L.A. Lakers @ Houston Rockets

[Hunter103]

Sorry I know I missed a lot of people, who else wanted in on the josh powell fan club? I will be sure to add you guys if you remind me.

Right here Minhee! Sign me the heck up!

[microfib4thewin]

Sorry I know I missed a lot of people, who else wanted in on the josh powell fan club? I will be sure to add you guys if you remind me.

You mean the only player that doesn't suck when they sign/resign with the Lakers club? Count me in.

[Mos Def]

Hahahah Kobe straight out said Artest should know better!!!! you gotta love how he and Artest really can go at it and still be cool at the end!

Great game from Powell, filled in nice for L-Boogie lol

KOBE made me eat my words with pleasure! lol

No, you bring up a valid point - something that's always followed Kobe. Should he try to take matters into his own hands or trust in the system?

That's been debated forever, and it's a legit issue.

Personally, I will almost always side with Kobe trying to take the game over, because historically, I can think of only a handful of games where Kobe irrefutably cost us the game by ballhogging. In short, playing selfishly. It happens, but it's rare.

Most often, it's usually a response to our struggles on the court. Like tonight, when our offense sputtered - not because of Kobe, but collectively, Yao was too much and their role players outplayed ours and their defense was simply beating our offense.

Now, what if Kobe missed more of the shots tonight, instead of making them? And we lost?

Then people would have said Kobe shot us out of the game and caused us to lose.

I think Phil Jackson trusts Kobe to make that call, and gives him that freedom to decide whether to take matters into his hands. And I agree with him.

As a fan, I live with the results. Tonight, Kobe pulled it out, as he often has. Some nights, he can't. I don't e-love Kobe when he does, and hate on him when he doesn't.

Hey, if Kobe decides to put the team on the shoulders, considering the player he is, his capability and his accomplishments, I say, go for it, and I live with the results.

There's obviously shades of grey when it comes to this - I don't want Kobe shooting over double teams, and he usually doesn't, he's been making the right play for the past few years. But when it comes to single coverage like this, I say, do your thing baby.

You're absolutely right.

The flipside to this argument is something I've kept a short mental memory of and it has to do with how many assists Kobe gets in a given game. More often than not, when Kobe gets 5+ assists it shows that he's getting his teammates involved and it opens up so much for him throughout the course of the game. Not only can he get hot shooting the basketball but his team mates are in a rhythm as well, which can only help in a close game. He can still dominate and take over when he needs to, that's a non-issue, but It's somewhat deflating to look at the box score and see: 27+ points on somewhere around 34% shooting coupled with 1 or 2 assists. Obviously it's not easy to just create a shot for someone else out of the blue or within the system coupled with a top-notch defensive team--which could easily lead to low assist numbers--but given Kobe's experience, talent and IQ... you would expect to see a little more consistency in his assist numbers.

I know I'm being picky here about something that might not mean a lot, but it's just the way I see things happen from the few games I've been able to watch this year. But that might just be it, having not been able to actually WATCH the game, and just analyze by looking at the box score.

[crazyeights]

Count me in on the Josh Powell fan club, Minhee.

[Flipdog69xxx]

Sorry I know I missed a lot of people, who else wanted in on the josh powell fan club? I will be sure to add you guys if you remind me.

haha I remember requesting in on this a while ago. RIGHT HERE please.

[hermes]

yay lakers win

[snaquille oatmeal]

Kobe on Ron -- "It wasn't much of a battle. I kicked his [butt] tonight."

here is a little more context on that quote

“It wasn’t much of a battle,” Bryant said. “I kicked his (butt) tonight. We’ve had some battles in the past and he’s gotten the best of me a few times. Tonight, I got the best of him.”

[TonyMontana]

Ya we can say Kobe owned Ron last night.
I feel sorry for Ron, great guy and all but he should know better.

[kobeaki]

Sorry I know I missed a lot of people, who else wanted in on the josh powell fan club? I will be sure to add you guys if you remind me.

me too...

[kobeaki]

i know this been said already....

BUT KOBE SO MADE ARTEST HIS B....AHEM, FEMALE DOG LAST NIGHT.