Why Lakers Should............

[Raider Assassin]

At all times have the ball in Kobe's hands at the end of game winning situations because no one else on that team has the ability or know how to win games in clutch situations.

The Lakers have lost two games in a row and to be truthful,I didn't expect them to be able to beat the Suns,especially in Phoenix,but to lose a game against the lowly Sac Kings after having been in a situation to win the game,was more than I could stomach. With the Lakers up by five points and having the ball with only 35.5 seconds in regulation remaining,the ball was in the hands of Odom which I figured wasn't a bad place for it to be. Well I was wrong because Odom seemingly went brain dead and tried to drive to the basket with sixteen(16) seconds remaining on the shot clock and was called for an offensive foul. From that point on things went down hill for the Lakers and they ended up losing in OT.

All Odom had to do was run clock by passing the ball around and some would have eventually gotten fouled and shot free throws and even had they not hit the throws,there wouldn't have been enough time for the Kings to keep throwing up three pointers.Thus,in order for the Lakers to win close games of that nature the ball needs to be in the hands Kobe,the best clutch player in the NBA and not in the hands of someone who is going to needlessly force a play that isn't neccessary,we wheren't down by five,we were up 5.

In order for the Lakers to make the playoffs and/or hold onto their current seventh playoff position or move up to the fifth or sixth position,the ball needs to be in Kobe's hands and on one else's in game ending situations.
hopefully Odom will have learned a lesson from his bone head mistake,because the Lakers aren't yet a team good enough to be giving away games that seemingly had won,especiall against sub .500 teams like the Kings.

[KP]

Isn't that kind of the general rule? You put the ball in the best players' hands and let them win or lose the game?

I can't imagine Phil drawing up a play for Odom at the end of the game...I wonder if he did it on his own?

[Raider Assassin]

I'm positive that he took it upon himself to try and drive to the basket,as there wasn't a plan drawn up for him to take the ball to the hole and I just attribute his actions to just going brain dead at that point. In some situations where the game is on the line,Phil will call a play using Kobe as a decoy,with someone else cutting to the basket for a easy shot as he knows that Kobe will be double or triple covered. he wouldn't call that type of play with the team being up by five and only 35 seconds left in the game.Odom knew he screwed up because immediately after the game,he admitted his mistake and apologized to the team and coaches.