Um, maybe that Kobe guy is pretty good. Some random thoughts on that and more from last night.
• Apparently, ESPN.com’s Scoop Jackson or his editor did not get the Colin Cowherd memo. Scoop’s column yesterday was written from the perspective of the new NBA basketball, even calling it the “Orange Roundie.†A clever idea — except that The Cavalier at yaysports.com has been doing that same thing all season, complete with calling it the Orange Roundie. Understandably the Cavalier was pissed.
Scoop’s original column had the ball saying he heard he was called orange roundie by “a website.†After NBA bloggers who got up earlier than I pounded the issue this morning, there is now credit to YAY sports, but still no link. The best wrap-up on everything so far is Will’s post at Deadspin, which includes a response from Scoop saying he had a link and more in but his editors took it out. Maybe that’s true.
Whoever did it, what galls me is that the rules of common courtesy in blogs and online are pretty simple — I don’t care who re-posts my stuff (not that anyone really wants to); just give me credit and a link. Don’t pretend it’s your own. Pretty much every blogger I’ve talked to — political, sports, lifestyle, arts, whatever — feels the same way. It’s simple common sense, your mom should have taught you go give credit where credit is due, not to steal. Why is that so hard to learn?
• Enough ranting, let’s talk hoops.
• Credit Jerry Sloan for being a man of his convictions — he was going to cover Kobe with one man and he stuck with that plan. And as that man was usually AK-47, it’s not a bad plan. One problem: There are nights when Kobe, like no other playing today, can channel the basketball gods and become unstoppable. At that point, as a coach, you scrap plan “A†and double him every time he gets near the ball. Some other Laker may beat you, but you’ve got better odds that way than not adjusting your Kobe defense.
By the time Sloan changed strategies Kobe had drilled two long-range threes over the tall Russian, the third quarter was winding down, the Lakers were up 20 and the game was all but over.
• In case you missed it (and have ESPN Insider), David Thorpe had a great — and amazingly timely — breakdown of Kobe’s game that went up on the site several hours before tip off.
What he talks a lot about (and we’ve discussed here) is just how well rounded Kobe’s game is — he can drain deep threes or post you up, can shoot well with either hand, attacks the rim and has a pull-up jumper. As we noted last year (thank you Synergy Sports), last year Kobe drove to his left 49% of the time and his right 51%. How do you defend a guy with no weakness to push him toward?
Well, you could double him and make him give up the ball. Nah….
• Regular here Nate JONESONTHENBA was at the game last night and, apparently, is a kept man by a wealthy woman or lucked into great seats. Love to hear his thoughts.
By the way, he is now part of a new must-read NBA blog at AOL — the NBA Funhouse — with some of the best and most creative bloggers out there taking part JE Skeets, the guys from The Big Lead, plus many more). Congrats on that!!
• Kobe’s stats (thanks to Rob L for firing those off to me not long after the game last night): a True Shooting Percentage of 79.8%, an offensive rating of 157 (if he had used 100 possessions he would have scored that much, instead he used just 25 possessions). He also was +23 for the night.
• It was Lamar Odom who led the Lakers in +/-, he was +30.
• Don’t sleep on Maurice Evans, who had a nice game going 6 of 9 from the floor with 17 points. Also, Luke Walton had one of those great quietly efficient nights he seems to have every game now — 10 points on 3 of 5 shooting, but an offensive rating of 154 for the game.
• Utah has now lost three of four, and they didn’t appear nearly as crisp on offense s they did last game. I’ll chalk that up to being the second game of a back-to-back, I still think they could be a real force this season.
• The Jazz still got 14 offensive boards, but had just 20 defensive ones — the Lakers shot 65.3% (eFG%) as a team, so there just weren’t many missed shots to grab.
Renato Afonso says
Someone said that AK47 is actually playing out of position, and that reflects on their offense. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t, but I do think he’s a better PF than a SF. Sloan will figure it anytime soon…
Now, having Kobe drop 52 on AK47 in 34 mins of play is something that amazes me even more than his 81 points last season. Kirilenko has an incredible wingspan, which makes shooting in his face even harder… Now, here’s what I think… Due to the injuries he suffered recently, I think he has lost a step on his lateral movement. When Kobe is feeling it like that, the only way to SLOW him a bit is to have a quicker defender who actually tries and force him over to the big guys inside. Make him dish or shoot long treys all night. Of course, maybe yesterday Kobe would just keep dunking over Boozer and Okur…
But let’s wait for the game against the Clippers to see what he does. Who will Dunleavy match up against him? My money is on Ross, so I expect Odom to have a huge night. If Kobe really has matured, maybe we’ll see Kobe going for 20-4-10 as either Ross or Livingston will be getting lot of help from their teammates… If he adjusts his game according to the opponent, the Lakers actually have a huge shot at the Pacific…
Craig W. says
As we start to get the sports Journalists (oops! sorry, pinheads) acceptance that just perhaps Kobe is the best in the world and all this other hoopla is for 2nd place, we should not get too upset about continued discussions about the young guns. After all, when the horse race is pretty much over the scribes spend their time arguing about the place and show bets.
We are young and we will be uneven, but there really is an awfully lot of talent and cohesiveness on this squad. My guess is that Phil is salivating over all this and spending time thinking about the tweeks necessary to keep everyone interested.
dan reines says
re: your comments on web theft: kurt, you said it better than I ever could. nonetheless, you can read my take on it over at my new website, http://www.forumblueandgold.net...
Gatinho says
Ric Bucher has a great piece dealing with the continued media slights to Kobe’s game
“But how many times does one man have to drop iodine tablets into the same village well to make it potable? How many times must Kobe demonstrate that no one in the league — and I mean no one — has his combination of skill, tenacity, understanding of time and score, killer instinct and ability to control the game at the both ends? And how many times must I be the one taking the flag and waving it?”
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-061201
He begins the whole article by admitting he wanted to write about anything but Kobe, but his hand was forced.
So as I was watching the game I was getting ready to tell Kurt that the follow up post should be called “It’s the defense, not Kobe, Stupid” until he hit his eleventh shot in a row, and I changed my mind. But the D was good…
Steve Kerr reminded us once again last night that the triangle was created to break zones…
CTDeLude says
Anyone notice right as Utah went to the zone Kobe got all intense and went after the basket? As much as I think shutting up people who thought AK was the next “Kobe-stopper” (funny how no other player has so many vying to be their :stopper) was on Kobe’s mind I also think it was in his mind to just destroy the zone. His two dunks came off the zone didn’t they?
Kurt says
Utah played some zone, but not as much as the Bucks or other teams will. One of Kobe’s big dunks was against the zone, I don’t recall on the other.
CTDeLude says
Well that’s my point I guess. As soon as they went to the zone it’s like a light went off in Kobe’s head and he was going to nip it in the bud before it could go anywhere. I could be wrong but that’s why I think we didn’t see a lot of the zone. The moment it was implemented it was craved up like a Christmas ham.