Comments on: Lakers/Spurs: I Can Get Used to This

By: Anthony Winston

Anthony Winston — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:40:02 +0000

If you people believe Odum will keep this up, you’re in for a rude awakening. Pau was the leader of a team that was 0-12 in playoff games, not only did he not win a series but not one playoff game until he played with kobe. trade kobe, unless you’re getting another superstar that would be crazy keep trusting in Dfish and Lamar.

By: Ummmmm

Ummmmm — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 03:29:55 +0000

You’re so blinded by your worship of one guy.

No one said the Lakers are better without Kobe. But in wins this season, Kobe averages more assists and almost 3 shot attempts less per game.

Last year, he averaged SEVEN MORE shot attempts in losses than wins, and had more assists in wins. (Now we have a bigger sample size)

If you want to win games, you have to have a team effort. One guy going off takes everyone else out of their rhythm and makes them tight in end-game situations. It’s so obvious but Kobe is blinded by his own quest for personal greatness and most Laker fans just fuel his fire. I for one, would like to see him facilitate the offense and pick his spots, become a more efficient player, and take a team that has so by far and away the most talent in the NBA and dominate the league.

By: kaveh

kaveh — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:51:32 +0000

I’m sorry, but some people that post here make absolutely zero sense. I don’t want to insult anyone, but the logic some of you use is…well, pick your own word.

2 games is a non-existent sample size, especially vs teams such as the Blazers who are missing 4 of their best players including their all-nba star, or an old Spurs team who is 10-11 away from home. But even if you take good competition, 2 games is virtually nothing.

Not to mention when you don’t take other factors into consideration. To make this short, anyone who thinks that this team is actually better without one of the all-time top ten best players in NBA history, Kobe Bryant, or without a player with as much potential/skill/physical ability as Bynum…well, that person is lost in the wilderness.

By: E. Dimowo

E. Dimowo — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:21:27 +0000

My question is this: Kobe, a proven offensive arsenal and a savage beast whose objective is to hoist the O’Brien trophy in the air year after year, has to deal with teammates who (in December 2009, simply retracted reporter’s questions by saying “how many games have we lost? Like 6″ (Ron Artest during an interview) and people expect him to just “trust” his teammates? If I was in that position, I would take as many shots as I need to, (which he determines usually in a span of 5 minutes in the first quarter), in order to WIN. That’s a competitor’s thinking, and I believe that that’s Kobe’s thinking also. For the teammates, he is a huge safety net, and I sometimes feel like they treat these regular season games as practices when Kobe’s not on the court. I’ve even been so frustrated with their lack of effort and play (including poorly chosen contested threes in transition and the abhorred PUJIT) that I have conceded to say during much of this season that being a Lakers fan is like having an asshole boyfriend: you see their talent and abilities analogous to marriage, or in the Laker’s situation: CHAMPIONSHIP, but instead endure play analogous to forgotten anniversaries (they forgot to show up on Christmas, not that they had been playing especially amazingly before that, in Denver 2x and in many games against lesser teams in which our pure talent gave us a W) and continue to play with extreme inconsistency (i.e. Spurs meltdown and Maverick-possibly the best game of the season-game next day). My thing is this: the Lakers have it: the proverbial “it” people in the Entertainment Industry use to define the Michael Jackson or Beatles of any given generation, the big thing that people need-the Lakers have, arguably in excess. People are arguing about too much TALENT! I just believe that these past two games have shown us what is truly lacking: synergy (the sum is more than the parts). If we keep up this play, then I can say that we have solved the problem with energy, if and only if this energy is sustained. But what we need for when our superstar(s) come back synergy. I truly hope Kobe will take it in his hands to tell these kids that their play has been amazing and they need to do this EVERY NIGHT in order to gain the trust of the Mamba. I’ve literally been dreaming about what the rest of our year would look like should we incorporate Kobe/Bynum back into this synergistic and aesthetically beautiful offense (I haven’t seen the triangle executed like that since I feel like the Final’s last year). But I can see the future, and it looks great.

