About Kobe’s Fourth Quarter
May 20th, 2009 at 12:00 pmBy Chris
Before I go into this post, it should be noted I’m not a Denver Nuggets fan. I am, however, pulling for the underdog in the series, so I suppose that puts me in the “De facto” category. Besides the proliferation of Lakers fans — Where were these folks in the regular season? — famous or otherwise, I don’t really have any negative feelings towards Phil Jackson’s band of merry men. In fact, I picked the Lake Show to win this series in seven games.
Nevertheless, I’m confused by all this talk of Kobe showing why he’s the best closer in the game nonsense. Did folks look at his box score, see his 40 points (18 in the fourth) and just assume he was incredible down the stretch or did I miss something (very possible)?
The reason I ask this is because I’m curious:
What, besides going six-for-six at the free throw line in the last 30 seconds of the game, did Kobe do to bury the Nuggets? Did he tell George Karl to have Anthony Carter inbounds the ball? Yes, his pass to Derek Fisher for the huge 3-pointer was nice and it gave the Lakers their first fourth quarter lead, but Bryant only made one basket from the field during the final three minutes of the game. In fact, he missed a 22-footer when the game was tied at 99, but was bailed out by an offensive rebound.
From their, he got fat at the free throw line — and if you go by Bill Simmons’ theory, the Lakers got all the calls down the stretch, putting Kobe in a position to do his free throw line damage. Don’t get me wrong, Bryant deserves credit for being perfect at the line when it mattered, but I don’t consider making free throws puts you in some kind of mythical assassin category.
Clutch? Definitely — but beyond that, I’m not sure the overflowing of hyperbole is warranted.
