Kobe to guard Rajon?

[GoldenThroat]

He was a potent scorer in the past because he took way more shots.  As all of the Big 3 have done, Ray has willfully taken a lesser role in scoring, not looking for his own shot nearly as much, but rather trying to play team ball all the time, moving the ball to the open man.  In the past, he had the freedom to dribble the ball and probe at will, he was the featured guy.  I have seen Ray explode and dunk at the rim on more than one occasion this season, suggesting the frequency of that going down this year is much more a factor of him just tyring to "fit in" then some diminished ability to do it if he was looking for out for his own offense every time down the floor. 

This angle has been misperceived by the national media all year, and especially in the playoffs.  One game Ray was 1-5 and everyone wanted to know what happened to his shot.  Pretty hard to get anything going when you take 5 shots, but his goal is to win the game, not get up the requisite number of shots to get 20 points.  Unlike Kobe who needs to pour in 25+ every single game for the Lakers to win, any one of the Big 3 on the Celtics can have a single digit game offensively and they can still win.  They let the game come to them, some nights will bring more shots than others depending on the game.  Ray can still drive to the hole and finish, believe me, maybe not as good at 32 as at 22, but he has not had nearly the dropoff in his ability to do so as you suggest, but rather looks for it far less often in the Celtics team oriented offense.

I understand the point that you're making regarding the volume of Allen's shots, but his percentages have stayed relatively the same as well. From what I've seen of the Celtics (and I'd DEFINITELY defer to you guys on this, as I've seen the C's about 20-25 times this year, which is a lot less than most of you), Allen's getting better looks than he did in Seattle, but converting at a similar percentage. This suggests that he's declined a bit. The presence of KG & Pierce, which he didn't have in Seattle, has taken pressure off of him, yet he hasn't been able to capitalize.

Don't get me wrong. As a Laker fan, he scares the bejesus out of me. He's one of the best shooters of his generation, and he's finally started to look like himself in the last couple of games. But if Derek Fisher's guarding him, is he going to be able to take advantage of that size mismatch? I just don't see it. 

[D Dub]

All I know is that if Kobe isn't guarding Pierce, be very afraid laker fan... 

[ERod86]

Pierce is a great player, but Melo has been a top 5 scorer the last few years and he is bigger and Manu is pretty darn good and the Lakers managed to do well on them with Kobe playing very few minutes against them.

[D Dub]

Pierce is a great player, but Melo has been a top 5 scorer the last few years and he is bigger and Manu is pretty darn good and the Lakers managed to do well on them with Kobe playing very few minutes against them.

 

dude, you do realize you have no other defenders on your team, right?  There is a huge drop off after D Fish and Kobe. 

Lebron couldn't keep Pierce under 40 with the season on the line, what do you honestly expect from Luke/Sosha/VladRad?

[GoldenThroat]

Pierce is a great player, but Melo has been a top 5 scorer the last few years and he is bigger and Manu is pretty darn good and the Lakers managed to do well on them with Kobe playing very few minutes against them.

 

dude, you do realize you have no other defenders on your team, right?  There is a huge drop off after D Fish and Kobe. 

Lebron couldn't keep Pierce under 40 with the season on the line, what do you honestly expect from Luke/Sosha/VladRad?

If you classify Derek Fisher as a "defender", it is pretty obvious that you do not follow the Lakers very closely.

The Lakers are solid regarding "team" defense.

[D Dub]

Pierce is a great player, but Melo has been a top 5 scorer the last few years and he is bigger and Manu is pretty darn good and the Lakers managed to do well on them with Kobe playing very few minutes against them.

 

dude, you do realize you have no other defenders on your team, right?  There is a huge drop off after D Fish and Kobe. 

Lebron couldn't keep Pierce under 40 with the season on the line, what do you honestly expect from Luke/Sosha/VladRad?

If you classify Derek Fisher as a "defender", it is pretty obvious that you do not follow the Lakers very closely.

The Lakers are solid regarding "team" defense.

Compared to Farmar, absolutely.  I think getting Fisher in foul trouble is one of the keys to beating LA.  Farmar doesn't have the ability to guard NBA players.

You make a good point though, D Fish probably has lost a step or two on D in recent years.  I have always thought of him as a solid defender though.

[ERod86]

Pierce is a great player, but Melo has been a top 5 scorer the last few years and he is bigger and Manu is pretty darn good and the Lakers managed to do well on them with Kobe playing very few minutes against them.

 

dude, you do realize you have no other defenders on your team, right?  There is a huge drop off after D Fish and Kobe. 

Lebron couldn't keep Pierce under 40 with the season on the line, what do you honestly expect from Luke/Sosha/VladRad?

Pierce and Allen weren't defenders before this year either. Sometimes the right mix of players and the right schemes change things. I've seen this Laker team cause all kinds of problems for AI and Melo, DWill and Boozer, and Manu and TP...I thought Melo and Manu were going to kill the Lakers and both had pretty bad series.

Don't let your opinion of a particular players defense confuse you about the teams ability to slow a team down.

[crownsy]

Pierce is a great player, but Melo has been a top 5 scorer the last few years and he is bigger and Manu is pretty darn good and the Lakers managed to do well on them with Kobe playing very few minutes against them.

there's rumors manu might need surgery on that ankle, lets not act like you shut down manu at 100%

[BudweiserCeltic]

Pierce is a great player, but Melo has been a top 5 scorer the last few years and he is bigger and Manu is pretty darn good and the Lakers managed to do well on them with Kobe playing very few minutes against them.

