ray allen guard artest?

[jsingh1699]

i think i saw some stretches in the second half where they were forced to have ray allen guard artest and have pierce guard bryant. having pierce on bryant would prevent him as much since pierce is bigger than him. but would LA exploit the artest matchup? not sure if they want artest as the focal point of the offense at times but i'd rather have him post up than bryant.

[Fafnir]

Its definitely something the C's will have to consider if Ray Allen continues to get fouls on Bryant and/or cannot stay with him off the bounce.

[Roy Hobbs]

Generally, Ray guards Kobe very well.  However, if there's a repeat of last night -- when fouls that are *never* called in the NBA are consistently being called -- then yeah, it makes sense to have Paul slide over and guard Kobe, and for Ray to guard Artest.

The only major threat there is that Artest will post up Ray.  However, I haven't seen a consistent post game out of Artest, so I'd take the chance, and adjust to it if it happened.

We absolutely need to keep Ray out of foul trouble.  He's a key to opening up space for both PP and Rondo.

[Birdbrain]

i think i saw some stretches in the second half where they were forced to have ray allen guard artest and have pierce guard bryant. having pierce on bryant would prevent him as much since pierce is bigger than him. but would LA exploit the artest matchup? not sure if they want artest as the focal point of the offense at times but i'd rather have him post up than bryant.

Pierce may play Bryant better than anyone in the league but, that will take a toll so I suspect they'll keep Ray on him at the start of game 2 and hope he get the benefit of close calls.  Or if he just didn't get tagged for invisible fouls would be nice.

[Potapenko Boxout]

I cannot believe I have turned into one of those wackos who thinks there is a conspiracy theory with the refs in the NBA.

Ray got screwed last night. The new and evolving "two quick fouls" to throw a team off is awful.

[Greenbean]

Yes.

It is 3 fold actually.

1. Keeps Ray out of foul trouble.
2. Pierce looks healthy. He kept Kobe in front of him last night without fouling.
3. Most importantly for me. The Lakers will go to Artest offensively. He already has inflated confidence from behind the line after rattling in 3 ugly threes last night. I want this guy thinking he can have an impact on this series offensively because Artest has shown in his career the incredible ability to shoot his teams out of game. Here's to hoping LA goes to Ron Ron more if Ray plays him in game 2!

[Greenbean]

Yes.

It is 3 fold actually.

1. Keeps Ray out of foul trouble.
2. Pierce looks healthy. He kept Kobe in front of him last night without fouling.
3. Most importantly for me. The Lakers will go to Artest offensively. He already has inflated confidence from behind the line after rattling in 3 ugly threes last night. I want this guy thinking he can have an impact on this series offensively because Artest has shown in his career the incredible ability to shoot his teams out of game. Here's to hoping LA goes to Ron Ron more if Ray plays him in game 2!

Boy did I enjoy seeing Ron Artest on offense last night. He has the ugliest game for a perimeter player that I have ever seen.

[Brendan]

I could see Artest posting up when Odom and Gasol are in the game since Odom can play on the perimeter and Gasol is great in the high post. But when Bynum is in, Artest posting up is either going to force Bynum to a non-threat distance or crowd things down low.