People are doubting Bryant's defense. They seem to believe all those all-defensive team that are voted on by the coaches came from nowhere, which seems pretty silly. There's a reason he got that defensive rep in the first place. Quick hands, great foot-speed and lateral quickness, knows how to help and recover, fantastic defensive rebounding guard, great length..He has all the tools and he consistently used those tools where it counts the mos: the post-season. I've decided to track his defense in multiple playoff games/finals games where it really matters and where he consistently stepped up, so people can see why he was at least a good defender throughout his prime.
Game 5 2004 vs Spurs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEHbGDyTc2w1st Quarter:
--11:30---good help defense. cuts off parker's penetration and force him to pass.
9:05---again, helps on parker's penetration, and strips him forcing him to lose the ball
7:18--duncan gets doubled, kobe cuts off his passing angle, which leads to duncan throwing a tough pass to the weakside. leads to turnover.
2:44--cuts off parker's drive, and quickly recovers to the corner shooter, and forces him to put the ball on the floor
1:38--deflection
2nd Quarter:
9:39 second--excellent defense by both shaq/bryant on a cutting duncan. kobe tips the defensive rebound to shaq.
2:36--tips deflected passed to teammate
3rd quarter:
9:24--great strip of the ball on duncan. forces turnover.
8:52--great strip on duncan by shaq, kobe recovers loose ball
8:23--picture perfect help and recovery. cuts off hedo's penetration,and quickly recovers to bowen forcing him to put the ball on the floor.
8:12--bowen sneaks behind him but bryant quickly recovers and contests. bowen turns it over.
4;46---manu gets the step on george but bryant quickly comes over to help and forces him to give it up.
1:51--contest on brown'st three.miss.
5.5 sec: parker blows by fisher, again,bryant does an excellent job helping and cutting him off.
4th quarter:
8:29--parker blows by fisher. bryant is quickly there to cut him off again.
5:26--hedo gets the step on geroge,but bryant gets a hand in his face and forces a tough shot.
3:27--again, parker penetrates, but both malone and bryant do a great job of cutting off his passing angle, which leads to shot-clock violation
10.4 sec: GREAT ball denial on ginobil.
5.4 sec; again, great ball denial on ginobli. that's two straight plays where he blows up the spurs play for a gino/duncan pick&roll with terrific ball denial.
This is a very good defensive game, especially in terms of team/help defense. I count 2 forced turnovers, a deflection, 4 defensive rebounds, consistently good help and recovery, and the opponent shot 1-5 on shots he contested. Only 2 defensive mistakes in 46 minutes.
2004 Lakers vs Pistons Game 3:
Spends all game chasing Rip Hamilton around and does a very good job imo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXxinAr7G9s8:28--recovers loose ball
3:23--gets through multiple picks, and does a great job contesting rip's shot.forces him into a tough double-pump jumper which he somehow makes.
40.6: again, gets around multiple picks set for rip, and causes a deflection.
33.1: quickly recovers onto wide open billups after near steal. possession ends in a shot-clock violation for detroit.
2nd Quarter:
10:26--Helps and quickly gets back to open Billups forcing him to put the ball on the floor. possession ends with ben wallace jumper...
3:31--great contest on rips shot. forces rip to adjust and pass, which leads to a near turnover
2:31--single-handedly stops the fast break of the pistons.GREAT deflection of rip's pass in transition. loose ball recovered by lakers, which leads to a a basket on the other hand.
38th second--great play. moves his feet to get in front of rip, and then uses his long arms to poke the ball away. leads to 2 on the other end.
15th second--again, rips attempts to drive. kobe uses his great foot speed to beat him to the spot. forces a charge call. this is the 3rd turnover forced by bryant in the first half alone.
rip scores 12 pts on 11 shots and has 4 turnovers in the first half.
3rd quarter:
10:49: chases rip through multiple picks and then has a good contest on his jumper
9:01: strips and steals the ball from rip.
6:15--terrific ball denial on hamilton. at this point rip is pretty much being completely shut out of the offense
2:46--helps on billups drive and quickly recovers to hamilton, who attempts to drive, but again bryant moves his feet and beats him to the spot.
