It took getting hit in the head by Artest to get him to play strong... If only he played like that all the time.
Completey agree. Bud was on Kobe in the 1st quarter and was more effective than anyone else who guarding him. He completely outplayed Barnes and Ron Ron
I was very impressed by his defense. Kobe was just being Kobe, but Bud actually did a good job. He was also aggressive on offense. Should have gotten two calls he didn't get.
Neither Bud nor Martin had a chance against Kobe. Couldn't even slow him down. Bud and Martin were outscored by Kobe/Barnes 45-28. Just because a guy goes out there and hits J's and he is active on the defensive end doesn't mean he is effective defensively. Kobe got whatever he wanted. Bud was matched up directly against Kobe. Martin took Barnes. Bud does not have the ability to be a deterrent defensively. He just doesn't have it. Sure, he can be in the right position. Doesn't make a difference, Kobe just goes over him and hits the J. And Kobe was hitting a ton of J's last night. Sure, Kobe always scores a ton, but if you force him to take contested shots and he has to shoot a lot of shots to get his numbers, then you have a chance. Not the case last night. Kobe dominated us.
It may be good in terms of Bud but it's not good in terms of team. The Martin/Chase combo on the wings will not work. Neither one of them has the capability, the capacity to be effective defensively. Oh, they can get to the right spot, overplay the proper side of the ball handler. They can do everything technically right and still be ineffective because they do not have the ability to challenge defensively. They're too weak, too frail, too light. They're just not a deterrent defensively.
Bud needs to able to find other ways to score besides jacking up 3s. They arent going to go in every night. His defensive efforts were a lot better then previous games.
His D has been good all year, and he is shooting a career high Fg% in both 3pters and overall. I am convinced that people are unwilling to watch him play and are just going off of what others say. DD
Come on! Bud and Martin were all over Kobe last night. He would have had more points if it weren't for those two playing pretty gvood defense. Give props when props are due.
I too was impressed by his defense on Kobe. He made him work. Kobe was just hitting his usual ridiculous, unguardable shots.
I disagree, I think CBUd and Terrence played pretty good D, I think KMart had trouble and fouled him a lot, 3 fouls in 6 minutes to start the 3rd.....but in the first half Kobe was settling for jumpers and missing. It was Kobe Bryant though, no one can completely stop him...people are again having unrealistic expectations. DD
Every time Terrence hit the floor he was getting done up by Kobe. He was hanging too far off Kobe. I like the kid too, but i have to tell it how i saw it. At least Bud had a hand in his face the whole time.
I missed the first half of the game last night, but from what i saw, I would say Budinger had solid D on Bryant.
One thing i noticed was Jordan Hill was doing a good job of keeping the ball away from Bynum. I don't know why they didn't put him back in during the 4th.
