Vlade Divac hits half-court shot for charity on charmed night for Kobe-less Lakers
Never let anyone tell you that the NBA is predictable. The Los Angeles Lakers entered Monday’s contest against the Golden State Warriors with little in their favor. For one thing, the Warriors came into the game with the league’s best record at 23-3 and a 2-0 mark against the Lakers already this season, with both wins coming by more than 20 points. The hosts were also to be without Kobe Bryant as he missed his first game of the season for rest. No matter your opinion on Kobe — and it’s easy to argue he’s hurting the team with an average of 14 missed field goals per game — the fact is that this team is short on talent regardless of their health. A matchup against the best team in the league would seem like a considerable test.
Pretty much nothing went as planned. The Lakers dominated early and often with leads of 10 points after the first quarter, 15 points after the second, and 22 after the third on their way to a 115-105 win, easily their most impressive game of the season despite a late run from the Warriors bench.
Things went so well, in fact, that the Lakers’ good fortune even extended to the between-quarter entertainment. In the break between the third and fourth quarters, NBA legend and former Laker Vlade Divac to the court to try to win $90,000 for charity. Here’s what happened:
As noted by Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report, the $90k will be split between Divac’s charity and the Lakers Youth Foundation. In an interview on the Lakers broadcast, Vlade shared his essential tip for making the shot:
It’s tempting to call Divac’s shot the icing on the cake or even the cherry on top, but the team played so well that it was basically part of another dessert altogether. The Lakers shot 51.7 percent from the field (after a late run of 10 missed field goals in a row) and 12-of-26 from deep as seven players scored in double figures, topping out at Carlos Boozer’s 18 points.
For one game, at least, they didn’t miss Kobe at all. And while no single game should determine a team’s best course of action, it was difficult to watch an energetic, balanced squad without thinking that Kobe’s ball-stopping ways might limit the potential of the offense as a whole. There were many more factors at play in this game — Golden State on the second night of a back-to-back on the road, poor shooting from key Warriors not named Stephen Curry, etc. — and several Lakers are unlikely to meet their performances from this game with any consistency. Nevertheless, L.A. showed enough to suggest that it’s worth looking into the team’s play with and without Kobe in more depth.
Conclusions can be drawn from that inquest at a later date. For now, the team has a lot to celebrate.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