4th quarter:
*lakers take bryant off rip in this quarter and put kareem rush on him. hamilton has his best quarter of the game and suddenly looks much more comfortable. blows completely by rush on 4-5 possesions, two for easy layups.for people who say man-to-man defense doesn't matter...watch how bad rip looks through 3 quarters with bryant on him compared to the 4th quarter with rush defending him. have no idea why phil switched*
*phil takes kareem rush out at the 1:09 mark.puts bryant back on him*
56 sec: rip gets the step but bryant recovers and forces a miss.
Overtime:
4-22: great contest on rahsheed wallace's missed jumper.
1:04: good help and then contest on hamilton's three
Overall, this is another very strong outing defensively. His primary assignment in Rip Hamilton goes 10-15 for 26 points and has 5 turnovers. Bryant ends up with 3 turnovers forced (2 steals, and a charge drawn), 2 deflections, 4 defensive rebounds and he spends almost the entire game chasing Rip around and holds him to 10-25 for 26 pts with 4 turnovers. What more do you want from the guy...
2001 NBA Finals Game 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I5DvTw15aE*Spends almost the first half guarding and hounding and applying pressure on Aaron McKie, who won the 6th man of the year that season*
9:54--iverson shakes off fisher in transition with a great spin move
and goes up for the jumper but Bryant is immediately with a great contest. Iverson has to re-adjust in mid-air and passes it off.
6:00--great contest on mutombo's shot. mutombo blows the dunk
3:25--cuts off mckie's penetration with his lateral quickness,leads to turnover,recovers looseball
3:12--good team defense. shaq and fisher trap iverson, who swings it. mutombo dives to the rim, but bryant is there to cut off the pass, then sprints to run mckie off the three-point line.
7.3 seconds--iverson gets doubled. swings it to snow. bryant runs him off the 3-pt line and then then cuts off his drive.
2nd Quarter:
11:40--snow beats shaw off the dribble and goes up for layup but bryant rotates over from the weakside, jumps and contests. snow hits a ridiclous high-arching floater. great shot by snow. good help defense by bryant.
11:05--picture perfect rotations by the entire laker team including bryant. force a turnover. good ****.
7:55--horry goes over to trap iverson.bryant digs down and pick's up horry's man, then sprints to a open mckie and runs him off the 3-pt line. this is team excellant fundamental team defense.
4:12--switches on to iverson, moves his feet on the drive, then pokes the ball away out of bounds
2:36--helps on iverson penetration, then contest's iverson's tough jumper
1:00--gets in front of snow,moves his feet, and bothers him. snow dribbles it out of bounds. forced turnover.
27 sec--great ball denial on iverson, then a great contest on iverson's three later in the possession. leads to a fastbreak dunk
7 sec--terrific ball denial on iverson again. leads to a ugly possession by the sixers.
3rd quarter:
7:07--terrific block on aaron mckie's jumper
4:04--cuts off snow. pokes the ball away. deflection
1:07--cuts off snow, who goes up for the jumper. bryant jumps and blocks it. ball deflected to fisher.
4th quarter:
11:27--bryant picks up loose ball after a great defensive block by fox.
7:28--bryant comes over from the weakside and cuts off iverson's baseline penetration. iverson is forced to pass it off. leads to turnover.
6:46--bryant comes over and strips mutombo. recovers the ball. 2nd forced turnover of the game by bryant.
4:26--comes over and contests mutombo's hook shot
That's 2 steals, 2 blocks, several deflections, 2 forced turnovers overall, and 7 defensive rebounds. Another fantastic defensive outing.
2002 WCF Game 4 vs Kings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkJGUgb ... 255EF80098*Bibby has been destroying Fisher all series, and continues to do so in the 1st half. He's wrecking havoc. Bryant switches on to him in the second half and completely shuts him down, and the Kings offense falls off a cliff*
Here's a article on the game:
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/may/27 ... p-adande27He shut off the spigot of Sacramento's offensive flow, point guard Mike Bibby, and reintroduced the Lakers to the concept of defense in the process.
