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2nd game of the season. It was the season opener for the Los Angeles Lakers and it was a 2nd of a back to back. The night before, the season opener against the Denver Nuggets, Kobe Bryant had scored 33 points including an incredible game winner at the buzzer at the end of overtime over Marcus Camby. The Lakers had endured a very tough win at a very tough arena in Denver. Kobe showed no exhaustion in the next game. He had one of his most successful offseasons ever coming off a 1 year hiatus in the 04-05 season and it clearly showed - he was back. He started the game hitting 6 of his first 8 shots. On a dazzling arsenal of fadeaway jumpshots, Bryant hit 5 straight jumpshots at one point in the 1st quarter against one of the most tenacious defenders in the league Raja Bell. The degree of difficulty of the shots Kobe took were off the charts. Unfortunately for him and his team, they could not play defense against Steve Nash or the Suns as Nash dished out 17 assists and Marion added 30. The Suns went on to lead the game as much as 18, 107-89 in the 4th. Then Kobe Bryant took over once again. He hit back to back tough fadeaways on the right baseline. He hit a tough running jumper in the lane and a foul. Then he hit 2 more spectacular jumpshots over Raja Bell. He hit 5 consecutive jumpshots in the 4th at one point while bringing back the Lakers from an 18 point deficit by himself against the run and gun high octane Phoenix Suns. His teammates fed off his energy and the Lakers cut the deficit to 3 at one point. They never got closer as they still could not stop Steve Nash or the rest of the Suns as the Suns pulled off a 122-112 victory. Kobe Bryant's statline was 39 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists on 13-26 from the field and 13-14 from the FT line. http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/LAL20051103.html Notes: 4 field goals were missing due to TNT's delayed broadcast of the game. Kobe Bryant and Raja Bell had one of their famous elbowing matches late in the 1st quarter when Kobe accidently hit Bell with an elobw. Bell retaliated and both Bryant and Bell got into it with Kobe giving Bell a bloody lip at the end.