Game 7 2000 Western conference finals - The cold hard truth...

[ImKobe]

And people say Kobe was a non-factor for the 2000 championship run

Kobe averaged 23/4/5 with 1.6 spg 1.5 bpg on 46/37/74 shooting in the WC Playoffs and had 3 decent Finals games out of 5 (in one of them he also went out with a sprained ankle having played 9 minutes and in one of them Lakers lost by 30 so even if he played up to his average, it's still a blowout).

[SamuraiSWISH]

A game i watched live back then. 2 of my favorites (Kobe and Pippen) againstg eachother. To this day i cant understand why Pippen couldnt do something to stop the Lakers or their momentum. He was just another soldier like the other Blazers.

Because he was never a closer. He didn't have the scoring repertoire to put a team away.

[97 bulls]

It is a team game, folks.

The thing that stands out more than anything in that game seven of the Western Conference finals is that the Los Angeles Lakers were trailing by 15 points in the fourth quarter and made the largest fourth-quarter comeback conference finals history, if I remember correctly.

The role players for Los Angeles Lakers, like Brian Shaw, started getting hot from distance and quickly brought Los Angeles back into that game for Kobe/Shaq to close it.

I think its overrated when put into context. The Blazers entered the.fourth with a 13 point lead. Wells scored on the first play of the fourth to pump it up to 15, then they exchanged baskets then Shaw hut a three to cut it to 10 with roughly 9 minutes to go. Hardly an insurmountable lead.

[Roundball_Rock]

I think its overrated when put into context. The Blazers entered the.fourth with a 13 point lead. Wells scored on the first play of the fourth to pump it up to 15, then they exchanged baskets then Shaw hut a three to cut it to 10 with roughly 9 minutes to go. Hardly an insurmountable lead.

Great points. A similar thing happened in Game 7 of the 12' ECF, the only difference is Boston went from a small lead to a 13 point loss while the Blazers went from a double digit lead to a narrow loss. I think it is remembered so much because it was the dawn of the Shaq-Kobe dynasty.

[ShaqAttack3234]

Troll thread, but what the hell.

Shaq was still the MVP of the series by far. Despite being doubled or tripled on the catch usually by excellent defenders Pippen and Sheed for pretty much the entire series, Shaq still led LA averaging 26/12/4 in the series compared to Kobe's 20/5/6. And Kobe was the one with the dominant match up at times since Portland even had Damon Stoudamire guarding him a decent amount. Plus, Portland was able to exploit Kobe in the post quite a bit that series, particularly with Steve Smith, but Pippen and to a lesser extent, Bonzi Wells, also had some success when they posted up Kobe.

In addition to that, Shaq was the one leading the 15 point 4th quarter comeback with his dominant play at both ends. And while Kobe was in fact the best player for the entire game 7, he was a virtual no-show for the first 5 games averaging just 17 ppg on 40.6% shooting. Who knows? The Lakers may have ended it in 5 when Shaq had 31/21 had Kobe showed up instead of 17 points on 4/13 shooting.

And even though Kobe scored 33 in game 6, that's a bit deceptive because Portland firmly had control of the game and Kobe had been scoreless in the 4th until there were less than 3 minutes remaining before hitting 3 consecutive 3s, but that still only made it a 9 point game with less than 2 minutes remaining because LA was trading baskets and Sheed then came out to block one of Kobe's 3 point attempts breaking his streak and while Kobe would hit another one to make it an 8 point game, there were only 40.6 seconds left at that point and that's as close as LA got.

So you can say Kobe was the MVP of game 7, but the series? No chance in hell. And Kobe was a great two-way guard in 2000, arguably a top 10 player and very impressive for a 21 year old, but not even close to peak Shaq in play, impact or value.

[Baby Arm Johnso]

any mention of the Lakers come from behind victory in game 7 of the 2000 WCF has to mention B Shaw! B Shaw saved their arsed that game

[stalkerforlife]

Troll thread, but what the hell.

Shaq was still the MVP of the series by far. Despite being doubled or tripled on the catch usually by excellent defenders Pippen and Sheed for pretty much the entire series, Shaq still led LA averaging 26/12/4 in the series compared to Kobe's 20/5/6. And Kobe was the one with the dominant match up at times since Portland even had Damon Stoudamire guarding him a decent amount. Plus, Portland was able to exploit Kobe in the post quite a bit that series, particularly with Steve Smith, but Pippen and to a lesser extent, Bonzi Wells, also had some success when they posted up Kobe.

