TMac vs Kobe: TMac has confidence in his teammates

i wish rafer would give anyone confidence that he will make the shot...

 

Does Kobe really decide to ballhog at the expense of his teammates, or are Kobe's teammates really not doing much but standing/watching, or missing wide open shots, or not being in position to help Kobe.

That's where coaching makes a difference... if Kobe is truly ball-hogging, Phill should tell him to stop. If his teammates are sucking it up and standing/watching, Phill should tell them to stop.

Its a team game... and teams should always play as a team. If they're not, they should get coaches that enforce it.

 

Kobe is so far ahead of Tmac when it comes to scoring now, it's not even as close as it once was. However, I will say that Tmac seems to have found a middleground between scoring and playmaking, while Kobe only knows how to do one or the other, when he is "scoring" Kobe, he'll finish with like 0 assists and usually end up either shooting poorly for 3 qtrs and getting hot in the 4th, or like we saw today hot for 3 qtrs, but not the 4th. Tmac definitely has an advantage

 

Well the difference in game 1 of their respective series was T-Mac brought it in the second half, Kobe didn't.

Kobe started well, T-Mac didn't.

T-Mac had the trust in his teammates to keep the team afloat while he was not playing well, Kobe didn't.

Kobe in the second half faced the same defense T-Mac did in the first, and he couldn't find a way around it either other than to force shots.

I'm just glad T-Mac has a lot of support this season in Yao Ming.

 

cant really trust your teammates if they suck as much as Kobe's do

 

u answer urself w/ this sequence of play. kobe gets doubled on the side w/ farmar wide open under the basket and instead he dribbles back out to the middle to go 1-on-1

kobe gets doubled on the sidelined and instead of passing, he shoots a fadeaway over 2 players

not good.

 

again, he has the free reign to take 30+ shots any time he wants. the offense runs through him. kobe doesn't have to get others involved. they have to give him the ball. it's easier to score a lot that way.

 

The difference between T-mac and Kobe is that the Rox has an inside game while the Lakers does not. It is as easy as this.

Without the inside game by Yao, T-mac has not been able to get past the first round, even in that weak Eastern conference. Arguably, the T-mac at Orlando Magic was better than the T-mac at Houston, he still could not get past the first round. In the last game, T-mac was hot only for the second half, he was miserable for the first half but Yao helped to shoulder the scoring load.

It is the same story for Kobe, there is no inside game for the Lakers, Kobe can't not always be hot for 4 quarters. He needs help , at least somebody can help him for the scoring load for two quarters of a game, and he is not going to get it.

 

odom 17 pts on 8-16 shooting
walton 10 pts 5-8 shooting, 6 boards, 6 dimes
farmar 4-9 for 9 pts

so no, he had help. he just didn't use it. odom should take 25 shots b/c no one on that team can gaurd him

 

The Lakers don't really put Kobe in a position to be a big assist guy on their team. How often does he run a screen and roll at the top of the key (our money play with T-Mac)?

I thought the Lakers should have posted up Odom more down the stretch. He looked pretty good down there, and he was drawing double teams.

 

there's just no excuse to jack up a fade away 19 footer with 2 guys on him and a 3rd looking when you have all those 3pt shooters around you. The game was basically either 4v4 or 1v5 for the Lakers on the offensive end.

Lakers didn't involve kobe at all when they ran their offensive sets. Most of kobe's shots came from isos.

 

Yep, and when Tmac couldnt find his shot, he ended up with 6 first half assists.

 

mac averages 6 assists in the playoffs before yao. sure he didn't have teammates but the thing is tmac passed b/c he knew he needed help.

kobe has 1 today when he had others going.

 

Kobe is a ball hog plain and simple. Let the offense run through Odom early, the guy's a huge mismatch but he's too laid back because Kobe is always hogging the ball. When Odom is on a groove, Kobe can play off him and dominate when necessary.

The 4th quarter was hard to watch. Kobe wanted to take over the game and was playing 1 on 5. He shot the Lakers out of the game. T-mac does that occasionally, but most of the time T-mac plays within the framework of the offense.

 

That observation is correct. Lamar is the playmaker on that team. He has the potential to get the most # of assists. But when the guys you are passing to are named Smush and Kwame, you are not going to get many.

Looks like Phil and Lakers have decided that they need to pace Kobe, and let him be the scoring threat, not the playmaker.

It's not a bad strategy. They almost got a win today.

But honestly, if Suns dont win this series it will be a huge upset. Phoenix Guns have too many weapons. Lakers have absolute crap on that roster after Kobe and Lamar.....even Lamar disappears half the time.

 

odom is laid back b/c of kobe's huge ego, i completely agree. when kobe was out for 4-5 games earlier in the season, odom was aggressive putting up 19 and 10.

but when kobe starts shooting, it's like you're obliged to give him the ball or he'll get pissed.

 

their smush and kwame, it's our rafer and hayes. so no excuse.