Kobe's Iso plays clearly weren't working well enough, otherwise the Lakers should have won. He tried to carry the team on his back, and wasn't capable. That's okay, he isn't as skilled as MJ was. However the area that MJ is better than Kobe by leaps and bounds is recognizing when he simply can't take over games. He needs to get his team mates involved. Kobe is good at this when he wants to be, but he still doesn't have the mentality to let his team make mistakes. The Lakers would be a hell of alot better if Kobe had gotten Pau some easy looks, because once Pau sees a couple go through the hoop, the rest of his shots will start falling.
Gasoft is making almost $19 million a year, he should be able to create his own plays. Instead he got his arse kicked by Hill and Chuckwagon. And not only that, he's been beasted a couple of times by some guys like Roy Hibbert, Al Jefferson, Channing Frye. Kobe's 42% shooting looks godly compared to GaSOFT and his 25%. Gasoft is so over-rated by some fans... 25% shooting for $19 million a year defended by Chuckwagon? :grin: I told you guys GaSOFT was over-rated and only a few agreed with me...now you saw it for yourself
Kobe has to do it all because this year for some reason too minutes being played by Gasol is wearing Gasol out and their bench is not playing well like they did early in the season.
Kobe has to do it all? He has good teammates. Artest, Odom and Pau just to name a few. I don't see how a guy has to do it all with those other all-stars on his team. I've always said this, Lakers are at their best when Kobe is getting his teammates involved. When he takes 30 foot three pointers, its good for us.
Did you know when Kobe shoots over 20 times that the Lakers have never won a game ever? Spoiler LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
kobe's last minute jack up threes weren't working, his isos on the block and elbow were killing battier, not that battier did anything wrong, but he was draining those shots in the last 3 minutes when battier went on that run. if i remember correctly we were up three and kobe tried to hit a dagger to tie the game from like 5 feet behind the arc?
gasol is not overrated, he is the best at his combo position, not the best defensively, but offensively he has it all. why didnt they go to him more often down the stretch is a mystery to me? maybe they were just tired from the back to back?
It was ignored because it's wrong in this case. Stars of good teams will take more FGA in losses because they play more minutes in those games (as good teams don't get blown out as often as they blow teams out). This is the case with Kobe too. However, you can temper these stats by looking at per-minute or, better, usage stats. And right now, despite having probably the best collective group of teammates he's ever had, Kobe's usage rate is higher than it's ever been. That means he is hogging the ball.
Probably because Gasol shot 2-8 from the field last night and was being outplayed by Jordan Hill. Look, it happens. As I pointed out earlier in the thread, Gasol has been putting up huge numbers against weak frontcourts and in huge minutes. The minutes are wearing him down. Better frontcourts are defending him better. Kobe played pretty poorly in the second half, but played very efficiently in the first half and was scoring over Battier from mid range towards the end. He took an ill-advised three, but then I've seen him hit that three many times, including in a very similar situation against the Rockets a few years back, after Battier had hit a key three in the last two minutes to take the lead. Again, Gasol wasn't doing much against Hill. He had some touches down the stretch, the best result of which was a Fisher three off a loose ball after Gasol got blocked.
The Lakers were winning in Houston with six minutes left, then everything went haywire. Over those last six minutes, know how many times Pau Gasol touched the ball? I went back and counted. Four total touches, mostly on the perimeter. One shot. http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop Just terrible decision making by Kobe.
