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Deny the ball to Kobe. Play the passing lanes towards him.
I tend to agree with FWD about Hill and Kobe. Using Hill in these types of games is a way to mature him even more. Let him makes mistakes and fight through/learn from them. This will only help down the road and in the playoffs IMO.
Pop has never been overly concerned with winning every game - that just doesn't happen. He is more concerned with improving the team bit by bit over the regular season in order to be playing their best ball come playoff time.
As for Kobe - I doubt if you will ever really contain him but he does make the Lakers a much better team when looking to involve his teammates. Be physical with him using RMJ and Bowen but play the others tight.
This will be another interesting game to watch to see how the Spurs are progressing. Still a little early for concrete analysis - usually after the RRT is the time to take stock in what the Spurs are going to be since the playoffs are not too far off.
Deny the ball to Kobe. Play the passing lanes towards him.
Where's honestfool? He usually has something to say about these types of threads.
have you guys actually watched Bynum play? he's a slightly above average player..24% of his points are dunks, and 80% of them are assisted(these are actual facts)..most of his offense comes from Kobe..
I have no problem with Bonner guarding him..if he scores, so be it..I'm not wasting Tim on him, when Gasol is a much better player, especially at the offensive end..if Bonner can make some shots, that will help tremendously, since it'll take one of their bigs out of the paint, probably Gasol..
Duncan guards Gasol better than anybody, so that SHOULDN'T be a problem..
Odom was irrelevant for the most part last year..Oberto did a good job on him..Odom is more of a role player now, so he's not a focal point to focus on..
our entire problem against LA is Kobe..we definitely have to change the strategy..I like Bowen coming off the bench, since Kobe usually takes his time against us(like TimVP said)..obviously ball-denial should be the main option..personally, I would go with single coverage..I'd rather he beat us by himself, as opposed to getting his teammates involved..the Lakers are at their best when Kobe is involving his teammates in a big way, since he's such a great playmaker..
the Lakers D has been weak this year though, despite their ranking..we're gonna have to score at least a 105 to win this game IMO..there's no reason we shouldn't, but we're gonna need big games from Tony, Manu and either Mason or Finley..
Just some random thoughts in no particular order.
If Tony starts to heat up, Phil will switch Ariza or Sasha on him. Ariza has been very good defending point guards this year. Of late, Sasha's Defense has been pretty good at the point guard position.
Kobe doesn't do well with bigger/longer small forwards guarding him. I think the only one who fits the bill is Bowen but it doesn't seem like he guards him as well as he used to. I think James Gist would have been good defending Kobe.
George HIll is way too small to guard Kobe, he'd probably go for 50 with Hill guarding him. I can't remember the last time Kobe (6'6") had problems scoring on a 6'2 point guard. Kobe and Luke have a knack for punishing smaller players.
Mason has decent height and decent bulk although he lacks lateral quickness.
Manu doesn't seem healthy enough to guard Kobe right now.
Bowen once again is probably the best bet.
As for Bynum/Pau/Odom combo, it's really a pick your poison. Duncan can only guard one of them and from there on out it's 6'10 and smaller/un-athletic guys to guard the other.
Duncan isn't really the physical grabbing and pushing kind of guy. Oberto and KT are but both are too unathletic to guard Bynum.
I think Bynum would score 25 with Bonner guarding him, I think Bonner's best defense is his offense. Neither Pau or Bynum are any good at defending jumpshooting Bigs...only Odom is.
If Bonner starts getting hot from the outside, then Phil will probably bring in Odom to defend him. Both are about the same size while Bonner has a better shot, Odom has better quickness.
Center/PF position is probably where the Lakers have the biggest advantage.
I think Bonner hitting his 3's is the key to the game. If Bonner can keep it up and do a passable jod on D, he can keep Bynum out of the game.
If Bonner can't make the Lakers pay for putting Pau & Bynum on the floor at the same time, it's going to be a long night for the Spurs.
You have a point but Hill seems very special on the D, for a 6'2 he is grabing a lot of rebounds too. The difficulty for him I think will be to handle the Kobe experience, Hill could have some foul troubles quickly. I hope Pop will test him against Kobe during the regular season, we will have a better idea.
Pau Gasol is the key to Lakers dominance
There is no doubt that having Kobe Bryant in their lineup makes the LA Lakers a great team. But Bryant alone can't make this team win a championship. One great player can't beat five opposing players, even with lesser talents, playing on the same hard court for 48 minutes.
Even the great Michael Jordan hadn't won a championship without another great player, Scottie Pippen.
Let's see the great NBA duos (or trio for the Spurs and Celtics and quintet for the Pistons) in the past two decades:
Jordan had Pippen in Chicago. They made the Bulls the most dominant team in the 1990s and had six championship rings together.
