I agree with the OP. But You also have to make Kobe exert energy on the defensive end. Ultimately, Brandon Roy ran out of gas against the Rockets because he had to play defense. Initially, the Lakers put Bryant on Rondo in the Finals, but when Rondo was out of the game, he had to guard Posey. Posey hit some big shots in that series and Bryant couldn't just roam on defense and had to be conscious of Posey or pay the price. Shane needs to do the same thing. He needs to do a lot more of what he did last series. He has to make Bryant work on both ends of the court. If he just stands in the corner like he tends to do, it will be a nightmare for the Rockets because Bryant will either sit in Yao's lap or just roam defensively and create havoc. Battier should be studying tapes of Posey in last year's NBA Finals.
I've seen this video before...interesting, but I'm sure if a Boston fan broke down the Lakers defense we would see a similar defense. What I really want to see is this same guy making a video for Yao after this upcoming series. Talk about no-calls...
Tough luck with that, I know that guy from another forum and I believe you post there too. He's an insane Kobe fan. He thinks that the 2004 Pistons Defense and the 2008 Celtics defense was much tougher than what Michael Jordan faced and he also tries to prove that Kobe Bryant was better than Michael Jordan. However, what you said is a good idea. I would love to see how many bad calls will be made in this series. I know we have some great cappers here like Rockets2K. I wouldn't mind making the video either.
You can only expend that much energy on defense if you have guys that are gifted offensively that can score without much effort. Boston had that in Pierce and Allen. That's the only reason why that defense worked so well. You have to give up something somewhere. You can't just have any team play that much defense and expect to outscore a team like the Lakers. You need good offensive players. Moral of the story is you need good offensive and defensive players to win games - little has changed in that regard since people started playing pro basketball.
What an idiot doing that video. I was watching it and had to stop to quote this chump. "Jordan had the luxury to face poor defenders in a watered down era." This video isn't simply about pointing out the excellent Celtics defense against Bryant. It is also an attempt to say that Bryant is a better player than Jordan because Jordan had advantages Bryant doesn't have. I'm sorry, but I watched a hell of a lot of basketball before Jordan came into the league and while he played. That statement is bull****.
Yeah, I know I saw that too. But I know him from another forum, He's a guy that keeps on repeating himself saying Kobe is better than Jordan and he says stuff like Jordan never had a winning season without an all-star and stuff like that. This has nothing to show how good the Celtics defense was, just to show you how great Kobe was despite facing the defense. This is still good footage though and I hope Rick Adelman showed this YouTube video to his team in a team film today.
Sure, I didn't mean to say there isn't value in watching the video. I just couldn't hear that line from the guy and not post my indignation, lol.
That guy has dedicated his life to defending Kobe Bryant yeah I'm convinced Kobe is much better than Michael Jordan and Kobe is the only player who this stuff is allowed on
This video is misleading. Kobe scored most of the time even with that kind of defense. The only thing worked on them is being "dirty". We gotta play physical defense, Artest gotta step up, I think he's the only dirty player on our team.
The Rockets cannot duplicate what the Celtics did to Kobe and the Lakers. If they could they would have already done it in the JVG era since Tom Thibodeaux is the guy who came up with the strategy. Boston has the best team defender to ever play the game in KG, a big but mobile Center in Perkins, a motivated, super competitive swingman in Pierce, and a PG with the physical skills to be one of the greatest one on one defenders of all time at the PG position. The also had Posey coming off the bench and we all know he can defend like crazy. Ray Allen was there too and watched on defense..LOL. The Rockets have hard working guys but lack the size and athleticism. What they do have is chemistry and two of the top 5 wing defenders in the league in Shane and Ron. They have the tools to defend Kobe but not in the same manner Boston did or at least not for an entire game. I say let Kobe have his and in the fourth make him pass the ball and let's see how well the other Lakers score the ball when they were forced to be spectators to the Kobe show on offense for the first 3 quarters. The way Kobe killed us all season was by getting everyone else going and then in the 4th he would turn it on and either score the bucket himself or dish to a team mate who was in a rhythm and confident because they got to touch the ball all game long.
Houston doesn't have the tools to defend Kobe the same way Boston did, but they can still be relatively effective. The biggest difference between teams like Houston and Boston is offensive execution. When teams lock down on the Rockets, they just don't score. They are not a strong 4th quarter team without McGrady and they struggle to score at all down the stretch. If you had some higher IQ players in the backcourt this would be a different story; with Adelman you can't afford to have a stagnant offense with hesitation.
That guy's an idiot. Defenders were allowed to hand check, and teams like the Pistons and Knicks employeed strategies to foul the hell out of Jordan everytime he tried to go to the hole. In today's game Stu Jackson and David Stern would be suspending guys like crazy for what those teams did to Jordan. Kobe has it much easier than Jordan ever did, zone or no zone.
Wait, so what's the Clutchfans consensus of this defensive blueprint? Is it dirty, or is it smart, physical JVG-esque defense? (I will keep in mind that this video could easily be a product of convenient edited footage) If the Celtics played this should-be-illegal-but-not defense against Tmac, would we applaud it as "wow, that's great D" or would we scream bloody murder? What if they did this to Yao? Because if you evaluate this scheme as good, smart, physical defense that takes as much advantage as the refs would allow... Then that's exactly what the Utah Jazz when they defend Yao as well as run countless should-be-illegal-but-not screens for easy backdoor layups. Personally, I'm torn. I am a fan of the game of basketball, but something about that video seemed unfair. People often asked "How in the world did Boston get world class defense in one year", and the answer is former assistant to JVG Tom Thibodeau teaching them defensive tricks when there wasn't enough time to teach defensive fundamentals. http://www.forumblueandgold.com/2008/06/09/the-dark-lord/ http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-32-261/When-the-Celtics-Played-the-Lakers.html Personally, I feel that what was just displayed in the video was Tom Thibodeau's "how to foul without getting called for a foul" defense, which is exactly what we scream bloody murder when the Jazz play "how to foul Yao without getting called for a foul" defense, and I would prefer that we employ another defensive scheme to slow Kobe down. I wonder, how much of Artest's defense falls under this way?
The celtics did employ that same defense against tmac and they stopped our 22 game winning streak. Physical team defense wins especially in the playoffs. You do what you have to do to win.
I agree with zone defense concept. However, he can go over and around our bigs. Garnett is the sole reason for the Celtics title. 1. All 5 players must collapse in the lane when Kobe drives giving him no option but to pass out 2. Mix up defense strategies - Double team when he posts up - Let Shane or Ron handle him one on one sometimes - Yao, Scola, Chuck, and Landry must double with Shane or Artest on PnR 3. Recover quickly on all open shooters. Do not let them get confidence - Vujacic will shoot them out of the game 4. No and one's or layups. Pull him back to earth, grab the ball before he get's it up. 5. I can live with contested jumpers.
This is absolutely correct. Jordan was knocked out with flagrant fouls level 2, which would have suspended Laimbeer, Rodman etc... Elbowed, pushed, grabbed, and punched. Kobe tries to talk like Jordan and has his manerism's are the same. However, one thing is different he can't handle physical play. Let's give him some. Bad Boys style.
there's a really fine line between good defense and dirty basketball. If we want to beat the lakers, we have to do whatever it takes to slow them down. I for one hope they employ every single tactic that Boston used.
Adelman seems to leave the responsibility on one on one defense by Battier or Artest. At least that is what he did in the regular season and Kobe was very efficient. Does anyone remember what JVG did? I remember Kobe getting his points but being inefficient getting them. He shot a lot to get them.
