98 Jordan on the 04 lakers?

[qm22]

Speaking of the Lakers role players, it's hard to believe how horrible Gary Payton was in the playoffs that year. He was still a pretty fine player in RS, but then pretty much became a scrub in the postseason...Did he have some kind of a serious injury? I don't remember anything like that, to be honest.

He may have been physically worse for some reason, though maybe not a direct injury, at least at the time. The reason I think this is because an even older Payton did better vs. Billups later on.

When watching the 04 finals it was clear that Billups would basically be overjoyed to see Payton -- actually Fisher also, because he's bad at defense, but when watching Chauncey over time you can sense when he has chosen to bully someone (another good example is Tony Parker). But when Payton went to the Heat and I expected to see it happen again, Payton did better, he was no longer a pushover if Billups iso'd him. It may not have been physical and may have been a strategy... but a physical reason fits well.

[mischievous]

I'd say Lakers still probably lose. Jordan wasn't very efficient in the regular season or playoffs that year, so i sort of have my doubts that he would be against one of the greatest defensive teams ever and still in the handchecking era. Has Mj ever faced a defense as stingy as the 04 pistons? Just curious.

[Quotatious]

I'd say Lakers still probably lose. Jordan wasn't very efficient in the regular season or playoffs that year, so i sort of have my doubts that he would be against one of the greatest defensive teams ever and still in the handchecking era.

The thing is, 1998 MJ had tremendous resiliency, he really knew how to manufacture easy points when his jumper wasn't falling. Theoretically, prime Kobe, with his amazing versatility as a scorer, also had that ability, but it proved not to be the case in 2004 finals. Not only was Kobe terribly inefficient from the field in that series, but he also stopped going to the foul line. Averaged only 5 FTAs per game, compared to 8.2 in the regular season, and 8.3 throughout the Western conference playoffs. He also averaged 3.6 tpg, compared to 2.6 in RS and 2.5 throughout the Western conference playoffs. So, Pistons pretty much kept him under control in every way possible. I just don't believe MJ would allow them to keep him to 5 FTAs per game, he averaged almost 11 FTAs in the entire '98 playoffs. That's what I mean by ability to manufacture easy points (not to mention only 2.1 tpg).

Then we also have to Shaq into account - MJ never had a chance to play with an offensive beast of that caliber, Pippen doesn't even come close to Shaq, offensively.

Has Mj ever faced a defense as stingy as the 04 pistons? Just curious.

1990 Pistons had a very comparable playoff defense to 2004 Pistons, and MJ had a great series against them. Obviously 1998 MJ wasn't anywhere near the athlete that 1990 MJ was, but still, that should answer your question.

[dautjazz]

I'd say Lakers still probably lose. Jordan wasn't very efficient in the regular season or playoffs that year, so i sort of have my doubts that he would be against one of the greatest defensive teams ever and still in the handchecking era. Has Mj ever faced a defense as stingy as the 04 pistons? Just curious.

Jordan still averaged 33.5ppg in the 1998 Finals on much better efficiency than Kobe during the 04 Finals. I doubt Hamilton would do a better job than Russell did on MJ. I definitely have them winning if you sub Kobe with MJ. Kobe was a hot mess, the Colorado incident was a huge distraction.

[Bklynborn682]

I'd say Lakers still probably lose. Jordan wasn't very efficient in the regular season or playoffs that year, so i sort of have my doubts that he would be against one of the greatest defensive teams ever and still in the handchecking era. Has Mj ever faced a defense as stingy as the 04 pistons? Just curious.

Jordan still averaged 33.5ppg in the 1998 Finals on much better efficiency than Kobe during the 04 Finals. I doubt Hamilton would do a better job than Russell did on MJ. I definitely have them winning if you sub Kobe with MJ. Kobe was a hot mess, the Colorado incident was a huge distraction.

I'm not the biggest Kobe fan but the rape case did nothing to him during the regular season or playoffs from what I recall as a matter of fact in games where he had to go to court during the day and play at night he had some of his best games that year for example
12/19/03 vs Denver he hit the game winning shot
1st rd. Game 5 vs Hou in the close out game he scored 31
WCSF vs SA gm 4 in what many people consider Kobes greatest playoff game he scored 42 on 57% shooting with 6 boards and 6 assists
I think there was another regular season game where he went to court and played as well and honestly he never seemed effected, but who knows what was going on internally.