It's official: Lakers get to lose to Oklahoma City in first round

beat,

I think Bird played HS basketball too, so we can include his too. It doesn't seems worth talking about a Bird/Kobe comparison because they played a different type of game and had a very different physical makeup. I agree that Kobe will be done at 35 years old, 4 years from now.
In watching Kobe over the last 14 years, I don't expect him to lose much of his competitive edge. That is what drives him.

bobheckler wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:Lakers going down tonight,Durant gonna go off,too many problems for Dr Phil to fix.

Sorry Cow, my money is still on the Lakers.

bob

Looks like you were right. This series in some ways reminds me of the Houston series last year.

beat wrote:I heard it somewhere about Kobe and the miles he has on him vs Bird and the eventual breaking down of ones body.

Going into this season Kobe had 34,538 minutes during the regular season
Bird retired with 34,443..............nearly even.

Going into the playoffs this season Kobe has logged 6,888 minutes of playoff action.
Bird retired with 6,886...........almost spot on even.

Kobe has now played an additional 2,835 minutes this season plus 5 games now in the post season.

Bird retired at the age of 35. Kobe turns 32 later this year.

Kobe is already having many nagging injuries will he even come close to making it to 35 or will he have had enough.

beat

beat-

Wow- fascinating stuff. That's incredible how close the amount of minutes were between Kobe and Bird heading into the season. Pretty amazing. Given that they'd played similar amounts of minutes heading into this season, makes sense that KObe has been dealing with some injuries, as his NBA odometer has some miles on it. SInce he entered the NBA threee years earlier than Bird, it's a good comparison.

Phil playing him big minutes most of the year made things worse, as did Kobe opting to not to sit out for a couple of months to let his finger heal. PErsonally, I would have liked to see him sit, and have a healthy finger (and be well-rested and healthy overall), with him coming back right after the AS break. The rest of the team showed they could play well and win without him, so they wouldn't have lost much ground in the standings.

Hopefully, he's learned his lesson this year, and will be more open to resting injuries in the future instead of having them pile up as they did this season.

I look for Kobe to be effective until he's 35-36, as I think there are two big differences betweem Kobe's situation and Bird's:

1. The advancs in therapy and overall training techniques are light years ahead of what they were in the '80's. And Kobe is a treatment fiend. I don't know what Bird's recovery/treatment habits were like, but even if he was as manic about it as Kobe is, BIrd (and all players of the era) didn't have access to the kind of treatment today's players do, which make s a huge difference in the long run.

2. If I remeber correctly, Bird had to carry a lot of weight on the Cs teams once they went into decline after '87. If Kobe is smart, he will rely more ad more on Gasol, BYnum, etc as the years go on to carry the load (during the regular season, especially). When he facilitates and gets his points in the flow, as he did on THursday night in LA, he can control the game without scoring a ton and without exerting a huge amount of wear and tear on his body. I look for him to do more and more of that as the year's go on, as he will still (rightfully so) get the credit for quarterbacking them to victories without wearing his body down as much. They are better as a team when he plays like that, and he will have a lot more in the tank for late game and playoff heroics if he plays that way.

bobheckler wrote:

babyskyhook wrote:Jeb, bobh, Sam, Michael and gyso (and anyone else who's interested)-

The game we always reference in our discussions with regard to the "good" Kobe is Game 6 vs Denver last year. He played in that mode tonight with very similar results- a blowout win with balanced scoring across the roster. He was getting everyone else involved off drive and dishes. Great D on Westbrook, too.

As we have frequently discussed, when he lets the game come to him it is really something to watch. I'm hoping that with him being a little banged-up we'll see this version of Kobe for the rest of the playoffs b/c they will be tough for someone to take out if he plays like this. Hopefully the silver lining of his injuries is that he will lean on the other guys more, b/c if he's taking 30 shots (a la game 3) they are much more vulnerable.

Congrats on your boys taking care of business. Cs-Cavs is going to be awesome.

bsh,

congrats on your guys doing what they had to do: not just win, but make a statement. They did that last night in spades.

Whoda thunk that a depleted, damaged Kobe would be the thing that makes the Lakers better?

I told a friend of mine who's a Laker fan, that Gasol is the Lakers' MVP. He went ballistic and told me I didn't know what I'm talking about and how many big shots has Gasol hit vs Kobe etc. Well, Gasol took 16 fga last night (more than any other player on either team) and scored 25 points, had 11 rebounds (4 of them offensive) and 5 assists with only 1 turnover. Bryant took 9 fga and had 4 turnovers and the Lakers won HUGE!! I can't wait to see this guy again and explain the facts of basketball life to him. LOL.


bob

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bob-

I think you can make a good case for Gasol as a co-mvp. They're not getting anywhere without Kobe, but we remember that they weren't getting anywhere before the Spaniard came along either. His consistent high efficiency and his all around game (rebounds, assists, blocks) are key to this team's success.

Bottom line: just like BIrd couldn't have done it without the Chief and Mchale, and Magic couldn't without Kareem and Worthy, Kobe and Gasol couldn't do it without each other.

Vegas lists the OKC-Laker game tonight as pick 'em. An evenly matched fight.

http://www.donbest.com/nba/odds/

Should be a fun watch.