Everyone is on shakey ground this morning after watching Kobe play how those same everyones have always said he should play.
The LA Times’s Bill Plaschke is a regular Kobe basher, and this morning even he is bashing him for not doing what he usually bashes him for, ie shooting too much.
The gameplan was apparently to let Kobe be the playmaker for three quarters and then take over down the stretch to win the thing. It actually almost worked, except when the time came, all Kobe could do was stumble to the hoop and complain about Tim Thomas fouling him.
“At one point I told him it was time for him to get aggressive,” said [Lakers coach Pheeel] Jackson, who chose to do so during a timeout with 8:45 to play. “He picked up his game a little bit and started going to the hoop. I thought he was out of rhythm, didn’t feel comfortable with his shot, started taking the ball to the basket.
“It was a good enough game. His game was keeping us in the offense. Doing the things he had to do was good enough to keep us there. It wasn’t good enough to put us over the top.”
Weird, weird, weird, weird, weird.
We’re totally torn on this. On one hand, this is how everyone always said Kobe should play. On the other, this isn’t how the Lakers won 45 games this year, and Kobe’s other stats, ie assists/rebounds, weren’t any different than they normally are. That said, they were in the game right up until the end.
Shouldn’t they have tried this during the regular season at least once before rolling it out in the playoffs? And what happens in Game 2? It’s entirely possible Kobe can’t play like this. Not because he doesn’t have the physical ability to be a playmaker, but because sheathing your killer for three quarters makes him all confused on the inside.
The only – we say the ONLY solution – the ONLY THING TO DO – is the right thing. And that means doing it for the kids. The End.
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I think the Lakers game planned perfectly for the Suns. 9/10 times Kobe would have been ready to take over in the fourth. And 9/10 times Tim Fucking Thomas is not going to hit 8/10 shots. Anyhow, the only thing I think they made some mistakes on (other than missing some chippies in the first half) was to double team Nash off of screen and rolls. People don’t understand that if you do that Nash will find the open man for an easy hoop each and everytime. Play Nash straight up, don’t double team or chase him with two defenders. I don’t care if he scores 50! The Suns can’t win unless Nash is drawing and distributing. If you don’t double team, you take away his ability to do that.
There isn’t really a team in the league that isn’t going to shift an extra person over to guard Nash. If you don’t move someone over to help he will just drive it home and if there isn’t any room he will just take a step back and make the shot. The other thing is that his team will move with him to get the ball so you almost have to play man to man or play zone and make them shoot all day. Which won’t really matter much unless the Suns are having a bad day. I still believe that the Suns will win this series though.
Nice post. Great plan Phil, wait till the playoffs to coach and get the rest of the team involved. A little too late. Nobody on the Suns was playing particularly well and do not expect that to keep up. The Lakers had a chance to win this game with the Suns playing at 75% but the next games will not be so close. Get your brooms out. Kwame Brown doesn’t even realize that he is in a basketball game.
The Lakers are missing a #2 guy. Lamar is ideally suited to being the #3 guy. He puts up numbers but it’s like they don’t count or something.
If you recall the Dallas series last year, the few games that Dallas one, it was mainly because they let Nash go off for 30+ points and then shut down the rest of the squad. I would rather Nash score 40 and get say 5-7 assists. He’s much less dangerous that way than when he get’s 18 points and 10-15 assists. As well, did you see how many times he would go to the basket when he was single covered and then still try to make a pass to a teammate? He made a few turnovers doing that. You just have to be aware than Nash is looking to pass first and is much more dangerous when he is drawing two defenders than when he is not.
For real, the whole point of having the best passer in the league is to hit the open man for the easy shot when the double team comes. There’s a reason Phoenix drops constant bombs from three point land – every time a guard or forward steps over to double Nash he finds the open man for the easy trey. Letting him score is definitely best – remember he had 48 points on great shooting and his team lost that playoff game last season.
When Smush tried to play nash 1 on 1 Nash blew by him every time or he found the open man. Also, do you really think this Lakers team can “lock down” everyone but nash? Once Nash gets by Smush someone has to help out and thats where he finds the open man. If you trap him, he finds a way out or finds the open man. Don’t forget Diaw is a great passer too. What do you do if Diaw is running the offense? do you play him 1 on 1 with Kwame? Again he will blow past Kwame or get doubled and find the open man. The Lakers are screwed when the Suns “bring it.”
There are some people there’s just no way to really stop. Nash is one of those guys.
I was reading on some Wizards board where one of the posters was saying, “LeBron isn’t that good of a passer at all. He wouldn’t have had all those assists if we hadn’t had to keep doubleteaming him.”
Well that’s part of his game – he’s good enough that you have to double him, and when you do, he’s incredibly good at knowing where the open man is.
To me it’s like saying “well if Ray Allen weren’t such a good shooter he wouldn’t have made all those 3s”.
I don’t know that I have a point in there. Nash is really good. There’s no “correct” way to play him. All you can do is hope the rest of your defense is able to make their rotations fast enough.
IMO
Lebron isn’t that good at football.
Cav,
But the difference is if LeBron scores 50 you are pretty much going to lose. As well, LeBron is a much more prolific scorer than Nash. I just feel like the let Nash go off strategy is the best one to be the Suns. Be patient and pound it inside like they have been doing, but then make Nash play like Kobe. Suns won’t win like that. As Dan Panorama said, it’s been proven in the games where he had to score 40+ in the playoffs last year against Big D and San Antonio.
reading all the negative comments about kobe makes me wonder if i was watching some amateur basketball game rather than the lakers. be honest, you did not see the right kobe out there. i would also like to add that someone should edit comments from any writer from colorado.
Actually Lebron lost his first couple of 50+ games as well…in some ways it’s not a good thing for him to score that much either. If you watched that first game, when Lebron gets his teammates involved early and often with easy baskets, they get confident and loose and start playing better in general, just like with Nash and the Suns. Hence Donyell Marshall suddenly posting like Amare inside instead of just meekly camping out beyond the arc ala Robert Horry.
Actually Lebron lost his first couple of 50+ games as well…in some ways it’s not a good thing for him to score that much either. If you watched that first game, when Lebron gets his teammates involved early and often with easy baskets, they get confident and loose and start playing better in general, just like with Nash and the Suns. Hence Donyell Marshall suddenly posting like Amare inside instead of just meekly camping out beyond the arc ala Robert Horry.
Dan,
Very true. My point was just that it probably is more dangerous to let Bron go off than Nash.
Underestimate Nash’s deadliness you are.
Nash reminds me of Mark Price but greasier.
Way greasier. Difference is I totally LOVED Mark Price. And I’m not really a fan of Nash. Those B-Daugherty/M-Price teams were quite impressive. Too bad Daugherty’s back gave out and too bad they had to play MJ every year!
I must’ve struck a nerve with that one sentence…
I don’t think I’ve heard Mark Price’s name in like seven years. Whoever’s handling his post-retirement PR sucks.
No joke – I read somewhere he took a job coaching in Australia.
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