Aside from Kobe Bryant (and Derek Fisher), the rest of the team's "championship desire" is in question.
In this post-season, Kobe has once again proved that he is still the NBA's Alpha-Male, but he needs his teammates more than ever in order to get past the Boston Celtics.
One might blame the teams' offensive struggles when reviewing the Lakers' latest loss. They relied on Kobe to score every time down the floor.
Despite managing to score on nearly every single possession during the third quarter, Kobe fell back down to earth in the fourth. When he did, his teammates were not there to catch him.
As cliché as it sounds, it was L.A.'s defense that lost game five. Allowing Boston to shoot 56% from the field is nothing short of inexcusable.
The Lakers have arguably the league's most talented individual. If you have a gifted offensive game, you should always try to bring it, and if you don't, or that gift isn't there one game, at least play your heart out on defense.
The problem with the Lakers is that only Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant subscribe to that school of thought.
If you want to play the blame game, the easiest thing to do is point a finger at Ron Artest.
Although he missed a pair of clutch free-throws, gave up a wide open lay-up that practically sealed the game, and allowed Paul Pierce to walk all over him, blaming Ron is just masking the entire team's poor play with his own.
Even if we did go around in circles and talk about who needs to do what next game, we will always end up pointing in the direction of one person: Kobe Bryant.
In what has been another spectacular season for Kobe, he will find everyone looking to him for the answer.
Regardless of how he wants to get to choice A, B, C, or D, he kn...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
