fisher had the hot hand? he was 2-8 BEFORE the 4th quarter (where he went 4-4). what hot hand are you talking about? fisher made some ridiculously lucky shots too (contested bank shots and he was fouled in some). those were "kobe-like" shots he made. all kobe did in that 4th quarter after he knew he just didn't have it was stand around on te perimeter. HE DID DO THAT, trust me. i agree with you kobe is a great closer. my point is even someone as great as he will have BAD 4th quarters where they just don't have it in their tank. so for you to say tmac "stopped" trying, it's ridiculous. the guy got 2 assists in the last 5 minutes, so that meant he was still creating for his teammates. how about if SOMEONE GOT A HOT HAND like dfish eh?
At the end of the day, they lost a game 7, at home, with 5 points led and 5 min to go. He couldn't get a point down the stretch, he didn't even try to drive once to score. Kobe never let a game slipped like that. He lost one out of five game 7 in his career and he already got more blame than he deserved. If you want to hold the same standard, TMac didn't get more blame than Kobe when they lost, it's just too bad TMac never won.
You need to check those shots again. Fisher didn't go 4-4, he got 5 of 7, and 3 made shots were coming off Kobe's pick, RA and Rondo chose to double Kobe and let Fisher get those mid-range open. There's also 1 that Fisher just beat them to the hoop. He only hit one contested shot.
he scored 2 points with 2 assists in the last 5 minutes of that game (1-3 fg). i just pointed out a game 3 in the championship game where kobe played as bad as anybody who's considered a star as an example and yet this is your retort. nobody is saying kobe is not a great closer, but even he has sucked in the 4th in big games more than what tmac did in game 7. and for your information, kobe pulled an opposite of tmac in game 7 v. celtics. he sucked in the first 3.5 quarters and made his fts in the 4th. his teammates (ron artest this time) carried the load. point is, even kobe needed a lot of help in big games. for 5 damn minutes, tmac's teammates couldn't step up? even fisher or damn ron artest can carry the lakers for a quarter as shown.
all of fisher's shots were contested with someone jumping at him. he also had this crazy bank shot where he also complained of a foul. and he had that last layup around 50s where he made it over 3 celtics. so no, all were tough shots that a role player like fisher should NOT have made, and esp. in the 4th. everybody was shocked this fool was making these kobe-like shots. but the point was: he stepped up when clearly kobe didn't have it. all kobe did in that 4th was jack up deep jumpshots or flail his arms bc he didn't get the ball. that's what you call a winning team. best player struggles, role players step up. that doesn't happen every time bc your best player will play well more often that not. but when they struggle, role players must step up. and this past championship run by the lakers show that perfectly.
