A day after they were destroyed by Kobe Bryant in practice, Jeremy Lin and Nick Young responded to Black Mamba's challenge as each produced great numbers in the Los Angeles Lakers' 112-110 win over the San Antonio Spurs at AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Young scored a season-high 29 points on 6-for-14 shooting and sank a game-winning three-point shot to give the Lakers a two-point lead with seven seconds left in the game. Then on the other end of the floor, the Lakers defense foiled Manu Ginobili's game-winner to snag their first win over the reigning NBA champion this season.
"I'm so happy it ended up in my hands," Young told the press during the post-game interviews via ESPN. "I wanted to shoot that bad, especially being on the floor watching Kobe and playing for the Lakers; nothing like those types of shots."
Jeremy Lin also contributed solid numbers in his third game since being demoted to the bench by Byron Scott, tallying 14 points on 6-for-14 shooting and 8 assists in 30 minutes of action.
The Lakers' victory against an elite Western Conference ball club like the Spurs came as surprise to many, especially after Lakers star verbally abused his teammates, Young and Lin in particular, by calling them soft as Charmin - which is a brand of tissue paper.
Bryant, who registered 22 points and 9 dimes in 40 minutes of action, did not regret even a single world he thrown towards his teammates, as he believes his rough way of motivating teammates has always given him positive results since his high-school days.
"Look, we can all criticize my style of leadership all day long," Bryant said. "You can sit there, and it's uncomfortable, it's whatever, but I've been doing that since high school. We play this game to win championships, and I have five of them. It's worked pretty well throughout my career."
Tim Duncan recorded 19 points and 18 rebounds in 40 minutes while Manu Ginobili added 18 points in 31 minutes of action for the Spurs, who succumbed to their second loss in three games and slide to 16-7 in the season. The Lakers, on the other hand, slightly improved to 7-16 with their third back-to-back winning streak this season.
