Toronto Raptors vs LA Lakers Feb.1/08

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Kobe Bryant beat the Toronto Raptors on Friday with an array of rim-rattling dunks and nifty spin moves. And when the Lakers star wasn't shooting, he was chucking the ball out to his wide-open teammates who were knocking down their shots with maddening ease. Bryant poured in 46 points to lead the Lakers to a 121-101 victory over the Raptors on Friday, just hours after Los Angeles acquired Pau Gasol in a trade with Memphis. But two years removed from his 81-point performance against Toronto, Bryant topped the Raptors with an all-around star-studded performance. ``He's a great player,'' said Raptors forward Chris Bosh. ``When he gets hot, he can get it going, he made a lot of tough shots. When a guy's going like that you have to double, and when he kicked it out they made shots. That's tough to stop. ``You can always say, make him catch it further from the basket, but he is the best one-on-one player in the league, hands down.'' Andrea Bargnani had 28 points to top the Raptors (25-21), whose six-game win streak at the Air Canada Centre came to an ugly end. Bosh finished with 22 points and 15 rebounds, while Jose Calderon had 17 points and Anthony Parker finished with 12 points. Sasha Vujacic added 22 points for the Lakers (29-16), who are two games into a nine-game road trip. Los Angeles led for most of the night, stretching their advantage to 11 points in the third quarter and taking an 83-77 lead into the fourth in front of a capacity crowd of 19,800 at the Air Canada Centre. The Raptors trailed by six points with 10 minutes to go in the game, before a trio of threes from the Lakers and a basket by Ronny Turiaf gave the visitors a 15-point advantage and put the game out of reach. A three-pointer by Bargnani cut L.A.'s lead to 12 points with just under six minutes to play, but on the Lakers' next possession, Bryant drove hard to basket for a monstrous dunk, glaring at the crowd as he landed and leaving the Raptors shaking their heads in frustration. ``We only come here once a year,'' Bryant said, on playing up to the crowd. ``Some people are here and it is the only chance they get to see me, sometimes it is a first time so I want to make sure that I go out, put on a good performance.'' When Raptors coach Sam Mitchell was asked about a three-point shot Bryant scored from in front of Toronto's bench, he said: ``Which one? The one in the corner, or the two at the top? ``He even dribbled it between his legs and then shot.'' The Lakers shot a sizzling 56 per cent on the night, including 12-for-27 from three-point range, while Toronto shot 44 per cent. But the big difference was in the paint, where the visitors outscored the Raptors 48-30. The Lakers also beat the Raptors 14-4 on fast-break points, while Toronto edged the Lakers on the boards 41-40. Bryant, who scorched the Raptors for 81 points in January, 2006, shot an efficient 19-for-28 on the night, and put on a show to the delight of the numerous Kobe fans in the crowd _ one fan held aloft a sign that read: ``We'll trade the Leafs for Kobe.'' ``We lost today, we didn't stop Kobe Bryant, he was amazing, and the times we stopped him, he just finds the open teammates,'' Bargnani said. Parker and Raptors rookie Jamario Moon had the unenviable job of guarding Bryant for most of the night. ``You want to make him a volume shooter and he's going to get his points, but he was pretty efficient today,'' Parker said. ``You have to pay more attention to Kobe and the other guys stepped up and made shots. When it wasn't him, he found open guys and they knocked down the threes.'' Bosh had a tough night as well, with several Lakers draped on him every time he found the ball. The Raptors forward shot 7-for-22 a day after being named a reserve to the Eastern Conference squad for the all-star game. Another strong game by Bargnani was the one bright spot on the loss. ``We've been on our guys to take the ball to the basket and Andrea drove more than anybody tonight and had some success,'' Mitchell said. ``He's got that little look back in his eyes, he's starting to get his confidence back, some shots start falling for him, and what I liked about tonight was he didn't settle every time, he drove to the basket, had four dunks. . .'' Just hours before the game, the Lakers completed a deal with Memphis to acquire Gasol, boosting their injury-riddled frontcourt. The Lakers gave up Kwame Brown, rookie Javaris Crittenton and two first-round draft picks for Gasol. The Spaniard will be a big boost to a Lakers squad reeling from recent injuries to its frontcourt, including young centre Andrew Bynum (knee injury). ``It will be something when they put all that together,'' Bosh said on the new-look Lakers. ``You put Bynum, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol out there, that's two shot blockers and two rebounders, and then you put the best player in the league out there making plays.''

Category: Sports
Uploaded: February 3rd, 2008 @ 2:07 am
Author: monuow

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