Fellow Lakers fans. Please chant MVP louder. The Lakers is obviously missing its MVP. Somebody please put Kobe’s picture on a milk carton.

A practical no show for the past two games. Sure. He made more jumpers today. But what kind of impact did he have other than scoring?

This is the supposed best player on the planet. He’s relegated to being a glorified version of Jerry Stackhouse (Detroit Pistons days where he led league in scoring). Seriously. It’s like Bryant’s not even on the court when he is on the court.

Doesn’t play particularly great defense on Ray Allen. Still questionable shot selection. When you have Leon Powe have more attempts at the FT line than the reigning MVP, that should tell you something.

Take the damn ball to the hoop more. Kobe is still taking too many jumpers. Kobe is the only one who can create shots on his own. He needs to take the ball strong to the hoop to put pressure and create foul troubles on the Boston Bigs.
Send a message. Create a tone for the rest of the game. The aggressive nature needed to win when away from LA. That’s the message the MVP needs to bring for the entire team. Not settle for jumpers that bail out the opponents and the refs.

Valiant effort at the end. But too little too late. Lakers need to establish the aggressive nature from the beginning of the game.
Maybe Kobe can pull a Dwyane Wade and lead the Lakers to 4 consecutive wins. Wade certainly took the ball strong to the hoop. Got 20+ FT’s every game.

Maybe that’s too much to ask for.

Maybe we can start by asking Bryant to just not fall in love with the jumper (because rest of the team follows suit) and take it to the hoop more.

Pretty please.

-Jeffs Aho

“…the aggressiveness swayed the effective calls. They were aggressive. They went to the basket.” - Phil Jackson

As written in the previous posts, Lakers need to establish aggressive nature from the get go to let the refs understand the type and tone of the game the Lakers are going to play.
Not settle and bail out the opponent and the refs.

Kobe “Jumpers ‘R’ Us” Bryant needs to set the tone. Plain and simple. Pau tried doing it against KG with a monstrous dunk in the 1st but as usual, Lakers went away with what works and settled.

Lakers offense basically took shots the Boston team wanted LA to take. Keep LA off the line and let them shoot jumpers. Easy game plan. More dosage of it coming in the next few games.
If Lakers don’t adjust, series over.

There is a remedy. It involves Bryant.

Here it is:

***Dwyane Wade shattered the free throw record in a 6 game NBA Finals with 97 attempts and 75 makes. He averaged over 16 free throw attempts a game.*** - Wikipedia

Most pundits were crying foul when they witnessed Wade being paraded to the FT ad infinitum.

Now Kobe needs to do the same.

Who cares if it’s ugly basketball.

Whatever it takes to win. No excuses.

-Jeffs Aho