How did Shaq and David Robinson match up?

[mdonnelly1989]

Didn't really watch basketball in the 90s other than highlights.

How did these 2 match up over the course of their career?

[Ambrose]

I was too young to tell but here are their statistics head to head.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=onealsh01&p2=robinda01

[70sFan]

David was too quick for Shaq. He could kill him on face up situation. Shaq didn't want to go outside and Admiral had very good jumper. On defensive end Shaq also had troubles vs Robinson. I don't have numbers right now but if i remember well, Shaq had many turnovers in their matchups. Thats because David was very active defender with quick hands. Also his FG% went down because if Shaq didn't have good position, David could defend him well. Even block his hooks (I saw this a few times).
On the other hand if I remember correct Shaq outrebounded David most of the time and still scores realy well.
I think it was the hardest matchup in Shaq career. To be fair he wasn't at his peak while Robinson was. After Admiral injury this matchup became more one sided, but Robinson still gave Shaq troubles defensively

[Joseph17]

It's really strange that you created this thread because I was actually thinking about this yesterday when I was driving home from work.

[Joseph17]

David was too quick for Shaq. He could kill him on face up situation. Shaq didn't want to go outside and Admiral had very good jumper. On defensive end Shaq also had troubles vs Robinson. I don't have numbers right now but if i remember well, Shaq had many turnovers in their matchups. Thats because David was very active defender with quick hands. Also his FG% went down because if Shaq didn't have good position, David could defend him well. Even block his hooks (I saw this a few times).
On the other hand if I remember correct Shaq outrebounded David most of the time and still scores realy well.
I think it was the hardest matchup in Shaq career. To be fair he wasn't at his peak while Robinson was. After Admiral injury this matchup became more one sided, but Robinson still gave Shaq troubles defensively

To sum it up, Robinson pretty much owned Shaq until Shaq joined the Lakers in 97.

[70sFan]

David was too quick for Shaq. He could kill him on face up situation. Shaq didn't want to go outside and Admiral had very good jumper. On defensive end Shaq also had troubles vs Robinson. I don't have numbers right now but if i remember well, Shaq had many turnovers in their matchups. Thats because David was very active defender with quick hands. Also his FG% went down because if Shaq didn't have good position, David could defend him well. Even block his hooks (I saw this a few times).
On the other hand if I remember correct Shaq outrebounded David most of the time and still scores realy well.
I think it was the hardest matchup in Shaq career. To be fair he wasn't at his peak while Robinson was. After Admiral injury this matchup became more one sided, but Robinson still gave Shaq troubles defensively

To sum it up, Robinson pretty much owned Shaq until Shaq joined the Lakers in 97.

Well, not owned. For me it's a tie (Shaq still looks better offensively while Admiral played better defense). I would say that Robinson outplayed Shaq as many times as Shaq outplayed him. Maybe we should look at numbers more cause eye test alone is subjective (and I'm Robinson fan).

[etopn23]

Based on the stats IMO DRob was clearly superior head to head until he declined.

[RayBan-Sematra]

To sum it up, Robinson pretty much owned Shaq until Shaq joined the Lakers in 97.

I wouldn't go that far.
D-Rob outplayed "Rookie" Shaq twice but from 94-98 Shaq won 2 matchups, Robinson won 3 and another meeting was more or less a wash.
One might reasonably argue that from 94-98 D-Rob did outplay Shaq overall but the gap wouldn't be overly large or anything.

Still that is very impressive.
Shaq clearly outplayed Hakeem, Ewing and Mourning from 93-98 when looking at their overall h2h matchups.

Robinson is the only one who arguably held his own or outplayed Shaq over that period.
He matched up very well with Shaq.
As others have said he defended Shaq better then most and his own offensive game which employed a nice perimeter jumper and a lightening quick first step was often pretty effective against O'neal.

Also here are their h2h stats from 94-98.
----------
Shaq : 28.6ppg on .55%TS / 12.6 RPG / 3.3-apg / 1.9-bpg
Rob : 29.0ppg on .55%TS / 12.1 RPG / 4.4 APG / 2.5 BPG

Yeah Robinson has the edge but as I said its small.

[GYK]

To sum it up, Robinson pretty much owned Shaq until Shaq joined the Lakers in 97.

I wouldn't go that far.
D-Rob outplayed "Rookie" Shaq twice but from 94-98 Shaq won 2 matchups, Robinson won 3 and another meeting was more or less a wash.
One might reasonably argue that from 94-98 D-Rob did outplay Shaq overall but the gap wouldn't be overly large or anything.

Still that is very impressive.
Shaq clearly outplayed Hakeem, Ewing and Mourning from 93-98 when looking at their overall h2h matchups.

Robinson is the only one who arguably held his own or outplayed Shaq over that period.
He matched up very well with Shaq.
As others have said he defended Shaq better then most and his own offensive game which employed a nice perimeter jumper and a lightening quick first step was often pretty effective against O'neal.

