Kobe's Stats When Duncan & Bowen are on/off the Court

[Ockham]

I found (through Truehoop) a nice blog post by Darryl Howerton comparing Kobe’s effectiveness when Duncan and Bowen are both on the floor versus when either of the latter is resting. Here’s a link to the post:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=25238684&blogID=398436794

And here’s the passage that summarizes the key points:

“Duncan and Bowen were in [Sunday’s] game for 33:21 of Kobe's 38:47—the longest period they've guarded him in this series. Remember, it was 28:55 in Game 1 and only 25:04 in Game 2.... For those of you keeping score at home, the Spurs have a 170-159 advantage when Timmy and Bruce guard Kobe, and Bryant has been contained to 56 points, 7 assists and 8 turnovers in the 87:25 minutes those two NBA All-Defenders have guarded him. Contrastingly, when one or both of them is not in the game, Kobe and the Lakers have gone off--L.A. enjoys a 64-48 edge and Kobe tallied 23 points, 6 assists and 0 turnovers in only 28:01.”

[lefty]

I'm in shock

[Ockham]

I'm in shock

In roughly 25% of Games 1 and 2, Kobe faced defensive lineups that didn’t feature both Duncan and Bowen. During that time, the Lakers beat us decisively, and we lost these games. This makes it look like a good idea to try to manage minutes in such a way as to minimize that percentage. (The author of the blog made some modest suggestions for how to do so before Sunday.) In Game 3, it looks like Pop made the relevant adjustment—only 11% of the game featured Kobe without both Duncan and Bowen on the court—and we won handedly.

I find this interesting, and not at all trivial.

[JamStone]

Duncan and Bowen are great defenders.

This is breath taking news.

Call all the villagers. Spread the word. Men on your horses and let the world know.

[Cry Havoc]

Duncan and Bowen are great defenders.

This is breath taking news.

Call all the villagers. Spread the word. Men on your horses and let the world know.

You jest, but can you explain why Pop wanted to guard Kobe without Bowen in the first two games?

Sounds like he needed the memo.

As fantastic as Pop has been with adjustments in this post-season, some of his early-series decisions on defense have been absolutely dumbfounding.

[Emanuel20]

Bruce and Timmy are so underappreciated! I kiss their feet for all they do for us!
EW! Yikes…

[BiZNicK]

Maybe if someone taught Oberto how to block a shot, he could be more intimidating in the paint...


Great stat btw

[Emanuel20]

Maybe if someone taught Oberto how to block a shot, he could be more intimidating in the paint...


Great stat btw

Oberto needs to hold on to the ball. I saw Odom poked a rebound from Oberto and stole it. That's just made me mad!

[Ockham]

Duncan and Bowen are great defenders.

This is breath taking news.

Call all the villagers. Spread the word. Men on your horses and let the world know.

I find all three of the following to be eminently newsworthy:

1. How frighteningly good Kobe’s statistics were whenever Bowen and Duncan were not on the floor together,
2. The fact that Kobe was playing against only one of the Big-Defensive-Two for a significant amount of time in Games 1 and 2, and
3. The fact that Pop cut this time considerably in Game 3 and we won.

This information isn’t self-evident. Neither is it banal, since it marks a difference between the two games that we lost and the one game we’ve won. It's not the only difference, of course (see “Ginobili, Manu”). But surely it's a relevant difference.