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zonda_car · 05-19-09, 05:47 PM

Originally posted by web_connect

Kobe, LA Lakers advance to meet Denver Nuggets

It took the Lakers a little longer than expected, but they finally put the Houston Rockets away with an 89-70 win in Game 7 on Sunday to move into the Western Conference Finals for a second straight year. Next up for Kobe Bryant & Co. will be Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets. Game 1 of the series tips at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern) on Tuesday with ESPN providing the telecast from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The top two seeds in the Western Conference have made it through the first two rounds of the 2009 NBA Playoffs – just like we scripted it.

The Los Angeles Lakers made it interesting, though. They needed a seventh game to put away the Houston Rockets in the Conference semifinals; the Sunday afternoon crowd at Staples Center witnessed a superior defensive effort in a one-sided 89-70 final, enough to pay the Lakers as 13-point favorites. L.A. finished the series 3-1 ATS at Staples and 1-2 ATS at the Toyota Center.

There weren’t going to be any cliffhangers in the other Western semifinal. The Denver Nuggets put the boots to the Dallas Mavericks in five games at 5-0 ATS, just like they did in the first round against the New Orleans Hornets. Both losses were on the road and by a single bucket. Denver is the hottest team of the four remaining in the playoffs at 17-4 SU and ATS since Mar. 25. The Jekyll-and-Hyde Lakers are 16-7 SU and 12-11 ATS during the same stretch. The numbers for the full season don’t add up to a lot of cash for L.A. fans:

Los Angeles (regular season): 65-17 SU, 43-39 ATS, Over 42-39-1
Los Angeles (playoffs): 8-4 SU, 6-6 ATS, Under 8-4

Denver (regular season): 54-28 SU, 44-37-1 ATS, Over 42-40
Denver (playoffs): 8-2 SU, 10-0 ATS, Over 6-4

Head-to-head: Los Angeles 3-1 SU, 2-2 ATS, Under 3-1

The Lakers were favored by 8½ points for each of their regular season matchups with Denver. But the early betting odds for Game 1 had the red-hot Nuggets getting just 6½ points. And while betting surveys had Los Angeles drawing two-thirds of the action against the spread, the Nuggets were pulling in 98 percent of the moneyline at +250. Their recent hot streak includes an 8-2 ATS mark in their past 10 away games to leave Denver 25-20 ATS on the season.

We can throw the first result out of the window – that was when the Nuggets still had a backcourt of Anthony Carter and Allen Iverson. The April matchup was missing one of Denver’s key ingredients, power forward Kenyon Martin. And the only Lakers defeat on this list was during Andrew Bynum’s lengthy absence. Tuesday’s opener will be the first time we’ve seen these particular versions of the Nuggets and Lakers in action.

I think it’s fair game to compare this series to the 2004 NBA Finals. MVP Chauncey Billups is just as good at point guard now as he was when he led the Detroit Pistons to the title over Derek Fisher and the Lakers. This was also the year that Gary Payton’s career jumped the shark in L.A., but in the end neither Payton nor Fisher had an answer for Billups in the Finals. That should still be the case five years later.
The case for the Lakers, as it was in 2004, is that they have the better overall collection of talent in this series:

Carmelo Anthony: 19.0 PER
Kobe Bryant: 24.3 PER

Nene: 18.8 PER
Pau Gasol: 22.2 PER

Chris Andersen: 18.1 PER
Andrew Bynum: 19.9 PER

Kenyon Martin: 13.6 PER
Lamar Odom: 16.5 PER

J.R. Smith: 16.8 PER
Trevor Ariza: 15.5 PER

Chauncey Billups: 18.8 PER
Derek Fisher: 12.1 PER

Those advanced stats don’t do justice to the excellent defense both teams have played to make it to the NBA’s Final Four. The defensive assignments will also be different and changing constantly as coaches Phil Jackson and George Karl milk what they can out of their talented and deep rosters. But the numbers support the premise that the Lakers have the horses to win the series, especially at home. Denver’s value with Billups at point guard is on a single-game basis – starting with Game 1 (ESPN, Tuesday 9:00 p.m.) and a chance to improve to 11-0 ATS in the playoffs.

