And he did it at both ends, smothering Pacers small forward Danny Granger and contributing to a horrid 2-of-13 shooting night for the small forward.
“LeBron James, the best defensive player in the world, was on him,” Pacers coach Frank Vogel said to explain Granger’s bad night.
Is this true? I mean, I think he's the best defensive wing:
He provides a unique combination of amazing help d, man d, transition d (arguably one of the best transition defenders of all time) and being able to effectively guard nearly anybody he's switched onto in pick and rolls.
He's been the best defensive player on every team he's been on for years now, and most of those teams were great defensively. Right now, even with Wade hobbled by injury, the Heat's defense is insane and James is clearly a huge factor in that--he's probably the only guy right now who can shut down the other team's best wing while also causing havoc with everything else the offense is trying to do.
But can anyone really argue he's a better defensive player than Dwight Howard? Whatever Dwight's weaknesses on offense, he is the definition of an anchor big man. Can any wing, even a freak like Lebron, ever really have a bigger defensive impact than someone like Dwight?
