. The sides went into the break with the Lakers ahead by a distance at 59 – 41.
To their credit, Cleveland came out with an aggressive mentality after the interval and looked to get some points on the board quickly. They actually outscored the home side in the third quarter, scoring 29 points whilst Los Angeles had 23.
The teams went into the final segment with 12 points separating them. The game had by that point turned into a play thing for Bryant who did most of the scoring for his side, which shifted down a couple of gears with the game already in tow. Cleveland used
the circumstances to narrow the margin of their loss and it ended 97 – 92 to Los Angeles.
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