It is completely false if you think Lakers lost because Kobe started shooting the ball. Just read a post game quote from Tim Thomas and you can see why Kobe had to shoot the ball: "I felt the Lakers were tight down the stretch. They don't have too many guys with experience in these types of situations. They wouldn't take the shots -- they kept passing to Kobe." In fact, Kobe shared the ball pretty well until the last two minutes in the fourth QT. Pressure was on and there was no margins for errors, some of the Lakers felt nervous, they didn't shoot the ball and instead, they passed it to Kobe. They should, because Kobe actually delivered. Lakers were up by 3pts until 6 secs left. If Tim Thomas didn't hit that 3, Lakers would have won the series. Lakers' problem is not their offense, it is their defense. If you could somewhat pay attention to first 4 games they played, you can easily find out it was their defense make the difference. Suns was shooting a much lower percentage, they made much less 3 balls and they didn't have nearly as many lay-ups as they did the last two games. IMO, Suns already figured out how to attack Lakers' defense, they still run a lot of pnr and they post Lakers' small players a lot. Because Suns' perimeter shooting is so good, Lakers can't double team the post. Mike D'Antoni certainly made the adjustment. Of course, Parker playing like total garbage didn't help either. I love Phil Jackson, but he gave Parker way too many minutes. He became Lakers' Ryan Bowen. Suns completely ignored him on offense end and he could stop nobody on defense. Sasha was way better. I hope Lakers' win but I am afraid that they will suffer what Rox suffered last year. Suns is a better team and in a four game series, better team always wins. Lakers missed a golden opportunity yesterday and I think they will lose the series too.
What a great game! The unsung hero, once again, is MVP Steve Nash. As I watched a replay of the end of the 4th quarter into the overtime period, I saw how EVERY SINGLE BASKET made by the Suns was a direct result of a Nash pass or a series of passes initiated by Nash. The guy was absolutely a magician with that ball, making unbelievable passes and making his teammates better like no other player in the entire league can. To top that off, he had 32 points and kept his turnovers low. As Barkley said after the game, those who wonder why Steve Nash is the MVP didn't watch him play much during the season. The Suns have been very much undermanned and overpowered by the Lakers' front line, and yet they somehow manage to win the game. They have a terrific young duo in Barbosa and Diaw, man what I would do to have Barbosa as our PG. A grity, ballsy performance by the Suns, now they will have Raja back and I can't wait for Game 7...what a freakin' great series this has been! What a great first round of the playoffs!
Great game...I can't wait for the next game...This reminds me of teh Rox/mavs series last year...I want LA to win as Kobe is the real MVP...
Kobe the real MVP? Are you serious? How can you say that after watching what Nash did? Just watch what he does on Saturday night, if the game is close he's going to show you what a real MVP does, maybe this time you'll notice it.
Freaking classic. If Tim Thomas doesn't hit that 3 at the end of regulation, the lakers advance and Kobe is the hero. Hell, if Smush doesn't lose his brain and go to the hole for no reason with plenty of time on the clock, the lakers probably win the game/series. Kobe did all he could do to keep them in the game, since their defense broke down. Now he's self-destructive? Thanks for the laugh.
It is indeed one of the best first round in recent memories. Such a fun game to watch. I totally agree about Nash, he just made everyone on his team a 20 points guy, no matter you are a journey man or nobody, or a guy sitting at home (t.thomas). I don't understand all the protests for "Kobe the real MVP"? What makes this scoring title greater than AI's 3 and TMac's 2? How many votes did TMac get when he got his scoring title and almost 20% more assists and rebounds?
Kobe was sharing the ball early on, and for much of that time the Lakers had a lead, or were tied. It was when Kobe started hogging that the Suns finished the game. I agree it wasn't only Kobe's fault. But he was part of it. Smush not showing up on offense was part of it. The Suns stepping up was part of it. But there is no denying that Kobe had teammates who were having a good game, and having success early on when he was staying within the game plan. Part of the reason the Laker's defense also got worse could be do to guys not being involved. It is common to see teams play better defense when everyone is involved. The reasons why the Suns won are numerous, but I feel that part of it is because Kobe didn't trust his teammates at the end of the game.
Dude, it's an unexplainable NBA phenomenon, when one player tries to do everything for a team that team always comes up short in the end, it's an NBA law. You cannot deny the history in that and the fact that it keeps repeating itself year after year, superstar wants to win by himself, teammates look bad, and the team loses. You know, maybe if the rest of the team was more involved someone would have grabbed that rebound, it's a proven fact that players give more effort on defense and in rebounding when they're involved on offense.
