Like I said earlier,the Kobe as facilitator experiment is a failure. Kobe has an uncanny gift that enables him to see the slightest crease in a defense so he can slither thru and score,but that same “hoop-vision” prevents him from passing to open players who are not in the lane. It was painful to watch him run the offence against the Clippers. Now I realize Phil may have instructed the team to pound it inside,but… it was over 9 minutes into the 1Q before Kobe drove and passed to an outside shooter.
At @1:35 left in 2Q Kobe gave a perfect illustration why he’s not a facilitator type. Kobe Karl had just stepped behind a Kobe pick and drained a 3. On the very next possesion Kobe takes the ball and drives down the lane w/all the Clips falling into paint to stop him. Karl is at 3 pt line to behind Kobe and to Kobe’s rt,Radmanavich is behind Kobe at 3pt line to his left. It’s the perfect spot to kick out to Karl,giving the kid a wide-open look and allowing him to make a couple consecutive 3s and do wonders for his confidence. Instead Kobe continues drive,is fouled and makes both FTs. Shows why Kobe is an unstoppable scoring machine and somebody else has to set up the rest of the team.

gosh, if the rest of our team can keep playing that way throughout the season, maybe we’ll only have to bust kobe out during the playoffs. after an entire season of being placated and haha-ing on the bench, he’ll pounce and throw months of energy into a 12 game series.

At first, the Lakers and Clippers traded foul for foul. Then Jordan Farmer came in, played both offensive and defensive sides of the court the right way–and actually brought the Lakers into the lead.

It didn’t last.

Kobe’s dishes were not the Queens’s best china, Cook is Cook and Sasha is still Sasha. Even Derek Fisher couldn’t keep the wheels from falling off. I know that the Lakers have been referred to as “slugs” in the past, but they better relearn the 4th letter of the alphabet–or it will be a very long season.

Is it just me or what, Farmar needs to be on that starting lineup. Fish has already said he doesn’t mind coming off the bench and I think the Lakers are indeed a better team with Farmar handling the ball. The kid shot 7-10 from the field with 3 3-balls. His shooting has really improved. Now if he could be our Tony Parker, we are in for a BIG surprise.

Bynum scored 16 largely of passes coming off his own screens. He needs to develop a face up jumper too, something D-12 has added to his repertoire this year.

As far as the optimism of the season goes, I think we will be fine.

P.S. Al Thornton can ball. He could very well be better than the 10 other rookies picked ahead of him this year.

Bynum also feeds of the crowd’s cheers. Expect him to play better at home this year.

Kwame is hopeless on catching that ball. Perhaps he should just focus on D and add some shot-blocking on that game. Be a Jermaine Oneal without the scoring…