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Kobe Bryant is the best scorer in the league; he has proved that beyond even the most unreasonable doubts. That said, what he has done still isn't enough to make the Lakers a contender in the West... and here's why.

1. Scoring alone isn't enough to win a championship for a team. Kobe Bryant was knocking on the door of the record number of games scoring fifty points set by Wilt Chamberlain, but let's not forget something. Chamberlain averaged 50.4 ppg for the ENTIRE '61-'62 season. As history would have it, Philadelphia did NOT win the championship that year, the Celtics did, as a TEAM, a well-balanced team. So, even if Kobe starts a new fifty point streak, the Lakers can't emerge out of the West over more well-rounded teams like the Mavs, Suns, and Spurs.

2. The five teams that got the brute end of the 268 points that Kobe has put up over the last five games are a combined 68 games under five hundred, and only two are close to making the playoffs (the Warriors and the Hornets), as the eighth seed in the West. Even so, they, along with the other three teams, couldn't make any noise in the playoffs; they aren't powerful clubs. These are teams where losing has become the culture.

3. All five clubs allow more points than they score, on average, and only Minnesota shoots a higher percentage from the field than their opponents for the season. These teams are the kind of teams a guy like Kobe should score fifty on because none of these teams have a legitimate defender on the wing and only Minnesota can pretend to have a defensive post presence in Garnett.

In the end, Kobe Bryant has entertained us these last five games, but even these Chamberlain-esque scoring barrages won't disrupt the power hierarchy in the West.

Learn more about this author, Robert Solis.
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