Also here are their h2h stats from 94-98.
----------
Shaq : 28.6ppg on .55%TS / 12.6 RPG / 3.3-apg / 1.9-bpg
Rob : 29.0ppg on .55%TS / 12.1 RPG / 4.4 APG / 2.5 BPG

Yeah Robinson has the edge but as I said its small.

[70sFan]

To sum it up, Robinson pretty much owned Shaq until Shaq joined the Lakers in 97.

I wouldn't go that far.
D-Rob outplayed "Rookie" Shaq twice but from 94-98 Shaq won 2 matchups, Robinson won 3 and another meeting was more or less a wash.
One might reasonably argue that from 94-98 D-Rob did outplay Shaq overall but the gap wouldn't be overly large or anything.

Still that is very impressive.
Shaq clearly outplayed Hakeem, Ewing and Mourning from 93-98 when looking at their overall h2h matchups.

Robinson is the only one who arguably held his own or outplayed Shaq over that period.
He matched up very well with Shaq.
As others have said he defended Shaq better then most and his own offensive game which employed a nice perimeter jumper and a lightening quick first step was often pretty effective against O'neal.

Also here are their h2h stats from 94-98.
----------
Shaq : 28.6ppg on .55%TS / 12.6 RPG / 3.3-apg / 1.9-bpg
Rob : 29.0ppg on .55%TS / 12.1 RPG / 4.4 APG / 2.5 BPG

Yeah Robinson has the edge but as I said its small.

Do you have turnover numbers? I'm suprised that rebounding numbers are basically a wash. Yeah David was his toughest matchup (even more than Hakeem or Ewing).

[70sFan]

I have numbers of 3 best centers against Shaq:

vs. Hakeem 1993-1997 (9 games)

Shaq: 23.2 ppg, 14.0 rpg, 3.0 apg on 57.5 %FG/56.9 %TS
Hakeem: 26.0 ppg, 10.6 rpg, 4.6 apg on 46.5 %FG/51.4 %TS

vs. Robinson 1993-1997 (7 games)

Shaq: 25.3 ppg, 13.3 rpg, 1.7 apg on 51.1 %FG/54.1 %TS
Robinson: 29.4 ppg, 12.0 rpg, 4.6 apg on 48.7 %FG/55.9 %TS

vs. Ewing 1993-1997 (17 games)

Shaq: 28.6 ppg, 12.7 rpg, 2.4 apg on 54.1 %FG/54.9 %TS
Ewing: 26.5 ppg, 11.4 rpg, 2.2 apg on 45.3 %FG/49.5 %TS

Most impressive fact for me:
"A prime Shaq in 11 regular season games from 1994-2003 averaged just 22.2 ppg, 12.5 rpg, 2.2 apg on 49.8 %FG/49.4 %TS against Mutombo."
Thats just incredible, Mutombo to Shaq looks like Thurmond to Kareem. Of course everyone brings 2001 finals, but Dikembe wasn't in his PSYCHICAL prime anymore. Still great defender, but if you want to defend Shaq you must be psychicaly at his peak to give him troubles. Mutombo just wasn't. It just amazing for me.

[JordansBulls]

To sum it up, Robinson pretty much owned Shaq until Shaq joined the Lakers in 97.

I wouldn't go that far.
D-Rob outplayed "Rookie" Shaq twice but from 94-98 Shaq won 2 matchups, Robinson won 3 and another meeting was more or less a wash.
One might reasonably argue that from 94-98 D-Rob did outplay Shaq overall but the gap wouldn't be overly large or anything.

Still that is very impressive.
Shaq clearly outplayed Hakeem, Ewing and Mourning from 93-98 when looking at their overall h2h matchups.

Robinson is the only one who arguably held his own or outplayed Shaq over that period.
He matched up very well with Shaq.
As others have said he defended Shaq better then most and his own offensive game which employed a nice perimeter jumper and a lightening quick first step was often pretty effective against O'neal.

Also here are their h2h stats from 94-98.
----------

Shaq : 28.6ppg on .55%TS / 12.6 RPG / 3.3-apg / 1.9-bpg
Rob : 29.0ppg on .55%TS / 12.1 RPG / 4.4 APG / 2.5 BPG

Yeah Robinson has the edge but as I said its small.

I didnt even realize they were that close head to head those years, always thought Shaq played Robinson to try to kill him on the floor based on Robinson dissing him when he was in high school.

[chrismikayla]

I remember early on David gave Shaq a lot of problems, especially when the Admiral was able to turn and face up on Shaq and use his quickness and shooting ability. As someone mentioned earlier, I have not seen many centers that can match up on Shaq without help. In response to JordansBulls, I could have sworn I heard somewhere that Shaq made that story up (or at least embellished) about David dissing him in high school.

[Texas Chuck]

yeah the idea of David Robinson "dissing" a local high school kid just doesn't pass the smell test. Sounds like another one of Shaq's silly attempts at self-motivation. And they typically come against any player Shaq couldn't totally physically dominate.