Playing Basketball
Posted by Karakash Under Општо / Разно on Thursday Dec 22, 2005Не сакам, стварно не сакам да влегувам у дискусија за Коби со било кого, реков подоле, Свака част. Толку. Али, ја на ко:арката гледам поинаку од доста луѓе, ваљда тоа е нешто што доаѓа со годините, мада кога ќе ми текне, одувек сум гледал така на кошарката. Имаше време кога и ја знаев да се попалам кога некој ќе дадеше 50-60 поени, али знајте дека тоа не освојува титули. Поентата не е у тоа, секој од вас кој играл или игра кошарка ќе ви каже колку е “убаво” да се игра со тип кој секој напад гледа само на противничкиот кош. На тебе останува да гинеш у одбрана, да скокаш ко луд и у напад и у одбрана, за некој да си го прави ќејфот, да си лечи фрустрации. Така не се игра оваа игра. Да не го тупам, еве што за целата ситуација мисли НБА новинарот кој ја страшно го поштуем, Ленг Витакер од најбољиот баскет магазин SLAM.

Amazing, yes. I watched most of it, and found myself shaking my head as shot after shot went in.
But here’s where I’m a hater (and hey, I’ll freely admit it). I was shaking my head because he wasn’t passing the ball. Ever. As Avery Johnson said, “We had no answer for him. We tried to double-team him, we tried to zone him, we tried to trap him in the backcourt, and nothing worked. He had his way with us tonight.”
So much so that Kobe finished with 0 assists.
Sure, I understand that he was hot and he was making his shots, but what happens on another night when he’s not making those shots? It sets a bad precedent, and, more than anything else, reinforces my point about the Lakers being one of the most egregious examples of a team not being a team.
This morning I pulled out the Lakers media guide and looked up the team’s all-time single game scoring records. Not counting last night’s game, it reads like this:
Elgin Baylor — 71 points (11/15/1960)
Wilt Chamberlain — 66 points (2/9/69)
Elgin Baylor — 64 (11/8/59)
Elgin Baylor — 63 (12/8/61)
Jerry West — 63 (1/17/62)
Shaquille O’Neal — 61 (3/6/00)
I can’t find the old box scores, but if anyone out there can dig them up, I’m curious whether any of these other guys ever had 0 assists in their big games. (When Shaq had 61 in 2000, I don’t know how many assists he had but he threw in 23 rebounds.)
The one thought I can’t get out of my mind during all of this is from back when I was in high school. We had a game and our small forward (who was a McDonald’s All-American and Parade first-team All-American) was getting progressively hotter and hotter. By the third quarter, he was stroking threes, long twos, driving and getting fouled and hitting free throws. During a time-out, our coach said something about how he didn’t need to tell us about how hot our guy was. Then our star looked at all of us and said, “Look, they’re doubling me every time I get the ball. Be ready for the pass.”
So we went back out on the floor, and for some reason I was in the game. We ran a play to get our stud open. He came off a pick, I hit him with the pass, he pump-faked and the entire opposing team ran at him, and he tossed it to me for the open three. He knew he could score, but he also knew he didn’t have to score, and that it would help the team in the long run to get everyone else involved and establish that precedent.
Last night, for instance, I watched the Heat/Hawks game. And Shaq came out and was immediately unstoppable. The Hawks started double-teaming him, fronting him, everything they could think of. And Shaq did two really smart things:
1) When he was right under the basket, he’d shoot it. Sometimes even being double-teamed doesn’t matter, especially when you’re parked in the lane. He finished the game taking 15 shots, and he made 13 of them, and all but two of those shots were dunks or lay-ups. Look at his shot chart:
2) When he caught the ball pretty much anywhere not under the rim, he’d find the open guy, who’d wait for the rotation and then find the next open guy. Seriously, it was pretty awesome to watch the Heat just execute the Hawks last night. As Mike Woodson said of The Diesel, “They utilized him. Not that Van Gundy didn’t, but with Pat, he makes them go through Shaq and then play. And that’s how it should be.”








