i was amazed by Allen's defense i've never thought he would defend like that i know it's may be a knee jerk, but do u think guys that Allen's defense on Kobe is better than Battier's?
This question gets old....it's situational, it's not constant. No one plays good d consistently against Kobe. He can and has lit up everybody in the NBa at some point, probably multiple times. It's all about the moment. Battier has his. Ruben Patterson had his. Ariza had his. And so on. It's more about putting in a great effort in a given game than simply a player's trademark defensive style.
ray allen's a lot quicker than battier and is smaller enough i guess to squeeze through a lot of those screens. also, battier tends to be cerebral with his defense on kobe while allen is just sticking to him like glue and contest every shot.
The last two games hes averaging 35 points at just about 45% FG I dont see whats good about that... For the series 30 points at around 43%...
What i've always said about defending kobe is the same,its about team defense. Thats why i've never bought into having a zero on offense just to defend kobe. He's going to get hisbecause he's going to shoot 25 times a game anyway. So u might as well have a threat offenisvely to balance it out and make kobe play defense. He always guard the weakest offensive player on the floor. In this series, he's guarding rondo. Last yr, he guarded rafer, but when boston brings in robinson, he has to guard allen or pierrce. Vs the rockets last year he averaged 27ppg on 46% and in the finals so far he's averaging 32ppg and shooting 42% and that with last game included. When it mattered most, he didnt have the closing juice and he's shooting 24 times a game.
You might notice that Ray Allen (or Tony Allen, or Rondo whoever the Celtics threw at Kobe Bryant) has huge guys who are good defenders like Garnett, Perkins and Wallace behind him. A little easier to contain Kobe Bryant that way than when your best help for most of a playoff series is undersized (but defensively sound) Chuck Hayes. Nevertheless, during last year's playoffs, Kobe was the least efficient, or maybe 2nd least efficient next to Orlando, against the Rockets. Battier did a great job when you consider that (a) Orlando had that Dwight Howard guy blocking shots, (b) Artest was on Kobe during parts of the games and Kobe was more efficient against Artest as far as I remember.
I don't know about their defense but Ray Allen is a significantly better player than Battier and that's who you give up your lotto pick for.
either way kobe doesnt move as well as he did last year......the dude's been banged up all season, isnt he getting surgery on his knee in the off-season?
Its Simple, both allens guard kobe up close and PHYSICAL and battier doesn't. Battier lets him do whatever he wants and just raises his duke hand up.
You can't stop Kobe from shooting, but you can slow him on scoring. If he drops 30 points on you on 25+ shots, that is good defense. Kobe will get his share of freethrows, deserving or undeserving. There is nothing anyone could do about it.
Battier can't play physical. He doesn't have the speed to stop Kobe from blowing past him. And besides... one way or another Kobe will get his points regardless. He can shoot 3's, midrange, closerange, fadeaway, dunk, drive, layup, draw fouls, you name it. He is one of the most complete offensive players in this league today. That is why no defense is ever going to completely stop him every single time. Now... if you put somebody like Shane on LeBron who you can just easily draw charges on, and let him shoot long jumpers. He can be stopped...
