Has Kobe been reading this blog?

Kobe Bryant must have been reading this blog, because it seems like last night, he actually listened to what we've been telling him. Either that, or Phil Jackson implanted a shocking device on his body and zapped him every time he tried to take a shot with 3 guys on him.

Kobe only took 20 shots yesterday! This is a guy who has averaged 30 field goal attemps in the past 10 games (don't believe me, check the numbers yourselves). And look at that, with better shot selection, his shooting percentage went up as well - 11-for-20 = 55%!

Beyond that, the Lakers had 4 guys in double figures. Kwame Brown scored 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting + 12 reboungs, a season high! Amazing what happens when your teammates pass you the ball!

Of course, it was the defense that really won the game. Apparently Phil Jackson, rather than letting his team go home and rest after a flight from the East Coast last night, called them into the arena and had them watch videos of the Kings for 5 hours. It obviously worked. The Lakers kept all the Kings' leading scorers to fewer and more difficult shots, rebounded well, and outdid the Kings in steals - 13 to 4.

Kobe reverted to his old self towards the end of the fourth quarter, taking some improbable shots while surrounded by defenders, but the Lakers had a cushy enough lead that it didn't make a big difference.

Will this improved Kobe endure? Unlikely, I think. Kobe has a game like this once in a blue moon and then inevitably reverts to his old self. He's been doing this for 9 years, so unless he gets struck by lightning (or Phil Jackson starts using that shocking device or maybe some sort of Buddhist hypnosis), he's unlikely to change. Plus, we couldn't have the spotlight on Kwame (or anyone else) for too long, could we?

P.S.: To Kobe bandwaggon riders who rejoice when they don't see a posting immediately after a game that finishes at 1 AM on the East Coast, don't celebrate too fast. We, unlike some of you, have real lives and real jobs. This is somewhat of a minor hobby and we post when we have time. And don't worry, Kobe always gives us enough material to write about.

Kobe: "I'll take 60 shots if I have to."

"When the game is on the line, they put the ball in my hands," Bryant said. "I've gotta do what I've gotta do, I don't care if it's 50 shots, 60 shots, five shots."

- Kobe Bryant, after the Lakers defeated a weak Boston team on Sunday.

They put the ball in your hands, Kobe, because you would throw a temper tantrum if they didn't. And, only Kobe would think that one needs 50 or 60 shots to win a game. Five shots? I don't think so. The only time Kobe came close to taking five shots is during a different type of temper tantrum - when he took only 2 shots in an entire half after hearing criticism that he was a ball hog.

Kobe played a decent against the Celtics, 18-for-39 (46%) from the field. But 39 shots? Is that really necessary? The only time you should take that many shots, two conditions have to be true: 1) You're shooting around 70%, and 2) The rest of your team is struggling. Neither was true in this game. Kobe shot well, but not amazingly. In fact, he missed all his 5 three point attempts. And the rest of the team shot well. Lamar was 6-f0r-10. Kwame was 5-for-7. Smush was 6-for-11. But, the rest of the team only took 51 shots, while Kobe took 39. Anyone see something wrong with that picture?

Sure the Lakers beat the Celtics, a team that has lost 4 of their last 5. But the more Kobe takes shots (and confidence) away from his teammates, the less chances the Lakers have of ever getting past the 1st round of the playoffs (if they're lucky enough to make it in).

And don't forget, this game wouldn't have been won without the Lakers' strong defense. The Lakers had 45 rebounds and kept Paul Pierce to 2 points in the 4th quarter.

Kobe Groupies Coming out of the Woodworks

Wow, we're starting to get comments from all these Kobe groupies, who seem to hate that the truth is being told about their "superstar." We are very happy to encourage discussion about Kobe, the Lakers, the NBA and sports in general. In fact, this is one of the reasons we started this blog. However, if you have nothing intelligent to say, or can't write sentences without using curse words or crude comments, don't post here.

Also, we seem to be attracting attention from other blogs. One, in fact, claims that we only post when Kobe has a bad game. If this person actually looked at the dates of our postings, he would notice that we've posted almost every single day since March 7, and this blog was only born in late February. It's also obvious that the Lakers don't play every single day. I could fill in the non-game days by posting "Kobe Sucks," but this is not a blog for 1st graders, despite what some of our juvenile Kobe fans might think.

A great article about Kobe

http://www.inneu.com/2005/051226.htm

The author of this article, Wilfred Wan, is right on the money about Kobe and his career in the NBA. Very well written and organized. Well worth the read.

