2008 Woodie Awards
Bryant couldn't camouflage all of the Lakers' blemishes
Kevin Ding, The Orange County Register
Issue date: 6/19/08 Section: Sports
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Just like last year, more solace awaits Kobe Bryant with Team USA, which will have a mini-camp in Las Vegas about a week from now. And there's no doubt that Lakers coach Phil Jackson's loss is Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski's gain: If he has to settle for another runner-up prize at the Olympics in late August in China, Bryant might well hurl that silver medal all the way to Taiwan.
"The goal was to win a championship," Bryant said Tuesday night. "It wasn't to win MVP or anything like that. It was to win a championship. From that aspect, we failed."
The NBA Finals had featured either Shaquille O'Neal or Tim Duncan the previous nine seasons. Here's the updated version of that factoid now and going forward with the Lakers expected to continue contending with center Andrew Bynum's return to health: Either Bryant or Duncan has played for the championship in nine of 10 years.
The thing is, O'Neal and Duncan are a combined 8-1 in the NBA Finals. Michael Jordan went 6-0. Bryant is 3-2.
Overall, it was Bryant's best statistical postseason, with the 47.9 percent he shot from the field the best in any season in which he advanced beyond one round. But the round-by-round breakdown of Bryant's numbers is stark:
Round 1 vs. Denver: 33.5 points per game on 50 percent field-goal shooting. Round 2 vs. Utah: 33.2 points on 49.1 percent shooting. Round 3 vs. San Antonio: 29.2 points on 53.3 percent shooting. Round 4 vs. Boston: 25.7 points on 40.5 percent shooting.
Bryant's excellence through three rounds concealed all sorts of Lakers warts such as Lamar Odom's inconsistency, Pau Gasol's preference to face the basket, the bench's inexperience and everyone's reluctance to get back properly in transition defense when disappointed that they didn't score.
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