| 02 January 2010
Hard to believe, but it's happened yet again. Watch...
There's been a huge furor on various sites about this passage of play.
But some points on this:
- Talk about a storm in a tea-cup, Rodriguez isn't even the guy defending Kobe - he's chasing Vujacic.
- Look at the footage, watch from 0.46 on. What exactly are you wanting the refs to call? Sure, there's contact, but it's both of them hitting the same spot on the floor at the same time - Rodriguez is chasing Sasha, Kobe at the ball.
- Then, the beautiful part. Look at Rodriquez, he back pedals a bit, then realises what's happening and suddenly loses his feet (0.52). I'm not sure if it's because he's trying to suddenly change direction, or he's selling it. But it's weird. Have a look at the angle from above (1.00) - STILL looks... odd.
I have no idea who the defender was SUPPOSED to be on Kobe, but they did a pretty crappy job - rotating onto Vujacic. Panic set in, and when that happened, Kobe was there to do what Kobe does best. Make 'em count.
If Udoka hits his free throws mere seconds before, this doesn't matter.
And don't blame the refs for that play, there was nothing to whistle - and where was the defender on Kobe?
A great win, no doubt. But I'm just as concerned about the "how did we get here?" aspect of it as well. Still, as I read on a forum "good teams find ways to win these kind of games." (a non-Laker fan too!). True. The Lakers are in a rough place at the moment, but still finding ways to win.
I'll take that.
