Kobe Bryant's horrible shooting game in the Los Angeles Lakers' 87-78 Game 2 win over the New Orleans Hornets was given a silver lining because Bryant spent a lot of his time guarding Chris Paul. Bryant has been credited for "holding" Paul to 20 points and nine assists in the Lakers' win, which is a crazy concept to think about, as we noted here.
Kobe Bryant Slows Down Chris Paul, But He Didn’t Do It Alone
But did Bryant really limit the league’s premier point guard (arguably) all by himself? Can we roll freely with the “Kobe-stopper” meme, which is inevitably what happens when he gets frustrated by his team’s defense and takes it upon himself to guard the opposing point guard? Can we say, without a trace of irony given Bryant’s nickname, that he “cut the head off their snake,” as Matt Barnes said? I don’t think so, and here’s why.
First things first: Bryant didn't guard Paul the entire game. Derek Fisher had his turn on him. Steve Blake, for limited minutes, did a great job on him. Heck, Ron Artest even took some time to check Paul during the game. Kobe carries much more of a scoring burden than any of these players, but if we're going to credit Bryant for slowing Paul, we should also credit all of those players too.
More importantly, the Lakers defended Paul as a team, not with one man. The much-maligned Lakers big men came to play Wednesday, showing more sharply on screens and cutting off Paul’s passing lanes. As Kelly Dwyer notes, the improved defense on Paul was as much about a new strategy as a man-on-man victory for Kobe.
They forced Chris Paul to the baseline. This has been Phil Jackson's modus operandi with point guards for years, and not only did the quick help and push force Paul out of his initial wants and needs with the ball, it effectively forced him out of the play. Because the Hornets take so long to get into their sets, two passes following the trap the ball would be in Trevor Ariza's hands with the shot clock winding down, and Paul would be stuck on the baseline like some sort of Eddie House-type. Not the MVP-type that owned Game 1.
Team defense is a concept that eludes many, especially in today’s NBA when you can double-team off the ball and station players in zones where they can easily help defend the ball-handler. One man never stops anyone anymore, especially a point guard that controls the ball as much as Paul. Credit Bryant for being aggressive, but don’t give him all the credit. As SB Nation’s Hornets blog At the Hive wrote:
Some will focus on the red herring that was Kobe Bryant making a big show of getting into a low defensive stance against Paul every once in a while. But tremendous credit needs to go to the Laker bigs for coming over to Paul quickly and creating strong traps that Paul was unable to split.
Sorry, Kobe. You did some good things, but you weren’t the lone ranger.
See More:
