Kobe is anti-clutch...

[Wildcat67]

How this guy ever got the reputation as a clutch player I'll never know. The whole game Kobe is making all these miraculous shots, and I just kept thinking, yeah but he'll keep chucking and he'll miss most his shots in the 4th. What do you know. He misses 5-6 straight to end the game, except for the meaningless last second 2, including the potential game tying 3.

He just takes ALL his teams last second shots, being a volume clutch shooter is not being a clutch shooter.

[TDMVPDPOY]

chasing jordans playoff scoring record, nothing to see here

[eyeh8u]

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrfcrt8Lqy1qza49co1_500.png

[DMC]

Enough of these threads downstairs in the NBA forum.

[angelbelow]

No he's not anti-clutch. IMO he did what he could to seal the game. His shots weren't falling but his teammates are the ones who failed.

From another thread:


Honestly its a combination of things but the main problem is that the Lakers take too long to execute on offense. At first i was critical of Kobe taking long contested jumpers but no one else moved with much purpose. Kobe is forced to take those shots. It should be dribble kick swing swing entry into post. Instead u guys dribble pass dribble pass drillble pass. That severely delays setting up the offense.

Bynum needs to establish position way early on, blake and artest need to do a better job spreading the floor and swinging the ball without taking so many dribbles.

Kobe was 1-8 in the 4th but absolutely not his fault when his teammates don't play with any purpose. I understand the sentiment that Kobe stalls the offense by playing iso basketball into a difficult fade away but his teammates aren't putting themselves in a position to catch and score.

[Bruno]

Bryant has a tendency to be a ballhog in the clutch but I think he deserve a break for this series

Lakers have a great reaction after the blowout of Game 1. The next 3 games were close. In game 4, they just ran out of gas at the end. It's not surprising because it was a b2b and Lakers are an heavy and/or old team without a bench. I'm glad Spurs won't have to play both Lakers and Thunder (if they beat CLippers) because both are a damn hard opponent for Spurs.

[mathbzh]

No he's not anti-clutch. IMO he did what he could to seal the game. His shots weren't falling but his teammates are the ones that failed.

From another thread:

I would not call him anti-clutch, but Kobe fails just as much as his teammates here.
It is no wonder you do not work hard enough to establish position when you know the ball will not leave Kobe's hands before he takes an impossible shot.
The fact they don't have any assumed role-player probably makes it worse.
Considering they are professional with quite some experience they should still do the job. But you can't deny Kobe as a responsibility in stalling the offense.

[angelbelow]

I would not call him anti-clutch, but Kobe fails just as much as his teammates here.
It is no wonder you do not work hard enough to establish position when you know the ball will not leave Kobe's hands before he takes an impossible shot.
The fact they don't have any assumed role-player probably makes it worse.
Considering they are professional with quite some experience they should still do the job. But you can't deny Kobe as a responsibility in stalling the offense.

No I agree with you on that. Kobe does stall the offense. I believe I said this in my post.

But besides Kobe, who was willing to shoot during the 4th quarter of that game? In that situation he has no choice but play hero, or see his reputation die while trying.

My post kind of gives off the vibe that Kobe shouldn't be blamed. I would like to correct that and say that as team leader, Kobe is ultimately to blame. Just like Duncan, Ginobili and Parker are ultimately responsible for where the Spurs end up. But you feel for him in a situation when his teammates refuse to step up.

[-21-]

Kobe doesn't really hit all of his last second shots but the thing is: he isn't afraid to take them (unlike LeBron), which is why I think most people call him "clutch".

Also, I agree with angelbelow. None of his teammates stepped up so he had to try and do everything on his own. You can criticize him for missing those shots but you can't criticize him for taking them since no one else wanted to shoot. He was just trying to win...

[bigfan]

I got nothing bad to say about Kobe, the guy is one of the all time greats.

[Gagnrath]

I got nothing bad to say about Kobe, the guy is one of the all time greats.

He's a great basketball player, He is a horrible teammate, He is an asshole, He is a philanderer at best and a rapist at worst. The guy is a misanthrope who if he wasn't making millions playing basketball would likely find himself in prison right now.

[Venti Quattro]

Damn the Spurs would have probably won a three-peat if Kobe wasn't clutch enough. Thanks, Kob!

[tesseractive]

Angelbelow with the goods. :tu

[Obstructed_View]

Kobe's a great player, an amazing shooter, and extremely competetive, but he's never been clutch. Taking seven shots in the last 2 minutes of a game, many of them heavily-defended, low-percentage looks, and hitting three of them is not clutch. He has managed to get a reputation as a clutch player because ESPN will only show the two he made. They've been actively scrambling to replace Michael Jordan ever since he left, and they chose Kobe, probably because he used to try to sound like him in interviews.

:lol at attibuting any of the Lakers' titles to Kobe's clutchness or leadership. His most effective playoff runs were when he was surrounded by great players who got him high percentage shots as the second option, or when role players completely stepped up to bail him out in clutch situations (Odom, MWP). If he were remotely capable of doing that as the featured player on the team he'd have continued to have success. Yesterday pretty much proves he still hasn't figured it out.

