Kobe Bryant Should Shoot Less

John Hollinger on LA's loss to the Heat: "There's no way to sugarcoat this: Kobe's me-on-five routine at the end of L.A.'s 94-88 loss to Miami cost the Lakers the game. Instead of complaining about not getting a call on one of the most ridiculous shots of the bunch, a contested 3-point jack with a fresh shot clock at the 1:06 mark, Bryant might instead have pondered how he could have gotten an easier look for himself or, God forbid, one of the other four guys out there with him."

It's worth making the point quantitatively. Kobe Bryan's .552 True Shooting Percentage is worse than the marks offered by Andre Bynum, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol, and Matt Barnes. Clearly, none of those guys play Kobe's role in the offense and perhaps couldn't carry the load to the extent that he does. But the numbers suggest, at minimum, that at the margin he needs to distribute the ball more widely.