How to best defend Kobe and the rest of the Lakers?

[1Parker1]

The scary thing is I agree that the game could be decided by Bonner. If he can hold his own defensively and cause a mismatch on the other end, he could be the difference in the game. If he fails in either aspect, the Spurs will likely be toast.

Well here's the bright spot I see here. If Bonner does in fact start on Gasol, I'm guessing at the other end Gasol is going to defend Bonner. Gasol isn't exactly a physical defender so the only thing that can perhaps bother Bonner on offense is Gasol's length. Not to mention if Bonner stays out on the perimeter, hopefully it will limit all those offensive rebounds Gasol seems to get against the Spurs.

The playoffs will be a different story though if the Spurs and Lakers meet. I'm guessing if Bonner does go off on the Lakers then...Phil would stick the more mobile Lamar Odom on Bonner.

[Bruno]

Spurs best chance to defend Lakers bigs is : Duncan on Gasol, Thomas on Bynum, Bonner on Odom. It seems the most logical way to match up Spurs bigs with Lakers bigs. Oberto should also get some playing time.

I doubt we will see that tomorrow because Odom isn't healthy and Pop will likely try a lot of different things. If Spurs face Lakers in playoffs, I expect Pop to go with these matchups and start Thomas instead of Bonner. I quite think Spurs could do a good job against Lakers bigs.

[urunobili]

Oberto has always had FAIR success against Gasol in intl ball... I can't remember how well/bad he did last WCF... i believe i was frustrated by his lack of playing time on him... anyone has some pointers on this?

[mrspurs]

You can add and mix whomever you want. But come PO time. If the name Matt appears against the Lakers in any form. The Spurs are in trouble. I like Matt but he's not gonna be successful against Gasol, Bynum or Odom. He's to slow. The best we can hope for right now is Matt hit some 3s and keep the Lakers honest on the defensive end. Having Kurt and Fab as backup's isnt gonna help much either. We're not fooling anyone. So let the drives begin..........Cant wait.

[ClingingMars]

Thomas has been playing great lately. Give him the start against Bynum.

-Mars

[ClingingMars]

I think the Grizzlies got a better deal than the Lakers.

Pau Gasol $16 million/year 18 points 9 rebounds
Marc Gasol $3 million/year 12 points 7 rebounds

The Lakers are paying $13 million more per year for 6 more points and 2 rebounds.

In my opinion, they should have just kept Marc, then they would easily have the money to re-sign Bynum/Lamar/Ariza/Marc Gasol.

And by next year, I'm pretty sure Marc Gasol will be in the 15 point, 10 rebound range.

Not to mention the Grizzlies also got a first round pick in exchange for Javaris Crittenton.

Oh yeah, much needed salary relief for Kwame Brown too.

oh God, here comes the tired "the Grizzlies ed us over" lakerfan argument



-Mars

[HarlemHeat37]

I hope Kurt comes in and plays physical though..Bynum is big and strong, but soft as ..pushing him around will have a positive impact..KT is tough, strong, and dirty..so he needs to use all 3 to his advantage in a significant way..

[xtremesteven33]

IF the spurs beat the Lakers on wednesday, i hope it doesnt creep into Pops mind that we dont need another Big next to Duncan.

I think Joe Smith would be ideal to have. Im pretty sure he could give Gasol problems.

[Allanon]

oh God, here comes the tired "the Grizzlies ed us over" lakerfan argument



-Mars

It's the truth....the Grizzlies got the better end of the deal. The Lakers were a bit rash in my opinion.

Having Pau limits the growth of Bynum, I think it would have better for the Lakers to have kept Gasol and had Bynum/Odom as starters with Marc coming off the bench.

The Lakers wouldn't be AS good as with Pau this year, but they would still be very good. And then next year, Marc would pretty much be almost as good as Pau at $13 million less allowing the Lakers to re-sign Odom/Ariza/Bynum/Kobe with no problems.

[Brazil]

It's the truth....the Grizzlies got the better end of the deal. The Lakers were a bit rash in my opinion.

