Kobe Bryant Rips Teammate After Ugly Loss

[LakerHater]

Kobe Bryant blames Pau Gasol for Lakers' Game 4 collapse against Thunder

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Lakers trudged off the Staples Center floor late Saturday, a single loss now separating them from season's end, another fourth-quarter collapse once again causing their undoing. They didn't show much poise in the locker room, either, with Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum pointing blame at others for allowing the Oklahoma City Thunder to steal their second victory in three games.
Bryant missed eight of his 10 shots in the final quarter, but shrugged off his struggles by saying his teammates' lack of aggressiveness "forced" him to take tough shots. He also left no question which teammate deserved the most blame for the 103-100 loss in Game 4.
Pau Gasol.
Bryant faulted Gasol for not playing aggressive enough. It was also Gasol's turnover that led to Kevin Durant making the winning 3-pointer with 13.7 seconds left.
"Pau's got to be more assertive," Bryant said. "He's the guy they're leaving [open]. When he's catching the ball, he's looking to pass. He's got to be aggressive. He's got to shoot the ball or drive the ball to the basket. He will be next game."
Bryant has periodically targeted Gasol with his public criticism, hoping to motivate him to lift his performance. But with the Lakers now down 3-1 in the series and facing Game 5 on Monday in Oklahoma City, Bryant's patience has been exhausted. Gasol's inconsistency has been a problem for the Lakers throughout the season, and he never seemed to recover after the team tried to trade him in December to the Houston Rockets in a deal with the New Orleans Hornets for Chris Paul. NBA commissioner David Stern blocked the trade, and Gasol has admitted his tenuous status with the franchise has bothered him.
Gasol totaled just 10 points and five rebounds in Game 4. Most recently, Bryant criticized both Gasol and Andrew Bynum after a listless performance in a Game 6 loss to the Denver Nuggets in the first round. Gasol responded with 23 points and 17 rebounds in the Lakers' clinching Game 7 victory.

After a dominant first half by Andrew Bynum on Saturday, the Thunder began fronting the Lakers' center with Kendrick Perkins. Bryant thought Gasol didn't attack enough when Serge Ibaka left him to help Perkins.
"He's looking to swing the ball too much," Bryant said. "He's got to take his shot."



That was the case on the game's most critical possession. After a steal by Steve Blake, Gasol tried to pass to Metta World Peace only to have Durant knock the ball away with 33.9 seconds left. Durant followed with the 3-pointer.
"Just a bad read on Pau's part," Bryant said.
"It's one play, one mistake," Gasol said. "There were a lot of mistakes in that fourth quarter, a lot of mistakes throughout the game. So, obviously, if I could have gone back, maybe I could have shot it and I would have. It's one play, obviously, at a critical time, but I don't feel like we lost the game because of one turnover."
Indeed, Bynum faulted the Lakers from going away from what was working. He had 14 points and seven rebounds as L.A. built a 10-point lead at halftime. With the Thunder increasingly fronting him, Bynum took just four shots in the second half, two in the fourth quarter when the Thunder erased a 13-point deficit over the final eight minutes.
"I didn't touch the ball, so the game started speeding up, speeding up, speeding up, speeding up," Bynum said. "They beat us in transition at the end.

The Lakers, Bynum said, never successfully countered the Thunder's defense.
"You have to be smart," Bynum said. "When a team fronts you, that means you're hurting them. So they make an adjustment and you can't keep running the same offense. You have to make them pay for that, whether you use a ball fake and come back to the same side or readjust. Reading that situation is a problem for us."
Had the Lakers showed more poise in end-of-game situations, they – not the Thunder – would be one victory away from reaching the Western Conference finals. Bryant was primarily responsible for the Lakers coughing up a nine-point lead in the final 2:08 of Game 2.
Team Harmony these Lakers are not. They've allowed their season to dangerously slip away, and now head to OKC looking for answers.
"Every single one of us played a part [in the losses]," World Peace said. "Every single one of us needs to go to OKC and get back on track."

[ElNono]

Blame game begins after the Lakers' deflating loss to the Thunder

By Bill Plaschke

May 20, 2012, 12:10 a.m.
After spending a season fighting age, battling immaturity, struggling with old habits and jabbing with a new coach, the Lakers have ended up where we pretty much thought they would.

Out of breath and on the ropes.

Their veteran star is exhausted and annoyed. Their kid center is angry and distant. Their power forward is uncertain and embattled. And their season is officially on the brink after they blew a 13-point lead in a 103-100 loss to Oklahoma City on Saturday in the fourth and perhaps deciding game of their first-round playoff series.

[Venti Quattro]

Plaschke is a ing hack who deserves to die. He doesn't even know that the Lakers are playing in the second round.

[Fabbs]

Where are Stern and the refs to deliver another *Kobe Championship*?

[Reck]

Its never Kobe's fault.

[HarlemHeat37]

As I've been saying the last few years, his legacy is going to take a hit, as he ages, while team players like Duncan, KG and Nowitzki will gain credit for their unselfishness, tbh..

Kobe's hasn't grown, on or off the court..

[Fabbs]

Leave Kobe Alone!

[mavs>spurs]

lmao it's pretty re ed for kobe to blame anyone with his performances thus far. kobe bryant is a real life narcissist, the dumbass is probably honestly incapable of realizing that he shares the biggest part of the blame. chucking at a 12-28 clip instead of giving it to bynum who was dominant in the first half.

[Frenzy]

Tbf he has always needed a big man to give him a ring. No surprises when he rips on one for not giving it to him.

