Lakers Can Live Without Bynum

Don't blame it on Kobe if he is taking 40 shots a game. Pay attention when he gets the ball and see if anyone else is cutting to the basket or attempting to set a pick and roll that could get them the ball going in the direction of the basket.

I think Kobe gets frustrated sometimes when he gets the ball and looks around to see what kind of help he's getting and finds all his teammates standing in a position that doesn't allow a passing lane or create a high percentage shot for themselves.

Someone needs to step it up!

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ya lakers roc,,,818 pride...Lakers gonna put another banner up soon.

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As a Kobe fan first and a Lakers fan second, I tell you, this scares me. Lamar is Lamar, nice guy but defers to the point of impotence, Lamar deferred to a rookie D Wade in his first playoff in the NBA while he was with the Heat. Between him and Luke, they could not take responsibility for a box of pizza even if they where starving, so that leaves Kobe doing that “stir the boat while baling out water” thing he seems to do about this time every year. Next thing you know they are playing the isosceles triangle offense with Kobe as the large angle, when the shorts fall Kobe is great, when they don't, what a F'ing ball hog is the call. For sheer kahunas nobody has a bigger one than Fisher but he is a career 40% shooter, since his man is more likely to stay home on him now that Bynum is out, even he can't be relied on but at least he is better than the Smush Parker. But the point is, every time Kobe has one of those 44 shots night, you look at the box score expecting Lamar also took 18 shots and Luke took 15 shots but no, it's more like 6 and 4 respectively or something like that. Which tells you that someone is dodging responsibility, hell even in the gym, if my teammate is gunning and I don't like it, I don't keep passing him the ball, I start jerking up some bricks myself until everyone comes to their senses. if the Lakers are to make any progress, the whole team will have to step up and unlike the Seattle game, quit passing the ball to Kobe every trip down. Try swinging it to the weak side in alternate possessions or something, anything but a Kobefied triangle offense will make them a better team.

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You must be joking. Kwame is a very limited player, can't shoot outside, can't slam dunk, doesn't block shoots, has no inside moves, and can't hit free-throws. Bynum does all of these things.

Kwame has a big body and plays team defense and rebounds ok.

Turiaf is great power foward but fouls too much Mihm is fraigle.

Mitch get on the phone, we need help. Those midget desert dwellers from Arizona are next. The Clippers killed them, so the "little people" are angry. Kobe can't score 48 every night.

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FFFFFFFFFFFF The Lakers. They are SOOOOOO OVERRATED!!!

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Matt- How can a team that's #1 in the Western Conference standings be overrated? And although without Bynum they may play .500 ball, if he is able to return in two months and continue his phenomenal day-to-day improvement, look for them in the finals.

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The Lakers are not out of it yet. If two other players can score the points that Bynam scored, then Koby wont have to take all the shots. They may have to slow the game somewhat and play some real good defense, and be more selective on their shots. If they do this, they will maintain.

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People who dislike Kobe, for their own personal reasons, are always accusing Kobe of being a ball hog. I wonder if these people are really watching the game or if they are interpreting what they see in a way to just try to discredit Kobe for being the great player that he is. I believe the later is true. Reflecting on the past two seasons, had it not been for Kobe taking the initiative and putting the team on his back and taking over otherwise lost games, the Lakers would not have won the games that they did. Aside from injuries that ravaged all the Laker starters last season, the Laker players all stunk in general, except for Kobe. People who are so quick to accuse Kobe of being a ball hog, need to go back and just take a good look at all the games the Lakers played last year and the season before and you will see how inept the rest of the team was. What I saw was that few Laker players appeared to want to get their hands dirty by scraping for a loose ball or going for a rebound. They would wait for the ball to come to them instead. I would see rebounds come off the rim and hit Laker players in the head, in the chest, in the hands and they couldn't retrieve the ball because they were not paying attention. Their lack of play was really embarrassing. None of them seemed to want to go to the basket with the ball except Kobe and sometimes Lamar. The rest of the Laker players were content to play around the perimeter and launch uncontested 3 pointers at the basket, which they missed most of the time. This kind of lack of play by the rest of the Laker players would dig them into a deep hole early in games, and after the half time the team had a huge mountain to climb to get back into the game. What would the team mates do? Go to Kobe, go to Kobe, go to Kobe, and he would come through a good deal of the time. That's how they would dig out some of their otherwise lost games. Kobe would feed his team mates regularly, but they either wouldn't take care of the ball, wouldn't take the shot or they would miss most of the shots they took, so Kobe wouldn't get credit for a lot of assists that he otherwise deserved. Looking at the lack of assists by Kobe, his detractors interpreted this as Kobe hogging the ball, which wasn't true. It was the lack of concentration and effort on the part of Kobe's team mates that caused them to have the lousy season they had. What little success the Lakers enjoyed last season and the previous season was due to Kobe"s efforts. When I would think about the lack of success of the Lakers and contrast them with the success of other teams, the difference that I saw was that the amount of hustle I saw in the players of most other teams was much greater than the amount of hustle the Laker players put forth. This season, with the tremendous improvement in the play of Andrew Bynum and the addition of Derek Fisher, the Lakers have had someone else who they can depend on to score, rebound and play defense and the team has played much better without Kobe having to do so much of the scoring himself, up until the injury of Bynum. Now the team is reverting back to having to rely on Kobe's point production. No one else is taking and making contested shots. Other Laker players have the ball in their hands a lot too, but they are not doing much with it. So what does that translate to? Back to Kobe, go to Kobe, give Kobe the ball. When I looked at the Seatle team play a couple of nights ago, it seemed like every time 2 or 3 of their players shot the ball, they scored. A high percentage of their shots were under duress too. I think that Phil Jackson needs to alternate Ariza and Crittenton into the starting lineup and sit one of the two Laker 'slugs' down, with the yellow streak painted down the middle of their backs. Phil doesn't have much choice but to play the other one unless Wilt comes back from the dead.

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