Reply With Quote
Oh, I know he's a good player....just never knew him as a great defender.surprisingly ?
Pierce is the !
Two of his fouls came when Kobe got a screen and Mason clipped Kobe from behind cuz Kobe stopped and got contact on his jumper. Another 2 came when Kobe got past him and he had to reach out and grab him to stop and an easy score. I forget the 5th foul.
Mason's problem is lateral quickness/agility, he's decently quick in a straight line but not very good going left and right. I suspect that's why Mason gives Kobe so much space.
And he doesn't have much hops at all.
If you watch Mason, anytime he drives to the basket, he pretty much goes in a straight line.
Oh, I know he's a good player....just never knew him as a great defender.surprisingly ?
Pierce is the !
With the Spurs starting line-up, Mason has to guard Kobe.
I liked how Hill stayed in front of Kobe and didn't take the pump fakes. He was just too short to disrupt Kobe's jumper, which is spot on these days. His long arms work very well against players his size and smaller but just aren't effective guarding people 6'5 and over.
Mason is terrible against Kobe, he doesn't stay in front of him and reaches too much, which caused so many fouls. He needs to learn to just play position defense and get his arms straight up. Any type of contest with arms reaching forward or pokes at the ball is an automatic foul.
Bowen just doesn't have the foot speed anymore but I do still like how he positions himself in front of Kobe and works around screens. Kobe drives on him at will these days though.
Really, the best way for this team to defend Kobe is by trapping him at the top and sagging the remaining 3 defenders down low, forcing the role players to hit outside shots. Also, I would have liked to have seen Malik stay on the active roster (instead of Vaughn) and be given a chance to defend Kobe. He has the size and athleticism to at least get a hand in his face and maybe force Kobe to elevate higher on his release.
After David Robinson retired, the Spurs knew they needed a replacement big. Rasho didn't work out, and neither did anybody else they brought in. Their attempts to mine Europe for big men turned into a fiasco. Nevertheless, they won two more les, largely because Robert Horry kept stepping up big. Now we're down to convincing ourselves that Matt Bonner is a starting center in the NBA. Drew Gooden is actually a pretty good player if you ignore the whole "defense" thing. He's the best player the Spurs have had up front next to Duncan since D-Rob (and Horry), but so many other glaring holes have opened up since then, that a player who once easily would have been the missing piece is now at best just part of the solution.
After 2005, it was easy for anyone to see that Bruce Bowen at 34 wasn't going to keep playing forever. The Spurs by then already had seen a couple opportunities slip through their fingers -- they threw away a draft pick that could have been Josh Howard so they could chase Jason Kidd (two fewer rings if that had happened), and they let Hedo Turkoglu walk right before he grew a set of testicles. Many fans dreamed of a mythical "long 3" to wait in the wings. Four years have passed, and the closest the Spurs came to filling that hole was Ime Udoka. Now Bruce is finished, and fellow graybeard Michael Finley is his "replacement."
There comes a point of no return.
That's a bad pic of Mason on defense. It looks like he's trying to use "the force" to guard Kobe. Hill & Bowen are very similar on defense. Quick hands, and very good to great lateral movement. Hill is just 15 years younger so he is more effective over the span of a whole game. I'll still take Bruce on Kobe at the end of the game though.
Mason is a good position defender, but doesn't have the quickness to go against someone with Kobe's skills.
Bruce should be starting. He is the man to gaurd Kobe, but Pop is on one of his power trips again.
id go with bowen to try and slow him down but other than that it really doesnt matter who guards him.
The problem with that is Bowen's presence leaves us with only four players on the offensive end. Its tough to keep up with LA like that.
Bowen would always be open for a three. I like that. What I don't like is that we are a Defensive team, but our best defender is on the bench, while Kobe gets hot to start the game.
-Bowen has the size, experience, and defensive talent to guard kobe, but when he's on the floor the lakers defense only has to worry about 4 players.
-Mason the picture says it all... needs to put more effort on the defensive end.
-Hill is too short; despite his long arms he's not able to affect Kobe's shot
But I don't know that he hits that three often enough to warrant it. And that's his only offensive contribution. He can't move with the ball or attack the rim or anything. What will happen is that LA won't guard him, they'll leave him open until he absolutely kills them (which may or may not happen). In the meantime, his defender will leave and double Timmy or TP or Manu and inhibit the rest of our offense.
I think Pop is really shying away from playing 5 v 4 on offense against the Lakers.
Isn't this how it's always been? And we've won 3 championships this way.
The Gist could stop Kobe.
Too bad not until next year though.
Last edited by 200 miles; 03-13-2009 at 12:11 PM.
They all worked hard. Kobe just hit great shots and thats just how it is with him. But he wont be that hot everytime. Im happy with theyre effort. If A guy makes 100 0f 100 with A hand in his face or A man in front of him I can live with it.
+250 000
Now, that's how you defend Kobe
Don't worry in the offseason Manu will teach him the Eurostep and Parker will teach him how to finish.
Now, that's how you defend Kobe
I would of tried putting POPs on kobe and played tight D. force kobe to go to the rack, once hes in the rack double team him with GOODEN/TIMMY
but pops is no longer with us -_-
So I would put bowen
boston baby!!!
can gooden do this for us? I hope
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
