The Lakers need to defend better, I doubt Kobe was horrible enough on defense to offset the Lakers very successful offensive rating against Boston.

Maybe if Phil Jackson would stop ignorantly using Fisher and his terrible defense? He's not good anymore...

As for being successful in crunch time, most superstars seem to have great success according to 82games.com

Overall this crunchtime discussion is nonsense. Just take the guy that's the better player, and if he rests enough in the fourth, he's probably a great "crunch time" player. Not like you should be saving someone for just the fourth quarter either.

Kobe won the MVP awards for the same reason Derek Jeter won Gold Glove awards.

So I guess that makes us even.

It was Kobe's man who made 2 of those 5 baskets. He was probably so tired from driving one-on-one he had nothing left for defense.

That's what help defense is for. Then again, the normal rules of basketball don't seem to apply to Kobe Bryant, at least not from a Celtic perspective. Neil's comments on the game more than cover the bases.

Your a Boston fan who hate the Lakers, and you hate Kobe Bryant in particular; you've made that very clear over the years. Don't pretend you don't have an agenda — you've insisted for years on the other site, and now on here, that the Lakers can't win with Kobe Bryant being Kobe Bryant. For all the sturm und drang over the selfish, destructive, poisonous Kobe Bryant and his ball-hogging, non-clutch ways, he's the MVP of two straight championship teams and been to three straight Finals — and after all that, you're still peddling the same exact arguments you were peddling last year, and the year before last. If he's the problem with the Lakers, every team should have that problem.

It was Kobe's man who made 2 of those 5 baskets. He was probably so tired from driving one-on-one he had nothing left for defense. C'mon, 3 rebounds? No steals? No blocks?

Of course the Lakers played bad defense. And Kobe was right there, playing as bad defense as anyone.

"A previous commenter was right, there ARE guys who's agenda in threads is to pump up Kobe Bryant."

Yup. And it looks like you're one of them. And I came neither to bury nor to praise Kobe. I'm merely pointing out what Phil Jackson himself pointed out a few weeks ago- Kobe has a tendency to go off and play the game by himself. The last two games are both illustrations of that. Freddie Coleman pointed out something on ESPN last night- in games where Kobe has taken at least 405 of the Lakers FG attempts, they are 3-7.

I will concede you one point. The Lakers bigs played like they were disheartened. I think there's some dissention going on, between the coach and the team and between some of the teammates themselves. But I think Kobe has a part to do with that too. Nobody wants to hustle to get open if he isn't going to have the ball passed to him. And the lack of movement tends to carry over on defense. Passing the ball has merits other than if it directly leads to a basket.

I can think of 3 missed game winners and missed assist (if there is such a thing) for MJ.

1) In the series against Cleveland in the game prior to the shot, MJ had a chance to put Chicago up or tie it (can't remember anymore) with two free throws and missed them both. If he hits them, either there's no game 5 or there's an overtime and maybe no game 5.

2) Game 1 against the Lakers in 1991 Finals he crossed up the defense and got a clean look at a 17 footer that rimmed out.

3) 1998 ECFs after Reggie hit the "shove Jordan in the chest with two hands after getting a running start and then get behind the line" game winning 3, Jordan had a chance to answer and had a rimout on a long sideways release from behind the arc.

The assist came in a Pacers game I happened to be at in 1998 while Pippen was still on the IR. MJ dragged the Chicago within 2 or 3 (can't recall) and in the closing seconds drew a double and hit Kukoc for a wide open elbow extended 3 pointer. No good.

We'll never know what the outcome would have been if Kobe had involved his teammates instead of taking all the shots himself.

That's false; we DO know because that's what happened for a 9 minute stretch in the 3rd quarter: nothing. The Lakers struggled to get their shot off against a stifling defense, their passing lanes were closed, and they couldn't find their way inside. Van Gundy and Jackson on the TV-cast pointed out over and over that the Laker bigs were being beaten down court both ways.

Moreover, from the 5:03 mark:
5:03 Kevin Garnett makes 18-foot two point shot (Paul Pierce assists)
4:28 Glen Davis makes layup (plus one free throw)
4:03 Kevin Garnett makes 2-foot two point shot (Rajon Rondo assists)
3:11 Ray Allen makes 24-foot three point jumper (Rajon Rondo assists)
2:41 Ray Allen makes 18-foot two point shot (Rajon Rondo assists)

5-for-5 shooting while Bryant went cold, and Boston was after shooting 56% up to that point. Where's the defense? Is that Bryant's fault that his big guys were getting beat? Because we saw in Game 7 of the Finals that the other Lakers are perfectly capable of playing Championship-caliber defense even when Bryant's ice cold. Gasol missed a grip of open jumpers. Artest was 1-10, Fisher went 1-6, and both guys got killed in their match-ups. The Lakers were out-rebounded 43-30. Their opponent shot over 60% from the field. There's plenty of people to blame... and of course Kevin wants to blame the guy who scored 41 points on 29 shots. Maybe if someone hits a open jumper, Bryant gets a few assists. Context. Game situations. Stop ignoring them.

A previous commenter was right, there ARE guys who's agenda in threads is to pump up Kobe Bryant. And then there are others — like Kevin — who's agenda in threads is to try and bury him. The fact that the Lakers have won two titles and been in three straight Finals running this exact offense should have put this type of criticism to bed, but I guess you can't ask fans of opposing teams to be rational about this stuff.

Kobe (and most other players) change from their normal movement and attack games to iso jumpshooter mode (particularly obvious of James who isn't that type of player for most of the game). It takes the team out of its game and gives the advantage to the defense. Not so with Melo since George Karl's team game is basically a series of isos anyway.