[Mugen]

He's the reason they're not up 3-1 instead of being down 3-1.

Takes a special kind of selfishness to blame others when he's choked harder this series than any star in recent memory.

[ALVAREZ6]

Its never Kobe's fault.

This.


Kobe is the ultimate hypocrite. He is always dishing the blame on others in the media and that doesn't help his cause at all, just talk to your teammates behind the cameras and figure it out. This just further proves how much of an egomaniac the guy is, he would rather pay the price of completely ruining team chemistry by calling people out in the media just to make his case to the rest of the world that it was not his fault his team lost, nothing to do with him, because he is the epitome of clutch.

Shoots 1/8 in the 4th? I think I heard that somewhere. 12/28 overall .

What a Kobe is. I respect his talent, but he is the ultimate bag.

[DPG21920]

As I've been saying the last few years, his legacy is going to take a hit, as he ages, while team players like Duncan, KG and Nowitzki will gain credit for their unselfishness, tbh..

Kobe's hasn't grown, on or off the court..

100% true. He was a fringe top 10 player going into this year. He's massively choked on both ends and under performed with a stacked team. He's dropped his all time ranking to the 11-15 range for sure.

[DMC]

The Kobe System

1. Get Kobe the ball.

2. Get defenders away from Kobe.

3. Rebound Kobe's missed shots.

4. All losses are "rest of team" losses.

5. All wins are "Kobe" wins.

6. Always pass to Kobe in transition.

7. Don't take last minute shots to win, leave that to Kobe.

8. If Kobe misses last minute shots, you should have taken them and not deferred.

9. Don't share hotel rooms with Kobe in Denver.

[ChrisRichards]

Kobe can do no wrong anymore at this point. In a few years no one will even talk about Nowitzki and KG. Duncan and Kobe will still be in the conversation among the greatest players of their generation along with Shaq.


The media will be more appreciative of Kobe when he retires. No one will bring this game or any prior games after his 5th championship. They will actually give credit to the fact that Kobe showed class by sitting out the last game of the season to giving the scoring record to Kevin Durant.

[ALVAREZ6]

Without his big daddys to bring him rings, Kobe is nothing more than an Allen Iverson with a longer career and less debt , and I don't recall AI continuously trashing his teammates after losses.

[JRHernandez88]

Kobe's such a leader.

[DMC]

This.


Kobe is the ultimate hypocrite. He is always dishing the blame on others in the media and that doesn't help his cause at all, just talk to your teammates behind the cameras and figure it out. This just further proves how much of an egomaniac the guy is, he would rather pay the price of completely ruining team chemistry by calling people out in the media just to make his case to the rest of the world that it was not his fault his team lost, nothing to do with him, because he is the epitome of clutch.

Shoots 1/8 in the 4th? I think I heard that somewhere. 12/28 overall .

What a Kobe is. I respect his talent, but he is the ultimate bag.

To be fair, Kobe often blames himself for losses even when somebody else s it up.

[ChrisRichards]

I don't recall AI continuously trashing his teammates after losses.

You know so little in life and basketball.

Tbh.

[DMC]

Kobe can do no wrong anymore at this point. In a few years no one will even talk about Nowitzki and KG. Duncan and Kobe will still be in the conversation among the greatest players of their generation along with Shaq.


The media will be more appreciative of Kobe when he retires. No one will bring this game or any prior games after his 5th championship. They will actually give credit to the fact that Kobe showed class by sitting out the last game of the season to giving the scoring record to Kevin Durant.

Kobe will be remembered as a rapist.

[ALVAREZ6]

Whatever, my main point is it's stupid to call teammates out in the media. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to handle that behind closed doors. You simply can't deny that Kobe is an egomaniac, he doesn't want people talking about him shooting 1/8 in the 4th.

[DMC]

Whatever, my main point is it's stupid to call teammates out in the media. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to handle that behind closed doors. You simply can't deny that Kobe is an egomaniac, he doesn't want people talking about him shooting 1/8 in the 4th.

Kobe does it for two reasons:

1. Mike Brown won't.

2. It defers blame from Kobe's last 7 or 8 missed chucks.

In game 2, Kobe was mad because he didn't get the last shot. In game 4, Kobe was mad because he did.

[Venti Quattro]

Kobe is a for playing blame game on the media but nothing that he said is untrue -- especially with how 90% of Los Angeles still wants to murder Pau after passing up an open shot and how Bynum got outworked for position in the fourth quarter.

[ALVAREZ6]

"It's one play, one mistake," Gasol said. "There were a lot of mistakes in that fourth quarter, a lot of mistakes throughout the game. So, obviously, if I could have gone back, maybe I could have shot it and I would have. It's one play, obviously, at a critical time, but I don't feel like we lost the game because of one turnover."

According to my sources at ESPN, Kobe had a similar costly turnover at the end of Game 2 and instead of taking blame, he credited Durant on his athletic play, taking a gamble and making a great steal. Well, interestingly enough that's exactly the same thing Durant did on Pau's pass.

It was a bad read on Pau's part

[Venti Quattro]

And it's not like he ripped the team into shreds. He put his criticisms in a constructive manner, and there were Bynum and Pau quotes as well.

[ChrisRichards]

Kobe will be remembered as a rapist.

Doubt it. No one even brings this up anymore.

America sees Kobe as a basketball player. With a few cameos in movies after his retirement, people will keep enjoying Kobe Bryant the celebrity, dude will be mainstream for a long time.