Kobe Bryant Increases His Lead Over Lebron With 4th Career All-Star Game MVP

LOS ANGELES, CA.  It was something that NBA Basketball fans of the world never really got to see: Micheal Jordan vs. Kobe Bryant when both were close to their primacy.

However, the 2011 NBA All Star Game was yet another chapter in Kobe vs Lebron (AKA Dwayne Wade's Sidekick, now), and despite having the support of his two superfriends teammates, DWade and Chris Bosh, Sidekick still missed out on the big prize of the night: All Star Game MVP.

Bryant, once again, was the star that burned brightest, on this occasion, in front of his home town, "Hollywood" crowd at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA. He put up 21 first-half points on his way to 37 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals in leading the West to victory.


Kobe still soars higher than Lebron whenever there is a big prize on the line.

Sidekick once again settled for a distant second prize (possible foreshadowing to come?). Lebron put up a triple-double to become only the second player to do that in an NBA All Star Game.

Michael Jordan, of course, was the first, although the feat resulted in a victory for Jordan's East team in 1997. As we've come to know, Sidekick can put up gaudy numbers, but not to carry his team to a win when it counts.

The NBA All Star Game MVP Award was Kobe's 4th of his career, tying Bob Petit for most in NBA history. When it counted, Lebron couldn't stop Kobe from extending his lead in career accomplishments, and Sidekick falls further behind in the comparisons.

Kobe has won his championships and individual awards while Lebron has been an elite player in the league, which for all intents and purposes, remove Lebron from any conversations for Greatest of All Time... Only Greatest of All Time Disappointments given his talent and physical gifts.

The pivotal moment of the game that captures the careers of Kobe and Lebron in a single illustrative snapshot was when Kobe had a fast break and saw Lebron out of the corner of his eye pursuing. Without hesitation, Kobe accelerated, knowing Lebron would try to sneak in from behind and block the shot, and threw it down.

Kobe laid to rest any talk of Lebron is better than Kobe in just one great moment.

The play captures the Killer Instinct that Michael Jordan had and that Kobe has shown throughout his career; Lebron has always been criticized for not measuring up in this respect, and for all those who keep believing that some day he might develop a Killer Instinct, he won't--he joined DWade's team because he is not that type of player.

He's the guy that can sneak up on you when you're not conscious of him, but if it's the final play of the game and you key your defense on him, he can't get it done. That's what superstars do. That's what closers do.

That's what Kobe did tonight.

Boston Wins To Take Top Spot In the Eastern Conference as Sidekick and the Heat Fail The Test Against Celtics Again

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS. You could not have scheduled the NBA season any better. On day 3 as the top team in the Eastern Conference, Dwayne Wade's Sidekick took his talents to Boston for a meeting between the former top team in East, the Boston Celtics.

Wade, Bosh, and Sidekick suited up for the game, and there would not be the excuse that one of the superfriends was injured. And despite being a regular season game, there was indeed something on the line in this contest: first place in the Eastern Conference and, potentially, the tiebreaker for homecourt advantage in the East.

Rondo went for a triple double and locked down Sidekick when called on.

As a Sidekick once said, "Karma is a B*tch." Just when he thought hitting the "Easy Button" and joining DWade's team was finally getting him everything he'd dreamed of the easiest way possible, there were the Boston Celtics to snap him back to reality. Again.

The game went down to the wire after the Miami Heat were able to erase a 13-point 4th quarter deficit, but with the score at Heat 81, Celtics 83, and a chance to tie Boston in his hands with two free throws, Lebron managed to miss his first crucial free throw and made only the second, leaving his team still trailing by 1 point.

The Heat sent Glen Davis to the line for Boston, and he calmly hit both to keep his team up by three.

On the closing opportunity for Miami, Lebron dribbled around and passed off to Mike Miller for a last second 3-point attempt that skidded off the rim. It was later revealed that Miller had just been cleared before the game after suffering from a concussion.

Whenever the Heat have put a game in Sidekick's hands, they've come away with an "L".

