Monday, January 3rd, 2011 at 9:00 am  |  294 responses

Phil Jackson: Kobe ‘Screwed Up the Game’ With 1-on-1 Play

by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni

As the 2-time defending champs continue their season-long struggle to regain their dominant form, frustration has understandably begun to creep into their locker room. Most of it has to do with the aggravating lack of motivation from the team on a nightly basis.

Defensively, the Lakers can’t seem to stop anyone, and when things don’t go well on the offensive end (read: the post players are foolishly ignored), Kobe Bryant will tend to try and take over. This has not worked out well.

Last night, in a blowout loss to the Memphis Grizzlies at home, Bean lit up for 17 third quarter points en route to a game-high 28 … and the Grizzlies’ lead increased dramatically. Afterward, Phil Jackson let the media know that this was not in the game plan.

The LA Times has the quotes:

“I just felt like we had no energy,” Bryant said. ” … So I tried to generate some of that and just get us started, but we weren’t able to carry it through.” The problem? Bryant took 12 of the team’s 22 shots in the third.

“We get behind early on in the third quarter on some stupid plays — poor passing, poor transition defense — and then Kobe has to screw up the game and start energizing the team by going one-on-one,” Jackson said. “That takes the rest of the guys out and as a consequence, that didn’t bring us back in.”

The Lakers turned the ball over 20 times, part of why Memphis had 28 fast-break points.

The few fans that remained inside the Staples Center late in the fourth quarter booed the team off the floor, and Kobe suggested that the media needs to start ripping the team more in their stories (an inevitability that didn’t need Bryant’s prodding.)

The Lakers’ issues are all correctable, and it’s still early enough in the season for them to make the necessary adjustments. One just has to wonder how long it’ll take for the team to finally start playing up to their potential.

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  • http://Slamonline.com Nbk

    JTaylor how can you know if Pip was a clutch shot maker? MJ (rightly so) took or decided who took all of them. And if you haven’t noticed it was always him or the best shooter on the team when the shot was most important. But HE, Michael Jordan, as the Best Player and catalyst to the teams success made that decision. Not Phil Jackson. It sounds weird but the play should be drawn up for the player who put in the most work. Like a pick and pop between Scottie and Tony, anything that gets your best player involved IMO

  • JTaylor21

    Enigmatic, if you put it that way, I feel where Pip’s coming from. I probably would have pouted also but I would have at least be in the game. Though I don’t competely agree with AllenP’s and your point of view, let’s just agree to disagree.

  • http://slamonline.com Bryan Crawford

    It’s all good, Tarzan. No harm done. I respect you because you actually add valuable basketball commentary and you don’t show up just to troll…

  • OvaChicken

    The Heat should bring home the title this year. LOBE is the rapists new nickname & Brain Craw-Fish you think youre old at thirty something? Youre younger than me & id still kik ur fanny on the court. Wipe ur face with my ass, salt included. Make U SLOBBER-ON-MY-DOBBER B!t(h !! Don’t talk the talk if your monna sux …. —-> :-( ======8

  • OvaChicken

    YO MOMMAS MOMMA FANNY BOZ !!!!

  • OvaChicken

    YO MOMMAS SHOULDA SWALLOWED YOU !!!!!!!!!!

  • OvaChicken

    sorry i take that back now i didnt mean to offend any homosexuals on this site. No hard feelings B ?

  • OvaChicken

    sorry bout that wee man , i take it back. but it was fun !

  • the nerve

    Did yall kno the last time I wiped my ass Shermon Hemsley had hair on the top of his head? That built up fecal matter poisoned me all the way up to my brain. Plus, I hav a crush on Bryan.

  • Jackie Moon

    People tell me I am very mature for an eight year old.

  • Jackie Moon

    @Ovachicken Yay- you made a gay joke, by implying that someone was a homosexual, as if that was a terrible thing to be. Kudos to you, you awesome straight guy!

  • http://slamonline.com tealish

    Allenp — I understand Pip’s frustration. But there are about 82 better ways to vent your frustration in that situation. Even telling Phil to eff out, is fine. Refusing to return to the floor with your teammates when the effin’ game is on the line, is NOT one of them.

