If Game 4 of the Lakers-Jazz showed the basketball world only one thing, it was evidence of why Kobe Bryant is… well, Kobe Bryant.

On the heels of one of his worst postseason games ever, Bryant delivered exactly as everyone thought he would: 24 points in the first half, 38 for the game.

In Game 2, LA’s number 24 took 24 shots. He made only five.

On Saturday? Another 24 attempts, yet he made 16 of them. He scored 13 of Los Angeles’ first 15 points on a myriad of pull-ups, slashes, and screen-and-pops.

The Jazz defenders are not at fault either. Ronnie Brewer did as good of a job of taking away space and crowding a jump shooter as one could possibly ask for. He deserved better that what happened to him last night and made his man work on every possession.

For all intents and purposes, he played great defense and closed on every shot, forcing his check into taking ill-advised leaners that called for fading, twisting and other shot alterations just to get a look at the rim.

Unfortunately for Brewer, it didn’t matter.

That is what happens when a Hall of Fame scorer decides that he needs to assert his will on the offensive end to break the opposition’s spirit. That is what happens when you guard Kobe Bryant when he gets hot.

Case in point: Bryant’s shot with 6:26 to go in the third quarter. Double jab series, moving to his right before using the cross-over. Picks up his dribble 20 feet from the rim on the right wing. Brewer gives him no space to breathe. One head fake. Nothing. Another shoulder fake. Brewer isn’t having it. Finally a third fake goes nowhere and Bryant is forced to fade away from a dead stop with no momentum to create the space he needs to shoot. And of course, the ball doesn’t so much as touch the rim on its way through the net.

ESPN’s J.A. Adande wrote that it was as if “Bryant was making up for lost time”. On that I disagree. Bryant’s play the first two games of the series is exactly what Phil Jackson is looking for: Kobe the Facilitator. When he is passive early it opens the game up for his teammates to get involved.

Still, Saturday’s performance was impressive nonetheless.

For the Jazz, the usual suspects did their part. Deron Williams was his All-NBA self and put in 17 points and 7 assists in the first half alone. Meanwhile, Carlos Boozer proved why someone is going to overpay for him this summer in showing of his incredible array of talents on offense. Also encouraging was the play of Andre Kirilenko, who was everywhere on the court and played as if it were 2004.

When the Jazz moved the ball quickly in the half court from side-to-side they had amazing success thanks to outstanding spacing that preventing the Lakers from swarming or collapsing inside. Where they got into trouble was when the ball stopped moving and Los Angeles could jump to help. To bring a Game 6 back to Utah they must avoid this.

That said, if the Lakers are truly the championship level team we think they are, they will approach Game 5 on Monday night with a professionalism that sees them lock in on defense every possession (at least until they build a 20 point lead) and realize that they can score anytime they have the patience to find a decent shot.

It is worth noting that the Lakers won 65 games this season for the fourth time in franchise history. The other three times they achieved that win total, a championship followed.

This year’s team has another 13 wins to go before we see if that stat holds true, but it should be interesting to watch from here on out.