Kobe misses needless 3-pointer at the buzzer, Cavs beat Lakers 96-95

Kobe never misses a chance to try to shine, even if it may cost his team the game. Why did he need to take a 3-pointer with 2 defenders on him when the Lakers were only down by 1 point with 3.4 seconds left? Wouldn't it had made more sense to drive and get fouled, or to take a higher percentage shot? Or perhaps to swallow your pride and pass the ball to someone else, since everyone in the Cavs arena was expecting Kobe to take the last shot? Just look at what the Cavs did when they were tied 95-95: Flip Murray drove to the basket and got fouled (by Kobe, by the way), got one of his free throws and secured the victory for the Cavs.

Kobe, as well Smush Parker and Lamar Odom, had a great first half. The team as whole shot amazingly well (70+%), Kobe was 10-for-15, and it seemed like the Cavs had already lost the game. But, Kobe reverted to his old self in the second half, taking a number of crazy shots. He was 4-for-15 during the second half before making his first 3-pointer of the game with 1:33 left. Then, with the teams tied and 8.6 seconds remaining, Kobe attempted another unnecessary 3-pointer that didn't even come close to going in.

Oh, and Kobe finally gets a technical foul for throwing a hissy fit while double teamed by Eric Snow and Flip Murray, trying to grab a rebound off LeBron's missed lay up. He, like other star players, get preferential treatment from the refs (like when Kobe hurled the ball at two Kings after missing a free throw in the game against Sacramento last week), but this one didn't slide past them.

Who can Kobe blame for this loss? No one but himself.

Kobe = Dobe?

On a less serious note, I was having some graphics fun this afternoon, and have noted that "Dobe" is actually a perfect nickname for Kobe, since he kind of looks like a Doberman (which are called "Dobes" by some people).

Check this out:

I've also been told that Kobe looks like a rat (note the resemblance below), but "Ratty" or "Robe" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

I think I'll stick to "Dobe" for now.

No Kidding!! Kobe Is Discarded by Vince Carter and Jason Kidd.

Seems like Kobe has been getting shut down game after game, first by Manu Gnobli, then by Ray Allen, Ron Artest and Bonzi Wells, Ricky Davis and now by Vince Carter and Jason Kidd! Kobe was 9-for-24 last night and the Lakers lost to the Nets 89 to 92. Nenad Krstic, on the other hand, had only 2 more points than Bryant (26) on 11-for-16 shooting. Kobe was hoping to tie the game with his usual 3 pointer at the buzzer, but failed miserably. Oh no, Kobe's shooting average is going down. He must be happy AI is hurt, or he just might just lose his #1 position in the league. Kobe must be really fuming by now, let's see if that anger does anything for him against King James tomorrow.

Kobe v Lamar. The 1-2 punch? Not if Kobe can help it.

"It's great to have a 1-2 punch . . . when Lamar's clicking like that, it makes my life a lot easier on nights like tonight. I needed guys to pick me up, and Lamar stepped up and did that and carried the load. Then at the end of the game I was able to come through."

- Kobe Bryant, after the Lakers beat the Timberwolves 92 to 89.

Doesn't Kobe always say the right thing? He should run for office in California like the rest of the celebrities. He'd make a great liar, I mean, politican.

No Kobe, you'd rather YOU had all the points and all the glory. 1-2 punch, ha? Didn't you have that with Shaq? Or was the problem that Shaq was the 1 and Kobe was the 2?

Lamar has really stepped up his offensive game lately. He has averaged 22 points on 67% shooting in the last 3 match ups. You know why? Because he seems to have finally developed a bit of confidence and has taken control of the ball on some possessions, rather than passing it to Kobe around the clock. Of course, it would look really bad for Kobe to be angry at the fact that Lamar has been stealing some of his spotlight, because Lamar has actually been delivering on those baskets and Kobe has been struggling from the floor (he has averaged 38% in the last 5 games, 48% against Minnesota his best). But wait until Lamar has a bad shooting night, Kobe will eat him alive and proclaim that, once again, sadly, he has to start taking more shots because his teammates are inadequate.

Ron Artest Shuts Down Kobe. Kings beat the Lakers 114-98.

Kobe had one of his best shooting nights in the last 4 games. 12 of 28, that's a wopping 42%. That's much better than the 27% he put up against the Sonics, 38% against the Spurs and 36% against the Hornets. What happened Kobe? Has your offense been shot down? Kobe looked a bit scared with Ron Artest in his face. That's right, Kobe can only score 81 on defenseless teams like the Raptors. On the other hand, Ron Artest had only 2 points less on 8 of 15 shooting.

Finally, like I was saying in my last post, Kobe seems to only make his teammaters better when he's doing badly. Check out Lamar's numbers - 9 of 12 for 24 points last night!

Lakers Lose to Sonics, Kobe shoots 8 of 29

"He feels like he needs to show this league and the people in this country that he is better without Shaq. He can win championships without Shaq. So offensively, he's going to jump out and say, 'I can average 30 points. I can still carry the load on this team.'

