The whole " ___ stopper" thing can get overstated. Its usually team defense and philosophy that stops a player. Like the Celtics D in last year's finals, or how the years ago Phoenix Suns pace got Yao out the game. Though there are players who have individual defensive skills that give certain players more problems than others...not sure about the Grizzlies verson Battier, but Kobe's shooting % against the Rockets the last 2 seasons is below average. Like Van Gundy said, him taking 45 shots to score 40 points is acceptable defense.
Wow, did you see that he attempted 30 shots last night while only making 12, which was the first Laker loss of this season? Sure wished he did that just last Sunday in the game with the Rockets. When he is doing that without being efficient, it is a clear indication he is going for it too much without getting his teammates involved, thus ballhogging. The rest of the team was not much better at 43.1 percent (28-65 fgs). Just think, in this young season, Kobe averaged just 18 shots per game in his first seven games, ALL LAKER WINS!!!
You clearly watched the game and know what you're talking about, that's why the lakers lost, because kobe attempted 30 shots. Look forward for your commentary in the future.
Kobe shooting too much was one of the big reasons they lost. The Pistons like it when he shoots a lot because they focus on clamping down on the rest of the team. It works because Prince can make it difficult for Kobe (note: I didn't say he could stop Kobe, just make it difficult). The Pistons have great success against the Lakers because of this.
Lebron, look his stat and his impact compare to kobe, lebron have a much greater impact on the game than kobe.
The Lakers had a bad game but this is just amazing. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vhSvmW17LJ0&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vhSvmW17LJ0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>