Phil: "Kobe had to screw up the game by going one on one"

[jaypo]

He said that Kobe had to screw up the game by going one on one. I don't know how much more obvious he can put it. And if it was taken out of context, then why was Kobe pissed about it?

[secund2nun]

Phil is telling the truth.

[JimMurray]

After 11 rings, I've learned not to question Phil, ever. He chooses his words carefully, and all of his words carry a purpose. As a Laker fan the more fascinating subplot of every season has been Phil's manipulation of the ego's beneath the rings. This year is no different.

*Throws popcorn in microwave*

[Atmanne]

Kobe didn't seem to pleased when he called Phil's Zen methods bull

The "Zen bull" comment wasn't in response to Phil's comment. Someone asked him if lack of practice time was the culprit of their struggles.

[LLcoleJ]

He said that Kobe had to screw up the game by going one on one. I don't know how much more obvious he can put it. And if it was taken out of context, then why was Kobe pissed about it?

It's because you are assuming Phil is pointing the finger an this loss squarely on Kobe's shoulders. When in fact, he was blaming the entire team.Kobe is also not excluded from the teams struggles.

Nowhere in that press conference did Phil allude to the point you are trying to make. The game was not lossed because of 1v1 play. He spent more time talking about the lack of energy, poor passing, poor defense, etc as a team.. then he did on this sound bite.

Plus if you watched the game. ( for whatever reason, I watched it again this morning) you would understand his issue. The team is lacking focus big time. Even if Kobe, who did take over and score 17 points in the 3rd ..and the team went on to win, they still have problems they can't sweep under the rug. They need to address.

[MSGBallerz]

Kobe's playing fine. He's still the best or 2nd best player in the NBA at worst. His teammates just have to pick it up, Kobe can't do it all alone. And Phil, more coaching and less talking. Your team outside of Kobe is coming out flat with no energy.

[uncarved block]

Kobe wears the pants in the entire laker orginization. Im sure Gasol,Fish, and Phil have wanted to slap him upside the head countless times for playing KOME ball but in the end he's a champion and u cant argue with that

[Sedale Threatt]

( for whatever reason, I watched it again this morning)

You must be a glutton for punishment. That was tough enough to watch the first time.

Agree with everything else, too. Let's assume for a moment that Kobe was 100 percent to blame for last night's loss. He wasn't, but let's assume.

Even if he bounced back with an absolutely perfect game, we'd probably still struggle thanks to our myriad other issues -- age, inconsistency, poor focus, two corpses in the starting lineup, etc., etc.

I was hoping we'd start to play better once Andrew got back. But through no fault of his own, it hasn't done a damn thing. We're still struggling, and it's going to take a minor miracle to right the ship now that our schedule is going to go from cupcake to brutal.

But oh, well. Scapegoating FTW. And I'm not talking about Phil, either. If Phil says it, I take it to the bank. I'm just saying that our problems are way bigger than one player, or one facet.

[Slava]

Watching the video of that interview, it was funny to see Phil with a "OH what have I just done" look on his face once the words "Kobe" and "screwed up" came out of his mouth.

[LLcoleJ]

( for whatever reason, I watched it again this morning)

You must be a glutton for punishment. That was tough enough to watch the first time.

I can't say it was something I enjoyed. ha. I went to bed angry.... then

League Pass replays the games, so when I got up today I was flipping around the games and when the Lakers game came up, it was going to try to watch it with a clear head..but it only upset me more.

[Kobay]

mind games...

[triplet1984]

You know the game was going badly for the lakers when Kobe started his one man show, so it sounds like Phil is being a little sarcastic. That Kobe screwed up their lethargic play. But i dunno the next sentance sounds contradictory.

[reapaman]

Is it me are is there like 2 new topics every week about somthing Phil said?

[tsherkin]

Nope (Kobe shooting 1-6 was a contributing factor for that though).

So did he shoot too much or too little? He was feeding the post in the first half when it was working, and then when he started shooting more because the other guys weren't doing anything at all, he was shooting too much?