Having Pau limits the growth of Bynum, I think it would have better for the Lakers to have kept Gasol and had Bynum/Odom as starters with Marc coming off the bench.

The Lakers wouldn't be AS good as with Pau this year, but they would still be very good. And then next year, Marc would pretty much be almost as good as Pau at $13 million less allowing the Lakers to re-sign Odom/Ariza/Bynum/Kobe with no problems.

I see what u mean but come on having Pau is the best thing that happened to the lakers since a long time. The lakers are in a good position to win it all this year which wouldn't be the case with marc over pau.

[Spursone]

Being that this is the first game this season with the Lakers the Spurs need to be physical and minimize turnovers. We need to jump out quick in the first quarter and establish dominance. I agree that Gasol is a little soft and avoids contact. Pop needs to experiment on matchups. BE FLEXIBLE! Let's not take this game lightly. I think it is a big test for the Spurs to see how they will matchup with the Big Dogs. And I think the Spurs still have quite a bite!

[PDXSpursFan]

IMO our best chance is to play a lot of Bowen on Kobe, KT on Bynum and Duncan on Gasol. G. Hill with his long arms could be also a good option to defend Kobe: Pop should try to play significant minutes of Hill against Kobe to figure out if it could be an option.

+1.
I'll add that expect this game to highlight the need the Spurs have for another Big - a real 7-footer

[Allanon]

I see what u mean but come on having Pau is the best thing that happened to the lakers since a long time. The lakers are in a good position to win it all this year which wouldn't be the case with marc over pau.

I do see your point, and it's a good one. I think the Lakers would still be contenders but not in the very favorable position they are this year like you said.

So Pau was good for the Lakers last year (without Bynum) and this year. Starting next year, Marc probably would have been better (money and youth, with almost equal skill) ....especially if the Lakers don't win the Championship this year.

Too bad the Lakers couldn't have kept Marc Gasol and traded Sun Yue instead

[Brazil]

I do see your point, and it's a good one. I think the Lakers would still be contenders but not in the very favorable position they are this year like you said.

So Pau was good for the Lakers last year (without Bynum) and this year. Starting next year, Marc probably would have been better (money and youth, with almost equal skill) ....especially if the Lakers don't win the Championship this year.

Too bad the Lakers couldn't have kept Marc Gasol and traded Sun Yue instead

For Marc you don't know if he is going to improve enough to be compared to Pau but you know for sure that the lakers with this team will be contender again next year. As a whole it's a good move for the Lakers.

Now if you insist we can give you bonner and oberto and thomas for Pau !

[xtremesteven33]

You cant stop Kobe, you can only hope to contain him

[timvp]

On Kobe, RMJ will undoubtedly start off on him. That matchup alone will be interesting. Hopefully RMJ will play passable defense against Kobe and make him work. It'd be a bad sign if Kobe can shoot right over RMJ with ease - a la Antonio Daniels in 2001 and 2002.

I liked RMJ's defense on Kobe for the most part. Still has some work to do but it wasn't like when AD would guard Kobe and Kobe would just shoot over him like he was playing against his little brother. RMJ made Kobe work somewhat, which is a good sign.

RMJ guarding Kobe >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Udoka guarding Kobe

Obviously, Bowen will spend a lot of time on Kobe. With Bowen coming off the bench, perhaps it'll work out better since Kobe typically doesn't testing the Spurs' defense until late in the halves.

It kinda worked out that way in the first half. By the time Kobe tried to take over, Bowen was in the game. For that reason, it might make sense to keep Bowen on the bench even if the two teams meet up in the playoffs.

I also expect Pop to put Ginobili on Kobe for a few minutes to give Kobe a different look.

Pop did put Manu on Kobe. I thought Manu actually did a pretty good job. The only thing I don't like when Manu is guarding Kobe is that Manu tends to double-team off of him for some unknown reason. It's like he can't help himself. If Manu could fix that, he'd actually be pretty good at guarding Kobe.

Hopefully we don't see Udoka on Kobe because that was a disaster last season and Udoka seems considerably slower this year. One interesting idea would be to try Hill on him. Might be a little bit crazy but it just might work . . .