"It started in practice Saturday, when he told Coach Phil Jackson that he was willing to take on the assignment of guarding Bibby. Something had to be done, because Bibby has been tearing through the Lakers the way Shawn Green took out the Milwaukee Brewer pitching staff. Jackson was reluctant.
"He said he didn't want to wear me out the entire game, but I reminded him that's what I did for this team two years ago, was chase little guards around," Bryant said. "I'd be more than willing to give myself up to benefit the team if that's what he wanted me to do.
"If that's what Phil wants me to do, I'm going to do it."
Finally, Jackson had no choice after Bibby continued to torch Derek Fisher and Lindsey Hunter in the first quarter of Game 4.
Bibby made five of his first six shots. He didn't rack up the assists, but his ability to get by the Laker guards wrecked the Laker defense and enabled his teammates to shoot open jumpers."
"Down by 24 points, Jackson finally put Bryant on Bibby in the second quarter."
But Bryant worked to deny Bibby the ball. He hustled to stay in front of him. He harassed him all over the court when Bibby dribbled.
After scoring 14 points in the first 17 minutes, Bibby had only seven the rest of the way. The Kings went from scoring 40 points in the first quarter to scoring 34 in the second half.
"You've got to really thank Kobe for that," Horry said. "He put some pressure on Bibby, the offensive flow kind of stalled. Kobe put a lot of pressure on Bibby and interrupted their groove."
*Bryant switches on to Bibby in the second half of Game 4 with the Lakers down 65-50*
*Bibby is coming off an amazing 1st half. 18 pts on 8/11 shooting*
11:30--bryant hounds bibby into help,bibby misses, bryant gets the defensive rebound 0-2
10:07--again, bryant all over bibby. forces him to give the ball up.
8:37--bryant and horry trap bibby. leads to turnover
8:15--bryant gets around multiple picks. sticks to bibby like glue. bibby forced to pass. at this point the kings offense looks totally discombulated.
8:00--good ball denial by bryant
6:25--bryant continues to be all over bibby. his length and athletism is clearly bothering him
4:25--again, bryant gets around multiple picks. bibby forced to settle for long two, which he misses.
4:10--bryant doubles webber and quickly recovers to bibbby, who is forced to pass to jackson on the wing.jackson throws up a airball.
3:24--bryant recovers loose ball
On the bench for the rest of the quarter. bibby goes 0-3 for 2 pts with Bryant defending him this quarter.
4th Quarter:
11:33--bryant gets around multiple off-ball picks set for jackson, then denies penetration. jackson forced to pass back out..
9:25--again, bryant gets through multiple picks set for jackson, then stops his drive.
7:20--double on webber and quick recovery to the shooters
4:00--good ball denial again
3:37--bryant pressures bibby all the way upcourt. cuts off penetration and again bibby is forced to pass to a covered divac on the wing.
3:00--bryant knocks the ball away from divac. forced turnover.
2:33--bryant pressures bibby. gets under back pick and denys the drive by bibby who is forced to again pass out to a covered webber with only seconds left on the clock. webber passes back to bibby, who shoots the jumper. GREAT contest by bryant and bibby shoots the airball. terrific defensive sequence by kobe.
1:54--bryant rotates after the double on webber by fisher. cut's off hedo's penetration and does a good job contesting hedo's tough jumper,which he somehow makes.
Bibby finished the 2nd half 1-5 for 3 points in the second half, with Bryant on him for the huge majority. Kings offense only scores 34 in the seond half after 65 in the 3rd.
This was another excellent defensive performance by Bryant.Not only with the on-ball/man-to-man defense on Bibby, but he also had 3 blocks, 2 steals, 4 defensive rebounds, and a forced turnover.
How anybody can watch these games and say he's not at least a *good defender* is beyond me.
I've included YT links if you want to check them out.
BTW, here another article about Bryant holding shutting down and holding Iverson scoreless for an entire half:
Kobe Bryant's defense didn't just neutralize Allen Iverson's offense, it completely shut it down.
Bryant held Iverson scoreless in the second half and scored his team's final six points Sunday to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to their seventh straight win, 87-84 over the Philadelphia 76ers.
http://onlineathens.com/stories/022100/ ... 0029.shtml
