Kobe has pulled a rather impressive disappearing act in the second half...just mindbogglingly! Where the f*** did he go? Barbosa just destroyed him and his team and ripped them a new one with little to no resistance. I just completely refuse to believe that it was the Suns' defense...Missing 9 shots in a row, I mean what the hell?
uhh, he went 11-17 and drained 4 straight 3's at one point, he was bound to cool down. he never seems to get to the basket against the suns. he's kind of like tmac against them. and when he does they aren't giving him any calls. the last 4 possessions he either shot or passed, he just missed his 2 shots and odom blew 2 layups on a good pass inside by kobe. the lakers aren't making anything (3-16 this quarter) and everyone guarding barbosa is getting abused. even when he's falling down they just stare at him while he throws a pass to amare for an easy dunk. if kobe did too much more while missing people would say he was forcing it. he's missed 9 straight shots so it's not like he isn't doing stuff. and lakers get abused on the pnr again.
Overall, I'm impressed with the Lakers effort... holding the Suns to under 100, and leading much of the game. But in the end, they could play 3 more games just like this... and still get swept. Its just like when a team is only outscored by 2 points each quarter of a game... sure, you played them close, but in the end you still lost by 8 points.
This game just shown the best of Kobe and the worst of Kobe. Those shots he forced were bad bad shots. It is like he is hampered by his own greatness.
Dude, I am not one of those people. I want to see him get 50 even if they they lose. He's absolutely stunk it up this second half...just extremely disappointing. He's made bad decisions throughout the 4th, whether he was supposed to shoot it or pass it, he made the wrong decisions. Oh well, hopefully they will win the next game or it will be 'lights out' for the Lakers...
Lakers can learn a whole crapload from this game. They stayed competitive even though most people picked Suns to sweep. They just have to steal one game at Phoenix and and win their own court games to advance. I still say Suns in 7.
that's why i've got money on the sweep. no matter how close it is, the suns will always have a barbosa like performance from someone out of nash, amare, barbosa, or bell and unless kobe makes everything the rest of the lakers are unlikely to have big enough games to make it a win. plus the lakers just aren't going to get stops when they have to have them.
Reporter: Do you get tired? Barbosa: Yes sometimes I get tired a little bit, but you can't get tired in the playoffs, just keep going. WOW, just wow... Great reporting!
Kobe stunk it up in the 2nd half but this loss goes on his teammates, who were so impotent on offense it's amazing the game was close. When Kobe went ice cold the Lakers had no other matchup they could rely on. It was crazy how Odom and some of the other players passed up wide open shots down the stretch just so Kobe could later get the ball and miss a difficult turnaround. I'd say it's 50/50 that the Suns sweep and 50/50 it goes 4-1. The Lakers are continuing their poor stretch into the playoffs so they won't offer much resistance.
anybody notice how orange the arena was, Phoenix looked better than us. We need to step it up tommorow
from cbs sportsline: Barbosa's personal scoring surge erased a 77-71 deficit. His driving layup on an ultra-fast break put Phoenix ahead 79-77 with 10:29. what the hell's an ultra fast break?
When Kobe doesn't involve his teammates, it's all on him, winning or losing. He forced shots the whole game. The difference is, he made those shots in the 1st half and missed them in the 2nd. You see, when you make difficult (meaning bad) shots, you are "amazing." Some even say he's better than Jordan. But when you miss them, you are a ballhog that doesn't make your teammates better. The fact is, the Lakers went away from the inside game which was very effective in the 1st half, and let Kobe do whatever he felt like. That is never going to win them many games.
In the 4th quarter, LO and Farmar passed up WIDE OPEN shots! Is that Kobe's fault? No! Blame them or blame PJ. Obviously on other occasions Kobe took dumb shots, but again, that could have been by PJ's design because he didn't want anyone else to shoot. The Lakers played good enough on defense to win, but they wasted the effort in the 4th quarter. They let this game get away. One more thing: Smush Parker shouldn't see the floor the rest of the playoffs. Right now, he is complete garbage. How a player can be lax and half-hearted during game one of a series is beyond me. What a loser! They should just send him home with pay. I think he might be a mental case.
