Kobe Bryant Angry As Los Angeles Lakers NBA Futures Odds Tumble
May 11th, 2012 | Author: John
It’s been a really good month for Los Angeles sports with the NHL’s Kings and NBA’s Clippers off to uncharacteristically good runs in the playoffs. Matt Kemp is killing again for the Dodgers and the Angels seem to be coherent again with seven wins in their last 10 games.
The depth of the city’s sports has never been better, making marquees out of more than just the Lakers. All that competition and the Lakers might get squeezed out if they don’t turn things around against the Denver Nuggets. Kobe Bryant knows this, and isn’t happy with the indignity his team is facing in Game 7. Without a quick about-face from 7-foot center Andrew Bynum, who was non-existent in Game 6 after going for a triple-double earlier in the series, the Lakers could be the first Los Angeles team out of the playoffs this summer. And Bryant is pissed.
“I’m going to tell Andrew he needs to play with a sense of urgency, a sense of desperation,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports. “He’s got to put himself at a fever pitch and elevate his game.
“I’m going to tell him the truth.”
Bryant admitted he didn’t think the series would even last this long. Neither did oddsmakers, who pinned the Lakers a big favorite in NBA Betting Lines.
Los Angeles looked like it early in the series, but have fallen hard lately. Bryant poured in 31 points last night while fighting the flu, but couldn’t get any help in a 113-96 defeat.
Nuggets vs. Lakers Betting Odds will favor Los Angeles when the series returns home for Game 7. But Pau Gasol’s timidness and Bynum’s general indifference seems to be costing the Lakers more and more each game and has Denver believing it can make a run. And why not after watching the Philadelphia Sixers close out a historic upset of top seeded Chicago this week, without the Bulls’ best player. Bynum’s performance as of late is the equivalent of being without him.
“With Kobe being as sick as a dog and trying to will us, it’s disappointing to watch him give that type of effort, getting on the floor for loose balls, and we don’t get it from everybody,” Lakers coach Mike Brown told Yahoo! Sports. “The reality is both of those guys [Bynum and Gasol] have to play better in order for us to win. We’re going to have a tough time winning if we get the same type of production.”
If Bynum is going to outgrow his teenage personality any time soon, it won’t 
be Brown who will make it happen. It will be Bryant, the weary version, still sick and vomiting, who has waded through waters like these before and has the were-with-all to still vision a championship under dire circumstances.
“We’ve been through this before,” he said. “We went seven games with Houston when won the title in 2009, and we went the full five games with Sacramento when we won the title in 2000. I mean, against Houston, we got blown out in Game 6 and had to come home for Game 7. In that series, we struggled with inconsistency, with a lack of effort.
“So, I’ve seen this before.”