Getting back to Kobe, he just had a bad shooting night. He missed a ton of floaters and "chippies" that he usually knocks down. I used to be very critical of Kobe's shot selection, but I've come around 180 degrees. In my mind, I want Kobe shooting the ball as much as possible. He is without a doubt the most skilled player in the game today and I'll take the occasionally crappy shooting % for all of the other good that he does night in and night out on BOTH ends of the floor. Nobody wants to win more than he does and nobody works harder and shows up more than he does. Shaq is lazy on both ends of the floor and despite his high shooting percentage, his unwillingness to rebound and play tenacious D EVERY night loses us way more games than Kobe shooting 30%. A perfect example of this phenomina was Karl Malone's game a couple of weeks ago in the victory against Minnesota. Looking at the box score, Karl was 1-9 from the field, but I was at the game and he was the absolute reason the Lakers won. His hustle for loose balls, rebounding and passing were critical to the outcome and more than offset his horrible shooting night. Shaq's laziness on the screen and roll and on D in general were more of a factor in the two recent losses than Kobe's shooting %. Defense is this teams achillies heal, not offense.
Keep shooting Kobe. Jack it up from half court with 20 seconds left on the 24 ... I don't care. This is one Laker fan who is not going to rake you over the coals after every bad shooting night.