Thank you Pop for not putting Udoka on him

Hill on him was a longshot and didn't happen. Not too much of a surprise.

A philosophical change I'd like to see the Spurs make against Kobe is to not go the "safe" route they did during the playoffs last season. In the WCF, the Spurs had the strategy of keeping Kobe off the line at all costs. The only thing that accomplished is is it let Kobe get tons of shot attempts and get in rhythm.

Instead, I'd like to see a more physical brand of defense on him out on the perimeter ... like the Celtics played on him. Although the Spurs don't have the same personnel, if Ray Allen could get away with guarding him at times, the Spurs should find a way to survive with what they have. If it causes RMJ and Bowen to get more fouls than usual, so be it.

Couldn't really get a good feel of whether the Spurs were more physical with him. Will have to watch it again to see if they made it a point to try to always keep a body on him.

Outside of Kobe, the biggest obstacle is the Gasol and Bynum duo. With Bonner starting, that might get ugly. But what I think Pop should do is put Bonner on Bynum and tell him to try to keep him out of the paint. Perhaps Bonner will have the strength to do that, or perhaps Bynum will destroy him. I guess we'll find out.

I don't like the idea of Bonner on Gasol because Gasol is too talented on the low block. Plus Duncan usually defends Gasol about as well as he can be defended.

Very nice job, Pop

I thought Bonner on Bynum worked out about as well as could be expected. Bynum still got his points but Bonner made him work. If Duncan wouldn't have let Gasol eat him alive early on, the strategy would have looked even better.

Although Bonner on the floor will create a mismatch favoring the Lakers, I'll also be interested to see how the LA's bigs handle Bonner staying out on the perimeter. Best case scenario is Bonner makes Bynum work for his points and then takes advantage of that duo's lack of mobility on the other end. I'm not counting on it but it'd be nice to see.

Bonner got freed up a bit in the first half. Jackson adjusted at halftime but the fact that Jackson had to adjust meant that the Bonner threat was realized.

Most likely, though, is that the Spurs will have to use the frontline of Duncan and Thomas quite often. Thomas against Bynum and Duncan against Gasol actually makes a lot of sense. The problem comes on the other end because both bigs will be able to easily collapse on Duncan with Thomas on the court. Usually Oberto would make some sense but he's been out of it for so long I wouldn't defrost him out for this game.

Bonner was good enough to avoid having to rush out the Duncan/Thomas frontline

Overall it looked promising matchup-wise. RMJ looked like a legit defender to put on Kobe and Bynum didn't turn into Hakeem with Bonner on him.

Encouraging.

[EricB]

Yeah Bonner did decent on Bynum.

Agreed on Duncan's D on Gasol early. I still don't understand why Duncan is not more physical with Gasol ALA 2004 in the playoffs. Then Duncan would push him around and was physical and Gasol crawled up a tad in a tiny ball.

[HarlemHeat37]

Duncan's D took him out of the game in the 2nd half though..

Duncan completely took Gasol out of his game in last year's playoffs, so I wouldn't expect any less if we met them this year..

[Manufan909]

I liked RMJ's defense on Kobe for the most part. Still has some work to do but it wasn't like when AD would guard Kobe and Kobe would just shoot over him like he was playing against his little brother. RMJ made Kobe work somewhat, which is a good sign.

RMJ guarding Kobe >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Udoka guarding Kobe

It kinda worked out that way in the first half. By the time Kobe tried to take over, Bowen was in the game. For that reason, it might make sense to keep Bowen on the bench even if the two teams meet up in the playoffs.

Pop did put Manu on Kobe. I thought Manu actually did a pretty good job. The only thing I don't like when Manu is guarding Kobe is that Manu tends to double-team off of him for some unknown reason. It's like he can't help himself. If Manu could fix that, he'd actually be pretty good at guarding Kobe.

Thank you Pop for not putting Udoka on him

Hill on him was a longshot and didn't happen. Not too much of a surprise.

Couldn't really get a good feel of whether the Spurs were more physical with him. Will have to watch it again to see if they made it a point to try to always keep a body on him.

