Kobe believes in historic comeback

He says his Los Angeles Lakers will rally from a 3-0 deficit against the Dallas Mavericks. It’s a rare comeback in North American sports, most notably accomplished by the 2004 Boston Red Sox against their rival New York Yankees and last season in the NHL, when the Philadelphia Flyers rallied to stun the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference semifinals. As for the NBA, it’s never been done in 65 years of the league’s existence.

That’s not stopping Bryant from being optimistic after the Lakers suffered a 98-92 defeat to the Mavericks on Friday night at American Airlines Arena in Game 3 of this Western Conference semifinals.

“I might be sick in the head or crazy or thrown off or something like that, but I still think we are going to win this series,” Bryant said. “I might be nuts. Win on Sunday. Go back home and see if they can win in L.A.”
When asked where that confidence comes from, the five-time NBA champion said: “I don’t know. I’m just nuts.”
Considering how the Lakers have played so far against the Mavericks, there are lots of reasons to call Bryant nuts and little reason for faith.The Lakers blew a 16-point second-half lead in Game 1 and were routed in Game 2. Their latest setback: The Lakers squandered an 85-78 lead with 5:08 remaining Friday and were outscored 32-20 in the fourth quarter.
Closing games has been a big problem for the Lakers in this series. In three contests, the Mavericks have outscored them 82-55 in the fourth quarter. Lakers center Andrew Bynum(notes) said it’s been a concern all season. Bryant had a harsher assessment of Friday’s meltdown.
“We [expletive] up,” Bryant said. “Stuff we went over [Friday] morning in the fourth quarter, [expletives] just didn’t do it. They didn’t make the [defensive] rotations they were supposed to. It’s as simple as that.”
Bynum, who had team-highs of 21 points and 10 rebounds, said: “We’re beating ourselves. … I don’t think it was their defense. It was more just us thinking for some reason we had to mismatch and that was the extent of the offense. …
“I’m not very stunned. I really thought we’d win tonight, at least.”
Lakers power forward Pau Gasol(notes) is a shadow of his All-Star self this postseason and talk of being soft has resurfaced. He’s “out of it” mentally and hasn’t been able to be “effective or comfortable out there,” but couldn’t explain why and says he needs to “snap out of it.” Time is running out.
He entered Game 3 averaged a disappointing 13.6 points and 7.8 rebounds in the postseason, which is 5.2 points and 2.4 rebounds below his regular-season averages. Gasol was poor again Friday, scoring 12 points on 5-of-13 shooting with eight rebounds in 40 minutes, including just three points in the fourth quarter. He also primarily guarded Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki(notes), who had 32 points and nine rebounds Friday.