Kobe made an appearance on the Dan Patrick show today, and spent a good deal of time talking about his favorite subject: the challenge of locking down the opponent’s best player.
Bryant said that he’s really into the challenge of shutting down opposing stars. Dan asked Kobe to share what he tries to do against these guys. “I’m not giving away my strategies,” Kobe said. But Kobe did say make sure you don’t give them easy looks and let them get into a rhythm.
We’ve definitely heard this from Kobe before. Before facing off against Venezuela in international competition, Mamba basically locked himself in a room with tapes of Greivis Vasquez so that he’d know what the young guard would do before he did it. But Kobe’s emphasis on strapping up on D is still a fairly new mission.
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Seven games on Monday’s NBA schedule, with a few interesting story lines. Which one will you be watching?
Phoenix @ Washington — Shaq and Amare take turns cramming on arguably the League’s worst interior defense, with some J-Rich bangers thrown in for good measure. Obviously this game was scheduled for national TV (NBA TV) back when it was assumed Gilbert Arenas would be healthy.
Atlanta @ Miami — Shawn Marion gets a look at what he used to be (Josh Smith), Joe Johnson gets a look at what he wants to be (D-Wade), and Mike Bibby and Mario Chalmers go head-to-head in a clash of styles. Chalmers is coming off one of his best games of the year, when he outplayed Jameer Nelson and made the game-saving steal along with some big-time buckets in crunch time. Read More »
But while Nenad Krsticleft his Russian squad for a chance to play in the NBA once again, apparently the government has decided to withdraw funding that was assigned to the clubs. Dynamo Moscow, one of the most affected teams, has seen Arriel McDonald, Darjus Lavrinovic, Hollis Price and now Pargo leave.
If you had to pick one, and only one city as the hotbed for young basketball talent, what city would you choose?
We’ve been all over the country for high school tournaments, Converse Open Gym runs, and other grassroots basketball events, and there are always some kids who put on for their city no matter where you go. But from top to bottom, only a handful of locales can be considered as the place to play.
Philly is undoubtedly one of those spots. At the Converse Philly Run this weekend at Girard College, about 270 kids showed up, and it felt like almost every single kid could get to the rack at will. It wasn’t that the defense was soft. It’s almost like they’ve all been programmed from a young age to handle the rock, and play aggressive no matter who they’re going against.
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You’re probably facing some tough lineup decisions going into tonight’s weekly deadline. The Doc is here to help.
Marcus Camby – Camby is the biggest question going into the week. The Clippers play 4 games and that means MONSTER numbers from Marcus if he plays. He’s questionable for tonight and it’s a late game so we might not know if he’ll play before the deadline. We’ll update you as much as we can throughout the day on Camby. Obviously, this big time affects DeAndre Jordan. Right now, I think starting Camby is pretty risky, but 2 games of Camby beats out most second centers.
Elton Brand – With four games this week, I’m going to go ahead and say give Brand the start. Keep in mind that he’ll be eased back but his minutes should be up around 25 to 30 by the end of the week. You won’t see vintage Brand, but the stats should be good enough for the start. Read More »
About a year ago, I had the privilege of talking about the Nuggets strength & conditioning program with their in-house fitness guru Steve Hess. I kept asking him about Carmelo‘s routine, whether K-Mart was as intense in the weight room as he is on the court, and just how explosive Allen Iverson was in one-on-one sessions. But ultimately, Hess kept coming back to being totally amazed by Nene.
“You want to talk about the will of an individual?” asked Hess. “I’ve never seen anything like Nene. He ruptures his calf. Comes back from that. Tears a ligament in his right thumb. Comes back from that. Has testicular cancer, has a testicle removed, and has chemo therapy. Comes back from that, all in one season.”
The other day, president Larry Bird and coach Jim O’Brien sent out a packet, including a personal letter about Granger, to Eastern Conference coaches to lobby for their vote.
“We wanted them to have information so that they would really look hard at what Danny has meant to the Indiana Pacers, along with every pertinent statistical category of things he has done this year,” O’Brien said. “We’re trying to do everything possible to make sure he gets the recognition he deserves.”
While the Timberwolves keep rolling, 9-2 so far this month, you’d be crazy not to notice Al Jefferson and the numbers that he is putting up. Nothing has really changed since the beginning of the year, only now Big Al is putting up gaudy stat lines in Ws instead of Ls.
With Western Conference coaches’ All-Star ballots due on Tuesday, Jefferson decided to leave a lasting impression for coaches checking SportsCenter and the box score to the tune of 39 points on 55% shooting (16-of-29), along with nine rebounds in a win over the Bulls. Read More »
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