David Robinson had Tim Duncan earlier and Duncan had Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker later in San Antonio. And they made the Spurs one of the best teams of the 2000s in winning four championships between them.
Shaq had Kobe in LA Lakers, previous edition. And they made the Lakers the most dominant team early in this decade by winning three consecutive les.
Chauncey Billups had four other Pistons in Detroit. And they won a championship together.
Dywane Wade had Shaq for one championship ring beating a good Dallas Mavericks team featuring just one MVP player, Dirk Nowitski.
Last year, Paul Pierce had Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, and the "big three" won the championship last year beating a Lakers team with one great player and another all-star material who played very well in sweeping through the Western Conference playoffs but seemed to got "lost in Spanish translation" in the NBA Finals.
And Kobe?
He had Caron Butler in 2004 and they failed to make it to the playoffs.
He had Lamar Odom, Smush Parker, Kwame Brown, and young Andrew Bynum. They made the playoffs but lost in the first round for two years.
Last year, he had Pau Gasol for half of the season. And immediately, the Lakers made it to the NBA Finals. Unfortunately, they lost to Boston's "big three."
Now that Gasol would be playing a full season with the Lakers, the team is expected to achieve what it failed to accomplish last season--win that elusive NBA le!
But they can't do that while Gasol is playing just a sidekick or an afterthought to Kobe. He has to dominate the same way, or at least close to the way, Kobe is dominating in his position.
Gasol is a very good player specially now that he's playing mostly at forward position in a very balanced Lakers team. But he doesn't always play aggressively.
This season, Gasol averages 17.8 points on 55.4% shooting, 9.4 rebounds, and 12.1 field goal attempts per game. For comparative purposes, Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs, averages 20.4 points on 51.6% shooting, 10.1 rebounds and 15.5 field goal attempts.
Duncan is attempting more shots despite having two other stars in Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. In San Antonio, you wouldn't know which of their three stars is their first, second or third option on offense--all of them are good, reliable and aggressive.
Of course, the Lakers have more wins than the Spurs. But can they win important games against championship-caliber teams while Gasol is playing just a "second option" to Bryant?
Their records show they can't!
To be a championship-caliber team, the Lakers need more offensive contribution from Gasol. He shouldn't defer to Kobe specially on close games. Their recent victory against Golden State showed how Gasol can be dominating if he stays aggressive specially in closing out games.
He needs to be as aggressive as Duncan and take more than 15 attempts per game. The Lakers haven't lost a game this season with Gasol taking more than 15 shot attempts.
In their six losses this season, Gasol took less shots (10.8 on average) than his tally this season while Bryant is taking the slack by shooting five more shots (25.5 per game) than his average (20.1) this season.
This is not indicative of "Bryant shooting too much to the detriment of his team." In fact, he scored more than his average (32.2 in losses vs. 27.0 average this season) in the Lakers' six losses while Gasol scored less in losses (15.7 average) than in wins (18.3)
Can you blame Bryant for scoring 39 points on 14-of-22 field goal shooting while Gasol only had 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting in their last loss against a New Orleans team that featured a shorter frontcourt?
Clearly, it's Pau Gasol that needs to be more consistent to provide the Lakers a "one-two punch combination" that Shaquille O'Neil was so proud of during his three-peat with Bryant. It was Shaq looking at Kobe as the "two" in his boxing analogy and claiming the Lakers to be "his team" that ended their run.
The Lakers are already dominant with Kobe Bryant, probably the best player in this generation. But it takes more than one great player to make a championship team!
If you still don't believe that, ask LeBron James and Dirk Nowitski, who both went to the NBA Finals but lost to better teams featuring more than one great player.
Miami's one-two punch of Wade-and-O'Neil vs. Nowitski's Mavericks in 2006 NBA Finals...
And San Antonio's big three of Duncan-Parker-Ginobili vs. James' Cavaliers in 2007...
It both instances, one is less than two or three...
Kobe would just rain jumpers all over a guy who is 6'2. Kobe would have no problem surveying the floor with a small guy guarding him. Kobe would crash the boards with a guy that small trying to gurad him. It would be a "triple double" disaster.
Still, I think the Spurs take this one, the Lakers will be on the back end of a back to back and they are missing some key players. TP is going to wear Fisher out, the Lakers are going to have one of a time guarding TP. Their only hope is that Ariza can bother TP or that TP doesn't hit his jumper and the Lakers just back off of him. Sasha's FAKE hustle on D is not impressing anyone. Any penetrating PG has been destroying the Lakers, their defense cannot handle that nor can they handle the pick-n-roll if Odom is not the big switching on the guard.
