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

[Day in the Life]

This is by far Phil's worst coaching job. Best team in terms of talent last five years and he's done a horrible job meshing these players together and giving them incentive. He's still worried about how the offense is run when defense is a much higher concern. It's nice to place certain players like Kobe to roam the paint from the perimeter at times, but literally all of the Lakers losses have been due to their poorly planned "scramble to the perimeter" defensive schemes. They're so worried about penetration into the paint and trying to get steals off the passing lane that they're scrambling and getting burned through wide open jumpers. Every possession.

It's nice to continue that scheme when the Lakers had Ariza to watch the passing lanes, but when you have a slow and lumbering lineup of Fisher Kobe Artest roaming every possession...offense is not even a concern.

we've played extremely poor defense, if you can call it defense. and that is everyone's responsibility, although it begins with namely the guards from preventing dribble pentration. that's caused all sort of problems leading to too much over helping and wide open 3s.

Brian Shaw last night ""Our defense was ok"...

As much much as it's everyone's responsibility to exert effort on defense, it really starts with the coaching staff. I'd like to see how this team would fare if Kobe alone removed his gimmick "I don't respect your jumper" roaming. It's really worthless. I was laughing my ass off when I saw the space he gave Jefferson in the Spurs game.

[andrewww]

This is by far Phil's worst coaching job. Best team in terms of talent last five years and he's done a horrible job meshing these players together and giving them incentive. He's still worried about how the offense is run when defense is a much higher concern. It's nice to place certain players like Kobe to roam the paint from the perimeter at times, but literally all of the Lakers losses have been due to their poorly planned "scramble to the perimeter" defensive schemes. They're so worried about penetration into the paint and trying to get steals off the passing lane that they're scrambling and getting burned through wide open jumpers. Every possession.

It's nice to continue that scheme when the Lakers had Ariza to watch the passing lanes, but when you have a slow and lumbering lineup of Fisher Kobe Artest roaming every possession...offense is not even a concern.

we've played extremely poor defense, if you can call it defense. and that is everyone's responsibility, although it begins with namely the guards from preventing dribble pentration. that's caused all sort of problems leading to too much over helping and wide open 3s.

Brian Shaw last night ""Our defense was ok"...

As much much as it's everyone's responsibility to exert effort on defense, it really starts with the coaching staff. I'd like to see how this team would fare if Kobe alone removed his gimmick "I don't respect your jumper" roaming. It's really worthless. I was laughing my ass off when I saw the space he gave Jefferson in the Spurs game.

yep, if anything kobe needs to be criticized for his poor defense, but obviously he's not alone in that regard. against certain players who have no perimeter shooting like tony allen i can understand sagging off on him, but other times he just leaves his man for a "soft double team" and then when that player swings the ball over to the player kobe's guarding, it's too late for a close out.

[yongaz]

and somewhere, someplace... Andrewchos is playing with himself.

... until he read TSherkin's posts as well as all the other posters who actually watched the game and don't have a strong bias against Kobe.

[Jose_Matador]

80% of thread read Phil's quote out of context ... there should be a part 2 to this thread with a clarification on what Phil meant.

idk.

[PolakFury]

The whole team sucked how about that ??

[USA]

and somewhere, someplace... Andrewchos is playing with himself.

... until he read TSherkin's posts as well as all the other posters who actually watched the game and don't have a strong bias against Kobe.

Jaypo too.

BTW, tsherkin prefers his name spelled lowercase for future reference.

[D Nice]

and somewhere, someplace... Andrewchos is playing with himself.

... until he read TSherkin's posts as well as all the other posters who actually watched the game and don't have a strong bias against Kobe.

Jaypo too.

Oh, I can think of a few posters who were probably getting some circle-jerkage going, that's for sure.

[yongaz]

and somewhere, someplace... Andrewchos is playing with himself.

... until he read TSherkin's posts as well as all the other posters who actually watched the game and don't have a strong bias against Kobe.

Jaypo too.

BTW, tsherkin prefers his name spelled lowercase for future reference.

he doesn't like TS%?

At least jaypo has admitted his bias (....to an extent).

[USA]

At least jaypo has admitted his bias (....to an extent).

Actually, Jaypo claims he has no bias and Kobe is his second favorite player behind dough boy.

[tsherkin]

BTW, tsherkin prefers his name spelled lowercase for future reference.

Aww, thanks!

he doesn't like TS%?

This is awesome. I will accept TS%, heh.

[Spicy P]

Maybe its just me, but I dont think hes calling out Kobe at all.

