Kobe Discussion: shark swimming / #prayforthesharks (664)

I included the halftime report graphic with the log from tonight.

Detroit (Feb. 03, 2013)

Halftime Report:

The Rock wrote:This Kobe facilitator crap DOES NOT WORK.

One of the silliest things I've ever read. Since Kobe started passing more we're 5-1.

therealdeal wrote:

The Rock wrote:This Kobe facilitator crap DOES NOT WORK.

One of the silliest things I've ever read. Since Kobe started passing more we're 5-1.

agreed.

The Rock wrote:This Kobe facilitator crap DOES NOT WORK. Thats Nash's job. Kobe's job is to put the ball in the hole. Hes out of rhythm and hes overpassing to dudes who are not consistent scorers. Pau squandered so many open shots in the 4th today especially in the paint. Enough is enough. 4 straight blown leads

not sure you are serious.

I would rather have 4 blown leads than 4 blow out losses. As soon as Kobe goes back to jacking up stupid shots we lose again. Today he had more field goal attempts than points and we almost paid for it.

He's missed 20 of his last 21 three pointers. Wow

The Rock wrote:Its fools gold. We've also blown leads in the last 4 games. Hes out of rhythm, his shot looks broke. Its not like he's passing the ball and we're sustaining the lead??? Dont you think the 5-1 record also has to do with the competition we're playing...Minny, New Orleans, Detroit, I mean come on

Um building big leads, losing them, and still winning is better than playing from behind the entire game and making an actual fools gold run at the end only to lose. That's what this team was doing before the Utah game.

KB24 wrote:

The Rock wrote:This Kobe facilitator crap DOES NOT WORK. Thats Nash's job. Kobe's job is to put the ball in the hole. Hes out of rhythm and hes overpassing to dudes who are not consistent scorers. Pau squandered so many open shots in the 4th today especially in the paint. Enough is enough. 4 straight blown leads

not sure you are serious.

I would rather have 4 blown leads than 4 blow out losses. As soon as Kobe goes back to jacking up stupid shots we lose again. Today he had more field goal attempts than points and we almost paid for it.

Yeah agree. Earlier in the season we were playing from behind what seemed to be every game. Not saying that blowing leads is a good thing, but it's a lot better than trying to play catch up. Kobe is still new to this facilitator role, I think as he becomes more comfortable with this style he'll learn how to score better as well.

We were losing to bad teams on a regular basis prior to going 5-1. We're not above any team to be chalking it up to bad competition. Besides we beat Utah which destroyed us in our own building a month ago, OKC, a NOH team that had a better record than we've had all season once they got Gordon back, and a Pistons team that is actually improved.

This is definitely not the result of just playing bad teams.

The Rock wrote:Im not saying stop passing the ball but be judicious about it. Look to score in one on one situations and then pass the ball to open man. Hes overpassing right now, Pau squandered so many open shots in the paint late in the 4th. Our margin of error will get slimmer when Dwight returns and he's gonna be forced to go to the FT line. How are we gonna hold onto the leads then?

I still think the reason we're 5-1 or whatever is because of the competition we're facing and not our style of play. This is fools gold.

You are not right IMO. We have been playing at a slower pace and reduced the amount of transition situations that easily kill the Lakers. That, combined with Gasol playing better, Jamison having 5 straight double digit games etc. has helped the Lakers to balance things out and win a game like today, even though the 3 ball wasn't falling.

Why do you ignore beating the Thunder? that was a great win.

The offense is fine ... No D12 in the paint is the reason Detroit almost won

Too many shots tonight, not enough assists. More passing.

... And before everyone else pounces on me for saying this, I am just going with what works. Him limiting his shots to 15 or less works much better for this team. Everyone is involved, and we get the W.

The Rock wrote:Im not saying stop passing the ball but be judicious about it. Look to score in one on one situations and then pass the ball to open man. Hes overpassing right now, Pau squandered so many open shots in the paint late in the 4th. Our margin of error will get slimmer when Dwight returns and he's gonna be forced to go to the FT line. How are we gonna hold onto the leads then?

I still think the reason we're 5-1 or whatever is because of the competition we're facing and not our style of play. This is fools gold.

I think Kobe will have to look score more if/when we get to the playoffs. But right now this style of play is having a good effect on the rest of the team. Even losing the leads, we have played more as a team and with a lot more energy overall.

Also, I much prefer running out to leads, losing them, but still winning to letting the other team get a 20 point lead on us and watch us make a futile comeback attempt in the last 6 minutes of the game.

The Rock wrote:Its fools gold. We've also blown leads in the last 4 games. Hes out of rhythm, his shot looks broke. Its not like he's passing the ball and we're sustaining the lead??? Dont you think the 5-1 record also has to do with the competition we're playing...Minny, New Orleans, Detroit, I mean come on

I think Rock does have a point.
IMO Kobe's new pass-first attitude did provide a nice spark for the team, our ball movement improved, and because role players were playing well we started winning games. It also helped that Howard was playing and was the main benefficiary (?) of Kobe's assists.

