Former Rockets Forward Shane Battier Reminisce Defending Kobe Bryant
HOUSTON — The late-great Kobe Bryant was a tough defensive matchup for his opponents throughout his 20 years in the league, and a handful of his best games came at the expense of the Houston Rockets.
Bryant led his Los Angeles Lakers to a 35-26 regular season record while averaging 26.6 points through 61 career games. He helped the Lakers defeat the Rockets in all three postseason meetings since 1999. But Bryant's toughest playoff matchup against Houston came during the 2009 Western Conference Semifinals.
The relentless Rockets pushed the Lakers to a seven-game series after Yao Ming and Metta World Peace led Houston to a 100-92 Game 1 victory inside the STAPLES Center. But the turning point took place during the Rockets' Game 4 victory to even up the series at two games apiece.
"I got a lot of the acclaim for the hand-in-the-face tactic, but people misunderstood why I did that," Battier said during his guest appearance on the Showtime Basketball podcast. "For a guy like Kobe, I knew he would go out of his way to prove that this tactic wouldn't work on him. That was the mental game I played with Kobe, but he [still] made a lot of jumpers."
Bryant recorded 15 points in the 99-87 Game 4 defeat to Houston inside the Toyota Center, as he shot an abysmal 7-for-17 from the field. Defensive specialist Shane Battier received praise for his defensive tactics against Bryant.
Battier said the purpose of his defensive tactics was to force Bryant into taking long two-point dribble jump shots. His defensive strategy only worked in two out of the Rockets' seven games, as Bryant went on to average 27.4 points on 45.3 percent shooting from the field.
Bryant scored 30 or more points four times while facing the Rockets during the second round of the playoffs. His best performance came during the Lakers' Game 2 victory, where Bryant led the way with a game-high 40 points shooting 59.3 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from behind the arc.
After defeating the Rockets, Bryant led the Lakers to their 15th title in franchise history after defeating Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic 4-1 during the NBA Finals.
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