I don't think so. I think James's ability to share the ball really gave the Pistons hesitation to change their defensive schemes to stop him, I don't think that would have been the case with Kobe.
Plus, LeBron's teammate's seem to want to play for him, whereas the complete opposite could be said about Kobe.
Absolutely. Who wouldn't want to play for him? What doesn't get much mention in the 25 straight points game is:
- LBJ stepping up like a mean SOB when Varejao got flattened before anyone got a chance to react
- LBJ following Gooden around the court and screaming at him when Gooden was making dumb plays early in the game and later in the crunch he was consoling and encouraging his teammates as they were making honest mistakes.
- for the most of the crunch time he had 2 over the hill veterans who were way past their bed time (Snow and Marshall) and 2 dudes who messed their pants (Varejao and Pavlovic) leave it all out on the court defensively so that 25 straight points would matter.
We know that MJ couldn't get to the finals without help, why would Kobe? OK it was different league back then, but still. Detroit has 6 players that a way better then anything Cavs have other then LBJ.