NBA Playoffs 2011 Memes: On Kobe Bryant’s Supposed Knee Injury, Return Of Derrick Rose Clutch Bot And More

So what is it? Kobe’s explanation was simple: he didn’t want to waste time driving in LA’s notorious traffic to get an MRI when there was no way he would sit out anyway.

“It’s not like you would have known anyway.” Ha ha. Good one Kobe. Many others weren’t so convinced. Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith said he was dogging it, trying to hide the embarrassment of getting crossed up by Green. TNT announcer Kevin Harlan noted that “we have not seen a limp, a stagger or an irregularity in this game.” Hornets coach Monty WIlliams scoffed at the idea of him actually being hurt. Heck, even current players were questioning him on Twitter last night:

I responded with some snark, pointing out that all of those things are technically metrics. I responded this way mostly because I didn’t want the Rose MVP debate to reopen, because it was stupid and a lot of wasted energy. In reality, I get what Wilbon is saying. It’s the timing of this surge, when the Pacers were starting to rally, that isn’t captured simply by these traditional numbers. (It is captured by plus/minus and all the advanced spin-offs of that stat, but let’s ignore that for now).

All this is to say that I’m not sure what Game 5 means. Now, I’m on record thinking the Magic would rally and win in seven, because I thought they were right there in every loss despite horrendous shooting that would surely return back to the mean. Game 5 didn’t change my opinion one bit on that. But it did change the opinion of some people, most notably Charles Barkley, who declared that he would be working on Saturday night, when a Game 7 in this series would take place.

Here’s where I say we should pump the breaks. The TNT crew talked about how Orlando now has confidence and how the pressure is squarely on the Hawks. That may be true. But this isn’t the first time a team down 3-1 won by double digits in Game 5. Here’s what happened the last 10 times this took place:

In the end, Paul was outstanding of course. How many players can drop 20 points and 12 assists and have it be only their third-best game of a five-game series? But outstanding isn’t enough to counteract a team that lacks talent and a frontcourt that got completely dominated. Paul didn’t have a triple-double; therefore, his team lost.

Noah’s verbal response was simple (“I’m just trying to win basketball games, man). His facial response might have looked something like this, and it would have been more appropriate than anything that came out of his mouth. I’d say more, but HEY LOOK IT’S JOAKIM NOAH’S GRANDFATHER AND SISTER.