In addition to that, Shaq was the one leading the 15 point 4th quarter comeback with his dominant play at both ends. And while Kobe was in fact the best player for the entire game 7, he was a virtual no-show for the first 5 games averaging just 17 ppg on 40.6% shooting. Who knows? The Lakers may have ended it in 5 when Shaq had 31/21 had Kobe showed up instead of 17 points on 4/13 shooting.

And even though Kobe scored 33 in game 6, that's a bit deceptive because Portland firmly had control of the game and Kobe had been scoreless in the 4th until there were less than 3 minutes remaining before hitting 3 consecutive 3s, but that still only made it a 9 point game with less than 2 minutes remaining because LA was trading baskets and Sheed then came out to block one of Kobe's 3 point attempts breaking his streak and while Kobe would hit another one to make it an 8 point game, there were only 40.6 seconds left at that point and that's as close as LA got.

So you can say Kobe was the MVP of game 7, but the series? No chance in hell. And Kobe was a great two-way guard in 2000, arguably a top 10 player and very impressive for a 21 year old, but not even close to peak Shaq in play, impact or value.

5 > 4

How does that ass taste?

[SouBeachTalents]

5 > 4

How does that ass taste?

3 Finals MVP's > 2 Finals MVP's

[stalkerforlife]

3 Finals MVP's > 2 Finals MVP's

31,700 and counting > 28, 596.

[SouBeachTalents]

31,700 and counting > 28, 596.

By that logic, Karl Malone > Jordan

[stalkerforlife]

By that logic, Karl Malone > Jordan

Karl Malone - 19 seasons.

Jordan - 15 seasons.

How does that ass taste?

[Big#50]

Troll thread, but what the hell.

Shaq was still the MVP of the series by far. Despite being doubled or tripled on the catch usually by excellent defenders Pippen and Sheed for pretty much the entire series, Shaq still !led LA averaging 26/12/4 in the series compared to Kobe's 20/5/6. And Kobe was the one with the dominant match up at times since Portland even had Damon Stoudamire guarding him a decent amount. Plus, Portland was able to exploit Kobe in the post quite a bit that series, particularly with Steve Smith, but Pippen and to a lesser extent, Bonzi Wells, also had some success when they posted up Kobe.

In addition to that, Shaq was the one leading the 15 point 4th quarter comeback with his dominant play at both ends. And while Kobe was in fact the best player for the entire game 7, he was a virtual no-show for the first 5 games averaging just 17 ppg on 40.6% shooting. Who knows? The Lakers may have ended it in 5 when Shaq had 31/21 had Kobe showed up instead of 17 points on 4/13 shooting.

And even though Kobe scored 33 in game 6, that's a bit deceptive because Portland firmly had control of the game and Kobe had been scoreless in the 4th until there were less than 3 minutes remaining before hitting 3 consecutive 3s, but that still only made it a 9 point game with less than 2 minutes remaining because LA was trading baskets and Sheed then came out to block one of Kobe's 3 point attempts breaking his streak and while Kobe would hit another one to make it an 8 point game, there were only 40.6 seconds left at that point and that's as close as LA got.

So you can say Kobe was the MVP of game 7, but the series? No chance in hell. And Kobe was a great two-way guard in 2000, arguably a top 10 player and very impressive for a 21 year old, but not even close to peak Shaq in play, impact or value.

Sabonis got a raw deal this series.

[ShaqAttack3234]

Sabonis got a raw deal this series.

A couple of bad foul calls in game 7, same with the foul Shaq got away with vs Smith at the end of game 7, though LA were still in the better position at that point, and had the better chance to win that game even though Kobe missed 2 free throws after that. But there were times Shaq wasn't getting blatant calls as well such as here when Brian Grant was trying to hold his arm down, no call and Shaq still gets the offensive board. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MYTeBGFql8#t=0m35s

In the end, Portland had the more talented team, most of the match up advantages with their bigger guards posting up and absolutely nobody who had a shot at guarding Sheed as well as a 15 point 4th quarter lead in game 7, but they lost the lead by missing a ridiculous amount of shots in a row. That's what it comes down to more than anything else.

[sportjames23]

GOAT gonna GOAT .

MJ didn't play in that series.

[BlkMambaGOAT]

MJ didn't play in that series.

MJ = GOATa
Kobe = GOATb