We'll have a hard time pulling out a win if Tracy doesn't play. Shane can't guard Kobe. Even if he could, who would we put on Odom? Farmar and Walton have been playing well for them as well. Bynum had a rough stretch of games before last night and hopefully he'll be off tomorrow. Not that Yao couldn't handle him and Kwame. I hope Tracy plays..
I have to ask, what makes you think that Tmac can defend Kobe but Shane can't? At this point in the season I have yet to see anyone that Shane can't guard effectively. It's not like he has to stop them from shooting at all, just play solid defense so they don't make easy buckets.
If we don't see Bonzi now, I don't think we ever will. How fat and out of shape can the guy be? It's ridiculous on his part. Lakers are playing strong. I've got a baaad feeling about this next game. If it's not fair to expect T-Mac to be the T-Mac of old, as some people say, then it's not fair for him to be pulling all that huge salary either. That's like super-sized Juwan or something. I expect the T-Mac of old! When I stop expecting that, I'm going to see a guy who is not earning his HUGE money.
Come on man. Kobe is shiftier plus he can get his shot off and shoot better than Lebron. Shane will pick up a lot of fouls trying to guard his drive. Then later in teh game Kobe will hit jumpers over him, because Shane will be concerned with the drive. Lebron needs to get easy hoops in order to get his outside game going. Kobe can do whatever he wants
Shane can guard Kobe as well as any other player in the league can. That doesn't mean Kobe can't go off for 50 points anyway but I'd take Shane on Kobe over anyone else at this point. We are in some trouble on Tuesday no matter what. If Tmac is out we are going to be seriously undersized. If Tmac is back I can only guess that he will be even more tentative and jump shot prone than he has been all season. We need Yao to erupt for a 35/15 game, Hayes to play some solid help defense and pull down some boards and for Head to rain 3s all night. Simply put, we will probably have to play a perfect game. It should be fun to watch.
If I were JVG I'd be very attempting to play a little mind game on my team. Knowing TMac is not gonna be 100%, I'd play him to start the game, watch his conditions closely and be ready to pull him off from the court at certain point. Then I'd use this occasion to light fire under the collective ass of my players, including Yao, and watch with a guilty pleasure on the sideline my team outplay its normal self to a victory over the opponents. Of course this "strategy" 1) may not work, 2) may even backfire, and 3) can only be used rarely and without the slightest awareness of the players. But as a head coach I am willing to try anything to get a victory, if it's a must win.
Battier actually did a decent job on Arenas, who is arguably even quicker than Kobe. Nobody can really stay in front of these guys-- Lebron, Arenas, Kobe-- in the no-hand-check era. What good defenders like Battier do is to direct them into positions where help defenders are waiting. Battier didn't stop Lebron all by himself either. It took a team effort to do that.
LeBron is not a limited scorer. You can't be limited and lead the league. LeBron is flat out stronger, more powerful, and at this point, more explosive. Shane will pick up fouls? Shane hasn't been in foul trouble all year. The Rockets have the #1 defense in the league for a reason. Fact is, we forced LeBron into his worst performance of the year - His 7/22 shooting was his 2nd worst shooting performance, and worst over 14 FGAs. It was also one of only 2 games this year in which he had no more than both 5 assists and 5 rebounds, and his only game with no steals or blocks. If not for one brief flurry, he wouldn't have hit 20 points, either. Likewise, Dwyane Wade's 8-22 was his 3rd worst shooting game, and his 3 assists were his 3rd lowest total, and we were one of 4 teams to force more turnovers than assists out of him. Care to debate whether or not Wade is as shifty as Kobe? It's more than a little bit funny that some people are worried about how well Kwame will defend Yao, while at the same time fear we have no answer for Kobe. Battier is a 10x the "Kobe Stopper" than Kwame is the Yao Stopper. However, our injuries seem to have taken out the exact kind of players we'd want to put on Kobe. Snyder certainly would have seen minutes, and so would (hopefully, will) McGrady. Bonzi probably would have also, and same can be said for Sura. If we're forced to put Head or Spanoulis on Kobe, then there will be trouble.
he did not guard arenas for most of the game actually if you saw it. arenas did most of his damage from 3s coming off of screens with rafer going under the screen. battier started guarding arenas towards the end of the fourth and as far as i can remember areans scored 5 points, one three and one layp (which battier forced him into making a tough shot) when shane was guarding him. no one can guard kobe but as a team i think we will do a good job. hopefully tracy will play, not having snyder is really hurt our backcourt size
If tmac is out and bonzi still does not play, then we know once and for all JVG is putting his own feelings above what's best for the team. No one can argue any differently anymore.
Battier wasn't on him all game. But yes, we did fine against Arenas. Making Arenas attempt 30 FGA (on 43% shooting), and take 15 3's by himself isn't bad. And 41 isn't terrible, considering he usually averages 34 at home, on 49% shooting. Of the teams Arenas has played against twice this year (us, CLE, DAL, DET, NYK), he put up the most FGAs on the lowest FG% against us. That does not suck.
whooops...lol, well I know he had some ankle issues and didn't play the game before yesterday. anyways I think Yao is good enough this year that he can carry the team to win this game, if he can get good enough support by his cast without Tmac. I believe you have to make this team one dimensional and dare Kobe to do it all by himself. Take his supporting cast out and let Kobe jack up 30+ shots. It could backfire on us like the raptors game, but hey lets see if he can do it again!
wnes I think you are on the right track here but Tracy would have to be playing only in the playmaker position, who ever is playing the point would bring the ball down the court [like they always do] and then Tracy would be the main decission maker on ball movement- no shooting unless he feels great. Just his presence means that he will have to be guarded and that helps to open up for others to go one on one or to be freed up when a double team has been imposed on another player. Hope he can be in the game!
As much as I hope TMac can recover soon, I would love to see what Yao can do against Lakers without TMac. I think Rockets have a decent chance to win if role players (Battier/Head/JH) play like 4Q Saturday, i.e. making 3-pt shots, giving Yao the ball and grabbing offensive rebounds. Of course, most importantly, Yao keeps the hight-percentage jump shooting performance. If he can do that, there's no way anybody can stop him.