To be fair, KOBE should get the benefit of doubt as NASH in first three games. When he was getting lay-up and lay-up while others shooting misearbly, nobody was saying NASH selfish but all saying Lakers made him to do anything but pass. Now back to Lakers' case, they have cut Odom's path at the baseline where he either attack or pass, Luke the important facilitator was in foul trouble, and smush was like crap. If it's not Kobe shooting lights out during the stretch, it could be long gone. One legitimate thing you can say though, is he had some ill-advised passes which turned the ball over.
It's so true. 50 points is just bad omen. I remember LeBron's first 50 points was a loss against the Raptors It's a team game after all.
But last night, Odom was 8-14, Brown was 8-9, even Walton was 5-11. They didn't shoot miserably. In fact, that pounding inside worked greatly against the Suns, but they went away from that. Kobe's super talent almost made up all of that, but not quite on the end. Just imagine, if the game last another 15 minutes or so, if both play the same way as they finish, who will win for sure? But, if that 15 minutes are played in the same way as they started, who will come up on top, for sure?
Can't stand either team but I'll alway have an undying hate for Kobe, that being said, I'm glad me and the wife stayed up to watch that game, it was pretty exciting, kind of bizzare to watch teams play zero defense though....
Care to provide proof on this proven fact? Was there a study done on this? So, Dennis Rodman and Ben Wallace got so many rebounds and played such good defense because they were so heavily involved in the offense?
Eddie Johnson was just on espn 790. He mentioned that Kobe was unreal and deserves way more credit, compared him to Jordan, said he even makes more difficult shots than even Jordan did. He said the Lakers other young players are buckling under the pressure, especially smush parker. Kobe had to do what he did and what he did was amazing. The Lakers still lost, but still, he did all he could do.
That is not true. Lakers was trailing behind most of the game, all night long they were doing the catch up job. They had the lead couple times, but it went away quickly because they let Suns score way too easily. Too many layups, too many open shots. Think about it, Lakers scored 108pts, that is not too bad offense wise. And Kobe scored almost everytime he shot until the last one. They led 3pts until 6 seconds left. Obviously they scored enough points. But the problem was they played in Suns' style, scored a lot of points and stopped nobody.
Not true at all. The lakers were trailing and playing catch up for most of the game. They were tied when he hit that big 3 at the end to go up by 3. Then lakers go the ball back with under 1 minute to go, up by 3, smush took off to the hole (for some awful reason) and got his shot blocked. Suns came back, missed another 3, Marion got the rebound dished it out to Tim Thomas, pump fake, drained a 3 with 6 seconds left in the game. Not convinced that you watched the game franchiseBlade.
That is exactly what happend! Some of the young players couldn't handle the pressure, especially Parker. Looking at his face, you know this guy lost his confidence. As for next game, I predict whoever win the first half wins the game. Both teams have a lot of pressure, whoever come to the top first, they will win the series.
That was a great game and this has been a great first round so far. I'm not going to put full blame for this loss on Kobe because he did score 50 while shooting a great %. However, when he started taking the bulk of the shots in the second half and the Lakers stopped going inside, I had a feeling LA would lose, especially since the Suns bigs were already in foul trouble. LA was up 3-1 because they were pounding the paint. That didn't happen in the second half yesterday.
The proof is in the results of the NBA playoffs year after year, when you see one guy try and win on his own he succeeds individually, but his team fails. Yet the same excuse is given year after year; He did everything he could, not his fault his teammates stunk. It should be very obvious from this series that excuses like that don't fly; the Lakers become a better overall team when they attack offensively as a team, they play better as a team in all 3 phases of the game and they either beat the more talented Suns or get close to beating them. Kobe goes solo, gets hot and achieves great individual success, but no one else makes a big play at the end of the game and in OT, the team defense and rebounding suffer, and more mental mistakes are made. Dude, if you can't see the negative correlation between the solo productions of superstars and the production of that superstar's teammates then no one can force you to see it. Did you happen to catch game 5 of the Cavs Wizards series? Maybe this happened because it had to happen when Lebron was in foul trouble, but that team proved they can play well without him doing everything, they made most of the plays in the 4th quarter and over time. Keep in mind that popular opinion is that the Cavs are low on talent outside of Lebron, (Jame's Gang are his teammates' nick name!) yet they were able to make plays with him on the bench and they were able to keep the Cavs in the game in OT just enough for him to win it at the end. That was a beautiful basketaball game, just like game 4 in the Lakers vs Phoenix series was beautiful, game 6 could have been a great individual performance, but the laws of NBA physics don't allow that to happen. Those laws caused that Nash missed three pointer to rebound right into the hands of a hustling Shawn Marion, then opened his eyes to a wide open Tim Thomas who hit NOTHING!, but the bottom of the net despite missing his two prior shots. It didn't end there either, those same laws caused Kobe to see only one option on that last play, shoot it, he misses a wide open Smush Parker and his last second shot was stopped, in mid air mind you, by an invisible force from even reaching the rim much less go in.
