Tuesday, January 12th, 2010...11:20 pm
The Devil and On-the-ball Defense
“La plus belle des ruses du diable est de vous persuader qu’il n’existe pas.” -Baudelaire
Kobe Bryant’s early exit and Pau Gasol’s overall absence dampened the enthusiasm that would normally follow a 20 point win by the Spurs over the Lakers. But even before back spasms made Bryant a non-factor, a 23-year-old second year point guard from Indianapolis, Indiana was doing his damnedest to make sure the reigning NBA Finals MVP didn’t impose his will on the game.
Bryant’s pre-spasm line was impressive: 7-10 from the field, 16 points. But I’ve never been threatened by Bryant the scorer. It’s Bryant the facilitator, perched above his orchestra, baton in hand, conducting the triangle with symphonic perfection- that is the most venomous species of Mamba.
It’s hard to recognize good defense against Bryant when you see it. That’s because defending Bryant is not about denial; it is about encouragement. Defending Bryant requires the same Mephistophelean attitude he himself has adopted. You must be the devil on his shoulder, pushing him over so gently towards the selfish decision. You must feed his urge to score.
And, in all likelihood, Bryant will do just that. He will strut and smile, believing he has outdone you. But, as Baudelaire said, you will have performed your finest trick. You will have convinced him you don’t exist. That was once the genius of Bruce Bowen and, this evening, that was the genius of George Hill.
Then again, there was that one play where George Hill stole the ball from Bryant at half court and slammed it home on an open rim. That had none of the subtlety of French Symbolist poetry. No interpretation necessary.
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14 Comments
January 12th, 2010 at 11:50 pm
Great assessment on how Kobe thinks.
Two things are apparent in this win:
1) George Hill is legit.
2) Andrew Bynum played Duncan well. Of course our man Timmy not only outperformed Bynum in pts and rebounds, TD was also more efficient. But it was clear to me that Bynum had very good post moves and was confident against Duncan.
The nice thing is that Bynum doesn’t seem to play as well when Gasol is on the floor.
The bad news is that Gasol wasn’t on the floor for this game. If there is a downside to this win, its that we didn’t get an accurate read on how our frontline measures up to the Lakers bigs.
I know I harp on about us needing to get another big, so its interesting that Hollinger and Henry Abbott from True Hoop think that we need a perimeter player/defender. Now THAT would take some corporate knowledge, no?
January 12th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Kaiser Sosa lives.
Andrew Bynum isn’t efficient, and with Gasol, even less so.
January 13th, 2010 at 12:01 am
George Hill has been a blessing…he embodies what the Spurs are all about.
Great writeup. This place is always insightful. Smooth and slick writing like this is what keeps Spurs fans coming back for more.
January 13th, 2010 at 7:00 am
Well said JG. 48MoH rocks!
January 13th, 2010 at 7:08 am
GEORGIE!!!!!! Loved the steal - dunk! Another big factor was the level of intensity that was in the ATT Center…. i was watching on leage pass broadband and i could barely hear the announcers! Great Win!
January 13th, 2010 at 7:25 am
I’m glad you wrote up a small separate piece on George, Graydon. His defense looked superb last night, even though some of the plays might have come with a Phil Jackson-blessed asterisk.
What I thought was more impressive than his defense on an ailing Kobe was when he was briefly matched up against Artest. His speed and quickness made up for the 80 lbs difference in weight and 5 inches in height. In theory, Artest should have capitalized when Hill was guarding him, but that just didn’t happen.
January 13th, 2010 at 8:13 am
Hill was great. I loved the steal. What I loved even more were the rebounds he snatched away from Artest. Defensively the SPURS LOOKED great.
January 13th, 2010 at 8:24 am
It should be noted that even though Kobe didn’t play in the 4th quarter, he played over 32 minutes. That means he was on the floor all but roughly 4 minutes. TD, TP and Jefferson are the only Spurs who played more minutes than Kobe. Granted, he wasn’t right in the second half, but they sure burned some heavy minutes on him in this game. The only Lakers who played significantly more minutes were Bynum and Odom. Its like the Lakers are really trying to win the season in January. I am not even a Laker fan and I think they need to bench Kobe for a month and make sure he is right for the playoffs. The guy has some serious miles.
January 13th, 2010 at 9:12 am
Well written piece. I recall when Hill got his first chance to guard Kobe late last season. A rookie guarding the best player and Kobe hit a tough late-game 3 over him. Hill seemed too small to guard Kobe but it was great of Pop to give him the chance since it wasn’t about that game nor was he expecting him to shutdown Kobe. It was about future matchups and now, Hill is more developed and confident. It showed last night.
Seeing Hill snatch rebounds, as junie said, is such a joy. Most broadcasters still describe the Spurs as old and slow. They must not watch when Hill, Blair and RJ are on the floor.
January 13th, 2010 at 9:18 am
Tom,
I agree about Kobe. I think they should rest him for awhile, but I’m glad they aren’t. Kobe and Phil both put a lot more stock into the regular season than Pop, Tim and the Spurs do. Phil talks about being the 1st team to 30 wins, 40 wins, etc. as a measure of being an elite team and Kobe says that he literally couldn’t walk after leaving the game and that is the only thing that would keep him out. I think it is a pride/ego thing with both of them and I also think that they have their eyes on Game 7 of the Finals vs. the Cavs or Celtics and they want that game at home. Of course, without a healthy Kobe, they aren’t going to make it that far.
January 13th, 2010 at 11:56 am
For some reason, I was expecting Kobe to shut down sooner or later. After all, the guy has as many miles on him as Manu or TD and he is only one year younger than Manu. All the media wrote off the Spurs because Manu was old, but they did the same last year, and nobody said that the lakers could not do it because Kobe was old.
As the miles pile up, sometimes your body says “Enough”….also, Kobe has been playing through injuries for a lot of time, that obviously affects the normal balance of the body, shooting in awkward positions, putting more pressure on one side than on the other…etc etc…
On Phil Jackson’s asterisk, you know where he can shove that asterisk…nobody in the spurs office talked about an asterisk during the 2008 playoffs when Manu was injured
January 13th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
I loved George Hill’s play against Bryant, he is a pretty good on the ball defender, its just his defending the pick and roll that needs to get better.
As for the game last night, the Spurs dominated it almost entirely. Yes Bryant got hurt and Gasol didn’t play, but that doesnt excuse the lakers. They were simply just outplayed, no one wants to say anthing about injuries when they wallop the Mavs by 35 points, but as soon as they get routed, now injury is an excuse. Every team has them, even we are missing two pieces yet you don’t hear anybody making excuses for us.
The Lakers simply just were not better last night, and even with gasol back, their offense changes dramatically and they play differently, so even then you can’t say that we can’t compete with the LA Lakers, we showed it on both ends of the floor last night
January 13th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
“Then again, there was that one play where George Hill stole the ball from Bryant at half court and slammed it home on an open rim”
Watch the replay, he trips Kobe and a foul should have been called.
This post is absolute garbage. Kobe Bryant scoring the ball is more effective than any other player in the history of the NBA and you know that. Or, perhaps you don’t, which is would mean you are a retard and don’t deserve any credibility.
January 13th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
F U, KOBE IS THE BEST CUZ HE GOT THEM KILLA INSTINKTZ!!!1!
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