Lebron is just an attention craving whore. Always has been. I can't stand his ass. This game doesn't mean a whole hell of alot to me. I think Kobe should have been on Lebron the last several minutes of the game. Lamar and Ron were giving Lebron 4 ft on those jumpers. I could have hit those shots! I know you would rather have Lebron shoot jumpers than take it to the goal, but that late in the game when its that close, you have to man up on him and trust the help behind you. Play some team defense. With all that said, rap on Lebron. We win our championships in June.
Not sure what to make of this game, but it was a tough loss to swallow. Kobe Bryant was brilliant in the 1st half and the Lakers only managed a 2 point lead heading into halftime. Kobe Bryant played like dog shit on both sides of the ball in the 2nd half and the Lakers still had a chance to win the game. What disappointed me was our frontline last night. You can't have a scrub like JJ Hickson going off for 14 rebounds and 11 points on just 6 shots. He's a token starter for the Cavs and he did a lot of damage just out working our guys. Andrew Bynum was in foul trouble all night and wasn't fired up for the game at all. Pau Gasol really folded down the stretch and only took his first free throw with about 3 minutes left in the game. I wonder how the game would have turned out if the refs made the correct call and Kobe would have been shooting those two free throws to tie the game. He was hammered on the drive before he dished it off to Gasol, but didn't get the call (for umpteenth time this season late in games.) The Lakers just aren't playing very well on the road this season especially against the elite teams in the league. Of our 10 losses 6 on are the road against the elite teams in the league. @ Home versus Mavs @ Nuggets @ Home versus Rockets @ Jazz @ Home versus Cavs @ Suns @ Clippers @ Blazers @ Spurs @ Cavs Lakers need a gut check after last night's loss and they to start getting focused for a playoff push.
From ForumBlueand Gold This was what I was alluding to earlier. JJ Hickson outplayed Pau Gasol last night. When Hickson wasn't defending him, Big Z was able to neutralize him on offense. The Lakers also didn't take advantage of high pick and roll with Gasol & Kobe. The only conclusion I can come to on this is not showing their hand during the regular season in case they face the Cavs in the Finals? We saw last year how vulnerable Cleveland was defending pick and pop yet the Lakers never tried it. I'm also concerned with our lack of 3 point effectiveness. Right Ron Artest is our best shooter from behind the arc.
Yeah yeah, you dislike Kobe and the fans who don't share the same opinion as you. We already got that.
How has he blown away Kobe? Kobe really struggled in the 2nd half last night and was forcing shots, but that's what he does when he senses his teammates aren't into the game. The Cavs defense swarmed him the 4th quarter and no one else stepped for the Lakers. Despite it all the Lakers still had a chance to win the game. Last year the Magic swept the Lakers in the regular season. That didn't matter much in the Finals.
And just to add, people are really underrating and often overlooking Lebron's supporting cast. Shaq is still a serviceable big body who can still d up, delonte plays real well in that system, hickson has the potential to be a borderline all star if he weren't so inconsistent, etc. And most of all, that team is really good at spacing the floor. And they got reliable shooters. Meanwhile, we lack depth. Big time. Remember, they beat us without Month Williams.
The underlying difference I saw last night was the Cavs are committed on being physical and playing defense.
just look at what they've each done the last month. lebron - 32.6 points on 54% shooting, 7.7 assists, 7.4 rebounds in 39.8 minutes per game. kobe - 22.8 points on 39% shooting, 4.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds in 38.2 minutes per game. do you have a better way to describe that?
you can pretend that's what i think, but it's not true. the idea that an injured kobe has "kept up with" lebron is just stupid with how wrong it is.
right. and lebron's been outplaying kobe all season. i was just showing what i was talking about with lebron "blowing away" kobe.
No you took a small, favorable sample of games to justify your post. Similar to what Hollinger does with his statistical manipulations. Lakers are 7-4 in January the Cavs are 7-3. If Kobe was being blown away then the Lakers would have a much worse record during this month especially when you factor in Gasol missed 6 of those 11 games.
i don't recall saying anything in this discussion about the cavs being better than the lakers. and no, i didn't take a small, favorable sample. i just took most recent, easiest sample to find. game logs are sorted monthly on espn, so that's the simplest one out there to look at for their "recent" play. you could just use the whole season and say that lebron was better, but my point was that injured kobe is not anything close to lebron(which was the statement someone made).
11 games and 10 games is a very small sample size. I mentioned the team wins because if Kobe was playing as horrible as you're making out (plus no Gasol for 6 games) then the Lakers would not have a winning record. You can just look at stats for 11 games and draw a conclusion especially when the wins are equal on both sides. I'll agree LeBron has been playing better this season especially lately, but I don't think he's blowing Kobe away. LeBron is always going to have more rebounds because of his size and position on the court. He'll also have more assists than Kobe because of his role on the Cavs and the system they play in.
you serious? Kobe was the #1 in the R2MVP 3 weeks in a row during december... If you scratch out January, Kobe would have been the MVP. Hands-down.