  • http://slamonline.com tealish

    off*

  • Jackie Moon

    Me being gay doesn’t make me less a man. So yea I’m offended by your gay jokes. Grow up!

  • the nerve

    I aint gonna fuuk w/u 2 nite man. u my ni99a.

  • the nerve

    Did you guys kno I was a science experiment gone wrong? Also, I’m gayer than Jackie Moon and sunshine with rainbows. But that’s beside the point. I’m in love with Bryan. There…I said it. I rarely shower.

  • http://www.need4sheed.com Tarzan Cooper

    Cool. See you tmrw crawford. …… Strange how the post up was a ghost town today because of phils comment about lobe. …. I bet figman is sad.

  • the nerve

    I’d teabag Kobe if I had the chance

  • the nerve

    I did the 3rd grade 6 times.

  • JeffOG

    Heat will beat the Lakers in the Finals this year. $500 wager. Takers?

  • Jackie Moon

    @JeffOG you can go to Vegas for that sort of stuff

  • http://slamonline.com Ugh

    Put the word ‘Kobe’ in the title and you get 200 comments. Do these people lurk, or do they have RSS for the word ‘Kobe’?

  • 80

    @Miles Brown, if you whink Jordan had no competition during his era, what do you call this roadkill quality of a basketball now? I am just challenging you to try and explain to me what is the criteria you are comparing the basketball of 80-90 era to any basketball you appreciate so you can post most ignorant comment of all times. You pointed out some flaws of the players who played against Mike, but all of them and I can add 30 more are doctors of basketball compared to these poor guys who run across courts in the Nba of today.

  • JeffOG

    @Ugh: Same can be said of ‘Lebron’ or ‘Heat’. @ Jackie Moon: I’d rather take the cash of the know-it-alls here.

  • flipnoyce

    HMMMM no one’s talking about 3peat, Kobe back to HOBE form again. I like it, the more he try to score the more the laker loses just like 06. I hope he’s not using that sacred finger of his as a lame excuse for poor shot selection that his always done.

  • http://www.slamonline.com Myles Brown

    I hate when people spell my name wrong. Especially when it’s right in front of them.

  • the nerve

    yall know some of thos comments wasnt me. but trust i understand bcuz i herbed yall boy n shtt. its cool 4 real. yall know what it is anyway. crawwwfit gorgin on APs thing thing 2day majorly. clown @$$ f@gg0tt. u still my nicka/white boy tho. ayo erbody know its u CCRRAAAWWWWFIT!! Bryant gumbel. u ass, man. resortin 2 sayin dumb shtt under my name. its fun n games tho. u take it serious. u dat crackhead nicka who be like DONT SAY NUTHIN BOUT MY MOMMA even if they sayin good thangs. Clown.

  • http://sjfklfsl.com Jukai

    I hate it too, Miles.

  • the nerve

    Miles y u be gettin mad for?

  • the nerve

    ^^AAAAHHHHH!!! They got me!! They gonna destroy THE NNNNEEEERRRRVVVE!!! NNOOOOOOOO!!! Somebody HELP MEEEEE!!!
    Punk ass NUCKAS!! LoLOLOLO

  • the nerve

    Ima be back 2morrow when they let me in da computer room 4 a hot sec. Den we gon go @ it again cuz I be knowin a lot bout dis sports stuff. I is not gon take it easy on yall cuz I be knowing a whole lot more den u.

  • the nerve

    AAAA damn yall be tryna play me? Aight cool. Watch when I be comin up in here wit a new handle.NOOOOOO!!! Not da nerve!

  • the nerve

    Nuckas be actin like i aint smart and edumacated like they is. I is smarter den most yall nuckas. Ima holla @ yall layter.