I do feel, and have said so many times, that this new thing may hurt us in some ways. Mainly, it's clearly getting in the way of Kobe finding a good scoring rythm, and when we need him to close on tough games (like tonight for example), it turns out that he's not as effective or able to do it as before. He's looking more pedestrian and much less lethal. His shot is off, particulary his long jumpers. It's obvious.

Now, the question is, will we keep winning playing like this? Our role players and shooters aren't consistent at all. Howard's out, and Gasol is not close to him as a finisher around the basket. Nash doesn't shoot enough. Kobe should be our go-to guy in situations like this, and we've got him out of rythm and passing it out to inconsistent shooters. When he tries to take over, it doesn't work as well, like we saw tonight, because without proper rythm it gets harder to make long Js and fades in the post (aka Kobe's go-to shots...).

I think the Brooklyn game will provide the answer. If Howard's out, we're gonna need great offensive production, because we know our D won't be that good. Will that come from our role players and shooters that Kobe tries to find? What if they aren't making shots? Should Kobe try to start scoring? What if he's out of rythm then?
We need better balance, and we need one of the best scorers in the game to be a scoring threat. Yeah the passing's nice, but it defeats the purpose if it neutralizes our best scoring option and over-relies on inconsistent role players. It's not like our D is awesome because of it (as some suggested at first).

Kobe took 20 shots Rock, what more do you want? As for Kobe, not a great 4th, but overall even a 'bad' game for him he gave us 18 and 5.

Armani wrote:Too many shots tonight, not enough assists. More passing.

... And before everyone else pounces on me for saying this, I am just going with what works. Him limiting his shots to 15 or less works much better for this team. Everyone is involved, and we get the W.

I thought he passed well, no one was making shots though. I believe Billy and Stu said as much during the game.

KB24 wrote:

The Rock wrote:Im not saying stop passing the ball but be judicious about it. Look to score in one on one situations and then pass the ball to open man. Hes overpassing right now, Pau squandered so many open shots in the paint late in the 4th. Our margin of error will get slimmer when Dwight returns and he's gonna be forced to go to the FT line. How are we gonna hold onto the leads then?

I still think the reason we're 5-1 or whatever is because of the competition we're facing and not our style of play. This is fools gold.

You are not right IMO. We have been playing at a slower pace and reduced the amount of transition situations that easily kill the Lakers. That, combined with Gasol playing better, Jamison having 5 straight double digit games etc. has helped the Lakers to balance things out and win a game like today, even though the 3 ball wasn't falling.

Why do you ignore beating the Thunder? that was a great win.

I don't think any of that would go away simply by Kobe taking easy shots early. Everyone on the team is playing with an "if you have a good shot, take it" mentality, I'm simply saying Kobe should do the same. I've seen him pass up many of those just to find a 3pt shooter who isn't consistent. Maybe making a couple of those would've kept Kobe in a better scoring rythm and help him be more effective to close games.

The Thunder win was a great one, yes, but Kobe played out of his mind that day. He found a way to close the game and be very effective while dishing out pass after pass. But what if doesn't get those easy looks to get himself into rythm ? Do you think he still closes effectively? Not necessarily.
He also played on the post a lot more on that game, which is what he should have been doing tonight.

Weezy wrote:Kobe took 20 shots Rock, what more do you want? As for Kobe, not a great 4th, but overall even a 'bad' game for him he gave us 18 and 5.

Yeah but most of the shots came late in the second half, looking to stop the bleeding, and he wasn't in a great rythm, IMO because he didn't take advantage of easier looks to start the game. It's very difficult to just switch modes like that, to go from passing to scoring, tough to expect him to be very efficient like that.
Late in the third to me he didn't look at all like himself. He didn't look like a threat to score how you needed to guard and keep close to, he looked way more pedestrian. IMO it's because of this mode-switching thing, not having a good rythm. He needs to find a better balance, 'cause we are gonna need him to hit some shots when we're playing tougher teams.

I think most of it comes down to Kobe's possessions in the post. For the past few games we have been running the O through Kobe in the post for like the 1st quarter but then we go away from that for large portions of the game (especially the 2nd half). In the 2nd half he's been running more pick n roll which he's still very effective at running facilitator wise but it hinders some of his scoring opportunities.

The new Kobe was used best against OKC where he spent practically the entire game in the post doing work against Sefolosha at an efficient rate and he was still able to rack up the assists. IMO the more he's in the post, the better he'll be able to balance the scorer/facilitator role.

what kobe is doing right now is fine. He just needs to know when to take a shot when it is there and not pass it up just to prove that he can pass. The true fans know he can pass with the best of them in the history of the game.