Aside from chemistry, let's not forget health. They need to have a near-perfect 2nd half of the season. It wouldn't even take a serious injury to knock them off track. A few Nash missed games here, a few Dwight missed games there, and they are done. That said, I'm still hoping they make it for reasons stated before :grin:
Yah I don't know if this will continue or not, but it's been definitely great watching good Lakers basketball, even if it's only been like two games or so.
even though it's a 7 game swing, they can easily go 5-2 on their Grammy road trip starting tomorrow in Phoenix. as far as February goes, I also see them going 9-6 or 10-5 for the month, putting them one or two games hovering under .500 going into March. The Rockets have a 4 game cushion on them, but I see this thing going down to the wire in April.
I also seems like defenses are being caught off guard by Kobe actually passing. How many lay ups did they get in that second half against OKC with the defense collapsing on Kobe? He either goes back to chucking or defenses adjust and take away those layups.
The Rockets will be the reason if the Lakers make it in or not. Man, get the job done Rockets. Nothing would please me more.
I can tell you what's going to happen because we've seen it all before. Now that Kobe is in "facillitator" mode, some smart coach (probably Monty Williams next game) will simply play him straight up and avoid crowding the post. This does two things. The first is that it takes away the easy pass options, but since Kobe rarely plays based off what the defense gives him-- that is, he just decides ahead of time if he's going to pass all the time or shoot all the time (this is completely obvious to anyone who watches the game)-- he'll still force the pass for a while. Eventually, since that wont' be working as well, he'll switch to "shoot mode"-- which isn't a bad option since he's a good post player. With capable single-coverage, the Kobe post-iso is not the worst thing in the world for the defense to give up, since it alienates the other players. This is what Detroit (led by the brilliant Larry Brown) did in the 2004 Finals and it worked to perfection. If an opposing coach doesn't go this route within the next few games, I'll be shocked.
Man that dude was not passing in that series with Detroit and was probably the biggest single reason why they lost. Shooting about 35% of the teams shots at a 33% clip, it was one of the most selfish displays of basketball I've ever seen. You may be right though about adjusting defenses, but I just don't see this guy just cold turkey taking 10 shots a game from now on, sorry.
I'm amazed it took Kobe so long (ok maybe not amazed since he never understood it). Kobe is such a talented player, if he understood team concept he could have been one of the best ever. Unfortunatly he never understood that.
Kobe gonna kobe. Da minute they lose a game wit kobe playin "facilitater", da next game kome will go right back into psycho selfish a-hole, 35 shots a game jackoff mode, da Kobe we all know.
Surely Kobe did not win 5 rings by thinking he could do it all by himself. I'm not going to sit here and say that Kobe is the best teammate of all time, but the dude has been a winner, and it certainly didn't come from strict hero-ball. Say what you want about him...the dude IS one of the best ever. It's not even a debate.
You're r****ded. Tell me one person on the Hornets roster that has any chance of playing guarding Kobe 1 on 1? Monty Williams is a smart coach but he's not dumb enough to do something like that.
Eric Gordon is a fantastic defender who can easily make life difficult for Kobe. But it doesn't even matter. The idea is to goad Kobe into taking more shots or forcing passing against better coverage (to fight the perception of being a ballhog). If you watch Kobe, he doesn't just play based off the defense-- he goes entire periods where he either passes constantly or shoots constantly (and he'll often switch this up in the game). This is where he is different from a guy like LeBron, who will score or pass based entirely on the coverage against him. The way Kobe is playing right now, they could put Vasquez on him in the first quarter and he'd still pass because Kobe fancies himself as the next Magic right now.
It's fun to read your Kobe analysis. No matter what the guy does you find a way to make it a negative. Kobe shoots too much and he is a chucker. Now Kobe is passing which is a good thing but that will fail too because Kobe is too dumb to mix up his game and read defenses and only knows how to do one thing at a time. I'm sure if he manages to do both well over the next few games you will have some theory about how some coach came up with a game plan 9 years ago which should still work because Kobe hasn't changed at all since then.
My analysis is based off years of play, not a couple of games (like some fickle Laker fans). It's just like the people who thought Kobe was going to play the whole season in lockdown defender mode after they won two games and Kobe did well guarding Brandon Jennings. The fact is that Kobe does play the game in a very single-focused way, where he is either constantly passing or constantly shooting. He will change this in the course of the game but it's not possession-to-possession; it's blocks at a time. So teams can exploit this by playing him one way or the other. OKC was stupid and kept doubling even when Kobe was running the same post kick out over and over. All I'm saying is that Kobe is clearly going to come out looking to pass, so the smart move would be to single cover him because that will limit the opportunities for the other players to get energized, and that is what is driving the Lakers over the last two games.
It's unfortunate that the Thunder are stuck with Scott Brooks instead of you. You really have mastered the Kobe game plan. You should probably email this info to New Orleans before the game tonight so they don't make the same dumb mistakes the Thunder did. I'm sure they haven't seen nearly as much tape on Kobe as you have and have no idea how to stop him.
Thank you for the complement. I agree. Although Monty Williams is a pretty smart guy so hopefully he'll figure it out too.
I'm sure he will. It's so obvious. Kobe always has that pass only, shoot only icon above his head when he goes in to either mode.
I know you are being facetious but seriously, watch how Kobe plays starting the game and tell me that's how he plays all game. He will make a deliberate effort to force the pass (often leading to turnovers) for the entire first quarter. So it's just stupid to double him at that point.
