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Kobe Bryant tosses in 52 on the Mavs

NBA Obsessed takes you into the hit and run game of NBA Basketball.

Kobe was smoking hot with 52 points, 22 of them coming in the 4th quarter.

The Lakers won the game in OT 108 - 104 over the Dallas Mavericks.

In what has to be one of the best basketball quotes in a while, Avery Johnson the coach of the Mavericks expounds on their defensive philosophy used to stop Kobe.

“We gave him a single look, then we double-teamed him, then we gave him a triple-team and he split the triple-team and scored,” Johnson said. “We tried to zone him, we tried to funnel him in the trap for a zone and he went the other way. He didn’t cooperate on any of our defenses.

“Obviously he milked the free throw line on us and he just had it all going. He’s a great player. He has these (games). Lots of these.” source

It is such a funny quote that it is almost sinful to bring up the fact that defense is not really the Mavericks thing anyway. It would be surprising if they actually understood how to play all those defenses.

The Kobe legend just continues.

NBA Basketball Kobe Bryant factoid - Bryant’s 20,989 career points moved him past Walt Bellamy (20,941) and into 25th on the NBA’s all-time list. source

Kobe just adds to his career stats with great game after great game.

Bryant hit the 50-point mark for the 22nd time in his career and first time this season. He went 15-of-27 from the floor and, constantly driving and drawing fouls, was 20-of-27 from the line. He was perfect shooting free throws in the fourth quarter, making 13, and converted the two he took in overtime.

Oh, did we mention that Kobe also had 11 boards?

Just to complete the Laker picture, it should be added that Pau had 17 points and 14 rebounds. He makes a great complement to Kobe.

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