King-V-Mamba

Last Sunday featured some great NBA games on ABC, especially the Lakers-V-Cavs game billed as a Kobe-LeBron match-up. These match-ups rarely live up to the hype, but this one did every second of the way. Not only was it a close, well-played game, the stars played very well start to finish. Actually Kobe and LeBron were spectacular. On top of that, they guarded each other for long stretches of the game, which made it even more fun. Stars rarely guard each other. This is because you don't want to tire out your top scorer on the defensive side chasing the other team's super star and more importantly, you don't want your star to be in foul trouble. But these stars are unique. Kobe always steps up to the plate on both ends of the floor and takes pride in his defense. Thats part of him trying to wear MJ's mask and trying to be him.

These days LeBron is much the same way. LeBron was not too committed to defense (and many other things) until this year. He was getting by on raw talent. In fact, he was accused of sleep-walking through the first-half of last season. It's amazing he could still take the Cavs all the way to the finals. People like Bill Walton also said he was exposed in the Finals. What he means is, LeBron has a long way to go and a lot of work to do. The good news is, the work seems to have started in earnest last summer. Some kind of a switch seemed to have gone off. May be it was the sweep in the finals or may be the time he spent with great players in the Team USA deal. I personally think it was probably the time he spent with Kobe and realizing how hard Kobe works and how committed he is to basketball greatness.

Whatever it is, LeBron has been a much improved player since the start of the season. He is leading the league in scoring and is working hard on both ends of the floor. I am especially impressed with his effort level on defense. The results have been impressive and he is again single-handeedly carrying the Cavs to great places. This game was a great show for LeBron. He was good, aggressive from the start and did a decent job defending Kobe for stretches. Kobe was Kobe and was unstoppable as always and he tried his best to defend LeBron too. At the end, LeBron hit a clutch shot on Kobe and Kobe surprisingly missed a close lay-up that would have tied the game. W for the King and L for the Mamba. LeBron ended up with 41-9-4 on 16/32 shooting and Kobe had 33-12-6 on 10/21 shooting.

All in all a great NBA game to watch and this is what ABC wants every Sunday on it's network. I have always said a Kobe-LeBron finals can save this league and this was a taste of that. But you know what - I wouldn't be surprised if a NASCAR rain delay out-drew even this game! Thats where NBA is right now.