Ray Allen did not have his typical performance in game 5 of the NBA Finals, shooting 0-4 from three point range and scoring 12 points, but he was tremendous on the defensive end. While one might look at the box score and conclude that Allen’s defense did nothing to stop Kobe Bryant’s rhythm as he ended with 38 points and a 19 point explosion in the third quarter, the important thing to note is that Bryant had to work hard for each point. Allen forced Bryant to dribble all over the floor to create his own shot and run around screens to get open. He made Bryant expend a lot of energy on the offensive end which led to two problems for the Lakers. First, Bryant was frustrated and tired in the fourth quarter and scored no field goals in the last 7:58 of the game. Second, Bryant wanted to guard Paul Pierce as he was dominating all of the other Laker defenders that attempted to stop him. However, because Allen made Bryant work so hard on the offensive end, Bryant needed to conserve energy on the defensive end – as a result Pierce was guarded by a worse defender. It is clear that Bryant can't do all of the heavy lifting on both the offensive and defensive end. Someone else will need to step up if the Lakers hope to push the series to game 7.
No comments:
Post a Comment