By Guillaume Mahot
While the world of the NBA (and the whole world actually) is still trying to cope with the tragic and unexpected death of Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash last Sunday at the age of forty-one years old, the game took back its rights this week, and it is needless to say that it was quite difficult for some players to get back to work, and nearly impossible for some others. Kyrie Irving, close to Kobe, could not play the derby against the Knicks with his team of the Brooklyn Nets on the day that followed the tragedy. In the meantime, the game between the Lakers and the Clippers was postponed, and a succession of tributes was witnessed on the NBA courts to pay homage to the one who made the Lakers great again in the 2000s, but also to his daughter Gianna, only thirteen years old, and the seven other casualties.
In a stifling atmosphere where everyone tends to put things into perspective, the current leaders of both conferences were shaken by their respective contenders last night, Portland for Los Angeles and Denver for Milwaukee. The Trail Blazers won in L.A 127-119 with 30 points from Hassan Whiteside and 48 added by Damian Lillard. The 59 points brought by the duo Davis-James for the Lakers did not enable the mourning franchise to consider victory, but we can easily figure out that minds and bodies were possibly far away from the court and a mainstream basketball game.
The Milwaukee Bucks lost at home 115 points to 127 against the Denver Nuggets in spite of the usual heavy contribution of Greek Nigerian MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Greek Freak had 31 points and 16 rebounds, but he was powerless facing Nuggets whose collective strength is simply impressive: all the players involved in the game (nine in total) put at least 10 points!
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