There is no way Hill can effectively guard Kobe. He's 6'2. Kobe will just shoot over the top of him. Please be rational.
I love it when people dissect teams into these stupid 1-1 matchups. Basketball never breaks down like that. To beat the Lakers the Spurs need to do a few things:
1.) Disrupt the rhythm in their offense. Ball deny Kobe as much as possible. Be physical with the bigs. Close out on shooters as much as possible. Shut down passing lanes. Easier said than done.
2.) Pick apart their defense with precision offense. Force rotations, be patient, don't settle for the easy jumper (Lakers want you to take that shot).
3.) Get production from your bench. The Lakers have one of the best benches in the league and often times it's the bench that is extending leads....not the starters.
What would you do against Kobe to hopefully slow him down?
Land on his foot repeatedly and kick his shins.
How would you handle the Gasol and Bynum duo?
Once Kobe is out, the Lakers will invariably crumble like a butter cookie.
I'd like us to just go nuts and see what happens. I'm thinking rotate bowen, rmj, udoka, and hill on kobe about every 2 minutes. During those two minutes, whoever is guarding him needs to absolutely hound him. Sprint everywhere, always keep their hands about an inch from his face even when he doesn't have the ball, bark in his ear, and box him out hard every single time a shot goes up. Continue this from whistle to whistle for the entire game. Don't let up for a second even if we are up 20 or down 20. Hopefully he'll get very frustrated and tired and it'll throw him off his game.
I still can remember Oberto owning Gasol in FIBA games, I really hope he can do it in the NBA.
And regarding Kobe I always thought that the Spurs guard him as well as any team in the league.
Let's remember that last year we were beating them up by 20 or something like that in two of the 4 losses with Manu playing like JV, and oh coincidence the only game Manu played like himself we swept them out of the court. I think Pop knows how to handle LA he just needs his players to play reasonable well.
Sasha Vujacic didn't fly with the Lakers to Texas, back spasms. If he feels better he may fly on his own. So, I guess we have to play the Chinese "Magic Johnson", Sun Yue. We are running out of guys, lol.
1.) Start Bowen and have him shadow Kobe's minutes. I would rotate 1 on 1 defense and trapping depending on the Lakers lineup. The less ballhandlers on the floor, the more the trap should be utilized. Play Kobe similiar to last year, it worked for major stretches of that series but faltered in the 4th quarters. To disrupt his 4th quarter rhythm, I would trap relentlessly and do everything possible to get the ball out of his hands. Make Fisher, Sasha, Ariza and Odom beat you with their decision making.
2.) Start Thomas and put him on Bynum, Duncan on Gasol. Do not double team anyone, if Bynum can score enough in the post 1 on 1 and beat you...so be it. He may put up 18-24 but forcing him to play with his back to the basket and not allowing all the setup dunks will definitely stunt the Lakers offense as opposed to bringing help and allowing the perimeter players open looks and drives to the lane. I think Duncan, as long as he can stay out of foul toruble, can play to a standstill or better against Gasol straight up.
This game will really come down to how well Manu and Parker can score to keep up with the Lakers offense. If both can get between 20-30 points, I think we have a decent chance of winning. Also, I think Bynum will start off playing Duncan straight up, we have to hope he can make them pay by getting him in foul trouble. If Bynum plays Duncan as well as Howard did, we will have a tough time generating offense and open 3 point looks...
as for the rest of LA, they already got it in their head that they can kick our ass..and now they got bynum back. we aren't beating them.
Sun Yue to the rescue.....
This thread should be renamed to:
"How can the Spurs defend Chinese Magic"
KOBE WHO??? SUN YUE!!!!!!!!!!!!
You had to bring up The Gist, didn't you, Allonon?
I'm saying to put Hill on Kobe from the start. I think Bowen won't be in condition to guard Kobe all game long, maybe Hill could do a decent job while Bowen is on the bench.
Spurs will have no problem at defending the Gasol/Bynum frontcourt. Duncan will do a fine job on Bynum and Splitter has the length and quickness to defend well Gasol.
If Kobe's O was countered by offense of our own, I have a feeling Kobe misses half of those crazy shots he hit. Long stretches of not being able to do anything offensively allowed him and the rest of the team to gain a bunch of momentum and play awesome basketball.
The fate of the team rest in the Big 3 ALL playing their best basketball.
when did splinter be on the team?
i dont think ever be in a spurs uniform well most likely trade him hes going to be in brazil for a couple of years
I agree with Allanon about Bonner being the key..
the Lakers defensive weakness this year has been PG's penetrating on them, and big men shooting well to take Bynum out of the paint..
Tony should be able to dominate Fisher, so Bonner will have to play his role..
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