This is from Toronto Raptor's head coach. While, he didn't say it exactly, but according to Mike James's interview with LA's radio host yesterday, I drew such a conclusion. It was really a funny interview. The ESPN radio 710 was interviewing MJ about the 'game'. They were obviouesly trying to lead MJ to some comments like 'Kobe is great, we could not stop him even if we double or triple team him like we did to TMac' something, so they asked 'you guys did a good job defending TMac the other game, but how could Kobe get 81 pts'. MJ shocked the hosts by 'we had a game plan on Tracy to either take the ball out of his hands or double or triple team him to force him pass the ball. but we didn't do it on Kobe' The hosts were kinda shocked to hear this and trying to find some excuese for this, and asked 'we knew you had a lot of rookies in the lineup, maybe they didn't follow coach's game plan' and MJ went, no, it's not the guys, it's the coach, we didn't have the game plan to double team Kobe. and MJ was then sort of complaining the coach didn't even send him to guard Kobe. and then the host said something like he was much shorter than Kobe, how could he do to guard him. And MJ said he at least could make him work hard and take tough shots (implying Kobe had too much space and easy shots.) It was a really funny interview when you heard so obviously the hosts were trying to make Kobe a much better player then Tracy from his opponent but turned out to be the other way. Close to the end, the 3 hosts were more fair when discussing about whether it is a 'greatest individual athlete performance ever', they all disagreed and said it had to be something on the line to make it qualified for it like Jordan's 40 pts in 7th game against Jazz and Vince Young's performance in Rose Bowl. and this one in regular season with nothing on the line is a great performance for an individual but will not be qualified for 'greatest ever'. At least from Raptor's game plan, seemed Tracy is a better and more dangeous player than Kobe.
OK. Now I start to like MJ again. To MJ: I forgive your mis-demeanor with JH in the other game. Just make sure it won't happen again.
Well the difference is when the Raptors were playing the Rockets, the 2nd biggest threat was Juwan Howard. After that, well there's not much. They can't afford to double and triple team Kobe quite as much as they could afford to jump all over TMac.
i'm not saying kobe is better than tracy. to me they are about dead even. they both have great qualities and ones that aren't so great. but what i got out of this is why the raptors suck. their coach is a dumbass. kobe is just as good as tmac. just like tracy without yao in the lineup, kobe is the only one on the lakers who can beat you. you aren't concerned about double-teaming him and changing his offensive rhythm? that's flat out stupid. that's why the raptors suck, it's not just a lot of young players it's a coach who doesn't know how to defend a guy like kobe bryant who has 3 rings and averages 30+ points a night.
T=mac is better because T-mac actually knows more about Basketball than Kobe does. Kobe doesn't understand there is no way, no matter how good he is. that he is going to win ANYTHING without his teammates. His ego has got so big that he thought he can win it all by himself, and he rather loses it all on his own. T-mac actually realizes the only way to championship is through a team. Kobe is just a freak show right now. T-mac is still playing basketball.
Game plan against Lakers: let Kobe shoot all he wants, Lakers lose half of the time. Game plan against Rockets: deny Tmac the ball and let other Rockets beat you, Rockets lose half of the time. Simple as that.
I'm totally with you bud. To be honest I think T-mac is over the freak show scoring mentality kind of like be there done that. Kobe on the other hand is like someone getting out of a serious long term relationship...he's just like, wow, I haven't had the freedom to just go nuts before.
I agree. Mitchell is just dumb for not devicing a defensive plan for Kobe. Anyway, I just can't imagine how a team failed to defend one single player when it was obvious that that player was going to take every single shot.
It doesn't prove anything, except that Kobe was smoking hot in that game. It's always to easy to say in retrospect. Nothing is wrong to the approach, that I will shut down everyone else on the team, let your star to beat me single handedly. Not too far ago, they succeeded let LeBron scored 52 last year over them, and still got away with a win. The Lakers game, they were in the game till very late. They are not a good team, but Kobe's exceptional performance is not a kick to them, nor is a kick to any past great players and current great ones, it's just his exceptional game. As for they doubled TMac, it's not necessary they thought TMac is much better, just outside of TMac they had nobody to shut down. I know we love TMac, but at the same time we trash Mitchell and Raptors as idiots, we value their opinon that TMac is better, a lot, coz he was doubled? Come on, you can't have both ways. Have a little bit more confidence in our star. TMac is great, the fact has nothing to do weather or not Kobe scored 81 points.
actually Kobe is playing for his place in NBA history...he wants(or will) to finish in the top 3 of all time. Tracy will go down as the next george gervin. a score at will type.
What's really dumb about this strategy is that Kobe will shoot it even if he's double or triple teamed. The obvious strategy is to leave Lamar and Smush wide open and run 2 guys at Kobe. Kobe, being the selfish guy that he is, will jack up a crazy Jordan-like (but not as good) fadeaway. T-Mac, on the other hand, would likely find the open man, like Bowen or Rafer who would brick it anyways. So that strategy was obviously sound whether it's applied to T-Mac or Kobe. Or maybe this just shows how stupid JVG's strategy of trading away shooters and acquiring brickers is. Teams are not afraid of double teaming T-Mac. What, is Rafer going to go 5 for 5 from the arc? Meanwhile the Lakers have a bunch of guys who could shoot 3's if only Kobe would pass it to them when they are wide open at the 3 point line.
No offense, but I cant see Kobe as a top 3 in his generation. He will not win a thing without Shaq. He is too selfish. Look what AI did by himself. I can see Magic ahead of him all-time. I can see Jordan of course. I can Bird, Hakeem, Kareem, I can see (God forbid ) Karl Malone, even Scottie Pippen finshing all time ahead of him.
i have absolutely nothing against tracy mcgrady. i have complete confidence in tracy, he's the best player this franchise has seen since hakeem olajuwon. there isn't another player right now i would want over tracy as our "go to guy". i'm just saying that the defensive stragey they used against tracy WORKED, because they WON. why not at least attempt the same strategy against a similar offensive threat? and even though the game was close for 44 minutes, the end result is what is important. the raptors loss by 20 points, and not implementing a strategy to disrupt kobe's offense is just dumb. we all knew this guy ALONE can beat you, before this performance. i think kobe's weakness is his selfishness, that's why i think double teaming him with different players each time is a good idea. because he's going to put up a lot of shots because he doesn't trust his teammates, why not have two guys on him to contest his shot? that would make his night a lot more difficult and increase your chances to win.