What we know is that they were down by 9 after they'd been sucking for two quarters. After Kobe using pretty much every possession for a 10 minutes period, they were down by 13 and the rest of the team was frozen out of the game. Kind of difficult to rebound from that kind of "outburst".

They dug themselves the hole in the first half, Kobe tried to mix it up because what they had been doing didn't work and they couldn't score at all apart from him. You're not separating what Kobe was doing from how wretched the Lakers were on defense. Remember, Memphis was +19 in team FGA which was a much bigger issue than how Kobe approached the offense differently for less than a quarter of the game.

[Kobay]

laker starters lost to the bench in practice today ... again

[Mourning_Would]

Kobe can drop 15/3/3 at 40 and still be a top 3 player in the league.... I know he fixes it in the playoffs but right now, he's like 5 or 6

[droponov]

Nope (Kobe shooting 1-6 was a contributing factor for that though).

So did he shoot too much or too little? He was feeding the post in the first half when it was working, and then when he started shooting more because the other guys weren't doing anything at all, he was shooting too much?

He shot inefficiently. He started shooting more because the other guys weren't doing anything at all when he was shooting 16% FG% and his post players combining for 48% FG%? Anyway, I don't think the way a team plays in the first half is a valid rationale for a player shot-hogging for pretty much an entire quarter... and leave his team in an even deeper hole - both in terms of score and momentum.

They dug themselves the hole in the first half, Kobe tried to mix it up because what they had been doing didn't work and they couldn't score at all apart from him

Huh? Because he ended the first half with waht? 7 points in 6 shots? Why are you pretending that he scored a lot better than his teammates in the first half? It's bizarre. A pure distortion of the facts. It seems you're trying to say: "well, he was the only one playing well in the first half, so that justifies his attempt to take over the game even though it resulted in an ever larger scoring deficit". Not only it's a bad reasoning, it's sustained in a fiction.

You're not separating what Kobe was doing from how wretched the Lakers were on defense. Remember, Memphis was +19 in team FGA which was a much bigger issue than how Kobe approached the offense differently for less than a quarter of the game

[/quote]

This thread is about Phil's statements/Kobe's offense. Of course I'm going to focus on that issue, it's the one being discussed here. Analysing the other aspects of the game:

- why do you believe the Lakers played bad defense?
- what the heck has bad defense to do with more FGAs for Memphis? Bad rebounding I can understand, but bad defense? It was mostly a conjuction of sub-par rebounding and bad offense, not bad defense.

Sort of answering my own rhetorical questions:

The Lakers didn't really play some sort of horrible defense. It's another fiction you're trying to create. Memphis eFG% was 48.9%, in line with their season average - one should expect the Lakers to bring down their defensive efficiency a bit down, but Memphis has some decent matchups vs. LAL and they took advantage of them.

They didn't force many turnovers but that's not what Los Angeles defense is about. And they rebounded their glass poorly.... but Los Angeles has been a poor defensive rebounding team all season and when Memphis crashes the boards, they're really good at it. Actually, the Lakers grab 72% of the rebounds in their board for the season and yesterday they got 71.9% of them. A very average night for them.

On the other hand, the Lakers average 110 points per 100 possessions, they were playing a poor defensive team and scored 85 points in 94 possessions - 20 points per 100 below their season average. Kobe's self-absorbed play in the 3rd quarter all but assured that the poor team play of the first half would last throughout the entire game - and that was the major factor for Memphis' win.

[Bruh Man]

^^Try watching the game next time

[Giacomo]

Time to ship pirate Phil's ass back to Puerto Rico. A nice seaside retirement home, so he can focus on reaching nirvana.

I know Stan is not available, but what about Jeff?

Do it Mitch!

[jefe]

As a Grizz fan that watched the game, the only time the Lakers were close and I felt uneasy about the Grizz's chances in the second half was when Kobe went into superman mode in the beginning/middle of the third. IIRC, he was able to cut the Grizz lead to 2 (around 52-50 or so), and then the Lakers/Kobe's momentum fizzled out.