I agree on the whining front esp. with Kobe and Sasha, but don't forget Bynum. He seems to be whining after every perceived non-call, which is a disturbing trend for a young guy.
I get why Kobe does it and I almost think he has to in order to raise attention from the refs. I don't like it, but I understand it. Magic did it, Bird did it, Jordan perfected it. Leaders on teams, who are also typically their teams leading scorers, often take it upon themselves to complain to the refs if they feel their missing calls. I'd like to say they shouldn't do this, but it usually works, so I can't blame them for doing it. How many times have we all witnessed when Kobe, or Jordan, or Iverson complains about a no call and they get a make-up call next time down the court? Happens all the freaking time. JoMal raises a good point in that this can backfire, and Javie is the perfect example, but more often then not it seems to work.
I can't take anything away from Sac as they flat outplayed the Lakers last night. That said, this was one of those games that I could tell right away the Lakers were going to lose. The most disturbing thing to me wasn't the Lakers lack of defense. Unfortunately, I'm used to that now. What drove me nuts was their absolute refusal to run the offense. This is actually the second game in a row of this trend, Milwaukee was just too horrible to capitalize on it. They didn't run the triangle at all last night and it's everyone's fault, but Kobe, as the leader was the worst offender. It's almost like he fell in to the "Salmons can't guard me, I'll show them" trap. He just continually forced up bad shot after bad shot and it never allowed the Lakers to establish a rhythm in their triangle offense. And how does the coaching staff not address this at every possible moment within the game. Call a timeout and address it, yell at them from the sideline, put in a fresh set of 5 guys who will run the triangle. I don't get it.
