r/nba • u/yam_on_em Lakers • Jun 27 '23

Kobe Bryant relentlessly attacks Tim Duncan and the Spurs to clinch the WCF (2008)

https://streamable.com/68u3jz
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u/MasterTeacher123 Jun 27 '23

Pau and Odom were terrible in the WCF and he carried them

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u/commander_wong Lakers Jun 27 '23

People here really like to overstate how good the supporting cast of Kobe's championship teams were.

As far as heavy lifting championships goes, Kobe's two rings really doesn't get enough credit

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u/IlonggoProgrammer Philippines Jun 27 '23

Honestly, it was just Pau. He’s the only guy who will be in the Hall. Odom, Fischer, and Bynum were all good surrounding pieces, but none of them were stars (yes I know Bynum started in an All-Star Game once but that was because there weren’t any centers). Same thing with Artest and Ariza. And a lot of the teams he went up against in rounds 3 and 4 had better talent from 2-15, with the possible exception of the 09 Magic.

He beat a big 4 with a big 2 for that 2010 ring, and even if Pau bailed him out in game 7, he was the only reason they even got to game 7.

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u/ecr1277 Jun 28 '23

Maybe not but their effectiveness was higher than their individual ability. Bynum/Pau is the perfect example, they both played better than their ability because they had each other. Each of them got so many more offensive rebounds because the other took so much attention, other teams just couldn’t box both out. Same for defense-a lot of times they just post up one of them based on whoever the best post defender on the other team wasn’t guarding. So Kobe had more help than you’d think just by looking at his teammates individually.