Lue's a good backup. Those that haven't seen him play, will be impresses with his tenacity. He doesn't get frustrated with other guards. He's very focused most of the time in pressure situations. The guy is ALL business. As far as his DEFENSE on IVERSON. Here's the deal. Some guards give other guards fits. We all know that Iverson is a great scorer and unstoppable one-on-one. But sometimes, you'll find that SINGLE player that is just a bad match-up (for the opponent). Lue is short. Just short and quick enough to guard Iverson pretty good. During the Sixer/Laker Finals, I keep saying to myself, "Damn, he's staying with AI step for step." He was the only player on the Lakers that could. Fisher came close. But got burned. Same with Brian Shaw. Kobe could play D on Iverson sometimes; got beat by the cross-over, but could recover because of his long arms. But Lue was another story. He just was a bad match-up for Iverson. Can Lue guard Kobe, Mobley, or McGrady? Uh, no... So, the deal is just that Lue was a good match-up for Iverson in size and quickness. Also remember that the refs allow more rough play during playoff time. That helped Phil's orders to Lue to "mug" Iverson. Lue DID NOT stop Iverson. He just made him work for every shot. He did his job as best he could. It was the Lakers best choice defensively on AI. Else, AI would have scord 45 every night.
I think of Lue as a defensive spark plug off the bench. But if he stays out to long, he gets abused. His hight is a problem, but his quickness is an asset. A good guy to change the pace of the game. Much like switching to a full court press. Works great for spurts, but over an a entire game, the other team breaks it. IMHO Lue is not a good guy to have to throw against the better palyers night after night. I am happy to see him on our bench, but if he is getting 20 minutes a game, I am nervous. I am OK, not thrilled but ok, with him as our second stringer. If he is a third stringer, our team rocks. I really like Barry, but see him more as a starting 2/back up PG. I don't like Lue and Barry splitting up the PG minutes.
apparently y'all just won't quit. iverson's ppg in the 2001 playoffs: 32.9 versus tyronn "the glove part 2" lue: 35.6 iverson's fg% in the 2001 playoffs: 38.9% versus tyronn "the glove part 2" lue: 40.7% maybe iverson just played so far out of his mind that even lue's legendary defensive performance couldn't contain him, but until proven otherwise, the stats say lue, even with the holding, did nothing special. maybe it was steve francis' fault. and lee, if i was gonna pull fake stats out of my ass, i wouldn't have put the .6 part on the 35.
I'm not sure you understand. Did you even watch the games? Let me ask you this. What do you think AI's FG% and PPG (Finals) would have been if Lue hadn't played? Hmmm? Maybe a few notches higher? Not sure where you got the stats, or what they represent. But the "vs Lue" part seems like a statistic vs the whole Laker team. Not just Iverson vs Lue. I could be wrong about that. Anyways, it doesn't matter... Let me explain it another way. Phil Jackson's job was to win the game. He made sure that AI worked as hard as he could. Does this mean that Lue was supposed to hold AI to 15 ppg? No. It means, work him hard and make him earn every shot. AI was the only hope that team had of winning. Another example? Back during 1987-90 era. No one! And I mean no one played harder defense on Michael Jordan than Joe Dumars. Does it mean that Joe held Jordan to 15 ppg? No! Jordan STILL averaged his normal 30+ per game. The point is that Joe made him work for every shot. And if he hadn't, Jordan might have won some of those games singled handily. The issue here is "winning by defense pressure." The ACTUAL HARD WORK INVOLVED. Not stats. Great players will still be great. You can't stop them. You just have to make them work and earn their wins. Go back and watch the games and you might see how hard Lue worked. I mean, it's not like Shaw, Fisher or Fox could have done any better. Yes, Lue got beat. But Shaw, Fish and Fox would have been destroyed by AI if Phil hadn't put Lue in some of those games.
Stats alone never tells the entire story. I actually watched the Lakers/76ers Final. Iverson was absolutely detroying the Lakers in the first half of the first game, scoring like 30+ points or something. Then Jackson put Lue on AI, and AI score like 6 points in the 3rd and 4th quarter. I would say Lue was the best defender the Lakers had, and pretty solid for a backup. For rest of the games, Iversion wasn't as dominating so Lue didn't play much as he did in game 1.
[Lue completely shut down AI during 2000 NBA finals. He will be super useful against the likes of Tony Parker, Bibby, and Speedy.] Are you drunk or blink by making such a laughable remark? Nobody has really shut down AI ever.. He
This is spot on about Lue. He will be valuable against other team's quick guard. Noone could guard AI but Lue came pretty close in that play-off series. He stuck with AI like glue. He grabbed, held, bodied up, anything thing he could to slow AI down. I remember more than one occasion, AI ran off numerous picks on one side of the court to the other and back and still could not shake Lue. Out of frustration, AI complained a little too loud to a ref and got a tech.
