Kobe explains why he's only taken one charge in the last two seasons
Well, that and all the time he spends on defense standing next to the spot-up shooter on the weakside wing/corner.
Color me shocked that our friend Ferris had nothing to say about the Heat's failures down the stretch last night, but jumped at the opportunity to take a shot at Kobe for his comments to the media during the Lakers off day.
I didn't see the game. Those 7PM ET weeknight tips are tough for me to catch.Eyeballing the boxscore... it looks like MIA missed Bosh a ton because they got killed on the glass (50-40 IND). No one was converting kickouts into treys (1-for-16 3PT). LeBron had 10 points, 6 boards, and 3 steals in the fourth but no one on the team scored in the last 2:41. Ouch.
Maybe LeBron wore down from playing so much PF. Maybe he just sucks. If you're going to dismiss playoff heroics in early rounds of previous seasons, then I suppose it's far game to dismiss playoff failures in comparable rounds now. But hey, that's not how you roll.
I did see the video of Wade's flagrant. In the regular season, he most likely gets ejected plus a one-game suspension.
Overall, the guy who seems to have gotten a free pass for subpar performance is Wade. Most of the chatter in this thread and in national sports media has been about LeBron's missed FTs and not being the center of the last two possessions. However, Wade was 0-for-4 in the last two minutes. He committed a flagrant foul in the 4th quarter of a winnable game. His jump shot has been brutal the entire postseason (12-for-49).
It's easy to blame the loss on the lack of execution in the last two minutes, but MIA's real problem was being down 9 after three quarters. Only two of their best three players dressed for the game, and no one else showed up.
Some teams aren't designed to counter small lineups. IND is. They've got a bunch of 6'8" 210-230# guys who can play 2-3 positions, so they aren't fazed by LeBron playing big minutes at PF.
With Bosh, this was a 5-game series at the longest. Without Bosh? Grab a Snickers. Cuz this series isn't going anywhere for a while.