Even though Kobe Bryant’s official website refused to acknowledge Kobe Bryant Blog Day, I can’t help but believe Bryant was aware of his fans taking the Internet by storm yesterday to support him.

Bryant hit three three-pointers in the first quarter before tweaking his shooting hand, then he hit a runner on the baseline with his left hand towards the end of the first quarter. It became painfully clear for Raptors fans that banging his injured right hand wouldn’t slow Bryant down last night, if anything it would only serve to make him focus more and elevate his game. Bryant played all 12 minutes in the first quarter and was 5-8 from the field for 13 points.

Nightmares of his 81 points explosion were lingering in my mind but thankfully Bryant “slowed down” in the second quarter to finish the first half with 19 points while going 8-11 from the field. Bryant finished the game with a game-high 34 points while going 12-20 from the field and 6-6 from the charity stripe.

“Kobe puts so much pressure on your defense,” a visibly frustrated admitted Sam Mitchell following a tough road loss. “We were trying to get to their three-point shooters but they made some threes on us. We kept them off the free-throw line and we didn’t turn the ball over. We did a lot of good things but they made threes and moved the ball extremely well.”

Besides the stellar play of Bryant, three0point shooting by both teams was the story of the game. Toronto is well known for their three-point shooting - they are ranked first in the league and shooting better than 40% for the season from beyond the arc - yet Los Angeles got hot shooting the rock last night and went a scorching 15-32 from beyond the arc. You won’t win many games in the NBA when your opponent shoots a high percentage from beyond the arc, scores 45 points from three-point land, and only turns over the ball over 11 times while dishing out 32 assists on 45 field goals. It’s tough to find fault in a Raptors squad that ran into a Lakers team who just happened to be firing on all cylinders.

The Lakers shot 57.2% from the field and 55.2% from beyond the arc in the first half. At one point in the fourth quarter Los Angeles had 29 assists on 39 field goals. What makes their ball movement even more impressive is the fact the team only had nine turnovers at this point.

“They’re big at every spot but we rebounded the ball well,” Mitchell told reporters following the game. “We didn’t turn it over, we didn’t put them on the free-throw line, and they made three-point shots. That’s the thing, we knew we were going to give up some three-point shots, we talked about trying to do our best to get to the guys, and a few times I really thought we contested the threes. A couple times Jason [Kapono] got out, T.J. [Ford] got out, AP [Anthony Parker] got out. I don’t feel like, except for a couple, that they really got their feet set and lined us up.”

In what was a nice change of pace, and the main reason Toronto was able to stay in the game, the team did a great job of crashing the glass. They had 19 rebounds in the first half, nearly matching their season average of 23.1 per game, and finished the game with 40 rebounds.

Despite a tough loss there were plenty of positives, probably none so big as Kris Humphries being a force on the glass in the first quarter. Humphries had four boards in less than four minutes of burn in the first quarter and finished the game with seven rebounds and four points in just under 15 minutes of burn. Also worth noting was his beautiful pass to a wide open Primoz Brezec who got hammered on the play yet still managed to throw down the dunk and then hit his free throw attempt.

Speaking of dropping dimes, what’s happened to Rasho Nesterovic? Has the ghost of Alvin Williams taken over his body? Against the Lakers he had two assists that made me jump out of my chair in amazement. It’s always great to see a big man pass the rock like Nesterovic can, and it’s even better to see the Raptors start to utilize his passing out of the post.

One of my favourite plays came late in the third quarter when T.J. Ford sucked a couple Los Angeles defenders onto him and then he threw a perfect bounce pass to Jamario Moon who finished the play with a thunderous dunk. Besides the awe factor of this play, the primary reason it caught my attention was because Moon attacked the rim and didn’t lurk on the perimeter for a pass. This season Moon has spent far too much time lurking on the perimeter, a frustrating thing for Raptors fans to watch since he could easily get 4-5 points each night off by slashing to the rim and finish the play with a dunk or earning a trip to the free-throw line.

The other reason, and it was subtle as well, is that Ford appears to have gotten away from his trigger happy ways of last week and is now back to becoming the distributor Toronto desperately needs him to be. Ford made a similar play in the fourth quarter when he hit Joey Graham with a beautiful lead pass but Graham was hacked and earned a trip to the charity strip so Ford didn’t register an assist on the play. Regardless of whether this showed up in the boxscore or not, this was another huge play and a sign of Ford’s continued growth and maturation this season.

One of the few concerning areas for Raptors fans was the uninspired play of Jose Calderon. For most of the season he’s been the star for Toronto, so he’s due for an off night every once in awhile, but he looked stunned in the first quarter and luckily Ford stepped in with a strong game. Ford’s speed was just what Toronto needed to throw Los Angeles’ defense off kilter as Calderon looked half a step slow out there tonight and was confused by the defense the Lakers were throwing at him. Calderon had four dimes but was 0-3 from the field and had two turnovers in the first half but things didn’t get better in the second half as he finished the game with six assists, three turnovers and only two points (while going 1-6 from the field and not attempting a field goal in the second half).

Ford only had one assist in the first half but he had 10 points and no turnovers. Ford looked calm and more poised guiding the offense in the early going and finished the game with a team high 28 points in less than 28 minutes of playing time.

“It seemed like he [T.J. Ford] got into a rhythm tonight, especially in the second half coming off the screen-and-roll and attacking,” Anthony Parker told reporters in the locker room after the game. “He was successful for the most part going at the basket pulling up and hitting shots for us.”

When asked if it looks like Ford was getting back to where he was before his injury, Parker paused briefly before answering, “Well, it looks like it. I think he’s starting to feel a little more comfortable, especially seeing him dunk on the break, I think that obviously shows a lot of confidence .”

With the win the Lakers are now 15-3 since their trade for Pau Gasol, yet the Raptors played a gritty game on the road and nearly picked up a win against a team they looked overmatched against with Chris Bosh out of action. Could this be an omen for the rest of the teams west coast trip? Raptors fans sure hope so.

Photo Credit: ICON SMI