At this point, I don't care if he's saying that "he could care less what Houston fans think," he is the major reason for shutting down Kobe Bryant. Up to game 3, Kobe has gone 20-59 (33%) from the field with no signs of improvement. And if Mobley's effort on defense is making him too tired to show up on offense, it could be a good thing--more of him standing on the arc and knocking down 3's, and less ball handling and off-balance shots. Way to go Mobley! Ruben Patterson should be taking notes.
as much as id love to agree what should I know do to negate this irresponsible assumption. 1 game and you guys go nuts, so did he become the bonafied Kobe stopper somewhere between game 2 and 3? I acknowledge tough defense on Kobe.... But Kobe Stopper? Cmon oh well lets have a vote, which tactic should we use to negate this comment? A) Rabbits Foot B) Knock On wood C) Horshoe d) Four leaf clover e) 7 boxes of lucky charms cereal f) all of the above e) doesnt matter were screwed in game 4
I have to say cat is good. I really never agree trade him. He is not that great but really good enough. If he can reduce some bonehead shoot and try more pass, He will be great. take care Cat and God bless you and all you familly.
In the end, Kobe stops himself, but the defense you play on him does have an impact and Mobley's defense has been good. What was most surprising to me, watching at the game last night, was the difference between Mobley's d and Jim Jackson's d on Kobe. A couple of times Jackson got stuck on picks, etc. guarding Kobe and he just couldn't hang laterally. It really made me appreciate the quickness Mobley has on defense. If Mobley played with that much passion all of the time on defense, he could be an all-NBA defensive player. On offense, they went to that one double-pick for Mobley play one too many times, though it could be argued that forcing Kobe to play so much defense took some out of his offensive game.
Cat actually stopped Kobe even better in game 1. He did ok in game 2, and a great job again in game 3. I think it was during the very first Yao/Shaq match up that Cat really did a terrific job of shutting Kobe down then too. There is a history of Cat clamping down the screws on Kobe. It shows what he's capable of.
The real Kobe-stopper: Mobley in JVG's defensive system, including Yao. Because Shaq is efficiently singled-covered by Yao for most of the game, Rockets can afford to double teaming Kobe to take away his drive to the basket, which limited to lots of bad perimeter shots. Game 2 Kobe went to the free throw line 18 times. Game 1 and 3 Kobe went to the free throw line 8 times each. That's the difference.
for the love of god, there is no such thing as a "Kobe Stopper" there will never be one, thats how good Kobe is. The best you can do with Kobe is limit the number of good looks he has, make him take and make tougher shots than he is used to taking and no silly touch fouls when he drives. Kobe lives off the FT line, if you foul him foul him hard, not to hurt him or anything but to make sure he doesnt get any shot off and to let him know nothing will come easy down there. In game 2 when he didnt shoot the ball too well from the field he got a lot of easy trips to the line off of touch fouls (which of course he will get because he is Kobe) which really hurt the rockets and boosted his confidence. So to the rockets, if he drives and if you plan to foul him, FOUL HIM don't do a silly two-hand touch tackle on him
There's no Kobe stopper. Rockets just play great team defense. Mobley has been playing good D to the point where he's not falling for all of Kobe's pumpfakes to try and coax him to jump in the air, and has done a pretty good job at keeping Kobe in front of him. That said, I think Kobe settles for too many perimeter buckets, and it's definitely to our advantage. He's a capable shooter but in game 2 he was pretty much able to get in the paint at will. It was to our advantage having Cato and Yao clog the paint but he was still able to get to the FT a ton. I dunno what Kobe's FG % is for this series but I'd have to think it's not very pretty, and barring game 2 where I think he got something like 16 FT attempts the Rockets help defense has really been great to watch.
Just looked at Kobe's stats this series so far. He's made 20 out of his 59 FGAs, shooting a whopping 33.8% on the court. The only game where he scored in the 30s was game 2 where he got 17 Freethrow attempts, shooting 45% on the court. In other words the Rockets success on defense against Kobe has been decided at the free throw line, and how good a job the Rockets do at keeping him out of the paint.
Not really, Yao had his share of duty with Shaq but I saw a lot of Cato single coverage on Shaq in this game.
How it was last game was Cato defended Shaq for a good 3 quarters to try and save fouls for Yao. 4th quarter comes up, and Yao defends Shaq with the free reign of wrapping Shaq up if he gets in too close to the paint. Yao picked up 4 fouls really quickly when he was defending Shaq but I like the formula. Let Yao save his energy on Shaq by guarding Malone who's been pretty much a jump shooter this whole series, and let him defend Shaq in the 4th when he ideally has fouls to expend and saved energy to use on defense in the 4th.
I think the real advantage that Cat have over other defensive specialists is that he can make his man work as hard on the other end. While I didn't like a lot of his shots yesterday, I think the fact that he attacked as much as he attacked really forced Kobe to play both sides of the ball. The only other defensive player that comes close to what Mobes CAN do is Artest, but while Artest has much better shot selection, I still that Cat can create for himself and make the other guy work harder on the defensive end.
It's very true that Cat doesn't do it alone. But Cat does play Kobe extremely well. He has on some plays shut Kobe down with his play alone, he makes Kobe work hard, he drives into the double teams, and shot blockers, and I love that time he swatted the ball from Kobe's hands in game one. It's a team effort and without Cato and Yao behind Cat Kobe might still go off, but without Cat on Kobe up front the same might still be true. He's been playing great against him so far. He deserve some props.
I think one of the biggest advantages is that he is left handed. You notice almost every time that Kobe tries to do a turn around shot. Mobley slaps it away because Kobe is not looking for the left hand to get him.
i believe it's very bad luck to call anyone a Kobe-stopper. At least wait til the series is over to make declarations like that. I'm glad the press hasn't anything along those lines, as much as I hate Kobe he's probably the best player under pressure in the league. I don't want him to have any additional incentive.
He has had two good games against Kobe, but "nobody" is a Kobe-stopper. Kobe is probably the best player in the league. He can go off for 40 on any player, on any given night. But props to Cat, keep up the pressure.
Not counting Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Shaq, maybe. Kobe isn't even the best player on his own team.
