The I'm Scared of Kobe Thread

[timboup]

Anyone else getting nervous about kobe? We could hardly handle the cavs and they only have Lebron. Kobe is surrounded by very good teammates. Who is going to guard him?

[jblaze]

Pierce and Big Game Posey.

Kobe scares me a LITTLE bit, he can go off at any time, but the Celtics are going to eat the Lakers frontcourt alive.

I hope for LA's sake that Luke Walton doesn't try to guard Pierce...

[Onslaught]

Kobe and the calls he'll get concern me. But at the same time I feel that LA should have a similar fear of Pierce. He's always played LA well and I don't know if they will have an answer for him either.

[ACF]

Why be scared?
We beat 'em twice this season already.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1vRv4wnRAY

[RMO]

Agree that it will be either Pierce or Posey.  Kobe will get his regardless.  He won't miss a lot of those shots that Lebron did.  The guy who concerns me is Odom.  Who defends him?  If Pierce takes Kobe that will leave Ray since Garnett and Perkins will probably get Gasol and Radmonovich.  Odom can be inconsistent but when he's on he makes the Lakers even tougher.

[Onslaught]

Amager Celtic Fan, I think we've all learned that regular season hasn't got much to do with the playoffs. And this isn't the same LA team that we humiliated earlier this year.

[jblaze]

Perkins most likely. He did a good job in the last series and will definitely be a factor on the boards once again. Perk has been a beast as of late

[Roy Hobbs]

Eh...  so long as we don't play the Joe Johnson defense on him, we'll be just fine.  We contained Lebron, and Kobe shot 15-for-46 against us this year.  He's a great player (terrible person), but he's not unstoppable.

[Cman]

Agree that it will be either Pierce or Posey.  Kobe will get his regardless.  He won't miss a lot of those shots that Lebron did.  The guy who concerns me is Odom.  Who defends him?  If Pierce takes Kobe that will leave Ray since Garnett and Perkins will probably get Gasol and Radmonovich.  Odom can be inconsistent but when he's on he makes the Lakers even tougher.

I suspect Ray will be on Vlad, and then Perkins and Garnett will be on Gasol and Odom -- not sure who will be on who.  Actually, the Lakers will need to worry about Perkins trolling the boards (the backboards, not the Celtics or Lakers Internet boards!).

PP will have a tough matchup with Kobe, but what can you do?  As a poster said above, Kobe will get his.  Kobe will clearly be the best player on the court, but the guys in green will be the best team on the court, and so long as they remember that and play like a team, then good things should happen.

[ACF]

Amager Celtic Fan, I think we've all learned that regular season hasn't got much to do with the playoffs. And this isn't the same LA team that we humiliated earlier this year.

Yeah, well...
I haven't been that worried even
though they've lost 8 games already in the
playoffs. The C's are still a young team in
terms of playing together and getting to know
each other.
Yeah, I know it's not the same thing as the RS
but still: If the Celtics do what they can
do, Kobe can average 50 pts and it still won't
matter. Gasol is a great player but he's not an
All-Star. Other than that I can't see how the
Lakers are any different. Yeah, they're playing
great ball but I think we'll give 'em Hell.
Maybe that's just me...

[rrc589]

Even if we get a guy to play great defense on Kobe, he can still put up a ridiculous amount of points because his best offense can beat anyones best defense.

Just play good defense on him and focus on stopping everyone else.

[Who]

Posey has played good defense on Kobe in the past

[ma11l]

Ray matched up with him for the game in Boston and did a pretty good job.  He was fired because they don't like each other, flat out don't like each other.  Still, I definitely suspect it will start with Paul and then move to Posey.  Maybe a little TA?...Nahhhh none of that.

[RMO]

Fisher also concerns me.  He certainly won't be the best point guard Rondo faces in these playoffs but he has that veteran savvy who could exploit Rondo's inexperience.  He seems to always make those important shots.  Not necessarily the clutch shots at the end (though he's capable) but those three pointers that turn an eight point deficit into a five point deficit and keep the game from getting out of control.  I've watched Laker games where I say to myself Fisher is shooting great and then see in the box score he's only shooting 40%.  My point is the shots he makes seems to be the ones they need and the ones you remember.

[Evantime34]

I'm scared of the superstar treatment he's going to get from the refs. Honestly I'm more scared of his teammates, I feel that the Laker's biggest asset is their passing to get layups. You always would rather have Kobe hitting a difficult contested fade away than and easy dunk for Gasol (who looks like a big pigeon in case anyone was wondering)