The Los Angeles Lakers may be licking their wounds after losing to the lowly Detroit Pistons (88-85 OT) on Tuesday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills, and getting a poor performance from Kobe Bryant, but head coach Mike Brown continues to back his best player. Even though Kobe hit another classic buzzer-beater at the end of regulation to force overtime against the Pistons, the Masked Mamba put up some ugly, ill-advised shots in the extra period with the game on the line.

Despite the forgettable 22-point performance, in which he shot 8-for-26 from the floor and 2-for-9 from beyond the arc, Kobe Bryant’s play over the cross of this season has been nothing short of spectacular. Recently, teammates Pau Gasol and Luke Walton came out and said the Kobe deserves a second NBA MVP this season and Mike Brown would agree.

Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com reports Mike Brown believes that Kobe should get MVP consideration this season:

“He definitely should be involved in the MVP talks,” Brown said. “I think it’s hilarious that he’s not. You talk about everything new in a shortened season and everybody saying he’s 85 years old or whatever they’re saying and he’s leading the league in scoring. “He’s efficient with it. He has this team sitting in a pretty good position. And I truly believe this team, with a guy like that, can be very dangerous come playoff time. There’s no doubt in my mind that Kobe Bryant should be mentioned in the MVP talk.”

It would be hard to argue that Kobe Bryant isn’t one of the clear frontrunners for the NBA MVP this season. The only problem is that there are plenty of other players around the league, such as Kevin Love and LeBron James, that will also get serious consideration for the most sought after regular season award in the NBA.

This season Kobe Bryant is averaging a league-leading 28.7 points per game along with 5.8 rpg and 4.9 apg. As long as Kobe keeps up his production on the floor and helps lead the Lakers to a high seed in the Western Conference, there is a good chance he could be lifting the Maurice Podoloff Trophy for the second time in his NBA career.