Kobe & The Lakers Rebound; Sixers Jump Back Into The Series

The Lakers weren’t going THAT quietly. In Game 3 against OKC, a must-win, the Lakers jumped out 16-4 and then held on to win 99-96. Kobe Bryant might be getting old, but he’s always good for one big game and last night, he made 18 consecutive free throws while dropping 36 points to save the Lakers. OKC had yet to lose in the playoffs, and were up by five with under three minutes to go before Kevin Durant (31 points) missed a triple and Serge Ibaka got his shot blocked at the buzzer. L.A. was 41-of-42 from the line, and then afterwards acted like that was normal. The Thunder should’ve won and yet lost because the Lakers refused to miss from the line. Once again, it was OKC’s Big Three that did the damage: Durant, Westbrook and Harden combined for 72 points while no one else on the team did much of anything. The Lakers had six players in double figures, including Bryant’s 36, and Ramon Sessions (12 points) was a factor for the first time all series … Steve Blake had a dozen points and eight rebounds after dealing with death threats to his wife on Twitter because of his miscues at the end of Game 2 … If only Andre Iguodala could shoot. We’ve heard it before. With a series tied and Philly close to extinction, Iggy first hit a jumper and then a triple to save the game and their season, 92-83. Iguodala had 16 points and seven rebounds and Lou Williams had 15, but Paul Pierce had 24 points and surprisingly didn’t win it for Boston … The Celtics jumped out early by making seven of their first eight shots, and before long, the visitors were having their cheesesteaks and eating them too, up 22-8. We got on Boston for trying to ride the Brandon Bass train until it dies, and yet he had 10 points in the first 12 minutes. Unbelievably, Doc Rivers even admitted in an interview after that he wanted Bass to shoot more. It kind of makes sense though. This is the same team that allowed a carbonated Rasheed Wallace and his man boobs to take 290 threes in one season … Luckily the Celtics have Rajon Rondo (15 points, 15 assists), who had nine dimes in the first half alone. The ESPN guys at the half were ready to start calling him a Hall of Famer … If you looked at Philly’s shooting chart from the first 15 or so minutes, it would’ve looked like a dark board after a drunk kid took a turn. They were taking all jumpers, and missing all of their jumpers. In fact, over the course of the first half, Philly continued this new style of ugly playoff basketball they’re trying to initiate into the league this year. Teams are averaging the least amount of points in the playoffs since 2004 – the year before they changed the rules. That has got to have something to do with Philly, right? They had 31 points in the first half last night, and even Andre Iguodala was missing dunks … Evan Turner is one of the weirder players in the league. He can make a 20-point game look bad and a 5-point game look nice. Besides that, the dude was 2-for-14 in the first half. Those are J.R. Smith numbers. We would’ve thought Thad Matta had taught him better than that … We’re out like Turner’s jumper.

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