By: Ummmmm

Ummmmm — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:57:59 +0000

@Matthew, he is a great player and has been fortunate enough to play with some other hall of famers. Basketball is a team game. Games light last night show us how valuable someone like Odom can be. But he needs to be involved to play like that. The fact that the Cavaliers with inferior talent are playing better than us is because their depth is being tapped into, and before the last few games, our hasn’t.

It’s not like I’m the only one that thinks Kobe needs to change his ways, the Lakers do to. We win if he shoots 15-20 times a game and sets up his teammates, not if he leads the league in field goal attempts yet again.

By: kenny

kenny — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:26:36 +0000

I think the one thing Kobe needs to realize from this is that for the Lakers to be the best team in the NBA, he has to average around 22-24 points a game, and shoot about 4-5 less attempts per game.

Also, as good as Kobe is on the block, he needs to go back to the perimeter, and revolve the offense around Gasol down low.

Lastly, #44, I being a huge Kobe fan still agree with you. It’s frustrating at times seeing that Kobe still seems to play for his own accomplishments and legacy than the team’s betterment.

By: Rudy

Rudy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:08:13 +0000

44 – Nobody is prenteding that Kobe is LeBron or MJ, but he is an elite player in this league and the best player on our team. I don’t understand how people see these 2 games as a big enough sample size to determine that if the offense was run through Pau and Kobe played second fiddle, we’d be better off. Pau and/or Bynum do not get great post position against every team.

I don’t believe the Bulls teams with Jordan ran there offense through Luc Longley or Bill Cartwright. The triangle doesn’t have to be run through the post. Kobe is our best offensive player. I want the ball in his hands the majority of the game deciding when to shoot or pass.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:57:07 +0000

@44:

Agree completely. That’s why LeBron has 4 rings and Kobe has none. Oh wait…

Why does everyone think Kobe is the key to this team? Because he is a top 10-15 player of all time, a sure-fire Hall of Famer, 6 time NBA Finalist, 4 time champion and one of the best players in the league year after year for more than a decade? Just a guess, but that could probably be one of the reasons.

Great win, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Hope to see the whole team get healthy soon and witness the machine slowly shift to higher gears and ultimately destroying everyone in the playoffs.

Go Lakers!

By: Ummmmm

Ummmmm — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:33:28 +0000

So Kobe goes 2-12 and we win easily, Kobe doesn’t play twice and we win easily….

Why does everyone think Kobe is the key to this team?

When was the last time Kobe won a game all by himself? The last game he really dominated we LOST. I think we need to stop pretending Kobe is LeBron or MJ. He’s Kobe, and the only way we are going to win another ring is not if he “bails us out” or “goes off” but if he plays within the flow. Why has 25 year old LeBron known this for 4 years now and Kobe still doesn’t get it yet?

By: Rudy

Rudy — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:58:02 +0000

T. Rogers – “If anything this games shows that the offense should run through Pau Gasol a lot more often than it does. In some ways 20 shots for Gasol are more valuable than 20 shots for Kobe.”
I could not disagree with you more on this point. You’re willing to take the result of this one game and come to a conclusion that if we ran our offense through Pau rather than Kobe, this would happen more often than running it through Kobe? You can’t be serious. If that’s the case, then why didn’t Memphis win 1 playoff game with Pau Gasol being the focal point of their offense?

We won the championship last year with Kobe being the primary option. Why do you think we need a change of philosophy now? We are top 5 in scoring averaging over 103 ppg. It is our defense that has been the problem and it is our defense that has been the reason for the two wins without Kobe and Bynum.

If we can run the offense through Pau and beat the Utah Jazz Wednesday in Utah, I will personally come on here and apologize to you and agree I was wrong. I will also stop my criticisms of Pau and buy into what everyone else on this site has been saying for months “These games don’t matter,” “Pau is not soft,” “Fisher comes through when it matters most,” “The offense runs much better when we feed Pau the ball,” “We will win the championship this year.”

You can hold me accountable for this.