"I think the point production is not going to be so much what people are going to look at because (Tracy) McGrady did it in Orlando, Allen (Iverson) did it in Philly. Can you win a championship? I think that's the question. Carrying guys on your back and making everybody better."

- Ray Allen, Oct. 2004

Ray Allen backed up that quote today as the Sonics beat the Lakers 120 to 113, shaking up the Lakers' playoff contention, as the Kings and the Jazz are inching in. Allen held Kobe down to 22 points on 8 of 29 shooting (27%)!!! Kobe didn't score in the first quarter and went scoreless for more than 8 minutes in the 3rd quarter.

Allen was wrong about one thing: Kobe can make his teammates better. He has made them better in the last 3 games by shooting horribly, to the point that the rest of the team actually stepped up and took control of the ball. Even Luke Walton (Luke Walton, really? Daddy Bill was proud today!) can score when he is actually given the ball when he's open. Shooting when you're open? What's that, says Kobe. Good ol' Luke was 7 of 7 from the field, contributing 17 points! Lamar Odom had a great game, contributing 21 points - only 1 point less than Kobe, but on 6 of 9 shooting. So Kobe took 20 more shots than Lamar and scored only 1 more point. He attempted 13 three-pointers and made 2 of them. Am I the only one that sees something wrong with that? The Lakers lost by 7 points. What would have happened if Kobe gave up half of the shots he took to someone else?

I hope Kobe continues to shoot horribly, I'd like to see the rest of the team show what they can do.

Thank Lakers defense, not Kobe

"I didn't shoot well for three-fourths of the game," Bryant said. "I've had some games like that where I don't start off well, but I know if I stay within the game and keep shooting I can get hot at the end."

- Kobe Bryant after the Lakers beat the Spurs on Friday.

Sure, Kobe, if you keep taking shots, I'm sure you'll score 40+ eventually.

I 100% agree with Asorto1's comment to my March 9 post below. It is thanks to the Lakers defense (held Duncan to 12 points) and to the Spurs' poor shooting and rebounding that the Lakers won.

Plus, like in the last game against the Hornets, the rest of the team shot well. Lamar was 6 of 8 and Kwame was 4 of 4. As much as Kwame has underperformed so far, at least he makes smart shots!

Kobe Scores 40 points on 36% shooting

The Lakers were able to pull a win over the Hornets last night, and of course it gets attributed to Kobe's 40 points. Anyone mention that he scored his points on 12 for 33 shooting? That's 36%. And of course, as always, he scores most of his points in the 4th quarter. Thanks for saving the game, Kobe. What really made a difference last night was the Lakers defense. The Lakers outrebounded the Hornets 41 to 34. In addition, the rest of the team played good offense. Smush Parker was 7 of 10 (70%), Brian Cook 3 of 3 (100%), Sasha Vujacic 3 of 5 (60%), Chris Minh 4 of 7 (57%) and Lamar Odom 6 of 14 (43%). Lamar also had 17 of the 41 rebounds.

Team Kobe 2008

Managing Director Jerry Colangelo has decided to pass on Allen Iverson but has chosen Kobe, without an interview, to the 2008 Olympic team. This is despite the fact that Kobe has graciously accepted this year only to better his reputation, as opposed to Iverson, who has volunteered in the past and expressed great interest in going this year. According to reports (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11628717/), Colangelo and coach Mike Krzyzewski are looking to put together a real "team," as opposed to the superstar-studded one that embarrassed itself at the 2004 Olympics in Greece settling for the bronze. And who is a better team player but Kobe, right? Thanks to Anonymous for posting a link to an Onion article in response to my Feb. 24 post (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/45757 ). Funny, but so true. They can just send Kobe to the Olympics by himself, since he likes to take on 5 defenders at once.

Kobe Gets Stuffed by Spurs

Oh Kobe, feeling so good about all those 3 pointers in the fourth quarter and the Lakers still lost. Kobe always refers to his ability to score big in the fourth quarter. But why is it that Kobe only does so well in the fourth quarter? Is it because he likes to wait for his team to be in the hole so that he can prove savior with that mid-court 3-pointer at the buzzer to win the game? If he is THAT good, why doesn't he shoot that way throughout the whole game? And how did the Lakers, who were even with the Spurs for most of the game suddenly fall 15 points behind in the 3rd quarter anyway? Could it be Kobe missing a bunch of stupid show offish shots that got them in the whole in the first place? Unfortunately for Kobe, the Spurs have at least 4 guys who can score big (Ginobli - 21, Parker - 21, Finley - 21, Duncan - 18), making a 15 point come back against them a little tough. No Kobe, you're not the only one capable of making back-to-back 3-pointers in a row. Michael Finley and Tony Parker can too, and they don't mind sharing some of their spotlight with others to be part of a winning team.