Ben Taylor Breaks Down Pau Gasol’s 2010 Game 7 Performance | Thinking Basketball 

There was a livestream on this nba channel this week. Bro where you been I don't know if they saved the stream it was on twitch and nba channel with ben taylor.

This is still my favorite game of all tine, defense wins championships

Just what happens when the rules/refs make it so you can't play real defense

​@@nosrellomno, they don't call violations on offense moreso

@@nosrellom The Lakers got several foul calls in this quarter.

@@rockysalvatore435it’s both.

I remember in the two Kobe championships Kobe one fmvp Phil’s strategy for winning was using their length(Bynum and especially Gasol) as the biggest advantage. It was definitely close for the finals but they rarely care about efficiency in their voting.

Pau was the best player of the game, but Kobe definitely led the team the entire series.

@david You've been saying it wrong for 13 yrs. Where was Pau from Games 2-5 of the NBA finals in 2010? Oh wow! I watched that whole playoffs mam. And don't start with your lies. It was Kobe who's even the MVP of that regular season and The playoffs. Even in game 7 when Kobe was hounded he still managed to squeeze 23 pts and grab 15 rebs and chasing Ray all game. Pau was there yeh, 19 and 18 but he was not responsible alone for the comeback and the finishing touches and keeps missing free throws in the 4th

@@kaksmirknight5318 Who cares about reg season or the rest of the playoffs? It's FINALS MVP, not some other MVP. Besides, Kobe was 6 for 24, 0 for 6 from 3. Classic Kobe: would sometimes shoot his team out of the game. Kobe was unambiguously the best player on either team in general. But he wasn't in the Finals. The Triangle ran through Gasol because of his height and passing skill.

kobe is fmvp, he was the best player in the finals

The biggest boon the Lakers had over teams in this period was having the best frontcourt in the league. Pau is basically a Center-sized forward there in terms of his agility and footwork. Just too skilled and mobile for most 7-foot oafs and too big and long if you played old Sheed and Big Baby Davis on him... Matchup nightmare. Odom was basically a 6'10 PF/SF hybrid with a very unique skillset and mobility most players didn't have at his position. Again, another player that has enough size to bother guys like KG on offense but also enough quickness to stick on them on the perimeter and switch onto others. Ron Artest was a miniature version of that. Obviously he was renowed as an elite defender before he came to the Lakers because he was stronger than most Forwards but also had the quickness and hands to bother perimeter players... When teams ran into this Gasol/Odom/Artest lineups, it was just so difficult to exploit them defensively. All of them were big, physical and moved very well for their size. All of them could switch onto bigger or smaller guys and still be effective... Also, this video reminded me why i hated Rondo and had to battle his stans for years on how overrated he was on both ends of the floor... The dude was a complete non-factor out there on offense. He suppose to be the lead guard/playmaker of the Celtics but couldn't do anything with the ball. When he didn't have the ball he was basically not defended at all... So you had to deal with the Gasol/Odom/Artest situation, but then also add the fact that Kobe didn't have to defend Rondo at all and could afford to sag off him to shrink the floor and offer help (should've probably do it more aggressively too)... So the Celtics were essentially playing with 4 players on offense in this video. Not to mention his reputation as an elite defender, but in this video again he doesn't do anything. He doesn't even take on the challenge of guarding Kobe when he knows they're gonna run the offense through him. He lets 34-yr old Ray Allen guard Kobe while he tries to hide on Fisher...

Kobe led this game in scoring and led both teams in 4th quarter scoring in game 7. Kobe led both teams in scoring for 6 out of 7 games.

I've been saying for 13 years now that Pau should have been Finals MVP in that series. But the numbers were close, Kobe is the archetypal Lakers hero and voters are politically aware. It was always going to be Kobe.

@@David-iv6je Kobe avg 10+ more points per game then anyone on either team stop it Gasol was 18/10 had zero case for FMVP

@@davis2k1234 We give FMVP only to the guy with the most points? And here I thought it was the most valuable. FYI, Kobe was shooting poorly. So let's give the award for the guy who almost shot his team out of a championship!

The defensive intensity by both teams was extraordinary in this game 7.

@dontundra2259 one of my favorite games of all time

That was normal in the playoffs in the 00s & early 10s before the warriors style of ball took over in the mid 2010s.

@@peace_of_mind_00 Nah, that was never really normal. Most 4th Quarters start in the low 70s back then. That was a low scoring game even for the time.

​@@TheGeorgeD13yup back then first to 100 normally got the dub

Single pump right at the top to beat 3 defenders, and the release right before he hits the ground, this is the shot of the game!

You can't teach height. And that was enough. He is much taller than anyone else around him. If he was 2" shorter, he wouldn't have pulled it off.

​@@rav781so 😂?? If my grandmother had wheels she wouldve been a bike

That play where rondo was on Pau he quick triggered bc either he makes it or Pau gets to rebound on rondo. Smart play. Cavs in 15 still had a chance if they kept missing pnr bc Tristan was boarding. Lbj and deli just stopped shooting and missing the shots for Tristan to clean.

