Blood, stitches, elbows to the head and kidneys, yup......the playoffs are in full effect. We had a great game against the Lakers last night to steal game one of our series....again. We made the game really ugly and physical, but it is the only way we can have a chance to win against these guys. We had so many great performances last night, from Yao coming back from banging his knee to Aaron Brooks leading us in the fourth quarter, this team continually impresses me with it's determination and heart. From the start of this series, not too many people even gave us a chance of winning even one game. Well, we've done that and now we will continue to play loose and free and take our shots and our chances. I have gained the unenviable task of trying to stop the beast that is Kobe Bryant. There is no question that he is the toughest guy to cover in the NBA. For the most part, I stuck to my gameplan and he still scored 32 points! It takes amazing concentration and focus to guard him, because if you have even a momentary lapse in concentration, he will beat you. I know that he will come out even more determined to get the win in game 2, I have put behind me game 1 already. I am preparing to improve on the things that I did not do well in game one. I have received a lot of emails from my fans asking if my eye is okay. For those who did not see the game, I took an elbow to the head and it opened up a gash above my eye that took 4 stitches. For whatever reason, I stick my head in danger zones and get hit in the head alot, last night's stitches probably put me over the 100 stitch mark for my career. Hey, that is the price you pay for winning and I would try to make the same play even if it meant that I would get more stitches. It may ruin my post-basketball modeling career, but you play the game to win and if that means a few more battle scars, so be it! Wish us luck in game 2. Shane Link
LOL. Notice he mentioned "elbows to the head and kidneys." I wonder when that happened? Ahem...Kobe cheap shots...ahem...
I love the way he doesn't fall for those fakes from KB, unlike Ron. He just keeps his hands up and lets KB take a tough shot. He has to work a lil on those entry passes to Yao, it seems he gets at least one TO / game doing that.
Guys like Battier make it so easy to love this team. I loved how he was laughing on the court after coming back from the stitches - 'you can take all the cheap shots you want, I'm not going away!' type swagger.