Read it again: We got behind early because of stupid plays, and then Kobe HAS to screw up the game and START ENERGIZING THE TEAM.

That's how I read it as well. Translation:

"We got down early therefore Kobe had to deviate from our normal game plan in order to make some buckets and get the team going."

That's how I interpreted it as well, yet people are still going to ignore that and keep bashing Phil Jackson.

[droponov]

Mostly by making smarter passes and taking better care of the ball, playing better defense and then taking better shots. Nothing was happening for the team up to that point, what they were doing wasn't working so Kobe tried to put a run together to help dig the team out of the hole it was in. And it was helpful. We're over-focusing on the third quarter, as if it that lost the game for the team.

It's more complicated than that. Kobe's heroics assured that one thing would happen: that his teammates will be frozen out and will never get a chance to get comfortable in the game till it was too late. That's basically what Phil said. The idea that a team can spend 10 minutes watching a player dominating the ball and then suddenly take over a game with great ball+player movement and sharp defense is completely misguided.

There's a reason why most good teams have some sort of identity.

L.A. would go on to score only 2 more points in the quarter. Non-Kobe players in that time produced 2 shooting fouls, a turnover and went 1/6. Kobe went 0/2 in that same stretch, then left the game and was replaced by Shannon Brown.

Are we really going to look at Kobe and blame him in that instance?

Kobe's ball/shot-hogging in the minutes previous to that period of the game was a major contributing factor to his teammates lack of production when they were finally asked to produce something.

[D Nice]

Mostly by making smarter passes and taking better care of the ball, playing better defense and then taking better shots. Nothing was happening for the team up to that point, what they were doing wasn't working so Kobe tried to put a run together to help dig the team out of the hole it was in. And it was helpful. We're over-focusing on the third quarter, as if it that lost the game for the team.

It's more complicated than that. Kobe's heroics assured that one thing would happen: that his teammates will be frozen out and will never get a chance to get comfortable in the game till it was too late. That's basically what Phil said. The idea that a team can spend 10 minutes watching a player dominating the ball and then suddenly take over a game with great ball+player movement and sharp defense is completely misguided.

There's a reason why most good teams have some sort of identity.

L.A. would go on to score only 2 more points in the quarter. Non-Kobe players in that time produced 2 shooting fouls, a turnover and went 1/6. Kobe went 0/2 in that same stretch, then left the game and was replaced by Shannon Brown.

Are we really going to look at Kobe and blame him in that instance?

Kobe's ball/shot-hogging in the minutes previous to that period of the game was a major contributing factor to his teammates lack of production when they were finally asked to produce something.

You're right, we had some great offensive flow before Kobe decided to try and ball-hog his way to a victory. We were making crisp passes, executing well, and hitting shots left and right.

[tsherkin]

It's more complicated than that. Kobe's heroics assured that one thing would happen: that his teammates will be frozen out and will never get a chance to get comfortable in the game till it was too late. That's basically what Phil said. The idea that a team can spend 10 minutes watching a player dominating the ball and then suddenly take over a game with great ball+player movement and sharp defense is completely misguided.

They had 24 minutes in the first half to get their crap together, and while it's true that Kobe going off didn't give them an opportunity to do so in the third, they'd been sucking and doing nothing different wouldn't have helped either. Meantime, Kobe wasn't doing anything differently than he'd done in better times, or anything that we hadn't seen a billion times out of MJ in Chicago. The other guys just didn't step up. And again, the defense was a much larger issue than one 8-minute burst.

Kobe's ball/shot-hogging in the minutes previous to that period of the game was a major contributing factor to his teammates lack of production when they were finally asked to produce something.

And what was the contributing factor when they blew goats in the first half?

[yongaz]

At least jaypo has admitted his bias (....to an extent).

Actually, Jaypo claims he has no bias and Kobe is his second favorite player behind dough boy.

I think that was his stand for the longest time, but in a recent thread he did say that he has a bias... well not so much of say, but didn't quite deny it, hence I said "to an extent...".

BTW, tsherkin prefers his name spelled lowercase for future reference.

Aww, thanks!

he doesn't like TS%?

This is awesome. I will accept TS%, heh.

[cloud king]

but his PER is up to 24!

[yongaz]

It's more complicated than that. Kobe's heroics assured that one thing would happen: that his teammates will be frozen out and will never get a chance to get comfortable in the game till it was too late. That's basically what Phil said. The idea that a team can spend 10 minutes watching a player dominating the ball and then suddenly take over a game with great ball+player movement and sharp defense is completely misguided.

