Iguodala Ready For Bryant

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Maurice Cheeks harkened back to a time when he was a 76ers assistant under John Lucas watching Lower Merion High School star Kobe Bryant play pickup games against mostly pro players at the St. Joseph's Fieldhouse.

"He was a very good player," Cheeks recalled. "You didn't know he was going to reach this status, but you knew he was going to be a very good player."

Now, in his 10th NBA season, Bryant returns home tonight with the Los Angeles Lakers to play the Sixers, still enjoying his standing as one of the league's elite players, not to mention its top scorer in the early going.

Bryant is averaging 34.8 points in his first five games, leading No. 2 Allen Iverson by five points. He leads the league in shots from the field with 137, but he has made 50.4 percent of them.

That will mean a busy night at the Wachovia Center for Andre Iguodala, the Sixers' defensive ace, who draws the assignment of guarding Bryant. The task doesn't require just talent and quickness, but also preparation.

"The preparation is a little bit different," Iguodala said yesterday after the Sixers went through a light practice at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

"I have to watch a little bit more film to see what he's been doing the past couple of games, how he's been getting his shot off, which way he's more comfortable in going, how he's getting into position to score, who he's been looking for. So attention to detail is important."

It's not a job one can do by himself.</div>

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The last sentence really says it all though. There is no way he can do it all himself, but he of course is and will be the primary source on defense to slow KB8 down. Iguodala did an excellent job on Kobe the last time they met. While Kobe scored 16 Points in the first quarter of that game, Iguodala held him to a mere 4 points for the rest of the game. Now will that happen again, I highly doubt it especially with the way Kobe has been tearing it up as of late. If Iguodala & co. could hold Kobe (in his case) to a ?mere? 25 Points or less, that will be an accomplishment.

This Sixers team is allowing 111 PPG, and again stressing to the point with the way Kobe has been playing it wouldn't be shocker if he dropped 40, but the fact that Iguodala is ready for the challenge and will especially prepare himself tonight I see him doing a decent job on Kobe. He has a knack of preparing himself when going against premiere perimeter players. He did so last season against Kobe, he did so against LeBron(3-20 FG shooting) and he frustrated Paul Pierce to the point where Ricky Davis had to hold Pierce and get into his face to calm him down.

 

Nice to read that he's ready to hold one of the League's biggest stars under control.Last time indeed he did a great job on Kobe (Aaron helped tho) but the best thing is that Iguodala is shooting over 60% this season and over last 2 games he's shooting 76% and averaging over 16 ppg.That's insane,even if it's 2 games but shooting 76% and averaging 16 ppg while playing good defense gets you those big numbers on the paycheck.

 

Considering that he lost the game last season at Philly with Iggy doing an impressive job on him. Look him to go off this game, specially with Joe Bryant in the stands.

 

Andre has played Bryant well before, and he has only gotten better so hopefully we can see a similar result as last years game against LA where he played Kobe well. I think Bryant has scored 30 in every game thus far in the season right? In that case it will be vital for Andre to put a clamp on him.

 

Andre Iguodala trains with Kobe Bryant during the summer that is one of the big reasons that he is such a good defender, and plays Kobe so well. Bryant has easily been playing the best basketball of his career so far this season, and will be a tough match-up for Iguodala, but I think due to the fact Andre has played against Kobe so much more than anybody else in the league he will play Kobe well.

 

Both Iggy vs Kobe and Korver vs Odom should be good. Kobe and Iggy with their versatility should be fun to watch and who can see break down each other the most. And Odom with his pure ballhandling skills and game should put Korver to the test. Been really looking forward to this game. If we can stop those 2, a W should be in the bag.

Sixers win, 96-88

 

iggy did a good job guarding kobe today but he only took 3 shots, why does cheeks only allow him to have 3 shots today

 

I think Dre was so foucsed on D'ing Kobe up that it was hard for him to focous on offense. Iguodala looked very foucused and that game was probably one of the best defensive performances I've seen from a 76er. Kobe made what one FG outside the paint? All of his buckets were driving shots close to the basket, he had nothing on the perimeter. And when you do that to one of the best players in the game and the leading scorer, then that says something about your defense. But with that being said the 76ers should have won the game a lot easier than they did.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting B-22:</div><div class="quote_post">But with that being said the 76ers should have won the game a lot easier than they did.</div>Exactly!!

It was nice to get the win but it could have and should have been alot easier than it was, especially with Kobe held in check like he was. The night can be summed up for the Sixers by AI's missed finger roll late in the game.

 

Well looks like Iggy did his job well tonight. Kobe had his worst scoring night of the season against him.