kobe8bryant.net Kobe Bryant Blog

Every Rockets fan in the world would love for this to happen…The play in which kobe “elbowed” Ron Artest was a normal boxing out play. Kobe did not intentionally throw a Derek Fisher like elbow at Ron Artest. If the League decides to suspend Kobe for this then I’ve lost all respect for the NBA. If Rajon Rondo can punch and kick people all throughout the game and nothing comes of it then Kobe should not be suspended for an inadvertent elbow.

Update: Derek Fisher has been suspended for Game three and Stu Jackson made this announcement regarding Kobe.

Jackson also announced that the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant has been assessed a Flagrant Foul Penalty One for elbowing Houston’s Ron Artest in the chest area with 6:57 remaining in the fourth period of last night’s game.

The Lakers started off game two on fire. Kobe said before the game “I’m going to come out on fire!” He did, scoring 15 points in the first quarter. Kobe sat out the first 4 minutes of the second quarter and the Lakers quickly lost the lead. The Lakers got real sloppy and stopped the ball movement. I don’t think Kobe touched the ball until the 3 minute mark in the second quarter but by then the Rockets already had taken the lead. It seems that whenever the offense doesn’t go through Kobe the rest of the Lakers get sloppy and take bad shots. The Lakers did have much better defense compared to game one especially on Yao Ming. Hopefully the Lakers will play a strong second half and win game two of the western conference semi-finals. My prediction Lakers 106 Rockets 99.

Update: My predicted score was close as the Lakers upset the Rockets in game two. The second half was full of rough play and ejections and I hate to see players such as Derek Fisher get tossed out of the game because they let their emotions run high. Everyone is also making a huge uproar over the unitentional kobe elbow which in my opinion was just that unintentional. I look forward to game three with or without some key players.

The Lakers started out very slow and played one of the worst halfs so far in the playoffs but only trailed by 3 points at half-time. Kobe Bryant had a minor shoulder injury as well as a head cold and struggled early. He missed practice and the shoot around because of his cold but he started to warm up in the third quarter but the Lakers just could not get over the hump and lost game one to the Houston Rockets.

The Lakers move on to the second round of the 2009 NBA playoffs after defeating the Utah Jazz at home. The Lakers dominated the game since the start and never looked back. Kobe had another great game with 31 points and 4 steals. The Lakers can now take a small rest and wait until the next round which it looks like they will face the Houston Rockets. The Lakers have not lost to the Rockets this season and I believe they have the potential to sweep their way into the Conference Finals.