@@rockysalvatore435 exactly, and people have the nerves to say Kobe was a ballhog

Mike D'antoni ruined the end of Pau's time as a Laker

@@zachcushing-murray2663 fax

i thought MWP was better lol.

@@driiifter Kobe was never the best defender on any of those Lakers winning teams. His defense basically is putting an intense face and grimacing from time to time. He can play defense if he wants to turn it on, but we can't really say he is better than kawhi as a 2way player.

@@nesimatbabGo watch the 3peat Lakers 🤡 he was the best permitter defender in the league in early 2000s yeah when he was older and had to Avg 30PPG and be the main facilitator and carry the offense himself yes he was probably got a couple repudiation awards but he was still always a 2way player period

Kobe was crazy overrated as a defender. He chased the ball around the court forcing bad switches and putting his teammates in bad positions defensively. Kobe at times was a liability on defense, probably why he has a negative box defensive +/- for his career.

Outside of a 3 year window (under Phil's defensive schemes), Pau sucked on defense. He even sucked Phil's last year. Horrific. And Kobe's the most overrated defensive player ever (in all of the 4 North American major sports); with LeBron being not far behind.

It's a dumb shot now... Why he that close to the line without being beyond it

@@marcussims1615 dumb as hell🤣

Yes. It's like a feathery-downgrade.

You sir, know basketball. Respect

Nobody denies that. But if you were absolutely honest you should admit Pau's contributions an impact on the finals were bigger than Kobe's, so he should have been the FMVP.

Kobe shooting 6 for 24 is terrible bruh. The rebounds help but both teams were bricking so everyone had good rebounding numbers this game.

Kobe led this game in scoring and led both teams in 4th quarter scoring in game 7. Kobe led both teams in scoring for 6 out of 7 games.

6 for 24 is beyond bad.

Kobe with a bad game still led both team in 4th quarter scoring and led the game in scoring.

@@boston_jorge What does it mean to lead the team in scoring when you shoot 70+ more shots than the next closest person for the series and do it on garbage splits!? It doesn't mean what you think it does.

Its the subtle things.

Woahhh… you can’t say he CLEARLY deserved it lol if you want to say arguably, fine… but clearly makes it seem as if Kobe wasn’t impactful… Anytime you are the #1 priority on a defensive scouting report, you are already making a heavy impact.

@@dribblewithjacob9131 at times Kobe was making a negative impact, specially on game 7, as he missed so many shots.

Of course. There are 2 types of Lakers fans: 1. Kobe fans first, Lakers fans second. 2 Lakers fans that became Kobe fans. The first type of fans glorify Kobe so much that they undermine Pau's (and other teammates) contributions on the championship run. For them, for some reasons I don't understand, it lessens Kobe's legacy.

​@@dribblewithjacob9131On the scouting report part, true, but since when did we ever use this scenario and say, he was covered so much that he is so impactful, therefore, he is the Finals MVP. Never. In fact, it sounds ridiculous. We know his impact but that's just how it works. Or maybe we can bend some realities if it's Kobe in the picture.

@@Somm_RJ exactly, that is what I thought when they gave Kobe his MVP trophy.

In the court of law, that'd be ruled an assault lol It was right in front of the ref too!

There was a game 7 in the finals in the 50 that went to overtime

Not a chance

Kobe led this game in scoring and led both teams in 4th quarter scoring in game 7. Kobe led both teams in scoring for 6 out of 7 games.

@@boston_jorge Kobe took 163 Field Goal attempts in 7 games and Pau took 90. Despite that, Pau Got to the free throw line more than Kobe. 61 for Gasol to 60 for Kobe. Thus if you look at points per field goal attempt Kobe averaged 1.22 points per field goal attempt whereas Gasol averaged 1.44 per field goal attempt. Now if let's say all things equal Gasol took the same number of field goal attempts per possession that kobe took, while maintaining his same scoring rate. Gasol would have averaged 33.53 ppg off of field goal attempts alone. Bear in mind also that of those 163 field goal attempts Kobe took, 47 of them were 3 point shots. Whereas Gasol took 2 3 pointers the entire series. We have not even added in free throws per possession yet in this equation. However, I think it is irrelevant as even without taking a single 3 or free throw alone we can already show that Gasol still would manage to average close to 30 points per game off of field goal attempts alone. While Kobe averaged 28 ppg for the series with free throws, 3 point shots and 73 more field goal attempts. Now of course Gasol's scoring likely would have gone down, if he was given more shots as scoring generally trends down as shot attempts increase. However despite that, at worst Gasol is average well over 35 ppg on a true shooting percentage well above kobe's, while also generating better looks for his teammates. Along with this Kobe had 27 turnovers to 27 assists for the series. for a 1:1 assist to turnover ratio Gasol had 26 assist to 13 turnovers for a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio. This is why I disapprove of the method of voting for finals MVP when we actually do an honest data analysis of a player's actual value to his team. The method of finals MVP voting is usually based on who holds the ball the most and who scores the most, regardless of how efficient or valuable they are overall to their team. Kobe is a prime example of this in 2010.

When you actually crunch the numbers and look at the film, Gasol was undoubtedly the more valuable player on the team, if we're taking the word value in the most honest sense of the word.

No

3 not 4