Mad Mad Mamba

Lakers wither under Kobe’s glare
By Adrian Wojnarowski/Yahoo Sports

BOSTON – On his way into the losing locker room, the most angry man in the Garden was heard to bellow a spontaneous stream of curses into the ears of his Los Angeles Lakers. As the door slammed behind them, a witness heard Kobe Bryant screaming that he needed some-bleeping-one to make a stand with him.

The Lakers have been pushed to the edge and Bryant to the brink. Here it was, the most important night of these NBA Finals, a Game 5 with everything even, and it felt like the post-Shaq Lakers with Bryant left to fend for himself. Bryant had gone for 38 points at the Garden, one tough shot after another, a great Celtics defense daring him to make baskets from one more odd angle, one more contested circumstance.

The loneliest Laker had to be Bryant, watching one breakdown after another, a procession of Celtics getting baskets and rebounds and loose balls when they most needed them. He needed someone to grab a defensive rebound, stop Paul Pierce and get between Rajon Rondo and the rim.

A little more than an hour after the 92-86 loss, the surliness was gone, replaced with pursed lips and a glare gone to Game 6 now. Bryant wore unlaced high-tops for an ankle that had been hurt again as he walked to a waiting bus on the loading dock.

“We’ve regressed since Game 1,” Bryant confessed to Yahoo! Sports. “Our defense belongs on milk cartons in the last two games.”

All around him, these Lakers were unraveling. Andrew Bynum struggled on one knee. Lamar Odom felt sick. Kevin Garnett(notes) destroyed Pau Gasol, and Paul Pierce obliterated Ron Artest. Rondo made dramatic, defining plays. The Lakers let down everywhere. This looked like 2008 again, looked like the manhandling that doomed the Lakers to a humiliating Finals loss in Boston.

Through the past two years, through the ’09 title over the Orlando Magic, the Lakers had become largely self-sufficient. Bryant no longer needed to rail so hard. Now, falling down to the Celtics 3-2, you wonder how much has changed, how much Bryant must do in Games 6 and 7 to win his fifth championship.

The idea of this moment becoming too enormous for the Lakers troubles him. “Just man up and play,” Bryant sniffed. “What’s the big deal? If I have to say something to them, then we don’t deserve to be champions.”

The big deal is unmistakable: The Lakers need to get tougher, stronger and smarter to beat Boston. Yes, they’ve regressed, Bryant confessed. Milk-carton defense, he called it. For that to happen this deep into the Finals, against this team, it was downright disconcerting to the best player on the planet. He was walking toward the bus Sunday night, on his way out of the Garden and back to L.A. for Game 6, trying to come back on a championship series, on a Celtics franchise that has been the bane of these Lakers for 50 years.

All that screaming in the locker room, all that angst over a Game 5 that felt like ’08 again, and Bryant stopped walking and stood for a moment. He had to start building back these Lakers, building back the fragility of a defending champion on the brink of elimination.

His eyes narrowed now, his lips stiffened, and Kobe Bryant would say late in this chase for a back-to-back championship, “Listen, if you told me at the beginning of the year that we’ve got two games at home to win a championship, yeah, I’ll take that [bleep].”

Two games in Staples Center and two final chances for Bryant’s wrath to deliver these Los Angeles Lakers an epic NBA title. All the cursing, all the screaming, was finally done as Bryant walked calmly, quietly to the purring bus.

His words still hung inside the Garden, though. Still loomed over these Lakers. Someone has to make a stand with Kobe Bryant. Someone has to fight to save a championship season.

I'd be lying if I said I still feel confident about the series going into tonight's game. The Lakers' performance between Game 1 and Game 5 has been disheartening. The one thing I do take solace in is that they haven't been blown out in any game. They shouldn't have been, but in 2008 I think some of the weaker willed Lakers fell apart after the blowout games.

It is upsetting to see them struggle and know Kobe doesn't exactly know how to motivate them. He's gotten better but it's not an exact science. Of course it isn't for Phil either. So if scowling and screaming is Kobe's weapon of choice I can't really name a better alternative. Deep down the other guys have to know he does it because he wants to win more than any other player on the court. Artest knew it back in '08 when he saw him after the loss. That's why he signed there. But now he has to step up, glue himself to Pierce and do his part. I'm not sure if it's going to happen but I've still got hope. Here's hoping that instead of scowling tonight Kobe is rubbing snot in Ric Bucher's hair.