 

dude, you do realize you have no other defenders on your team, right?  There is a huge drop off after D Fish and Kobe. 

Lebron couldn't keep Pierce under 40 with the season on the line, what do you honestly expect from Luke/Sosha/VladRad?

Pierce and Allen weren't defenders before this year either. Sometimes the right mix of players and the right schemes change things. I've seen this Laker team cause all kinds of problems for AI and Melo, DWill and Boozer, and Manu and TP...I thought Melo and Manu were going to kill the Lakers and both had pretty bad series.

Don't let your opinion of a particular players defense confuse you about the teams ability to slow a team down.

Melo had a fairly decent series, as far as what you expect of him. He's a horrible team player and not really a smart player. Did nothing spectacular really, but you didn't contain him per se. Allan Iverson was really good in the series, I don't know what you're raving about.

Williams? I thought he had a great series against you guys, and didn't Boozer have a tough injury to his back that pretty much rendered him useless? He wasn't playing that well against Houston either.

Manu was injured too, and his struggles started before the Lakers series. Tony Parker had quite a good series, so no sense in bringing him up.

It's like crediting Detroit for Ray Allen's struggles (though he gathered himself through the series) when it was Cleveland that really took him out of his rhythm.

[mpfitz34]

Kobe on Rondo makes no sense to me.  Fisher isn't a terrible defender I'd take my chances with him on Rondo and I think Kobe has a chance to make Ray look silly.  The real question for them is who guards Pierce.  I could see Kobe spending a lot of time on him too.

[mpfitz34]

Kobe on Rondo makes no sense to me.  Fisher isn't a terrible defender I'd take my chances with him on Rondo and I think Kobe has a chance to make Ray look silly.  The real question for them is who guards Pierce.  I could see Kobe spending a lot of time on Pierce.

[GoldenThroat]

Pierce is a great player, but Melo has been a top 5 scorer the last few years and he is bigger and Manu is pretty darn good and the Lakers managed to do well on them with Kobe playing very few minutes against them.

 

dude, you do realize you have no other defenders on your team, right?  There is a huge drop off after D Fish and Kobe. 

Lebron couldn't keep Pierce under 40 with the season on the line, what do you honestly expect from Luke/Sosha/VladRad?

If you classify Derek Fisher as a "defender", it is pretty obvious that you do not follow the Lakers very closely.

The Lakers are solid regarding "team" defense.

Compared to Farmar, absolutely.  I think getting Fisher in foul trouble is one of the keys to beating LA.  Farmar doesn't have the ability to guard NBA players.

You make a good point though, D Fish probably has lost a step or two on D in recent years.  I have always thought of him as a solid defender though.

Yes, Farmar's an extremely poor defender, but Fisher isn't much better. During the championship years, the Lakers routinely got scorched by opposing point guards, earned Fisher the nickname of "The Anti-Guard" amongst Laker fans, because "Guard" did not describe his game.

But during this playoff run, he's played his best defense in years. Hopefully he has another series in him. You're right about getting him into foul trouble as well.

[Bankshot]

Pierce is a great player, but Melo has been a top 5 scorer the last few years and he is bigger and Manu is pretty darn good and the Lakers managed to do well on them with Kobe playing very few minutes against them.

 

dude, you do realize you have no other defenders on your team, right?  There is a huge drop off after D Fish and Kobe. 

Lebron couldn't keep Pierce under 40 with the season on the line, what do you honestly expect from Luke/Sosha/VladRad?

Pierce and Allen weren't defenders before this year either. Sometimes the right mix of players and the right schemes change things. I've seen this Laker team cause all kinds of problems for AI and Melo, DWill and Boozer, and Manu and TP...I thought Melo and Manu were going to kill the Lakers and both had pretty bad series.

Don't let your opinion of a particular players defense confuse you about the teams ability to slow a team down.

Wrong.  Pierce was known for defense when he came into the league and the 2001-2002 Celtics were an excellent defensive team that went to the ECF because of their defense.. and of course they had "The Truth."  Pierce always could bear down on defense when he really needed to.  You obviously haven't watched him his whole career.

[Frontierboy]

The way I see it, if the bal is moving, to have Kobe guard Rondo is a waste since the ball ismoving throughout the C's players....Pierce can be our ball handler if Kobe is pressuring Rondo.... I'm fine with that.....

As far as Kobe guard Rondo so he can roam.... that hasn't worked in the Cavs series, Hawks series, and Detroit series so what makes you think it'll work in this series... sure, it might work for a game or two but not the entire series

[GoldenThroat]

The way I see it, if the bal is moving, to have Kobe guard Rondo is a waste since the ball ismoving throughout the C's players....Pierce can be our ball handler if Kobe is pressuring Rondo.... I'm fine with that.....

As far as Kobe guard Rondo so he can roam.... that hasn't worked in the Cavs series, Hawks series, and Detroit series so what makes you think it'll work in this series... sure, it might work for a game or two but not the entire series

It did work in the Cavs & Atlanta series'. Very well, actually. They just didn't have enough offense to capitalize. That's not the case with the Lakers.