who defends kobe/lebron the best?
agree about pietrus on lebron, he made him work for everything 2 years ago in the playoffs. Best individual defensive performance i saw on kobe last season was from trevor ariza, but that was only one game. I think ruben patterson is the all time toughest defender for kobe.
pretty much no one can make kobe or lebron have a very bad game but as far as defending them hmmmm id say....i really dont know off the top of my head. i know kobe gave protland buckets in one of the games (30 something) but i didnt watch the other game. i guess the best defender for kobe is team defense.
lebron joe johnson and josh smith do a ok job on him i cant think of anyone else off the tp of my head so i guess team defense
Raja Bell and Ruben Patterson have both shut down Kobe at times. But when you piss Kobe off (which both players ended up doing) then there is NO stopping him...
Same goes for Bowen, Brewer and Sefolosha. They have all stopped Kobe at some point, but nobody can stop him consistently...
I think people forget it takes whole teams to defend Kobe. It would be different if Boston did not have one of the best defensive teams. You guys need to pick a team without a good defense or average defense to determine if that person can actually stop Kobe or Lebron. I believe three of the guys that have given Kobe a tough time are on his team now. Barnes, Artest, and Shannon Brown all used to play Kobe tough. Allen would probably not fare better than these guys if he was not on a top defensive team.
Kobe had to worry about him and other players behind him. Same thing with Lebron, there is no single player that could stop Lebron if he was going one on one not one on five which happened a lot for him.
Battier I think does the best job with Kobe. At this time in his career tho it's more about forcing Kobe into tough shots with a hand in his face at all times. As for Lebron I don't think one player does a great job of defending him but it's more of a team effort like the Celtics do. They have Paul Pierce play him try to force him into long jumpers and if he gets by Pierce there's always KG and/or Perkins/Sheed to protect the rim.
Ray allen on kobe; and wit lebron the whole celtics team did the best on him
Also a good defense could be a good offense ...I've never seen nobody go at Kobe and try to dismantle him like Melo did in the West finals he had kobe on IV's after that series and had him say go get Ron Artest LOL
just curious who you guys think defends these two guys the best. It could be a different player for each.