Tom Knott: In loss, Kobe's the only one to blame

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By Tom Knott

You cannot win with Europeans if Kobe Bryant is 7-for-22 shooting in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.

You cannot win with Europeans if Bryant is 6-for-19 shooting in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

And you cannot win with Europeans if Bryant is a combined 20-for-49 shooting in the first two games of the NBA Finals.

So, to distill it down, in the four games the Lakers lost to the Celtics, Bryant was 33-for-90 shooting, which was the fault of the soft and unenergetic Europeans.

Or so went much of the postgame analysis.

Now it is absolutely, unequivocally true that you can win with Europeans in the world basketball championships, as the softies of Spain did in 2006.

Spain defeated Greece 70-47 in the final. This came about after the softies of Greece defeated the United States 101-96 in the semifinals.

And the MVP of the event was Pau Gasol, who averaged 21.3 points and 9.4 rebounds.

It just so happens that Gasol is one of Bryant's teammates who did not provide enough help because of his passivity, although he did average 14.7 points, 10.2 rebounds and shot 53.2 percent in the six games against the Celtics.

Those are not exactly incriminating numbers for someone who averaged only 10.3 shots in the series, while Bryant averaged 21.8 shots.