They had 24 minutes in the first half to get their crap together, and while it's true that Kobe going off didn't give them an opportunity to do so in the third, they'd been sucking and doing nothing different wouldn't have helped either. Meantime, Kobe wasn't doing anything differently than he'd done in better times, or anything that we hadn't seen a billion times out of MJ in Chicago. The other guys just didn't step up. And again, the defense was a much larger issue than one 8-minute burst.

Kobe's ball/shot-hogging in the minutes previous to that period of the game was a major contributing factor to his teammates lack of production when they were finally asked to produce something.

And what was the contributing factor when they blew goats in the first half?

I don't get it... those of you who continually argue that Kobe shot them out of the game and hence Phil is calling him out for it; first of all learn to read within context... don't let your bias / hate against Kobe cloud you (though I AM on Realgm, so I suppose that's too much to ask).

secondly, well sure I admit that it's happened before where Kobe just ballhogs his way to a loss (and it pisses me off to no end), but in this case half the game is gone and nobody's not doing nothing (woot triple negatives for the win), and the game plan obviously wasn't working.

Now you're the leader of the team and a more than potent scorer who's definitely capable of taking over an entire game by yourself, what are you supposed to do?

"It's ok chaps let's just continue to suck and continue to do what obviously isn't working."

[Father Time]

Also a point... Memphis took 19 more shots than did the Lakers. Their transition defense, which is a big part of why that was possible, absolutely sunk them in this game.

Agreed. Their transition D was horrific.

yongaz,

I agree in that sometimes I think Kobe cares about winning almost too much and decides to scrap "playing the right way" if he believes it gives them the best shot to win. If the team game isn't working he basically says "**** this, I'm going to win this myself". Problem is, it doesn't always work.

[D Nice]

It's more complicated than that. Kobe's heroics assured that one thing would happen: that his teammates will be frozen out and will never get a chance to get comfortable in the game till it was too late. That's basically what Phil said. The idea that a team can spend 10 minutes watching a player dominating the ball and then suddenly take over a game with great ball+player movement and sharp defense is completely misguided.

They had 24 minutes in the first half to get their crap together, and while it's true that Kobe going off didn't give them an opportunity to do so in the third, they'd been sucking and doing nothing different wouldn't have helped either. Meantime, Kobe wasn't doing anything differently than he'd done in better times, or anything that we hadn't seen a billion times out of MJ in Chicago. The other guys just didn't step up. And again, the defense was a much larger issue than one 8-minute burst.

Kobe's ball/shot-hogging in the minutes previous to that period of the game was a major contributing factor to his teammates lack of production when they were finally asked to produce something.

And what was the contributing factor when they blew goats in the first half?

I don't get it... those of you who continually argue that Kobe shot them out of the game and hence Phil is calling him out for it; first of all learn to read within context... don't let your bias / hate against Kobe cloud you (though I AM on Realgm, so I suppose that's too much to ask).

secondly, well sure I admit that it's happened before where Kobe just ballhogs his way to a loss (and it pisses me off to no end), but in this case half the game is gone and nobody's not doing nothing (woot triple negatives for the win), and the game plan obviously wasn't working.

Now you're the leader of the team and a more than potent scorer who's definitely capable of taking over an entire game by yourself, what are you supposed to do?

"It's ok chaps let's just continue to suck and continue to do what obviously isn't working."

Obviously, you keep letting Shannon and Fisher chuck!

[droponov]

It's more complicated than that. Kobe's heroics assured that one thing would happen: that his teammates will be frozen out and will never get a chance to get comfortable in the game till it was too late. That's basically what Phil said. The idea that a team can spend 10 minutes watching a player dominating the ball and then suddenly take over a game with great ball+player movement and sharp defense is completely misguided.

They had 24 minutes in the first half to get their crap together, and while it's true that Kobe going off didn't give them an opportunity to do so in the third, they'd been sucking and doing nothing different wouldn't have helped either. Meantime, Kobe wasn't doing anything differently than he'd done in better times, or anything that we hadn't seen a billion times out of MJ in Chicago. The other guys just didn't step up. And again, the defense was a much larger issue than one 8-minute burst.

And what was the contributing factor when they blew goats in the first half?

Nope (Kobe shooting 1-6 was a contributing factor for that though). The problem is that we'll never know if they'd be able to put it together in the second half, if the normal game-plan was followed. What we know is that it's much more difficult to get it going when most of your players have been nothing but spectators for an entire quarter.

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".