Kobe was 18/33 on the game, scoring 42 points while only going to the line 7 times; The rest of the team was 16/42 - 38%. that is the reason he had no assists; you need guys to finish and make shots to get an assist.
You can hate all you want on the guy, but that is legit. If I had a primarily jump shooter (which Kobe is now that he's slowed with age), I would feed him all game long at 54.5% shooting.
Assists are SO much different now than they were years ago; now a majority of assist numbers comes from 3-point shots and long jump shots; whereas Stockton and Magic Johnson got their assists on fast break, screen/roll moves and the assist ended up with layups/dunks (or the beautiful Hornacek 15 foot baseline jump shot which was as good as a layup)
