Kobe Bryant scores a difficult 21 straight points for the Lakers against a swarming Celtics defense (2010 NBA Finals Game 5)
Rest of the Lakers were swamped. One of the best scoring performances in the finals. Celtics defense was nasty
His role players were so god damn bad that series too. Fisher didn’t hit a single 3 point shot until game 7 and finished the series 20% from three. Odom was a complete bum that series averaging 7 points on 48/10/54 splits. Bynum had one good game then his knees exploded and he put up 7⁄6 on 45% from the field.
The only two players who showed up at all were pau and artest.
They could have done better and put Tony Allen on him since Ray forgot how to shoot 3s and went 0-16 for games 3 through 5.
On the other hand Pau had 12 points as the team’s next highest scorer this game and was getting dogpiled by the fans
As much as I love him anyone that now claims Pau should’ve won FMVP should not be taken seriously
Yeah he’s very respected nowadays, but Pau got a lot of shit from both fans and the media after the 2008 Finals and then after this game people thought he was gonna come up short against Boston again. Thankfully the Game 7 win silenced the critics.
Pau is weird bc he was a great player but Kobe stans tend to downplay his impact and Kobe haters tend to overplay it
Ig not too dissimilar to the narratives surrounding pippen and mj/lbj stans trying to attribute too much or too little credit to their teams success
Kobe’s best teammate was on par with Bosh
Nah I’d take gasol over bosh for sure, bigger defender and paint presence and a better playmaker
Gasols handle and passing ability has gone overlooked over the years but he had great touch for his size and even when he wasnt scoring he was producing value out of touches
I think it equals out with Bosh’s perimeter defense and superior scoring.
Also the triangle allowed Pau to playmak but he was only getting 1 assist more per game than Bosh before he let lbj run the show alongside wade
Bosh is far more athletic and was far more versatile defensively.
He was the more dynamic scorer and had a better jumper.
Pau was the far better playmaker.
Both in the same tier.
But as a first option, Bosh is clearly above imho
What? Pau is better than bosh no question
It’s way closer than you think. Bosh for Pau on those lakers teams and they still win it. Bosh’s numbers will go up because Kobe doesn’t need him to stand at the 3 point line.
Nah I don’t think so. I like Bosh a lot but Pau’s chemistry with Kobe was awesome and they needed Pau’s playmaking and low post scoring
Bosh was an amazing post scorer and averaged 1 less assist than Pau, the triangle forced Pau to play make. Bosh being intelligent he would have easily adapted to the triangle especially as the 2nd option. If Bosh could make it work as the 3rd option he’d thrive under Kobe as the clear number 2
Kobe haters think Pau was a perennial all-star and a legit number two. Kobe stans think Kobe won two rings pretty much by himself.
And don’t forget when Ron Artest literally took over and won a finals closeout game while Kobe was 6-24 from the field.
Yup basically
Nobody has ever solo won an NBA championship, the idea of assigning credit based on your perception of someone’s teammates has always been kind of silly to me, clearly the team was good enough to win it all
If you stick prime LeBron or MJ on the bobcats at their worst they would be lucky to squeak into the playoffs much less win a championship
“Literally took over” 😂 the mental gymnastics you weirdos go through these days to still be flat out wrong is funny as hell
I mean Artest himself was 7⁄18 from the field that game. If you look at the FG% of the game it was a complete brickfest because both teams were exhausted and just beating the shit out of each other. Kobe had 15 rebounds so it’s not like he actively ruined the game
LeBron stans downvoting you because this is literally the foundation of their arguments in the GOAT debate. Make Bron’s teammates sound like G League trash and make Jordan’s sound like every last one was a hall of famer.
Thinking Basketball already went over this a couple years ago. There’s no statistical case for FMVP Pau Gasol over Kobe in 2010.
This might grind some gears here, but Thinking Basketball also posited Manu deserved the 2005 fmvp over Duncan. Manu was the engine of those Spurs’ offenses from 2005-11, especially in the playoffs when he played starter minutes.
But you never hear about this bc redditors are busy glazing Duncan to put down Kobe
Who gaf
The Pau being FMVP got revived because of Dwyane Wade and his fans lmao. Wade’s salty as fuck that Kobe won it. It was also around the time that McGrady was saying he’d 3 peat with Shaq
Who says that? Just cause he had a good game 7? I critique kobe as much as the next guy but that’s ridiculous i never heard that
And people bring up his 6⁄24 shooting performance in Game 7 as if the FMVP was awarded based off of one game.
that deep Celtics logo 3 was iconic - wades reaction too
Kobe had all of his peers admiring his game. That’s why his 81 stood out more than what adebayo did. Every scorer in the league came up to kobe in the months after to give him his props. No player watched what bam did with amazement.
