Lakers Bottom Out, Lose to Wizards, 106-101

Funny, it’s not just James Worthy who, in the post-game show, couldn’t quite utter the words, “Kobe shot too much.” It’s also Mike Brown, the LA Times writers, and oh let’s throw in everyone else.

But many of them do say it in different ways. Worthy and the others correctly note that Bynum and Pau don’t shoot enough. Funny, no one knows why or wants to admit he knows why.

Confronting Kobe with the awful truth is apparently political dynamite, so Brown and the pundits look for answers on the other side of the street where the light is better. So they bemoan the lack of defense. Please. The Pistons and Wizards were playing defense?

It’s easy to say a guy shoots too much when he goes 9-31. But I have been saying the same thing when Kobe hits 50% of his shots.  He has to get more shots for the Twin Towers. Against the Wizards, Bynum took eight shots. Outrageous. Pau took 11 shots in 39 minutes. Almost as outrageous. Meanwhile, Kobe took more shots than any other five teammates combined! Like I say, even if he shoots 50%, it’s not enough because Bynum and Pau are shooting much better!  Kobe missed 22 shots!

He’s got to take his point guard mentality out there and get the damn ball to those guys. I have no doubt that if Gasol and Bynum score 25 each (that’s exactly what you want) Kobe would score at least 20 a night just hitting open shots. But, if only averaging 20 would be a loss of face, he’d also have 10 assists a game and possibly a sixth ring. And here’s the killer. They could even do it with the guys they have. Those three guys are that good. But Kobe would have to buy into it by taking about 16 shots (or fewer) a game and giving eight (or more) of his shots to Pau and Bynum. Simple.

When Bynum scored 30 points against the Pistons, it was his second-highest total ever. He should be doing that often. Also shocking, Bynum averages a mere twelve shots a game.  Kobe averages twice as many shots as Bynum.

Mike Brown criticized Kobe’s shot selection last night against the Wizards. He didn’t say he shot too much. But if Kobe hit a few more of his shots, and the Lakers actually won the game, then Brown wouldn’t have questioned Kobe’s shot selection.

Those losses to the Pistons and the Wizards were great advertising for the league. The NBA is very competitive, folks. Even the lowliest team has a lot of good players. You better bring your A game.

The most striking image for me last night was Bynum yukking it up a couple of times when the Lakers had a big lead. He’s done that a few times this season, usually with Kobe enabling.  Like yeah, we’re having fun out here dominating these twerps. False bravado and lousy karma. Karma is when you’re ahead by 21 points in the middle of the third quarter and you get the giggles and then wind up losing.

But now, after Brown almost said Kobe shot too much, after two straight horrible losses, after playing bad and looking bad, after hitting rock bottom, which is where they are right now, maybe even Kobe will see the light.