He's mature a bit definitely. However, besides game one, he's not shot well this series and has forced a lot of bad shots. The issue is that the Magic have not made the Lakers pay for it. Look at last night.. he shot 11-31... that's ridiculous.. but it doesn't matter because the lakers won. However, if Howard makes those free throws, people would be talking about how poorly Kobe has played the last 3 games.
The Lakers have been a different team since Gasol arrived. It was a sweetheart deal for them..as long as they stay healthy, they will be in the title hunt the next few years.
This is also the beauty of getting matched up with a team with no championship experience.. they will choke up and give you chances to win.. and the Lakers have executed when needed..
Even still, the Lakers offense is a lot more effective when Kobe Bryant is facilitating. Kobe takes bad shots, and he always has. I don't know why he feels the need to shoot such deep and difficult fall-aways, but that's just the way he chooses to play. I have no doubt, with his skills, if he took better shots, he'd shoot a very high percentage. Believe me, as a fan, sometimes I cringe at the shots he take.
The difference in this series is, he's making his teammates better. If anyone would have said Kobe would have averaged 8 assist's in the Finals, they would have been laughed off of the internet. Pau is very good, but the Lakers benefit tremendously from opposing coaches obsession with stopping Kobe.
Kobe will never be Michael Jordan, because his shot selection pales in comparison. His shot selection pales in comparison to Dwyane and Lebron's. I've seen games where Kobe would purposely take threes from VERY deep. It's almost as if he thinks the game would be boring if he played it more efficiently.
People say Kobe is a streaky shooter - but anyone would be a streaky shooter if they were dream-shaking from 15 + feet every play.
Kobe obviously decided he needed to distribute more, and he's doing that. It's something people felt was not a part of his game, but he's doing it. How? The guy is as skilled as any player to play the game, period. Jordan shot a high percentage than Kobe, but guess what? Jordan know he was a below average three-point shooter, and stayed from behind the line. It didn't make sense, to him, to shoot a lot of three's. Kobe has over 3000 three's taken, and Jordan has a less than 2000 for his CAREER.
Eewwll, this is why I feel people go wrong when comparing Kobe to to other superstars, based on shooting percentage. If you based it on shooting percentage, Kobe wouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as the top players in the game, from any era. He plays the game, offensively, with a higher degree of difficulty than anyone else. That's why even Jordan would call Kobe the best of his generation, even though his shooting percentage suggested otherwise.
Damn, I've typed entirely too much.