And P.S. - Its a shame Kobe can get away with elbows like the one on Barbosa (It required 4 stitches btw!!). It wasn't as bad as Raja Bell's clothesline but doing what he does can cause a player to snap. Rest assured, if his name wasn't Kobe there'd be some stiffer penalty.

 

i have no idea what youre talking about, when they were up 3-1 it surely wasnt all kobe, i give credit to his teamates getting involved and running the triangle. Yet they still barely won, going to OT. If the teamates hasnt faded last night, they would never have had to gone to the kobe show. 2 games ago i was already talking about how Kobes teamates is no where near as good as the Suns. if you want me to qoute my self I can, thats when we were aruging about boris Diaw and MVP

 

theres a difference between inadvertent foul, where its unfortunate that barbosa got hurt, vs a flagarant foul where 1 player is trying to hurt another player on purpose. people are trees in the nba with long elbows, sometimes you just end up hitting someone real hard. If Kobe was getting at barbosa on purpose off some revenge sh*t i doubt hed get away with it

 

Going to the Kobe show htough? Odom was an assist shy of a triple-double. Kwame had 17 and 9. George had 14 and Walton had 10. i'm not sure how much you want. These players arent THAT bad.

Excuses aside both defenses played poorly, the difference was free throw shooting. Suns shot over 86% and made 10 more.

 

I'm not to sure I agree with you Prat, Kobe made some crucial mistakes in the end of the fourth and in Overtime that played a part in the Lakers losing the game. Its just his efficient 50 points overshadows the fact that there were huge judgement errors late in the game.

 

Odom is playing great, and he continued to play great all game. Kwame has zero offense what so ever, he gets all his points from assists on uncontested dunks and a few putbacks. not saying hes that sorry, he plays good D and rebounds, but he is far from competent on offense. no one outside of kobe and odom can create his own shot. thats pretty bad. The Lakers are good enough to play with most teams in the NBA, but when they go up vs the suns even without Amare the overall talent level is not even close. and as stated, they wouldnt have gone to the kobe show if the other players didnt fade.

 

Kobe is not perfect he made errors and mistakes and had turnovers, so did everyone else on both teams. blaming him for loosing the game is just wrong. I never blamed his teamates either, they all played their hearts out for the limited talent that they have, if your shots dont fall they dont fall. i just think that Kobe needs better players thats all.

 

Very true. But he should have passed the ball at that last second shot. He forced to many shots and made crucial turnovers in overtime. He deserves alot of blame, but not all of it. Its argueable that his play kept the Lakers in the game and also cost them the game too. Its a fine line u know?

 

So are you blaming the players or you're not? Saying they need to be better as the cause that they lost sounds like blame.

 

It was a great game no matter what. Can't really blame Kobe at all. His stats were great, his teammates stats were about where they needed to be for them to win. Its just that Tim Thomas is coming out of nowhere and trying to make a clutch name for himself. Don't blame Kobe for the loss. He had a good shooting percentage and enough assists. It was a potential series ending game for the Lakers. It's already been discussed in a few other threads that Kobe is a bball killer, in a good way. You know he was gonna try and crush Phoenix, which he almost did. I want Phoenix to win but I can't see Kobe and Phil allowing themselves to lose 3 straight, especially with all the side drama in the series already.

 

yeah its a fine line alright, Like phill said had he made the shot and won the game, the kobe haters wouldnt have nothing to say. too bad he missed, now people are gonna get on him and ciriticize him. Thats part of being Kobe. As far as Im concerned, if you do whatever it takes to win the game, and keep your team in it all the way till the very end vs a superior team, you shouldnt be blamed.

 

well im blaming them to the point that they faded in the 2nd half and the Lakers had to change tactics. I wouldnt say they are solely responsible for loosing the game. At the same time i realize they all played hard and they made it a close game, they still played their role. Its not like Kobe was taking it coast to coast every play. They have to pass, and get the spacing right, and work hard on the board. Thats the nature of basketball when some players are not playing well others picks it up, Kobe and Odom was putting the game on their shoulders. everyone still contributed and they lost a close game. so why should i blame the role players for loosing the game? They just arnt that good, if the Lakers had a 3rd scorer like barbosa that can creat his own shot and cause matchup problems, they would be a much better team.

And im not sayin they needs to be better, they are what they are. i said they need better players, thats different.

 

here is what i tihnk happened. Kobe obviously played amazing during regulation and that 3 waas a big one as well. He made ONE crucial mistake. that was in the final seconds of the 4th. you GO TO THE BASKET and get fouled. not try another fade away shot. obviously OT did not go in the favor of the lakers and freethrows were big too. kobe is an amazing player, and has this crazy talent. he made one judgement error and sadly it cost them the game. but who knows what both sides will bring in game 7. its been proven that both teams can win on the road, lets see what happens

 

Its just to bad Amare and Kurt Thomas aren't playing. We wouldn't even be having this Kobe conversation as the Lakers would have been swept.

 

I for one would be the first to criticize Kobe if he was jacking up shots and not making them, getting his 25 points a game and not getting his teamates involved. The fact of the matter is, thats not what happened last night. they tried to get his teamates involved and they started to fade.

Its no secret the Suns have no shot blocker, too bad the lakers bigmen werent able to exploit it in the 2nd half. Even in the first half they tried to get too cute down low with fancy passes and ended up turning the ball over a lot.

To me, having Kobe takeing over makes a lot of sense strategy wise considering he was the perfect weapon to exploit the interior weakness of the suns. He drove whenever he could and he shot jumpers to keep the defenders honest when they played the lane. He didnt force shots until the very end when its his job to take the clutch shots. unfortunately he only went to the foul line 6 times last night.

some people look at it as such a bad strategy. The way i see it, when he was passing more in the previous games, they were close games that could have gone either way. Had the Lakers lost those games, what would the Kobe haters would have said then?