lets sign jesus on our team... im a christain... but i am just trying to continue the story some clutch friends made. Jesus,plz, do all u can do do to hlp dis team
That's a good point and a tough question to ask. In previous years you knew Lakers had really no weapons to beat you and the only way for them to grab a win was Kobe scoring 40+ points a game. But right now the situation looks different. Kupchak did a great job of putting solid weapons around Kobe so that he doesn't have to even score 20 every night. One night they need him, the other one they don't. He can score 15 and they can blow out a team. That is a definition of a great team. At first Kobe didn't understand that but now he does which makes him even better. Lakers are just so great offensivly. They can shoot, they can attack the rim, they can rebound, they can play halfcourt, they can run. They can do it all. And that is the problem for Houston, we just cannot score enough to beat them. So for us defense will be the key. Surprisingly (or maybe not) this year Lakers seem to lose more games when Kobe goes for 35+ points and they seem to play way better with him scoring less. Right now, I'd take the risk and let Kobe score ALL they way shutting down his teammates at the same time. ANd it is pretty predictable because we are not a team that is gonna double one guy consistently.
First of all there's no way to "stop" a scorer. This is by design in the NBA offensive players are meant to have advantages over defenders by the rules. It's like saying "how can we stop Jimmie Johnson from driving fast?" You cant the entire point of NASCAR is for him to go fast. You simply have to drive faster and beat him to the finish line. The entire point of the NBA is for elite scorers to score. Keeping that in mind, Houston will do what's effective on Kobe. They'll give him different looks with Artest and Battier, they'll play him physical which Kobe does not respond well to, they'll give him the low percentage outside jumpers with a hand in his face and try to limit his open looks and lanes to the basket. Kobe isn't going to beat Houston singlehandedly. He was putting up 60, 80 points a couple years back and not even making the playoffs. If Kobe takes 25+ shots and scores 20 points the Rockets win. Kobe isn't going to beat the Rockets... it'll be Gasol, Ariza, Odom, Brown etc It that still doesn't reassure you, go ahead and turn off the TV until gameday. The Kobe hype machine is in full bloom and you have to be pretty strong minded to keep your perspective and realize that LA had a couple of crappy looking games versus Utah, that they got spanked last year by Boston and that all those years Kobe was "unstoppable" in the league his team was mired in the first round or out of the playoffs altogether.
Laugh at me for this if I am wrong: can we try Chuck since Shane and Ron are not going to work anyway?
make him work on defense, and get him to play you 1-on-1. Let him get his points while making the others inactive. Something like Portland. Roy get his points, but suffocate the others.
Ron Artest needs to go at him on the offensive end to wear him out. And by that I mean in the post, not on the perimeter trying to dribble between his legs.
Send him to Edwards, Colorado and let him get anal with a hotel employee. Seriously, let him get the room cleaned as well as he likes.
Kobe scoring isn't what will beat us. This year they lose when Kobe takes a game over, they win when he gets his teammates involved. Whatever we do, always have battier or artest on the court, and NEVER double Kobe. Kobe has a very well balanced team around him, if any of his teammates are left unmarked because we are on a double team, its an automatic 2 points (sometimes 3). In order to win this series, we have to have solid possessions on offense, and have our defense top notch. We will not outscore the lakers in a shootout, our defense is what will win us the game.
Kobe is going to get his points no matter what we do... he is just that good. Here is what we can do to make him earn it: - Alternate between doses of Artest and Battier to keep him off rhythm - Do not let him drive on Yao as that WILL put him into foul trouble and considering we don't have a backup center, that is a really bad thing. Well... it is bad regardless but yeah... - Cut him off as he goes behind screens and force him to take pull up jump shots. - Contest EVERY jump shot he takes. Battier is really good at this. - Do not gamble (Artest is really bad at this) and go for steals. Just play him with solid consistent effort. - If he does get past Battier or Artest, whoever he is driving on needs to stand his ground outside the circle and keep his hands down and just try to take the charge. Don't even try to contest and block the drive. The refs are gay enough to give him the call every single time.
Kobe being a guard he can handle the ball and create for himself. So, I think we should mix it up by doubling, preventing him from getting the ball by fronting possibly, and forcing him to baseline also. We can always go to single coverage because of artest and battier are great defenders but the key is to make someone other than kobe beat us. I just hope that kobe does not pull that lame duck in the first half and explode in the second half crap again from the last time we played them. Also, we have to make him play defense.
I agree with the other posters that we should probably let Kobe have his and shut down the rest of the team. Remember when Kobe did things single handedly the Lakers didn't get very far. We need to get Kobe back into his me me me mode. I would put Artest on him for a signifigant amount of time just to try to get into Kobe's head that it his personal mission to kick Artest's @ss rather than think about the Lakers winning the series. The other thing we need to do is to score. We can't contain Kobe and the rest of the Lakers indefinately but if we put pressure on them so they have to play defense too we could tire them out and that makes our defense easier.
Problem is, we let Kobe have his once upon a time and he scorched us with a fairly high accuracy. I rather we try to limit him to 20 on 20 shots while trying to stop the rest of the team. Problem with Lakers is that they are full of offensive players. Fisher has been lightning us up ever since the Rockets heard of him. Odom is a better scorer than Artest who is our 2nd option. Gasol is a bigger and more defensive version of Aldridge. Bynum is a fairly talentedd biggie.
when he drives the lane, make a hard play on the ball and knock him on his backside. Let him know if he goes to the cup, he's going to pay for it--no dunks no layups. Force him into a jumpshooter and live with the consequences.
Best way to stop Kobe is to make him play hard defensively. So it depends on Artest or Battier to have good offensive games. If not, Kobe will slack off on defense and try to get some easy steals off Yao.