Kobe Bryant cannot remember a day in his life that wasn't punctuated by the sound of a bouncing basketball. A hoops junkie who prophesied his own stardom in toddlerhood, Kobe is the reason fans stopped raising an eyebrow when high-school stars skipped college and went directly to the pros. The first teenage guard to successfully translate his skills to the NBA, he pocketed three championship rings by his 24th birthday and continued to evolve into one of the best all-around players in the history of the game. This is his story

GROWING UP

Kobe Bryant was born on August 23, 1978 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Click here for today's sports birthdays.) His parents, Joe and Pam, already had two girls, Sharia and Shaya. Kobe was their third and final child. Life in the Bryant family was not your normal everyday existence. Joe, a playground hoops legend from Philly’s John Bartram High School, was in the midst of a scattershot pro basketball career that took him to three different countries.

“Jellybean Joe,” a 6-9 forward with the skills of a point guard, never really found his place in the NBA. After three stellar years at La Salle University, he was drafted in 1975 by Golden State. When the Warriors refused his contract demands, he was dealt to Philadelphia. From there, Joe bounced from one team to another, appearing in a total of 606 games for the 76ers, San Diego Clippers and Houston Rockets and averaging 8.7 points along the way. He also played professionally in Europe. Some say Joe Bryant refused to go with the flow. Others insist he was a man ahead of his time.

Pam was by Joe’s side for every stop of his career. He had had his eye on her since childhood. Their grandparents lived on the same block in Philadelphia, and they often crossed paths during the 1960s. The pair rekindled their relationship in college in the early 1970s and got married soon after.

Kobe grew up eating, sleeping and breathing basketball. A year after his son was born, Joe was traded to San Diego. The Bryants loved being in sunny Southern California. Their neighbors were friendly, and rain rarely forced the kids inside. Kobe developed an intense love of hoops on the West Coast. By his third birthday, he was already telling people be would be an NBA star.

In the summer of 1982, the Bryants packed their bags for Houston, after Joe was dealt to the Rockets. Kobe, who was gaining a better understanding of what his dad did for a living, started following the NBA seriously. His favorite player was Magic Johnson, a point guard in a power forward’s body—not unlike Kobe’s dad. The youngster responded to Magic’s flashy style and winning ways, and adopted the Lakers as his favorite pro team.

Joe’s stay in Houston lasted only one season. When the Rockets didn’t renew his contract, he signed with a team in Rieti, Italy. The Bryant family’s basketball odyssey continued. For Kobe and his sisters, the move proved to be a meaningful bonding experience. Stuck in a foreign country and unable to speak the language, they relied on each other to get by. Every day after school they practiced new Italian words and phrases together. Within a couple of months, all three were fairly fluent in Italian.

Joe, meanwhile, finally hit his stride in the pro ranks. Encouraged to use all the talents and instincts he developed on the streets of Philadelphia, he blossomed into a star. Joe regularly poured in 30 to 40 points a game. He made a very good salary, and his family was treated well by the people in their town. What many NBA fans thought of as basketball hell was its own slice of basketball heaven for the Bryants.

Kobe’s world revolved around his father’s basketball schedule. He often accompanied Joe to afternoon practice and rarely missed a game. Kobe studied his dad’s moves, then tried to mimic the way he played. At halftime of games, Kobe sometimes entertained fans by shooting baskets.

On Joe’s days off, if the family wasn’t on a sightseeing adventure, they would spend time with the families of other American players. Among them was Harvey Catchings, whose daughters, Tauja and Tamika, would go on to stardom in college and the WNBA.

This lifestyle—particularly seeing his father thrill crowds with thunderous dunks and no-look passes—further inspired Kobe to dream of a career in the NBA. The soccer-crazed Italians, however, pushed Kobe in another direction. They told him more than once that with his long arms, quickness, and leaping ability, he would make a world-class goalkeeper.

Kobe kept tabs on the NBA thanks to his grandparents. In the days before international cable sports feeds, they recorded games and sent the tapes to Italy on a weekly basis. Father and son watched these videos together, as well as those Joe received from scouting services in the U.S. With Joe imparting his expertise, Kobe learned to see the whole court and read how the action unfolded during a game.

Kobe got a chance to hone his skills each summer, when the Bryants flew back to visit family and friends in Philadelphia. From the age of 10, he competed in the city’s high-powered Sonny Hill League and held his own against boys his age and older. His father and Pam’s brother, John, counseled him on areas of his game that needed improving.

Dokholiday · 05-19-09, 06:16 PM

Too bad he turned out to be a punk