[ambchang]

As a teammate, you get screamed at for passing to a wide open teammate instead of a heavily covered Kobe. You get conditioned over the years that not passong to Kobe = bad, no matter the reasons.

This is an ingrained culture that Kobe himself cultivated over the years, and now you are saying the supporting cast should be more aggressive when you miss 8 of 9 shot in the 4th? How does that work? Kobe is coated with Teflon when it comes to blame, there are always excuses, oftentimes contradictory.

[therealtruth]

Kobe takes horrible shots. The fact that he makes some of them adds to his ego and encourages him to keep doing it. I think that's the key difference between him and Jordan. Jordan always made sure he took good shots.

[The ADMIRAL 50]

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrfcrt8Lqy1qza49co1_500.png

:lol

[Seventyniner]

It's the chicken-and-egg dilemma all over again: does Kobe chuck because his teammates are passive, or are the teammates passive because Kobe chucks so much? I guess it depends on who you want to blame.

[therealtruth]

It's the chicken-and-egg dilemma all over again: does Kobe chuck because his teammates are passive, or are the teammates passive because Kobe chucks so much? I guess it depends on who you want to blame.

There's no problem with taking alot of shots. Sometimes the superstar has to take alot of shots. The problem is that Kobe's shot selection is horrible. He takes bad shots.

[TD 21]

Bryant has a tendency to be a ballhog in the clutch but I think he deserve a break for this series

Lakers have a great reaction after the blowout of Game 1. The next 3 games were close. In game 4, they just ran out of gas at the end. It's not surprising because it was a b2b and Lakers are an heavy and/or old team without a bench. I'm glad Spurs won't have to play both Lakers and Thunder (if they beat CLippers) because both are a damn hard opponent for Spurs.

Typical Spurs fan. This team is in the midst of a historic run, looks like the best team in the league in a number of years and you're still worried about two inferior opponents that they've handled this season.

I'm not saying the Thunder have no chance to beat the Spurs, or that it will be easy for the Spurs to beat them, but make no mistake, the Spurs are and deserve to be the clear favorites. The Spurs are actually the worst possible match-up for the Thunder in the entire league, because they're not going to be overwhelmed by their firepower and they mentally play the game more than they physically play it. That's a bad combination for the overrated Thunder, who have had the opponent control six of their eight playoff games. That's not a formula for sustained success.

[DMC]

No I agree with you on that. Kobe does stall the offense. I believe I said this in my post.

But besides Kobe, who was willing to shoot during the 4th quarter of that game? In that situation he has no choice but play hero, or see his reputation die while trying.

My post kind of gives off the vibe that Kobe shouldn't be blamed. I would like to correct that and say that as team leader, Kobe is ultimately to blame. Just like Duncan, Ginobili and Parker are ultimately responsible for where the Spurs end up. But you feel for him in a situation when his teammates refuse to step up.
I don't feel for him. He's been gifted championship quality teams and has done his dead level best to fuck them up.

Fuck him.

[Venti Quattro]

I don't feel for him. He's been gifted championship quality teams and has done his dead level best to fuck them up.

Fuck him.

He fucked them up by winning 5 championships? I would love to see what happens when he starts taking good care of them like coddling a baby.

[ambchang]

There is no chicken and the egg. Kobe has, continuously, threw his teammates under the bus and do not allow them to make mistakes. You get on his wrong side and he will ask management to ship your ass out.

The lakers organization on the other hand has supported Kobe throughout his career. Shaquille got shipped, Phil Jackson didn't resign once, only Bynum didn't get shipped, and that was only they got gifted gasol to calm down kobe a bit.

You are not allowed to make any mistake, you are toast. Who would take shots in an environment?

You tak

[therealtruth]

Typical Spurs fan. This team is in the midst of a historic run, looks like the best team in the league in a number of years and you're still worried about two inferior opponents that they've handled this season.

I'm not saying the Thunder have no chance to beat the Spurs, or that it will be easy for the Spurs to beat them, but make no mistake, the Spurs are and deserve to be the clear favorites. The Spurs are actually the worst possible match-up for the Thunder in the entire league, because they're not going to be overwhelmed by their firepower and they mentally play the game more than they physically play it. That's a bad combination for the overrated Thunder, who have had the opponent control six of their eight playoff games. That's not a formula for sustained success.

I don't understand why the Thunder fail to dictate the tempo of their games. They play at the opponent's tempo. That only helps the opponent.

[Venti Quattro]

I don't understand why the Thunder fail to dictate the tempo of their games. They play at the opponent's tempo. That only helps the opponent.

The Thunder rarely run set plays and so they get easily suckered in by the pace that their opponent is playing with.

[DMC]

He fucked them up by winning 5 championships? I would love to see what happens when he starts taking good care of them like coddling a baby.
Kobe ran Shaq off, ran Phil off, disrupted their post season with his infidelity. The Lakers could have gone 5 in a row. He's now in the process of running Pau off, the real reason Mr 6 for 24 saw 2 more rings sans Shaq.

[Knoxxx]

There's no problem with taking alot of shots. Sometimes the superstar has to take alot of shots. The problem is that Kobe's shot selection is horrible. He takes bad shots.

I think its the lack of movement on offense everyone just stand around watching Kobe.