The first round starts Sunday for the L.A Lakers as they take on the number 8 seed Denver Nuggets. Alot of talk is going on about the high powered Denver Nuggets offense with Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson leading the charge. We are hearing a little bit that Kobe Bryant will probably be the one primarily in charge of guarding Allen Iverson. I would also think that Lamar Odom would be the one in charge of guarding Carmelo. But what about on the other end of the court? We all know the Nuggets can put up points! But this is the playoffs, and if you can’t get stops on the defensive end you can’t win a playoff series. With that said, who are the Denver Nuggets going to use to guard Kobe Bryant? Here are the players best suited on the Nuggets roster to guard Kobe Bryant:
Anthony Carter – Stands only 6-2 and is by far their best perimeter defender. Carter is best suited to guard point guards but is usually given the task to guard Kobe when they face the Lakers. Carter is strong and can be physical with Kobe, but his lack of height will really hurt him. It’s hard enough to contest a Kobe jumper anyways. Let alone if you are 6-2.
J.R. Smith – Has been playing very well as of late. Offensively! J.R. is by no means a solid defender and stands to get worked over pretty bad by Kobe Bryant. He is 6-6 and very athletic and if he is committed to playing defensive, could be the Nuggets best hope for any type of defense against Kobe Bryant.
Other Possibilities
- Linas Kleiza (too slow)
- Allen Iverson (too small)
- Yakhouba Diawara (who?)
- Bobby Jones (who?)
The matchup against Kobe Bryant for the Nuggets does not look very good. Every team in the playoffs that stands as a good competitor against the Lakers has a defender that can at the very least harass Kobe. The Spurs have Bruce Bowen, the Suns have Raja Bell, the Rockets have Shane Battier. But in order to beat the Lakers in a 7 game series, the Nuggets would have to have at least 1 hopefully 2 defenders that can harass Kobe on every possession. Without that you stand no chance.
However, expect Kobe Bryant to get his teammates involved offensively just like he has all season long. Because of Denver’s lack of defensive ability, Kobe Bryant can control the game much more through passing to his teammates rather than taking shots himself. The Nuggets are horrible as a team defensively, leaving open passing lanes, wide open layups and dunks in the paint. You can expect Kobe to have high assist numbers in this series. Anywhere from 7 to 10 a game!
