Lakers Role Player Recalls How Young Kobe Bryant Impressed Teammates In First Finals
During a pivotal Game 4 of your Los Angeles Lakers' 2000 NBA Finals series against the Indiana Pacers, LA figured it had to scramble when newly-minted league MVP Shaquille O'Neal fouled out in the fourth quarter.
That's when All-Star LA shooting guard Kobe Bryant, who had been absent for much of Game 2 and all of Game 3 with an ankle sprain, turned on the jets. Bryant hadn't much of a great game to that point, having scored just six points in the first half and grabbed his fifth foul in the third quarter.
At that point in his career, Bryant was just 21, and still very much the club's somewhat-unproven second option.
Ultimately, he scored 28 points on 14-of-27 shooting from the floor, dished out five assists, pulled down four rebounds, blocked two shots and recorded a steal in the team's 120-118 overtime victory. With the win, Los Angeles nabbed a 3-1 record in the series. The team would go on to beat Indiana in six games.
Former reserve point guard Ty Lue reflected on the moment with ex-Lakers swingman Matt Barnes and longtime veteran NBA wing Stephen Jackson on their Showtime program All The Smoke, well worth watching in full.
"Shaq fouled out, so everybody kind of panicked," Lue said. "So they thought, 'Okay, Shaq fouled out, we've got to move the ball, we've got to get everybody involved, we've got to play a different style of basketball. So I think Kob had missed, like, three shots in a row, he took a couple bad shots, whatever, and he missed three shots in a row, so guys [were telling him], 'Man you've got to move the ball.' And then Phil was on him a little bit in the timeout. And then he came out and he might have scored 12 straight or something, and then he hit that big shot and he was like [reacting demonstratively to quiet his own teammates]."
Bryant turned in three consecutive buckets in quick succession and helped Los Angeles pull ahead, but Pacers stretch four Sam Perkins nabbed a game-tying triple to force an overtime period, but LA secured the W.
Here's a highlight reel of Bryant's big night:
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