Rockets doubling him led to the Artest 3-pointer that nearly lost us the game. Another problem with doubling is it can put defenders out of position which hurts our rebounding. I was against the double team for most of the possessions down the stretch. Kobe was shooting basically 50% from the floor. The key is forcing a tough shot and having a number of guys crash the boards. If he hits it, I'll live with the results.
I think people might be respecting Kobe a bit too much these days. He doesn't seem to have the same legs or jumps as he used to and he usually wears out if he takes a lotta shots and has to make plays early in the game. Like a couple games ago against the Mavs, Kobe tried going for a baseline dunk but didn't have enough leg strength. I wouldn't mind if we try switching up def on Kobe everytime and rough him up a bit early with physical play to tire him out faster. I'd opt at putting Ariza on him early in the game too cause Battier is better at forcing Kobe into areas where either Kobe has to take a low percentage shot or there is Yao and Deke helping out down low but not so great at physically dominating Kobe with athleticism. So when Kobe drives or posts up, Battier has some problems. This is probably actually where Artest last year helped with his physical strength, but then Artest was a bit slow as well as he was good at just getting Kobe pissed and then Kobe proceeding to torch us. All in all, I enjoyed the game though...loved seeing us out hustle, out rebound, out play the lakers in many possessions (gotta take as many positives as I can from it or I'm just going to be too bitter today). AB needs to handle a ball a bit better and Chase's shooting coulda been useful for us, but players like Landry and Chuck really stepped up. Scola and DA need to find that long range shot though, the lakers were giving to us all night and if we hit a few of those, the game would have been a lot different.
You need to watch it again. The hand checking started on Brooks drive, no where near the shot attempt. And according to that rule, no hand checking on the drive.
The ironic thing is they don't call handchecking all night in Fish but in the waning minute, they decide to call it. If they had been consistent, they would have called the shooting foul, not the hand check before the shot.
I think Battier is the Rockets best choice to defend Kobe through the game, but I do agree that changing things up helps on occasion (and likely happens in the course of a game, eg a defensive switch). I do think you need to also double up on Kobe, but dissguise the double or have it come from different players/locations so as to make it harder to find the open player. But seriously... how often does Ron Ron nail that shot versus Kobe? The Lakers have other good shooters that can beat you (eg Odom, Gasol) but Kobe will always beat you... make someone else step up.
