Kobe Bryant, Because He Wants to Win, Is the Reason the Lakers Are Losing

What if Kobe Bryant is the reason that the Los Angeles Lakers are losing and he doesn’t even realize it?

That’s what I asked myself when I read a weird statistic: When Bryant passes the 30-point mark, the Lakers are just 1-10. He scored 42 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers, yet they lost. When they lost to the Los Angeles Clippers on November 2, Bryant scored 40 points on 14-23 shooting.

That’s not bad shooting at all and is indicative of the fact that he is a juggernaut on the offensive end.

I think Kobe Bryant is the best player in the NBA. Hands down, he is the best player in the NBA. He is a world-class competitor who wants nothing more than to win.

But that’s why the Lakers are losing games. Because Bryant is taking the offense and accounting for the majority of the shots taken—and points made—the entire team is losing.

When one player accounts for so much of the offense, other players don’t really get their touches. They don’t get to shoot and when, on the offensive end, players are left doing nothing, there’s little motivation to do anything on defense.

Here’s a hypothetical scenario: The ball is brought up and across half-way. It’s passed to Bryant who dribbles it a few times. Howard stands near the basket, ready for a rebound, and the rest of the guys stand around waiting. Kobe drives, pulls up, and shoots a jumper. It goes in.

That’s great.

But now the team needs to get back on defense. For up to 24 seconds, players just stood around. Now they suddenly need to turn their engines back on and get back into transitional defense.



"Our transition defense is our Achilles' heel. It was our Achilles' heel last year and it's been our Achilles' heel this year. Whether that's because of defensive balance or lack of speed or both, teams are really taking advantage of us,”...

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