This is Kobe's 12th game (out of 53) he has shot >50% all year. Sometimes when his J is on, he's still good enough to pour it on. He's still a top 10 player. But it has nothing to do with how the offense is run. His jumper was simply on tonight. Hell, he made all of his 3s tonight (THE FIRST TIME ALL YEAR HE HAS DONE THAT).
Yup, tonight was a very good game for Kobe, but this has been the exception not the rule this season. The offense still needs to run through Bynum, if it did, then Kobe's points would come a lot easier.
The spacing for Kobe is simply better when there's no big camping under the hoop. He gets many more looks in the paint today. I am not saying Bynum makes the team worse. But he obviously leaves Kobe less room to operate and his slow reaction to double team has forced many bailout shots from Kobe. Gasol is much faster in that regard.
He still jacked up 30 shots. Half of them just happened to go in tonight. Law of averges. If half his 30+ shots a game went in every night hed average 35pts a game.
He got 6-7 around the rim during his 0-15 stretch v. the Hornets, and 3-4 wide open jumpshots around 6-8 ft by cutting through screens. He gets GREAT shots WITH Bynum and Gasol, b/c of the single coverages. He's just in decline, and his jumper isn't as consistent b/c he doesn't have the legs. There's a reason this was only his 13th game > 50%. This was the same case last year. He fell off around this time of the year, and fell flat in the playoffs.
It doesn't matter if it has a pass button or not. It has 5 rings engraved on it. I'll take that over high PER and playoff choke any day of the week, twice on the Sundays.
no jump stop button? Also, LeBron's controller will automatically self-destruct in the four quarter....And the King version will actually disappear :grin:
I saw this quote from Larry bird on Regiie and it makes me think of another impact Kobe and MJ had that can't be measured. They were both notoriously bad teammates in the case that they screamed, criticized, and were ruthlessly demanding and unforgiving of their teammates, they also both had earned that right because they were the hardest workers in their team, if not ht league. So when your best player who could just coast is out there working out, doing crazy summer workouts, that impact rubs off on your team because your 6th man better stay after if your number one star is coasting. It changes the culture of the team. Thats one big way kobe makes them into contenders that can't be measured. That might be a reason why guys like lebron who while still workers and are incredibly productive on the court perhaps their lax mentality makes the culture lighter i nwork ethic and demands and thus not translating to the mental make up to come up in thos defining moments. Ofcourse their sheer talent is so amazing it gets them far enough
Kobe couldn't hit .500 for a month, Bynum was injured, Kobe got 2 efficient shooting games in a row. Coincidence, I think not.
Played 2 of the worst teams in the league, and facing 2 rookies as his primary defenders. But Kobe tonight was really great though. If he plays like this every night, the Lakers would be better in the long run.
There are at least 15 games for a month of run. It wasn't like Kobe didn't get some crappy teams in that period. And while Warriors and Nets are indeed bad, Rush and Wallace are very good wing defenders in the league.
