Found this pretty interesting; I'm watching the Lakers v. Suns right now and Grant Hill has the Kobe assignment. Hill made a good play forcing Kobe to take a jumper he probably didn't want. The announcers later clipped back to Battier's work on Kobe from last years playoff run (hand in his face) and showed G.Hill trying to do the same during that particular play. They went on to say that Battier had actually given Grant a five page document on how to play vs. Kobe. Blue Devils watching out for one another, pretty cool.
Battier has taught Hill, but Hill's hand in the face defence isn't nearly as effective as Battier's was.
I noticed the same thing. Battier was practically wiping the sweat off the bridge of Kobe's nose- Hill's hands were far closer to the ball than anything else. They never said Hill was good at it. Just received info from Battier. Oh, a few plays later, Hill had his ankles broken by Bryant. Embarrassing.
I dunno why people give Battier so much credit guarding Bryant. Every time they play, Bryant always torch him for 30 or more points.
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Shane gets referenced a lot in these playoffs even though we're not playing. Pretty cool ... In the LA-OKC series, Shane got mentioned too because Artest was borrowing his "hand-in-the-face" strategy against Durant. I still think Shane is one of the best defenders vs. Kobe. And if the West needs to get by LA to get to the NBA finals, we still need Shane for his strategic positional defense.
Battier doesn't stop Kobe or get the best of him but he makes him work and in some of the games Kobe got a lot of those points because he took a lot of shots.
with a player as damn awesome as Bryant, all a man can do is make him work much harder for his shots. If you cant see how much harder Bryant has to work for his shots when Battier is on him, you are either blind or willfully ignorant....probably one of those biased Rockets fans that hold it against Battier cause he isnt some super pogostick young stud. Battier does the best he can do with what he has, he never takes a night off if he can physically play and more often than not makes his opponent's fg effectiveness go down. You cant realistically ask for more.
Those protocols may be out, but those can't be learned overnight. Shane matches Kobe's intensity level. He goes after Kobe and won't back down. Only Shane has Kobe rattled so that he has to resort to trash-talking Shane. Remember those "you can't guard me" screams. If I were Phoenix, I'd worry about the Laker BIGS. Phoenix couldn't stop anyone. Shut everyone else down and gamble Kobe will tire out from having to score heavily the whole game or even series.
welcome back R2k - this board needs all the educated bball fans it can get. Another key to slowing Bryant down is preparation. To me this single reason is why Shane, while declining, is still a better defender than Trevor who is in his prime. If Shane could convince Ariza to prep harder and stick to the scouting reports, the sky would be the limit on his impact on the defensive end.
I don't think it's gonna help Hill. Considering that when Kobe plays against rox, He usually had very high stat. which means Battier didn't guard him well. Kobe scored 40 points this game, so apparently it's futile with Shane's guides.
you find me one man in this league that can *stop* Bryant on 6 days rest, in the WCFs. There is no such thing.
Ever since Battier made headlines with the his faceguard of Kobe, I've noticed that other defenders started doing the same thing, and not just to Kobe. On the note of Kobe however, faceguarding has been less effective since it debuted. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Kobe spent a whole summer practicing shooting with objects blocking his view of the rim, after all the attention Battier got in the media and among fans. Kobe's known to be obsessive like that... which would explain how he now can torch Battier on a semi-regular basis regardless of how much Battier makes him work. Ruben. Patterson.
to be honest battier's defense on kobe is pretty dam overrated. i cant count how many times he gets torched when we play the lakers, hand in the face or no hand in the face. it seems like during those 'shut down' games, kobe just has a bad shooting night yes battier does play good defense on kobe and rarely makes any mistakes, but the effect is way exaggerated imo
