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And again...we lost because of poor defense. Howard is a 50% FT shooter his whole career. He shot 50% that night. No surprise there. Normally "hack-a-50% shooter" strategy doesn't work because giving the other team a 1 point possession will not help unless you're guaranteed to score in EVERY of your possession. If you can guarantee that, then sure...go hack-a-dwight.
However, this works on Lakers because we play terrible defense, making it easier for them to score on their possession to make the "hack-a-dwight" strategy worthwhile.
So even if Dwight's FT shooting is our reason for losing(it's not), we can only blame the coach for not doing anything when a 50% FT shooter shoots 50% during that game.
Personally, I'm a Kobe fan for life, but I have to admit, our failure is largely due to Kobe's lazy defense. I'm sure Kobe is capable of playing great defense, since he's been in the All defensive first team for years, but lately (I'm talking the last few YEARS) he hasn't been playing ANY defense. He often just stands there and not rotating while the other team kicks it out for the open 3s.
That 40 point 4th quarter we had with Orlando was one of the best examples. There were a couple possessions where we have a 4v5 advantage, but yet Kobe refuses to defend/rotate, so magic gets a dunk or uncontested shot. Letting the other team shoot an uncontested shot when you have 1 more person for defense....is REALLY sad.
/rant
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