Do you know that's Kobe bryant right? Not Bryan Cook... To not close on him with help when he drives towards the basket is stupidity. There were a lot of plays with Martin and Kobe 1v1 and Martin doing Ok. Not to throw players under the bus but he did better then C.Lee
Kobe always takes a huge load of shots and misses a lot of them. I don't think it's Martin all the way...
Am i missing something, or are you guys talking about the same Kobe who dropped 32/11/5 on 13-25 shooting? Kobe got to the rim against martin at will. That says enough about Martin's D
Trade him for Tracy, offense only players like Martin who aren't capable of playmaking aren't winners. He's like Corliss Williamson, except as a guard. I dun give a **** bout no damn statistical efficiency. The Rockets need thugs or talented cry babies out there if they want to compete with leBron and Kobe and Paul Pierce. Shane Battier ain't gonna cut it. What's the point of being such a great scorer if you can't.... IMPOSE YOUR WILL ONTO THE GAME. TRACY TRACY BRING BACK TRACY
13-25 isn't getting to the rim at will, its a textbook display of containment defense. If you understood this concept maybe you'll stop chucking the ball so damn much.
Yeah he plays this same containment defense against all the guys he guards... good enough for them to drop whatever they want on him, whenever they want. Just admit he's a terrible defender and will never be a prime Rip Hamilton. And as good as he is offensively, he can't take over games or impose his will. Just a pure stat gobbling player.
The tnt crew showed a stat from one of those synergy type places discussing shane on kobe. The stat showed when battier is on kobe, he shot 48%,but when shane isnt on him,he shoots 37%. I guess its better to have the offensive threat on the floor when trying to defend kobe.
Battier plays smart defense, basically he just tries to make Kobe shoot in his cold spots in the heat chart. However Kobe is one of the most well-rounded players in the league, his cold spots are probably just a few percentage worse than his normal neutral spots. That makes him harder to guard against intellectual types like Battier, speedy and agile defenders like KM or Ray Allen would probably make more sense since Kobe isn't as spry as he used to be.
I guess the Lakers are wanting to get rid of Kobe as well since Martin dropped 30 points on them while only taking 15 shots...
allowing kobe to slack off on one end of the court is how to make him effective now that he doesn't have the limitless energy of a 20 year old without injury concerns.
I think has a lot to do with the fact that when Battier is guarding him, it's usually 1 on 1, whereas other guys tend to get more help. Pugs
Kobe went 13/25 from the field to score 32 points. There were times in which Kobe drove in to get a layup, but those times only speckled his shot chart in which most of his shots were jumpers from the field, with 3 missed 3 point shots. A large reason for this was Martin's 1 on 1 defense against him out near the perimeter. He didn't go one on one the whole time, as a number of times other Rockets moved over to double and triple team Kobe, but that was only when Kobe got in or near the paint. Otherwise, it was KM guarding him while taking jump shots. And when that happened, Kevin maintained a position close to him and between him and the basket. He didn't get caught on pump fakes. He didn't jump to block the shot only to foul Kobe. He stayed exactly where he was supposed to be on defense against him, stayed in his face and kept a hand straight up and in Bryant's face. Honestly, he played him a lot like Shane Battier or Chuck Hayes would have played him from 15 feet out. We harp on Martin's defense a lot, and rightly so. But for last night, he deserves credit for playing very solid defense against one of the most prolific scorers in the game right now. The Lakers won this game because of Kobe's 11 assists more than because of his 32 points. Martin did a very solid job against him.
kobe is able to create a decent shot 3 out of 4 attempts regardless of whose defending him, the key to stopping him is to make him work both ends, when he gets tired, his injuries effect his lift and he tends to pull his shot short, far more than he did 2-3 years ago, couple that with that battier isn't quite the defender he once was... Battier is sort of like Artest tbh, he was a great defender, but not anymore.
Looking at the box score it looks like Martin didn't defend him well. But if you watch the game he forced Kobe into some tough shots which he was just hitting tonight. Just our luck.
As pugsly8422 mentioned, Shane's % against Kobe might suffer from having to guard him more one-on-one. Although I also think that Kobe knows Shane's reputation as a defender and so takes it personally, trying to show that no one can guard him, and so he zeroes in more. As a student of the game, and someone who's been in the league such a long time, Kobe has a pretty good idea how Shane's gonna come at him. Hell, if I were Kobe, I'd start missing shots out of surprise if Kevin Martin actually D'd me up: "Kevin Martin's playing DE-fense?"
Actually, what it said (if I remember) is that in the prior two seasons, when Battier is on the floor, Kobe shoots 48%. And when Battier isn't on the floor, he's shot 40%. Keep in mind also that in the last two seasons, we often had Artest and Ariza matching up with Kobe. I would like to see what is the point-differential with and without Battier on the floor, though.
