For the series, Kobe is averaging 33.8 ppg on 55% shooting, while collecting 6.5 rebounds and dishing out 9.8 assists per game (13, 11, 10 in last three). Not only is he carrying the scoring load, going off in the third quarters of Game 3 and 4 to bring the game back within close reach while logging heavy second-half minutes, he’s giving everyone else easy scoring chances. However, the fact that we have dropped the last two games only goes to reiterate the Lakers’ lack of defensive execution and focus.
If we’re going to lose a game in which Kobe shoots 65% from the field to score 38 points, that spells nothing but trouble.
The Mamba’s individual dominance has essentially been all for not as the series sits right where it began, tied, and is now a best of three. He is expending way too much energy out of a body that is 85-90% healthy at best. The rest of the team cannot allow his explosive scoring binges to amount to no avail.
Before the alarm is raised to Defcon 5 ahead of Game 5 however, I want to do what I can to calm the tide, albeit for just a day, by walking the proverbial plank and saying, I’m actually enjoying this.
This is what makes postseason sports, the NBA Playoffs to be exact, such a wonderful luxury that we all have to privilege of losing our minds over. Defending a crown is not supposed to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, there are absolutely dominant runs to a major sports championship as we even saw the 2001 Lakers championship team go 15-1 on the way to a second straight ring. But that was then, this is now.
The current Lakers have completely different personnel and a team’s second unit has never meant as much to a title run as it does now in the NBA. I have faith that our bench’s championship experience and moxie will ultimately prevail in this series. They took tons of heat even through all of last year, but when it mattered the most, they stepped up to the challenge of embracing greatness and asserted their will against the competition. Kobe and Derek will not allow them to get decimated to the tune of 54-20 again for the rest of this series. No way.
There are really no secrets as to what the Lakers must do to win Game 5 and ultimately, the series. We are the better team, the more experienced team and the defending champions. While I do extend credit to the Suns for handling their business, all they did was win their home games. They cannot play any better, but our room for improvement is still wide open.
Adversity is as much apart of the journey as is success. The Lakers have two of the three remaining games at home and I have the utmost confidence that we will ultimately advance to the NBA Finals. Consider the fact that the last two games were simply lost in the fourth quarter. The issues on defense and in rebounding are ones that we are more than capable of correcting as well.
Let me rephrase – they better be corrected.