There have been several explanations offered for Kobe's scoring surge. One, pushed by Phil Jackson, has to do with the whole "dirty player" controversy. Another, more logical one hinges on the return of Lamar Odom and Luke Walton. But Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune has his own hypothesis: [Carmelo] Anthony got into it physically with Bryant during the TNT national game March 15 as the Nuggets were blowing out the Lakers, Denver insiders revealed. Anthony also began taunting Bryant as the Nuggets moved ahead of the Lakers in the standings as they piled on to embarrass them by 27 points...Don't worry, Kobe-haters, I'm going to serve this one up nice and easy for you. Smith notes that Kobe's miraculous run has landed him in the lead for the scoring title, and opened up quite a margin between himself and...Carmelo Anthony, who had the best per game average at the time the Lakers and Nuggets met. So there you go: this is all fuelled by Kobe's desire to beat Melo for this fairly meaningless honor.
Maybe it's just coincidence, but in the game after that loss Bryant began his run with 65 points that included a spectacular close to beat Portland. It hasn't stopped since.




