Originally Posted by
JD617
KG was beasting right up until he hurt his knee, and then was never the same again. It can happen as quickly as that. It's not like it was a slow, gradual decline with KG. He hit a point where his body just pretty much had enough. I know KG had a knee injury that required surgery and with Kobe it's apparently just some knee soreness, but it's still something to think about. Especially since Kobe had a full week of rest and still looked like he had nothing in the tank yesterday.
KB isn't KG. The only thing they have in common is they both came out of highschool and they both got tons of miles on their bodies
That's a pretty significant thing that they have in common.
Also, KG had around 42,500 total minutes played in his career when he hit the wall. Kobe is already at 44,254.
*shrugs*
We'll just have to wait and see I guess...
To be fair, KG's injury was worse than KB's, plus KG was noticebly declining even before his injury.
Let's be serious. What is KB's MAIN problem? His FG%. He's shooting like @!%%. He wasn't shooting like @!%% before the finger injury. It's his index finger for one, and anyone who plays basketball knows thats one of the main fingers that you NEED for a good follow through.
He's not making freethrows either. Why? Because of his finger... I find it hard to believe if he was truely declining he'd be missing freethrows because of that. It's clearly because of the broken finger.
Let's not forget Kobe has had a bad right hand since the 07-08 season. Remember when he needed surgery on his hand? Different injuries, yet none of them ever affected him as bad until this one.
I'm not making excuses for him, but if you guys honestly watch the games, just watching him shoot freethrows and looking at how he holds the ball says it all.
His finger will heal, but until then we will have to endure his game as it is as the moment.
What we should really be worried about is our bench. Hopefully everyone takes the playoffs as personal as KB does.
These guys don't have to carry even half the weight Kobe does. If they lose, it will always be his fault. You'd think they'd play a little better when all of the blame always falls on somebody else. Someone needs to slap the @!%% out of Pau Gasol.
He was beasting after all the criticism he recieved in 2008, now he just looks complacent since they got it done last year. Not sure if these guys on the Lakers realize last year is in the past now.
Lakers guard Kobe Bryant will not play in L.A.’s final two games of the regular season due to the avulsion fracture on his right index finger.
