Much has been made of Kobe Bryant's performance, or lack thereof, in game 4 of the series against the Thunder. Kobe says he was managing the game and sticking to strategy. Why do people doubt him when he says this? Yes, he seemed to be passive to a fault. Some have suggested his motivation was to rest himself physically for the stretch run of the series. After all, even if the Lakers lost the game it would only be 2-2.
I have an alternate hypothesis. It is obviously important that Kobe get the rest of his teammates involved and by sticking to the game plan he did that. But, what if by playing such a passive role he was shifting the focus off of the team's questionable play and disappearing bench and squarely onto his shoulders?
He is the one that is paid the huge amount of money to win these types of series. He is one of the few players that is as dominant mentally as he is physically. Perhaps, by playing so hands off he was letting his team build themselves up and band together. This wasn't one of those nights where the headline reads, "Kobe Gives All But Gets Little Help From His Team". It was quite the opposite. Now the rest of those guys in that locker room don't face the criticism that they have been facing. Everyone is wondering what was wrong with Kobe.
I'm not saying that Kobe planned any of this. I'm just saying that it isn't out of the question given the unusual behavior we have seen from Kobe before. He has many times played games withing games and no one really knows what goes on in his head. Maybe this is just another case of the master working. Maybe, we should just let him work.
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