It wasn't the same and you know it. He was leading the way in the early games. In the second half of game 7, he was just waiting for traps and giving the ball up and not looking to get it back. He was even handing it off when he wasn't pressured.
Because by Game 7, the sons put Kobe and the Lakers into a corner. You damn sure were following the team then so how could you forget the other guys playing like deers in headlights after battling the past 6 games? They had no business even taking it 7 but Kobe and Phil made that big of a difference which speaks volumes about their talents. Sons were keyed in on Kobe in that game and they knew he was going to live and die by the production of his teammates.
Now let me ask, and this is a question for everyone that loves to bring up Game 7. If Kobe had decided to simply shoot the rock and go away from what had been working all series wouldn’t the narrative then be that Kobe was selfish and didn’t trust his teammates/the system? That’s why y’all even bringing it up makes y’all agenda look so transparent.
That Game 7 was a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. He had a season where he scored godly numbers but in the end he needed his teammates to get involved to win and he fell on the sword for it. Only way we would’ve won Game 7 was the same way we won the other games, by controlling time of possession, dominating in paint points, make a decent amount of open shots, decent production from the bench, and solid defense. How much of that was available in Game 7? Lakers lost that series in Game 6 when Odom didn’t get the board over Matrix and Kobe couldn’t deliver on those game winning shots.