They asked "If Ron threw that elbow the other night, do you think he'd be suspended?" DM: "I don't know. I don't know. I do surprisingly have some faith in the NBA, I know a lot of fans don't right now. I do think that Kobe gets some special treatment on the floor sometimes from the refs."
Did the best I could....... Here ya go! 1560: Where you angry after the game the other night? DM: Kind of hard to get angry until you watch the video. Once he watched the video he was upset with video. Related the hit to what goes on in hockey. Surprised because Fisher is normally the player representative in NBA meeting. DM: Kobe and Ron incident. League said Kobe didn’t get him in the neck more like the chest. More unhappy about the loss than the ref’s calls. 1560: Wasn’t it clear that Kobe threw an elbow? DM: Yeah that’s was clear, but if you look at Kobe’s history you know its common that he throws elbow. 1560: If that was Ron do you think he would be suspended? DM: I don’t know. I, surprisingly have some faith in the NBA, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. 1560: Does it bother you that superstars get the call.? DM: I prefer the game be called straight up, He watched the refs during game 2. And the ref eyes never left Kobe and Ron when they were guarding each other. 1560: What do think about the confidence of the Rox? DM: Need to do what was done during the Portalnd series. Need fans support. Plugs purchasing seasons tix for next year. 1560: Where you ok with the calls on Yao, what does he have to do to stay out of foul trouble against Gasol? DM: It was disappointing for everyone. Gasol came out aggressive. 1560: Do you think they were fair calls? DM: Yes, some of the plays where actually fouls on Yao. The game is difficult to ref. you could call fouls every play almost. DM: Yao put himself in some bad spots, we spend more time in the league to show Bigs aren’t ref’d evenly. The freedom of movement needs to be clarified. Very clear what a foul is on the perimeter but not in the post. 1560: When Yao is fronted, do our guys do a good job of swinging the ball to get in to Yao? DM: Thinks they did an below average job, he isn’t the coach but think we can do a better job 1560: How is Von Wafer doing? DM: He is an emotional guy. Like most NBA players Wafer feels he should be starting, doesn’t like being taken out. But he needs to be patient. He is young and immature his emotions get the best of him. Compared to how Barry is handling the situation. 1560: How do you like Landry’s play? DM: Think he has his confidence back, was in a funk for a while because of his accidents. We need more guys to have big games like that. 1560: Productive minutes from Chuck, Lowry, The foul on Lowry game 2 Laker player was in the restricted area, do they go back and look at plays like that? DM: No they don’t. When you play the Lakers some of our role players get more recognition. 1560: Rafer could have been our enforcer if he was on our team, to give us some retaliation do ya think? DM: I think if I was going to get fined, or suspended I think I would want to get my money’s worth 1560:Think this game will be cleaner? DM: Yeah, I expect a much cleaner game, we just want to win. We have players that provide a physical presence but to call us bullies is crazy for any one who watched us all year. 1560: The Ron we are seeing now, Is this the Ron you expected to see when acquiring him beginning of the year? DM:Yes, he also performs similar to this during the year. We did our due diligence before getting him, people all said when the stage is at its biggest he performs really well and makes big shots. DM: Its great to have everyone talking about us, Talked about the Houston press article about “how to fake being a Houston Rockets fan."
Von thinks he should be starting? Wow, that just shows you how much a coach like Adelman has to deal with -- personality wise. These days in the NBA, you need a cross between a social pyschologist and a mathemetician to be able to coach an NBA team. If you just look at Game 2 in isolation, Shane got torched by Kobe and really didn't give us much on the offensive end. It's hard to imagine Von doing worse -- BUT that's just looking at Game 2 in isolation. Kobe was just making insane shots, rendering Shane's good defense useless. Tonight I'm hoping that Kobe can't replicate that same performance. Some of it too, is weakside defense. It's inevitable that Kobe is going to beat his man off the dribble. Our defensive rotation has to improve. We need to find a way to keep Yao away from ball screens and keep guys like Landry/Scola/Artest as the guys providing help defense on Kobe.
I was surprised DM said this about Von, but it makes sense if you watch Von each time he is taken out. It has to be hard to know you are playing well, but coach pulls you. The guy was 3 of 4 in 9 mins. What’s missing in all the elbows that were thrown in Game 2, was Wafer offensive foul when he elbowed Vujachic. I think that’s what got him taken out.
Besides Kobe making insane shots, there is a lot more to it when defending Kobe. If you watch Kobe against Shane he is constantly trying to find some space. Literally, even a 1/4 inch is enough for Kobe to get a good read for how he should shoot the ball. Shane Battier, God bless his soul, literally has to be perfect when playing against Bryant. He cannot even be a millisecond late when Kobe is getting to his spot and elevating. Once Kobe has gotten just the space he needs and Shane has gotten out of position by just a tiny fraction of an inch, Kobe is more than likely going to make the shot. Shane can put his hand on Kobe's face, but usually it is too late. Yes Kobe, was making some insane shots, but on many of those shots Kobe took, Shane was too late and you could tell that Kobe was going to drill them. The few shots Kobe missed on Shane, the timing Shane had was amazing and he was able to get his hand on Kobe's face before Kobe had any chance of measuring his shot. Shane's job is tough. Kobe was on last night and the only way to stop him is to be perfect, but with all the picks set along with no handchecking in the perimeter is almost nearly impossible to stop Kobe when he is on.
Yeah, that's a good point, ElPigto. When Kobe has the ball, he is constantly analyzing the defensive situation and his next move. Even when he gets past his man, he often slows down, puts his defender on his hip, and buys time to further analyze the situation. He reacts to the situation and makes good judgments with the ball. Of course, this strategy is aided by the refs, who respect him way too much. So that's always a weapon for him, especially when they are in the bonus -- he can just draw contact and 9 times out of 10 he is shooting free throws. That's why he's such a great closer, because you really can't play him super tight down the stretch due to the potential for a foul and his willingness to look for a foul. Play him tight and he lowers his shoulder and tries to draw a foul. Play him loose and he either hits a jumper or has the space to build up enough speed to blow by his defender. He always keeps his dribble alive. He is also very quick in his jumping and release, so like you said, just needs inches to get a decent look. He jumps backwards too when he is taking a mid-range shot, which means that even if his man is playing him perfectly, he can still create enough space to get the shot off.
Like Shane has said countless times before, he can't "stop" Kobe, only try to make things more difficult and hope he's not on like he was the other night. Thanks for the recap dude.
I think Shane is somewhat baiting him on that though - as in playing enough off of him and giving him enough space to take the hard shots. I think the more important and possibly less recognized part of Shane's defense on Kobe is that he isn't letting Kobe get free enough to involve anyone else or require help defense. Let Kobe take and make hard shots all day, but he is most dangerous when he can take those hard shots AND can get openings to get others easy shots too.
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