C'mon guys. 61 points is 61 points. That's impressive no matter how you look at it. We can still hate the Lakers and respect the ability of the players on the team. Kobe may be a phony as a person, but as a basketball player, he's one of the best to ever play the game.
It's true that the Lakers don't usually play as good when he takes the majority of the shots, but without the performance he put on last night, they probably lose that game. And we can say all we want about the pathetic Knicks defense, but that defense beat us during our 2-7 streak. I hope the team remembers that on Friday.
They beat us during the 2-7 streak...can we give them a cookie? it was also our 3rd time playing them, if they played the lakers a 3rd time - they win..
They also had thier best defensive performance in years in that game against us and absolutely no effort defensivly last night
sorry, the 20 free throws all of which came on questionable calls take away from his 0 rebound 61 pt performance
Give it a rest and stop making excuses. You're sounding like a Lakers fan. I'm not saying that the Lakers are better than the Celtics because they beat the Knicks and we lost. The sun shines on a dog's butt every once in a while. I still feel that with or without a healthy Bynum, the Celtics are a superior team to the Lakers. It doesn't mean I can't addmit when a guy has a good game. For you to negate his 20 free throws is pretty weak. I'm sure some of them were questionable, and no, it wasn't as impressive as Jordan dropping 55 on a very good defensive Knicks team back in 95, but it's a great feat nonetheless. And they got the win, which is what matters most.
Rather see an all-around game.. 61/3/0 does nothing for me, and I laugh hysterically at how scoring an indivdual 61 still gets praised more than team basketball...who gives a poo...Ill take lebrons 30-40 pt performances with 10+ boards and 10+ assists all day over kobes line
You talk about "team basketball", but then you throw LeBron's stats out there. Team basketball isn't about stats. Assists don't necessarily mean you're a team player. I don't see a whole lot of ball movement when LeBron has the ball. I see a lot of dribbling, penetration and shooting/passing off a double team. Team basketball includes doing the things that don't show up on the box score, like setting picks, swinging the ball around, taking charges, etc.
I agree that team basketball should be praised more than individual stats, which is why it's ludicrous to think that anyone other than KG should be starting at PF for the east (hello Gary), but you may be confusing "team basketball" with "all stats other than scoring".