After the game, Sidekick was inundated with question about his inability to beat the Celtics, the team that sent Lebron home from the playoffs last year (the infamous "Quitness" game) to contemplate where he would go as a free agent. With an 0 Win, 3 Loss record against Boston this year, it would seem that Lebron's decision was a wrong one.
With the win, the Boston Celtics reclaimed the top spot in the Eastern Conference, and with it, Boston now holds the tie-breaker over the Heat for home court advantage in the Eastern Conference playoffs. However, without a loss to Miami this season, it doesn't seem to matter to the Celts where the games are played.

The final meeting of the season between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics is April 10th in Miami. Expect Miami to pump themselves up to win a meaningless moral victory heading into the playoffs.

Celtics Beat Heat Again With Total Team Effort Despite Lebron's Near Triple-Double

MIAMI, FLORIDA.  Lebron James put up 35 points, 10 rebounds, 9 assists, and 3 steals. However, Boston left Miami with the only thing that mattered to them, and that was a convincing victory over the most overrated team in NBA history.

Boston beat down Miami for the second time in the early 2010-11 season.

The Boston Big Four dominated the game despite Lebron's nice statline. Ray Allen finished with 35 points and made 7 of 9 from 3-point land, and Kevin Garnett owned the paint to the tune of 16 points and 13 rebounds. Rajon Rondo had 16 assists, and Paul Pierce pitched in with 25 points.

The biggest difference maker was the job the Celtics defense did on Dwayne Wade, holding the Heat star to 8 points on 2 of 12 shooting.

Once again, it was evident by Lebron's statline that he was being asked to shore up the inadequate rebounding of the Miami Heat starting frontcourt of Chris Bosh and Joel Anthony. Better teams have easily taken advantage of this Miami Heat weakness and will continue to do so. If Lebron leads the team in rebounding on a given night, the Heat will have lost.

FINAL THOUGHT:  With nearly 8 minutes remaining in the game, the standing-room-only, Miami Heat crowd at the American Airlines Arena began to filter out of the stadium. Did they get to watch Lebron flirt with a triple-double? Did they even care?

Millsap Dominates Bosh And Miami Heat For Utah Jazz Victory and Career-High 46 Points

Miami, Florida No, the chances of the Miami Heat going 82 - 0 for the season have long passed. However, at a record of 5 - 3 during this first month of the NBA season, the vaunted Miami "superteam" is on pace for a record of 51 - 31, not even matching the record of the Cleveland Cavalier team that won a league best 61 games and brought Lebron the honor of NBA MVP. Experts around the league doubt that even exceeding the Cavs win total from last season will bring another MVP Award to Lebron because he is not even the focal point or best player on this season's version of the Heat.

Chris Bosh has been exposed as a soft defender and weak rebounder.

The Utah Jazz took their talents to South Beach and handed the Miami Heat their first home loss of the season behind a career night for power forward Paul Millsap who scored 46 points in the overtime victory.  

Millsap was efficient; his career-high 46 points were scored on 19 for 28 shooting from the field, including shooting 3 for 3 from 3-point range. Millsap outscored the Miami Heat starting frontcourt, including Bosh (17 points), Lebron James (20 points), and rookie Joel Anthony (4 points).

In the first 8 games of the season, the Miami Heat's greatest weakness has been exposed. After having a roster that was completely gutted during the off season to make way for the Miami Thrice experiment, it seems that the filler players that were obtained to form the rest of the Miami Heat roster are not the only concern for the Heat.

For all their talent and skill, the Miami Heat front line, lead by Chris Bosh, is soft defensively and on the boards. Chris Bosh was the best player on a bad team with the Toronto Raptors, and he was able to accrue strong stats during mostly meaningless games. Bosh never led his Toronto Raptors team to the playoffs.

In the loss earlier in the week to the New Orleans Hornets, Bosh grabbed one rebound in 34 minutes of play. ONE REBOUND!

We saw in tonight's game that the Miami Heat plan to keep Lebron James back to help on the defensive boards. Lebron tallied a triple-double (20 points, 14 assists, 11 rebounds) because of the strategy, but ultimately, the Heat lost the game. Going forward, we will see if other teams, especially teams that can dominate on the front line, continue to press the advantage to beat the Heat.

The teams that Miami is hoping to beat in the playoffs to play for the NBA Championship are teams that are powerful up front: Los Angeles, Boston, Orlando, New Orleans, and Chicago, to name a few. At this point, the Miami Heat are a fool's pick to win the NBA Championship.