So JoMaL what did we learn last night watching the Lakers/Kings game?
Let's put to rest the other posts for now and focus on last night's King's/Kobe's game.
I think it was pretty obvious what the problem with the Los Angeles Kobes might be now, especially compared to the early season struggles of the Sacramento Kings. For one thing, that LA team is pretty much unwatchable if Bryant is not on the floor, because the play of his teammates leaves a lot to be desired.
The Kings, on the other hand, looked like they never saw a basketball before for much of the first halve of the year. But they stuck with the game plan, which was to get the new guys into the Princton offense one way or the other, no matter how ugly it got. It has paid some dividends this past week, though until they get to 0.500, it won't be much of an issue.
The Kobes have, well, Kobe. That certainly helps Kobe, but his teammates are not getting whatever message they should be getting from Jackson and him clearly. Not yet anyway, and not, I might add, with Kobe's body language after they mess up.
-- Your assist stat, like I told you, is not always an accurate judgement of how well Kobe passes the ball. Last night he only had 4 assists (on par with his season average) but if you watched the entire game you would know he got his team alot of good looks that just didnt stay down.  Living in a box score is not always going to give you the whole story.
That's true. You certainly can't live within a box score and get the
REAL picture. What I saw was Kobe's expression and body language after some of those exchanges. Can he look any more distainful passing to teammates? He actually looked annoyed after Brown scored a basket at one time, because he expected Kwame to pass the ball back to him.
-- Kobe not only went 3 for 4 down the stretch in the 4th but OMG he passed to Odom for what could have been the game deciding 3 pointer. So much for never making the right decisions (Kwame was also given a nice pass with a little bit of time left but could not convert that too could have been the game deciding basket) In OT he took a few too many shots on his own once the went down by 8-9 but he was still passing the ball inside the triangle and into the post.
I was hoping you would make the mistake of bringing up Odom's missed three pointer at the end of regulation. Sure, The Kobe passed the ball to Odom, who then kept it and shot the three. But I must ask you to watch what Kobe was doing at the time. Hands up, next to Lamar, clearly expecting the
RETURN pass. It wasn't an unselfish pass by Kobe so Odom could shoot the ball; it was going to be a check-off pass that Odom failed to pass back to Bryant.
Man, it sure is nice for me to see one of those rare Laker games once in a while so we both can be on the same page and not have to rely on what are starting to look like outright lies on your part to ensure a very colored picture of what goes on during them.
By the way, Odom made the right decision to shoot the ball. He had the shot. Kobe would have been trying a completely unset three pointer with virtually no chance of making it. But right, it looks like Kobe made the "right" decision inbounding the ball to Odom. He had to pass it to someone from the sidelines, didn't he?
Kobe took seven shots in overtime, and made two, including an uncontested layup. During the rest of the overtime period, where, as you say, "he was still passing the ball inside the triangle and into the post", it looked more like he was playing a game of HORSE. If that was an example of how the triangle works in all its heritage, it must be a lot more complicated then I first thought. What part of the triangle involves one player taking off-balanced three pointers with no teammates under the basket in position yet to benefit from getting those offensive rebounds so they can feel involved in the gameplan?
-- Like I said, Kobe could score alot (in this case it was 50 instead of my 170 example) and the Lakers will still lose if they dont play defense, which they did because of not closing out on guys who hit big shots and making the bone head move to not let the Kings get a 2 instead of Miller nailing a nice jumper.
The Kobes made a bunch of bad decisions after they took that five point lead with 32 seconds left. Mostly on defense, though Odom's offensive foul was truly idiotic.
Then he picked up foul number six, like twenty seconds into the overtime period, allowing Luke Walton to come in and give Kenny Thomas a chance at scoring some points.
--Odom is not the triangle god that a few of you have made him out to be, not horrible by anymeans, just not the black tex winters! Part of that is not odoms fault as guys were out of position and took to long to decide on what to do.
Um, yeah. I think we all got that.
--Mike Bibby is the greatest shooter coming off an illegal screen in the history of the game.
If the screen was illegal, I think the refs would have called it. What was ugly was that Parker did not receive any warning from any of his teammates that Miller was there. He took a pretty nasty hit from Brad, who seems to get away with that pick move quite often. You think if it were illegal, at some point the refs and the League would do something about it. Since they do not, calling it illegal sure sounds a bit sanctimonious on your part.
That was a typical game by the Lakers aside from the piss poor defense.  So while you may think I know nothing I guess the Lakers did all my talking for me by proving what I've been telling you in this thread. See the difference when you actually watch the game??
How can you claim a black and white picture of the Kobes from this game? You simply amaze me. It showed that what you were saying is certainly true and that I should not have said "NEVER" as rigidly as I did before. But the gist of what I was saying was laid out for all to see more clearly in this game then I could possibly have ever imagined. Just looking at Kobe's reaction after the Odom missed three pointer says it all. He was totally expecting Odom to give him back the ball, and was upset he did not. And I could do without the overly dramatic head hugs he kept giving his teammates, supposedly to console them (they seemed to mess up regularly late in that game).
I couldn't help but think he was telling them "I know you feel bad that you messed up, but next time, just give the ball back to me. I am, after all, a killer on the court and could care less if I mess up because my fans all think I never mess up even when I do. By the way, can I rape your sister?"