Very nice job, Pop

I thought Bonner on Bynum worked out about as well as could be expected. Bynum still got his points but Bonner made him work. If Duncan wouldn't have let Gasol eat him alive early on, the strategy would have looked even better.

Bonner got freed up a bit in the first half. Jackson adjusted at halftime but the fact that Jackson had to adjust meant that the Bonner threat was realized.

Bonner was good enough to avoid having to rush out the Duncan/Thomas frontline

Overall it looked promising matchup-wise. RMJ looked like a legit defender to put on Kobe and Bynum didn't turn into Hakeem with Bonner on him.

Encouraging.

Agreed. Bonner didn't stop anyone, but he made the taller Lakers big men work. 10 and 5 is nothing to sneeze at.

[Whisky Dog]

The Lakers in the 1st half got far too many open looks inside of 10 to 15ft which I think got them in a rhythm and they were red hot as a team from the perimeter. Fisher made some damn good contested shots as well. Hopefully the Spurs can defend the paint better for 48 next meeting and not let them get so damn hot.

Excellent game to watch from a fan's standpoint, but the defense for the Spurs has to be better than that. Luckily the Lakers also have serious defensive problems at times and looked horrible in P&R defense for big chunks of the game. The thing I don't like is that Ariza is able to check Parker with his length and relative quickness, I hope that doesn't continue in future matchups. All in all, marvelous game and a big time win for the Spurs. Both teams realistically can't expect to shoot much better than on this night.

[Yorae]

And if KT keep shooting hot with his jumper, there's no worry of laker's big men crowding duncan.

[timvp]

Duncan's D took him out of the game in the 2nd half though..

Duncan completely took Gasol out of his game in last year's playoffs, so I wouldn't expect any less if we met them this year..

True. Which is part of the reason why Gasol tearing him up to begin the game was just odd to see. Usually Duncan is all over those slow post moves of his . . .

The Lakers in the 1st half got far too many open looks inside of 10 to 15ft which I think got them in a rhythm and they were red hot as a team from the perimeter. Fisher made some damn good contested shots as well.

Yeah, the chemistry between Duncan and Bonner wasn't there early on when they were making rotations. That left the Lakers with a lot of room in the paint.

And Fisher did hit some extremely contested jumpers. Parker was right on him and he also knocked down one with Duncan in his grill.

And if KT keep shooting hot with his jumper, there's no worry of laker's big men crowding duncan.

Good point. KT's jumper looks a lot softer than we saw previously. He's taking his time and calmly sinking jumpers these days. Hopefully that lasts because he'll get a lot of looks off pick-and-rolls and off double-teams down on Duncan.

[EricB]

I honestly would've liked to have seen more Duncan and KT there at the end of the game, but it worked out well.

I think the biggest help would be KT's good screens to help free up guys to get open on the offensive end, cause the offense was painfully bad there at the end.

[Yorae]

Manu should remember that KT is a pick and pop guy. I think the last time they did a p&r manu threw it away coz he thought KT is going to roll. Anyway, KT has been pretty decent in pick and pop situations.

[GSH]

When I first saw the le of this thread - "How to best defend Kobe" - I thought Johnny Cochran had started posting here.

I'm having a hard time living with the idea that Bruce Bowen isn't able to lock down the other team's best player every night. And without a second big on the floor, that "funnelling" help defense isn't there either. Like it or not, that makes this a different team defensively.

I think part of the key to defending those guys (on the court) may be working their asses off on the other end, and maybe pressing them a little more when they are bringing the ball down the court, to shorten the shot clock on them as much as possible. If George Hill can tone down the fouls just a little bit, I think he can be good on both counts. I think he'll be ready to put in some quality time on guys like Kobe before too long.

I've seen Gasol gassed at the end of games, and he definitely starts short-arming shots when he gets tired. I know it would mean giving up some points, but it might be worthwhile to put Fab in just to lean on him for 8-10 minutes. It takes a toll later in the game. A lot of heavyweight fights are won in the late rounds, for just that reason.

And finally, it would probably help to get Finley a GPS unit so he can know where the he is on the court.