Kobe Dominates The Timberwolves; Chris Paul Dices Up A Vaunted Defense

Now this is more of what we expected of L.A. basketball this season. In the Midwest, the Pacers could have filed a claim with Cliff Paul for the damage point god Chris Paul did to their defense in the fourth quarter of the Clippers’ road win. Out West, Kobe Bryant “pretty much dominated” a win over Minnesota, reported T-Wolves coach Rick Adelman afterward, shrugging his shoulders. Oh yeah, and in Chicago, Joakim Noah had one of the best games in the past 20 seasons. … We have to start first with Bryant’s game because unlike Chicago or the Clippers, this Lakers team is living night-to-night while the other two winners are set for the playoffs. Kobe (33 points) probably saw Monta Ellis’ game-winner to beat Houston on Wednesday and couldn’t sleep he was so excited that the Lakers could creep even closer on the Rockets for the No. 8 spot. Count on Kobe to see a weakness and exploit it, which he did Thursday in the 116-94 win. It started from the beginning when barely a minute in, Bryant took an out-of-bounds pass, shook Derrick Williams (15 points) with a move that left him literally unable to move and slammed over Nikola Pekovic (8 points) with a fury we haven’t seen since he leapt over Yao Ming. There was a stretch in the third quarter where Ricky Rubio kept blowing by Bryant on consecutive possessions, which led to Bean getting even with jumpers and a three that was nearly in the front row’s laps (even Sean Elliott thought it was deep along the sideline). When Luke Ridnour (19 points) kept draining every 17-footer the Lakers gave him (6-of-6), Kobe and Steve Nash (10 points, seven dimes) made sure Minnesota’s tiny four-guard lineup (Pekovic got hurt) paid for its slow rotations: they drained 16-of-32 from deep. … Things may seem on the up-and-up for the Lake Show but wait to buy in all the way when their free throws can get above 70 percent. In their last two games they’re 26-of-52. … We nearly spit out our drink when we heard the last person to go for at least 20 points, 20 boards and 10 blocks in a game was the human stick figure himself, Shawn Bradley, in ’98. Joakim Noah becomes the latest to reach the gates of the exclusive club with his triple-double in the Bulls’ 92-83 win over a reeling Philly team that lost its rudder weeks ago. The Sixers’ coach, Doug Collins, sent up a flare for help this week but no one’s coming to the rescue there. Thaddeus Young thankfully returned Sunday for frontcourt help but no one can match Noah’s strength or positioning for the Sixers and it showed. He had 23 points, 21 boards, 11 blocks and was a treat to watch as he defensively stymied a team by himself. The last player to have Noah’s numbers was Shaq in ’93. … Read on to hear about Chris Paul’s fourth quarter …

Indiana’s defense is so good it rarely gets fooled by a team, let alone one guy. And yet there we were Thursday in a 99-91 Clips win, seeing Indiana come back on a 13-0 run at home and a juicy “hardy Midwestern defense vs. style-over-substance L.A. flash” narrative brewing into the fourth quarter. But then Chris Paul (29 points, eight dimes) one-upped Paul George‘s (20 points) beautiful three in transition. He hit the Clips’ final eight points, including consecutive drives into the paint to seal it. With Roy Hibbert out for suspension, there wasn’t a bona fide threat to stop him from getting in there. If we’re going to stick with the Hollywood theme, we’d say Paul looked like Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting the way he tore through problems (Indiana’s league-best D) that have confounded other opponents. … Side note: Blake Griffin (18 points, 14 boards) is dunking over everyone now with absolutely no regard for human life. He threw down another huge dunk after contact Thursday, this time over Ian Mahinmi. He’s seeking harder challenges now, from and-one dunks to switching hands. … Lastly, a 5-of-10 night shooting was great for Danny Granger after going 2-for-17 in his two games since returning from injury. … We can’t believe LeBron James is catching as much flak as he has about pulling off insane dunks in pregame warmups in the past week. We don’t often get on the soapbox but good on you, LeBron, for saying you won’t bend to pressure to stop just because you won’t enter the All-Star Weekend Dunk Contest. Here’s the hard truth: He’s never entering it, so take the pregame routine for what it is and just enjoy it. Does anyone truly need James to compete in the contest in order for him to “live up” to some yet undeserved claim as best ever? Does someone actually believe he needs to check “dunk contest champ” off his resume in order to lay claim to GOAT? Well, he owes it to the fans to put on a show. Well, actually, he puts on a show almost every night in the regular and postseason, so we think he’s more than covered in the “giving fans what they pay for” category. Besides, if he competed the contest would be only 25 percent cool because it’d be four amazing LBJ dunks and everyone else being terrible because they knew they were competing for second-best. … Dennis Rodman ended up seeing a game with North Korea’s dictator after all on Thursday. According to some tweets we saw, they all ended up getting drinks with huge NBA fans and junior despot Kim Jong Un afterward, which is just insane. You just know when Rodman gets back the CIA is going to debrief him about what he saw in N.K. and he’ll offer up something like, “Un is a pretty big fan of using advanced stats and thinks Luc Longley‘s intangibles on those ’90s Bulls teams were underrated” … We’re out like ‘Bron in the dunk contest.