<div class="quote_poster">Quoting notMuchgame:</div><div class="quote_post">That's a pretty ridiculous statement. I certainly hope you were joking ...</div> I guess you don't know me very well as a poster if you thought that I was serious . I guess now I have to explain it...... I was more mocking the fued than anything else, but yes it was sarcasm. Implying that Kobe would be happy when he goes to nba.com tommorow and sees his name among the "top scorers for games on 12/14/04" regardless of whether he won or not. All players pad their stats near the end of games, especially when the game is "over". I'm not stupid.
^well, it's difficult to read sarcasm ...and I never said or implied you were stupid At any rate, from the Sonics standpoint, I was impressed with their play. They are playing the way the Lakers are trying to play (quick shots, lot of screens, etc...). They do have a Dallas Mavericks feel to them, but they have the pieces to make a decent interior with Collison, Evans, and Fortson (not to mention a defensive coach). Even with Ray and Rashard's big games, the guy I was most impressed with was Ridnour. I loved him at Oregon, but he honestly looked like garbage last year. Looks like he's finally turned the corner...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Jurassic:</div><div class="quote_post">So basically when Kobe leads in scoring they lose more often than they win.</div> This is an obvious statement right now...and the reason being because when Kobe doesn't lead the team in scoring, he's too busy throwing assists and playing the point. In other words, it's not so much that Kobe needs to do this...but it's more like the Lakers need a point guard. I can assure you that if the PG was, say, Cassell...and Kobe was the leading scorer every game of the season, most of those games would be wins vs. what they are right now, because of these reasons: a) Kobe is playing his natural position at SG. When he plays the point, he's exhausted by the 4th because he's chasing guards everywhere around the court, and also doing most all of the playmaking. Kobe's not a PG...but he's better than Atkins. Kobe would be able to move off the ball much more with a legitimate PG. He would be scoring alot, AND it would result in more wins. It's not hard to see why the Lakers are having trouble right now. Mihm can't rebound...I don't even know if Divac is alive...and Odom needs to play point-forward (or SF, or the three...whatever floats your boat). But above all things, this team needs a true PG, a pass-first PG, or at least one that can throw more than 3 assists per game. Atkins/Tierre/Vujacic just don't cut it.
This game pretty much sums up the differences between the Lakers and the Sonics. Kobe wanted his own team, and he has it, but right now he has no one else stepping up and helping him out. Ray Allen not only had Lewis on fire, he had James playing well in the first half, a point guard directing the traffic beautifully and a guy off the bench in Vlad Radmanovic who was hitting shots. Without Odom and Butler firing, Kobe had no one. On the plus side his 35 points, five boards and nine dimes went towards my fantasy team. Win-win baby.
To be fair to Odom and I guess the Lakers in general they've got a whole new team this year and need some time to learn how to play together. Odom was a stud in the playoffs last year for Miami but he had the ball in his hands a lot, he's not really the kind of guy to recieve a pass off a double team and nail a 15 footer, that's not his game. He's more of an isolate his guy at the 3 point line, drive, kick etc. Except Kobe's playing that role, and it looks like he's got the ball 90% of the time (at least it did last night, first time I've seen them play this year)
Just something I'd like to point out really quickly... Ray's comment on Kobe: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">"There was a point where I think he (Bryant) was going at me a little bit at the top of the key and there wasn't much I could do about it," Allen said. "He was making a lot of tough shots tonight. I like Kobe as a person and I respect how he plays." </div> http://www.nba.com/games/20041214/LALSEA/recap.html I'm a little shocked...but Ray Allen has earned my respect for not attacking Kobe.
