Lebron James vs Kobe Bryant, in the season, in MVP talk, more

[KINGD]

Wow. Using one game.Good job.

[chains5000]

Kobe shoots 10-26, while Gasol has his best game as a LAL, and they barely squeak by a pretty bad Sac team,

while Tim Duncan hit 11-of-21 shots for 29 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks while the rest of the Spurs starters did nothing and they easily beat the NJN.

Clearly, Bryant is the MVP.

It's nearly impossible for Duncan to get the MVP. Look at the last 3 year's winners, do Nash or Dirk know what D means?
MVP voters only care about offense.

Manu having a career year doesn't help either.

[John Starks]

Wow. Using one game.Good job.

Well, if you look at their entire seasons, Duncan is still the MVP. But, since this thread is about last night's game, I'm using last night's games.

Hey, how did John Salmons score the most points he's scored in a month last night? I wonder????

[John Starks]

It's nearly impossible for Duncan to get the MVP. Look at the last 3 year's winners, do Nash or Dirk know what D means?
MVP voters only care about offense.

Manu having a career year doesn't help either.

Manu's career year is an exaggeration. When he plays well its covered, when he doesn't its ignored. Its nice situation for Manu....but I don't need ot call him bad to extol Duncan. He is playing well, he did carry TP's load offensively while TP was out. They win because of Duncan.

But the voters won't pick Duncan. I know that -- doesn't make it right.

[Loki]

The ignorance here truly amazes me sometimes.. Rodman used to sleep in the gym, lifting weights. No, literally sleep in the gym during back to back home games.

The probleem is that people confuse muscle size/bulk with strength.

[konex]

I don't get this strategy AT ALL. Especially when they've been sending help earlier in the game.

Look at the Kings game last night. They were swarming Kobe all game with success but in the 4th, Kobe was allowed to play 1 on 1. How does this make any sense?

[mjbulls23]

I guess because he has Gasol under the rim and spot up shooters he could pass to if doubled

but you need to ask Reggie Theus.. different coaches have different philosophies and strategies.....

[abuC]

The way the Cavs stack the floor with shooters now makes it hard to double LeBron.

[dejordan]

sometimes the spacing is good enough that it's very difficult to properly double. if the ball is out top or in the high post on the wing, there's a lot of passing space. one really good jump shooter is enough to mean you'll be giving up a layup or a short jumper or penetration of you double. chicago was very good at setting up these situations by isolating mj at the key or in the post with kerr or paxson close by and scottie at the swing pass (for a drive).

mostly though the problem is that once these guys get the ball in their attack areas a double is usually not going to stop them from getting a shot off and it opens up passing lanes and offensive rebounder opportunities. even in college ball where a true zone is legal it's tough to effectively double a good perimeter scorer. i don't know if people remember the kick ****ing that that carmelo handed to kansas when he was at cuse, but they put him on the baseline / wing, and just let him go to work and the defense literally couldn't effective double him to get the ball out of his hands.

i think your best option is to trap the wing scorer hard on the catch and force him to pass out to his release guy. and then rotate hard to try to cover all the shooters. there's a chance you give up an open shot somewhere, and if there's time, kobe / bron might actually be able to get it back in position to score, but i believe you have to take them out of the play entirely if you can. much harder said than done since they are so fast and can get shots off from so many points on the court. but if you get a situation where they are just holding the ball watching the clock tick down and getting ready to burn you, then i'm with you, send the trap hard and make somebody else beat you.

[gts]

sometimes the spacing is good enough that it's very difficult to properly double.

exactly and that's what happened in the lakers game lst night..in the 4th quarter the lakers spread the floor alot more than earlier and isolated kobe one on one..floor was so spread on a few plays that help defense couldn't even get to the paint in time and kobe just waltzed to the basket

[ihatetimthomas]

exactly and that's what happened in the lakers game lst night..in the 4th quarter the lakers spread the floor alot more than earlier and isolated kobe one on one..floor was so spread on a few plays that help defense couldn't even get to the paint in time and kobe just waltzed to the basket

And the reason we are spaced so well is because of our balance of scorers on our team. Teams have to respect a lot of our players because we have guys who can make open jumpers and create for themselves. Makes it very difficult to double kobe everytime

[catquickspider]

its hard to double kobe on fast breaks, which is how he got most of those points and free throws

[okayabc123]

I heard Rick Carlisle on ESPN Radio with Mike Tirico, and they ask him the very same question.

His explanation was that, at the NBA level, 3pts shots is so valuable that you just can't give up an open shot like that. You roll your dices on the 1-on-1 match, hopefully, the help defense and rotation is fast enough that even if they get an look at 3pt shot, it's going to be a contested shot.

But you simply just can't double team right off the bat. Great players like Lebron, Kobe will find a way to get the ball back and attack.

[kidachi]

Spacing?

[ChrisConley]

Same thing happened in Dallas. Single coverage on Kobe in the 4th and he puts up 22. I thought it was weird myself. I understand the 3pt threat, but you know Kobe can beat you with single coverage (he's the most feared player in the league). You don't know if his teammates can beat you. Let his teammates beat you. That's your only chance. Same thing with LeBron. When he went off on Detroit in game 5, it was a lot of single coverage. The Spurs doubled and tripled him the whole series and whooped Cleveland's ass.