Kobe is the embodiment of your favorite player’s favorite player. It’s also probably why his shoes are by far the most popular in the nba and wnba
TIL no player watched what Bam did with amazement
Anyways Wilt Bam Kobe
at least you learned something
Cope harder
ya’ll are embarassing yourselves
Wilt Bam Kobe
2/0/5
logo?
Kobe was a pure bucket getter no matter what team
It was Mr Bryant back then
That’s a weird way to spell average efficiency high usage a-hole lol
Kobe was a supremely talented dude with unrivaled work ethic.
He was also a deeply selfish player, a first ballot terrible teammate, and somehow both a top 15 player and one of the most overrated players of all time.
Above average efficiency, extremely versatile high volume scorer
Had the same ts% as Reddit darling tim Duncan, while being a sg, taking the most difficult shots possible, regularly and spending his last few post achilles seasons chucking like a mofo.
I watched this game live. There were so many Kobe haters in the building but you heard so many groans after every shot. Even D Wade was shaking his head. Celtics eventually won the game decisively but this stretch was special to witness.
That shot making was absolutely incredible
“Good defense better offense”
I really think people underestimate the level of defenses Kobe faced in his Finals run. There isn’t another all time great player who went through the same level of insane defenses that Kobe did during that stretch.
And they very much succeeded against him. He didn’t play well.
30/6/5 on 46/34/85 in 3 straight finals appearances and 2 back to back chips against a multitude of great defenses and 50 wins teams isn’t playing well?
I mean, in some instances yeah. Doesn’t change that Kobe faced a top 5 defense in every finals except the pacers and usually the best defense in the league. And not just that, but Detroit has a claim to the best modern defensive team in the league and the Celtics are easily in the discussion for top 5 defensive teams in the modern NBA. So when people just causally look at box scores between players it lacks some extremely important context.
Not to mention he was an absolute killer in the West playoffs leading up to the finals
Which includes some really good defenses. I mean he had some great series against the Spurs.
I don’t pretend to be the most knowledgeable about basketball in these subs and I definitely am not always right (thought I tend to only give an opinion I believe in), but what I will say is I always try to consider the context of the basketball topic being discussed. 90% of the people genuinely don’t even care about context and it leads to such frustrating discussion.
The discourse around Kobe is crazy. Yes he’s a career 45% shooter. But on his volume (20 FGA per game), that’s one made shot away from being 50% for his career. When you consider the difficulty of his shots and the poor(er) spacing back then, he was still great IMO.
When you look at shooting efficiency compared to league average he shot better than league average (+3) I think. He’s not an all time efficient scorer no matter how you look at it, but the people who portray him as an inefficient shot chucker are both factually wrong and giving shallow analysis with no context.
My favorite series of all time
The 2010 Lakers championship is my favorite sports memory.
That and the Kobe retirement game
Kiev retirement game was like a complete culmination of what basketball means. Like the best way to describe it to someone is to just tell them to watch Kobe’s farewell game
Just a historically elite defense geared specifically to stop one man - and they failed.
We failed because we lost our bigs.
Kendrick Perkins missed ONE game.
According to Celtics fans they failed because of that but also the Lakers losing Andrew Bynum for the entire series in 2008 had zero effect.
Cry more.
Who’s crying? Are you 8? We didn’t lose because we couldn’t stop Bryant, as you said. Stop with this BS. We lost Perkins in game7, KG was on one leg, and your bigs were too much in Game 7. GTFO.
They really didn’t. No one’s replaying Kobe’s 6⁄24 game 7 performance where Artest saved the championship.
They should replay that game. Kobe was excellent with a game high 15 rebounds. Sure, he shot horribly but at the end of a grueling defensive series, he shot better than the historically efficient Ray Allen.
Their entire game plan for the series was to beat the Lakers by stopping Kobe and since they lost the series… they definitely did fail.
I’m sure his broken finger on his shooting hand didn’t help his percentages either.
Yeah, absolutely no one was hitting shots that game because everyone was completely gassed from such a grueling series. Kobe and Pau combining for 33 rebounds while KG had an embarrassing 3 is why the Lakers won. When no one can shoot, getting extra possessions is huge.
I sports hate Kobe, but this is why the “Pau should have been finals mvp” narrative is dumb.
This Celtics defense was elite man. They had LeBron in Hell. And kept Kobe from really going off. Great series, well earned
The baseline fade over Pierce and KG was just disgusting
Kids dont know nothin about this level of play
But he’s a bum and overrated and a inefficient shot chucker. How is this possible? If you don’t shoot over 45% you literally can’t win games. Regardless of true shooting percentage or defense. Must’ve been a fluke. Players who score like that don’t win rings. He probably didn’t get one in his career.
Best 25% scorer of all time.