I think he was just being a baby and pouting.

Whats your reasoning?

His actions aren't consistent with his career. In those situations he usually ball hogs even more than usual. It just came off to me like he was pouting and so he could deflect the blame elsewhere later. I just think he didn't want to go down trying to score 60 pts. and then have everyone all over him.

Agreed. Even his press conference was creepy. He kept praising the Suns in this monotone voice and refused to address the actual game itself.

The behavior was not consistent with how Kobe plays. As much as I hate the cocksucker, he is a competitor. He looks forward to challenges (so he says). I think he sensed his team was dead in the water at halftime and that's when he gave up. I actually think he was in finish mode in the second quarter when he was jacking up all those 3's and hitting them. Every 3 he hit was met with a 3 on the other end by the Suns. When Kobe saw that he was going to get zero help from his teammates, he gave up at halftime because I think he sensed they didn't have it in them to make a comeback. The real Kobe would've went down shooting. This was something else. I don't want to necessarily say it was pouting or showing Phil and his team up, but it was something.

 

Here is something telling though, when Raja Bell knocked Kobe on his ass in game 5, how many Lakers came to Kobe's aid? How many got in Raja's face about what he did? How many spoke up through the media to defend Kobe or criticize Bell?

I think the Lakers were dead before the game even started. When they didn't close it out in game six, that's when they were in trouble. When all the newspapers and sportscasters and TV shows were talking about the Clippers against the Lakers and giving the Lakers big heads and the Suns motivation, that's when they were in trouble. The Lakers were successful against the Suns when the Lakers, as a team, showed up and played together. It took big plays from Walton and good games from Brown and Odom. When Kobe scored fifty, they got rocked.

 

Game six wasn't the same game that the Lakers had attempted to play, and did so successfully, in the first five games. Thus, they felt deflated and defeated in game seven. I won't say they were out of gas because they were just as tired as Phoenix. Phoenix just wanted it more, played harder and earned their victory. Hell, the game started out with like a 10-0 run by Phoenix and the Lakers never recovered. They were outplayed and out hustled. Their defense was nonexistant.

 

Kobe didn't show up and I don't know why. I'm not going to say he was pouting but if he didn't think they could win that game, he wasn't the only one on that bench feeling that way. If Kobe was pouting, so were Brown, Odom, Walton, etc. 'cause none of them showed up.

Chris Paul is officially the Rookie of the Year, voted first place on all but one ballot and getting 623 of a possible 625 points. Villanueva was second, Bogut third, and the lone other first place vote went to Utah's Deron Williams.

I wouldn't have chosen Williams over Felton myself. Everytime I saw him play I was underwhelmed by him. Felton's play at the end of the season was better than any of Williams' play throughout the whole.

In The Sixth Man, Chris Palmer's book about a year spent in the NBA world, Palmer recounts a trash-talking session between Paul Pierce and Damon Jones during the 2005 All-Star weekend in Denver.

 

Jones' only chip was that he played for the Miami Heat, who had the best record in the Eastern Conference at the time.

 

Pierce's blast: "Look at my resume. It speaks for itself. All-Star four times, 25 a game every damn year. I don't give a [bleep] about championships as long as I'm getting mine and bustin' yo [butt]."

 

That says it all. If I were a Celtic fan, I'd be sad. And if I were an NBA general manager, I'd never trade for or sign Pierce.

Credit: LA Times

It's trash talk between players, I don't think fans or GMs should be treating it as a serious infraction. I'm sure alot of things are said during trash talking, that would outrage fans/coaches/GMs.

Spurs lose a close game due to another Ginobili brain fart in crunch time. However, the big story may be Dirks ankle. If he is limping into Game 4, then this thing will probably go back to San Antonio 2-2.

Chris Paul is officially the Rookie of the Year, voted first place on all but one ballot and getting 623 of a possible 625 points.  Villanueva was second, Bogut third, and the lone other first place vote went to Utah's Deron Williams.

Told ya so.

The Pistons were jobbed.

Come again, Alf?

Maurice Evans blocked LeBron on a layup attempt, clean block, but was called for a foul with 42 (?) seconds left and a tie game. LeBron makes one of two, and the Pistons wouldn't score again. The game should have at least gone to OT.

 

Speaking of OT, it just started in Dallas, again as a result of a phantom foul call on Bruce Bowen.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think the Clippers have a really good shot at going to the Finals now.

Yeah, I can totally see the Clips beating the Mavs.

Eh, the Spurs biggest problem isn't the Mavs, it is Pop's stubbornness and refusal to stick with what got him to the playoffs and their best regular season record in the first place. Yes, we got jobbed in Game 2 and it was an abomination but this small ball is driving me batty. Fuck, replacing a big on the Spurs would be like the Pistons deciding to sit Rasheed for Delfino or some stupid shit. We got blown out in Game 2 but the only game we won was when we played Spurs ball and that was Game 1.

 

The Clips may or may not get to the W.C. Finals but Pheonix has already defied odds as it is so I am not counting them out.

Spurs need to go to a 4 point guard line up of Parker, Ginobili, Barry, Van Excel, with Horry as the only big on the court. But seriously it does not matter who is in the line up for the Spurs because they always fine a way to lose the game in the final seconds. It's either Ginobili losing the ball in the final possession or Parker missing the easy layup or somebody missing the free throw in the 4th quarter.

Always, huh?

...and here I thought the problem was S.A. trying to run with Dallas with a "small man" team instead of using their experience and size as an advantage.

Nope it's mostly the shoot as many 3 pointers as possible and forget about rebounding game plan that is hurting the Spurs. If the Spurs go with the big man lineup do you really want the team to look at Rasho Nestovic for offense?

Gotta love all the Cleveland "fans" coming out of the woodwork at TSM now that they're tied with the Pistons.

Warm up the boat for the Nets.

...and here I thought the problem was S.A. trying to run with Dallas with a "small man" team instead of using their experience and size as an advantage.

Agreed. That was what I was trying to say but ended up not saying.

 

 

Nope it's mostly the shoot as many 3 pointers as possible and forget about rebounding game plan that is hurting the Spurs.

Agreed on the rebounding but we haven't been popping up many 3 pointers this series.

 

 

If the Spurs go with the big man lineup do you really want the team to look at Rasho Nestovic for offense?

You don;'t need him for offense... but either him, Horry and even Mohammed would have had a better chance of grabbing the rebounds that ended up killing us late in games 3 and 4.