Have Basketball Fans Totally Lost It?

The Lakers won tonight, because Cavs had no answer for Gasol and Bynum. Kobe nor LJ were "major factors tonight", both shot below 50%. One game doesn't prove anything. I believe what matters is who can win a 7 game series. Not who's better amongst the 2 stars. Either one could have had a 50 pt game, and it still would not have proved anything.

I think that the Lakers team as a whole played very well tonight. Bynum and Gasol stepped up. Not to mention their bench, which is what, in my opinion, still sets the Lakers apart from the best teams in the league. Boston has a below average bench, and the Cavs, with the exception of Lebron, is just a collection of decent players, but they have chemistry.

But like other people have said, it was a Kobe && Lebron show, even though they weren't much of a factor offensively, they still ran the offense.

Props to both players for locking the other down defensively.

I don't know if you've ever dislocated anything, but that causes pretty severe pain and discomfort, especially on a shooting hand.

Being a superstar means significantly less if you aren't a tough player, and can't work through pain. Everyone knows Kobe did tonight, for God sakes, you could see it on his face, how often do you see Kobe like he did when he injured that finger?

Lebron took a few shots too, it was a physical game.

I wouldn't look at this game as who is the better player, because you simply can't judge that off of one game with players of that magnitude.

I think it was more of a focus on the MVP race, which Lebron is winning, and Kobe is in second.

But for the record, I do still think Kobe is the better player as of now, and that Lebron will take on that role eventually, just not yet. But then again, I'm a huge Lakers fan.

they did not shut kobe down.

kobe's fg% is misleading

it was great until the last 4 minutes of the game where he missed 3 or 4 jumpers that were just a little off. wasn't cause of the cavs defense it was because of fatigue.

no props to the cavs defense

z and west are not that great of a loss for them defensively. if they are the best they should have done a better job tonight.

kobe had 12 assists bro thats a good job defensivly?

and everytime they ran a pick and roll with either odom or pau they double teamed kobe and it produced a dunk or a open 3.

thats horrible d all cause lebron can't 1 on 1 d up lebron james

im analyzing this bro and my analysis is exactly what kenny the jet was saying before the game. Kobe set the pace and brought that intensity that lebron doesn't

he took the challenge of shutting down lebron and the lakers followed him to victory.

lebron dont got that swagger bro.

honestly right now he just dont got "it"

kobe has got "it"

You're correct, they only praise Kobe and forget the effort Pau and the other guys put forward to get the win. Both Kobe and LeBron are virtual satnd off Kobe scoring 20 on 9-22 shooting and making 6 rebs, 12 assists and 5 TO and LeBron scoring 23 points shooting 9-25 grabbing 9 rebs and having 4 assists with 3 TO.

It was basically the other guys who delivered for the Lakers, led by Gasol and it was Cleveland's inefectivity on the other end that made the Cavs lose the game. As announcers / commentators say on games modern basketball is like playing chess, the team that gets the best adjustments wins the game.

Hope this helps.

I'm not a Pacer's fan but I am a Rick Carlisle fan (from when he coached Detroit). Unfortunately he can't go completely blameless for what has happen to the team but he only deserves about 1/4 of the blame. The rest of the blame goes to the players and management(and yes that includes Larry Bird). I don't think Carlisle should be fired because his team despite the free fall has been in the playoffs over the past 3 seasons and could still have a chance this year. However if the Pacers don't make the playoffs I wouldn't be surprise if he's gone after this season because whenever a team does badly the blame always automatically goes to the coach. Even if it's not his fault.

Yes the supporting cast of LA had a lot to do with the win against Cleveland, but you honestly can't say Kobe had nothing to do with it. Remember, besides his 20 points, he did file in a game high 12 assists. Kobe also scored a majority of his points in the 3rd and 4th quarters, when they matter the most. I'm not taking anything away from the rest of the team, especially Bynum, Gasol, and Ariza, but you can't honestly say Kobe had very little to do with the victory.

Ant this is something I agree with you on...... LeBron was beat up this game, someone even made a question about it earlier, he also got hit in the face by Bynum, but unline Ariza, he didnt get a flagrant for it, so the whole "if you touch LeBron its an automatic foul" thing really doesnt hold weight...

Also, LeBron shut Kobe down as well, those 3 shots kobe got off on LeBron, LBJ did the same thing early in the game when he was looking like he was gonna drop at least 30.... And KB was guarding him then wasnt he? Plus, LBJ had just ripped the ball from Kobe like what 2 or 3 times?

Its like, whenever the Lakers lose, all you hear is how such and such fouls were and werent called, but when they win, its all of a sudden "great" officiating.... Half the times LBJ drove, he was hacked, pushed, and even hit....

Aside from that, the Lakers did take advantage of their size advantage, which was the easiest route to go... Gasol just murdered them down low and Bynum did too early....

But Ill end it at that

Sad... huh?

The frontcourt of LA dominated last night thanks to the absence of Big Z, I think it would've been a much better game as I think the Celtics/Lakers finals would have been if they had Bynum.

Kobe was hardly a factor in this loss for my team but Ariza was a dagger! I really admired his play against Boston and Cleveland. If we could get a hold of him we'd be champions pretty quickly.

Dude nobody said Pau wasnt great, but we were responding to everyone saying both lebron and kobe had poor shooting percentage.

Can u honestly say that a finger that couldnt be in worse condition and a dislocated fonger is the same as having a healthy hand? If so then YOU have completely lost it! Go mess up your finger, wrap it, and try to play ball, he only had great games cuz hes great!

Doctors even said he needed surgery but refused for his team!

But it seems we forget how great something can be when somebody makes it seem too easy. Kobes been doing this his whole life so appreciate it well hes here!!

Yes people go on Y/A and write essays no one is ever going to read. Seriously if the guy hurt your feelings just tell him to stop and ask him to be nice to you or something.

To say Kobe's pinkie wasn't bothering him is like David Lee is the most overrated player in the NBA. I don't know if you ever played basketball, but if there is any discomfort in your shooting hand it makes dribble/shoot/finish much more difficult.

The only sensible thing you wrote is this game did not determine who is better than whom. Kobe deserves the credit he is due for defending LeBron, as should Gasol/Bynum for helping him.

EDIT: also in case you didn't notice, Kobe/LeBron ran their team's offense pretty much the entire night, so of course they have the biggest impact and should be the focus of the spotlight, that's not to say the role players did nothing, but w/o Kobe/LeBron the game would be extremely difficult for the role players in a season.

EDIT: let me put it this way to you, Kobe held LeBron in check, which resulted in a Lakers win. Kobe and his help D took LeBron out of the game, he only had 4ast which means the Lakers did a good job in terms of containing him from helping his teammates. So props to Kobe&Lakers.