if you are a starter with no real backup
and winning by alot or losing by alot
and still in the game getting garbage buckets
you are stat padding
if you are getting blown out by 20, nikkas are basically gonna let you score your easy buckets cause its already a wrap for you at the end
thats what was dope and under appreciated by Kobe
he always shot games into being close (most times)
and you knew he was going to gun and could potentially beat you
so you had to just throw double and triple teams at him
he wasnt padding he was going for the W
kyrie I think was up 20 in that 60 point game last week, I may be wrong
he was on fire so it didnt count as much ... but they could have easily pulled him
his shyt was fringe, cause he wasnt getting easy buckets but he didnt need to be in at all at that point
one aspect not talked about is how dumb ass fans get confused stat wise between players who have help and players who dont
you cant judge a guy alone compared to a guy with another all star... the stats and focus is completely different
too many people are like "he left the squad and now he's killing" yeah he's killing because hes the only guy on the new team... he literally shoots 30% more shots and has the playbook built around him now
or when a dude like Bosh goes to Miami, people are like "he fell off" he didnt fall off... he's in his 3rd spot role now... its still the same dude
Paul George is a perfect example of this
Buckets and Leadership in Indiana
worked well with Russ with him taking pressure off and more open shots (people get confused here like he somehow got better)
now he's worked into Clippers squad and he will level off because there's more weapons on the team
still the same player really just different role