  • http://sjfklfsl.com Jukai

    I don’t like Kobe, I like to point out his flaws as much as anyone… but people are hating on him pretty bad here, it’s unwarranted. His team is playing way worse than he is. People hate on him for taking all the shots, but now he’s getting hate for not taking over games like MJ did. What’s this about?
    And as for the next debate… KG > Pip > Dirk.
    I know KG isn’t clutch. I know Dirk isn’t tough. But honestly, there was never any indication that Pippen was clutch and Pip shied away from a lot of fights and whined WAY MORE than just that one incident where Kukoc hurt his manhood.
    Pippen was sort of an odd case. People forget all his pouting and all his controversy, but very few people can be said to have worked as hard as Pippen, or gotten undervalued as much as Pippen did. On the other hand, people look back and WAY overrate Pippen’s offense. Dude rarely averaged over 20 (and never over 22), he didn’t shoot a high percentage mostly because his value was on the fast break and his shot was a tinge on the streaky side… his 3-point shot was unreliable and he clanked some big free throws in his days (especially early when the Bulls were always owned by Detroit).
    Still, he’s equally undervalued not because of his defense (people generally agree that he was lockdown beyond belief) but because of how great his passing and his rebounding was. Like, not just a great passer, but he’d occasionally create for other people, and distribute the ball perfectly.
    I still don’t think he’s a top-5 all-time SF though. That class is STACKED (not counting Pip, you got Larry Legend and Dr. J and Rick the Miami Greyhound, Hondo and Baylor, King James and Big Game James, Dominique the Human Highlight and… Bernard King and Alex English, and if you remember any nicknames those guys had, kudos to you).

  • Justin

    I think Pippen showed his all around skills in ’94 when Jordan retired the first time. A very good case could have been made for him being the MVP that year, and the Kukoc incident aside, provided very good leadership to that team. There weren’t a lot of guys that could grab a rebound and start the break himself either by finishing at the rim or making the right pass. He didn’t score a bunch partly because he was a passer more than a scorer but I’m pretty sure the year that Jordan was gone he was in the 24 ppg range. BTW Jukai, you’re crazy if you think Dominique, Alex English, or Bernard King were better overall players than Pippen. Scorers maybe, but overall? Not a chance

  • Towelie

    You know what? I noticed that Pau Gasol doesn’t demand the ball whenever he is on the floor. On some possessions he doesn’t even touch the ball. The Lakers need to take advantage of their size and Gasol needs to demand the ball more.

  • http://sjfklfsl.com Jukai

    Justin: I never said Nique, English, or King were better than Pippen. I just said that there have been lots of dominant small forwards in history and named them all, didn’t even order them. I’d have Pippen anywhere from 5 to 7, depending on how I feel about him, Havlicek and Lebron James in any given day.

  • http://sjfklfsl.com Jukai

    Also, as I said, his highest average was 22 points on 49% shooting. He never made it even a tenth of a point higher than that.

  • Justin

    Most likely because of his tendency to pass first and it had to be quite the transition for him that year. And when you say “I still don’t think he’s top 5 SF” and then ramble off a bunch of names, it’s implying that those guys are better.

  • http://sjfklfsl.com Jukai

    I think when I said “not counting Pip” it should have been a giveaway that I wasn’t including him in the top-10 small forward list. But hey, sorry I didn’t clarify it enough!
    Perhaps he never averaged over 22 points because he simply wasn’t that ludicrous of an offensive player? I’m not discounting 22 points a game in the most competitive league in history when defense was arguably at its best… but Pippen’s scoring was probably one of the weaker areas of his game. It is also why I can’t in good faith place him over a prime KG. I mean, KG as the go-to-guy in Minny put up 24-14-5-1.5-2.2 on 50% shooting. That’s one of the sickest lines for a season I’ve ever seen.

  • Conoro

    Nbk, that’s due in large part to my actually having a life outside of SLAMonline Forums…

  • Justin

    KG is also a 7 footer (or 6′ 12″ as he used to say lol) so scoring on small forwards and smaller power forwards shouldn’t have been a problem for him, especially with his athleticism. I will agree that scoring was definitely a weaker area of Pippen’s game and it could be argued that he was only the third best scorer on his team after Jordan and Kukoc. I believe that Kukoc could have scored lots more with the match up problems he gave teams but when you have Jordan and Pippen, he doesn’t get that chance.

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  • 80

    @Myles Brown sorry for misspell, didnt mean to disrespect, still would like to know what basketball era you consider to be superior, as you commented on Jordans opponents as being gimps basically.

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