# Raja Bell on Kobe



## KDOS (Nov 29, 2005)

"If I can keep him preoccupied with trying to beat me 1-on-1, then there are four other guys out there who aren't getting shots," Bell said. "That plays into our hands because we're going to get points. So if he gets 50 and the rest of the guys don't get enough to beat us, I did my job."

-Raja Bell


Sad but true...Kobe's teammates really sucks.





http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=260407021


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## jibikao (Nov 14, 2004)

You can tell Bell was encouraging Kobe to go one-on-one with him. They both were going at each other (defensively).


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## KDOS (Nov 29, 2005)

I dont mind Kobe going off for 51 last night especially if he's shooting 57% from the field. My concern is hopefully Kobe doesnt take this "he cant stop me" mentality in the playoffs and disregard team concept.


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## Lynx (Mar 6, 2004)

Kobe's response:



> "I've got bigger fish to fry than Raja Bell," he said. "Are you kidding?"


:wink:


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## Kneejoh (Dec 21, 2004)

Raja tries to make it sound like Kobe doesn't pass to his teamates at all, if they could shoot over 45% we wouldn't be having this discussion.


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## KDOS (Nov 29, 2005)

Actually I think Nash is the one who is indicating that Kobe does not pass to his teammates.

You feel like if he's taking all those shots, the other guys aren't really scoring," Nash said. 

He forgot to acknowledge the fact that Kobe's trigger happy offense was justified when he shot 19 of 33 (57%) while the rest of team was 18 of 49 (37%). Little Stevie needs to shut it.


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## Silk D (Feb 6, 2006)

yeah, we're really in trouble if we have to face the suns in the first round. There is not much we can do defensively to stop them from scoring; and we just do not have the firepower to out-score them.


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## TwiBlueG35 (Jan 24, 2006)

May be dropping down to number eight is not a bad thing afterall. At least Lakers has beaten Spurs once and had another one pretty close game. Lakers has lost seventh consecutive games against Phoenix including last season. Let Sacramento Kings to deal with Suns. Seriously, I think Suns is beatable, but Lakers have to concentrate all 48 minutes of the game, not even 47, because obviously Suns could do a 10-0 run in a minute. And I don't think Lakers could focus 48 minutes as a team for four games in the playoff.


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## Sir Patchwork (Jan 12, 2005)

Haha. Raja Bell allowed his man to score 51 points on 56% from the field and thinks he did a good job. You almost think that he if held Kobe to a mere 40 points one night, he might start calling himself the Kobe-stopper. 



> "I've got bigger fish to fry than Raja Bell," he said. "Are you kidding?"


Funny because it's true.


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## DANNY (Aug 9, 2005)

I loved it when Smush Parker pushed Steve Nash into the ground when he tried to go for steal. I love Nash's game but he's been yapping too much, he really do need to shut the **** up. :biggrin:


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## unluckyseventeen (Feb 5, 2006)

I don't mean to pry, but for having one of the most egotistical players in the game, you guys sure are quick to jump on other players who say one sentence about anything negative toward the Lakers.

Someone says something like "he was just trying to score" and suddenly he needs to shut the **** up.

Then Kobe acts like he is king of the world and can say whatever he wants, and Laker fans pop their #8 jerseys like they are representing something they are doing...

Seems a little hypocritical to me, don't you think?


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## Sir Patchwork (Jan 12, 2005)

unluckyseventeen said:


> I don't mean to pry, but for having one of the most egotistical players in the game, you guys sure are quick to jump on other players who say one sentence about anything negative toward the Lakers.
> 
> Someone says something like "he was just trying to score" and suddenly he needs to shut the **** up.
> 
> ...


Nash and Bell both were disrespectful by basically saying Kobe is a ballhog and trying to discredit a very efficient 50 point performance by acting like it was part of the plan to _let_ him score that many. Judging by the post game interviews, the Suns were kind of throwing it in the face of Bryant that they won they game despite a great performance. They carry around that "we play team basketball so were winners" mentality and judging from two Nash interviews and a Bell interview, they were definitely throwing that at Kobe Bryant last night. That's disrespectful. 

The Suns aren't in any position to disrespect great players like that. Kobe has more titles than anyone in their organization combined. Win a title or even make a finals appearance before you start acting like you invented the win column.


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## KDOS (Nov 29, 2005)

I just lost respect on Stevie with that comment. Im sure he's not looking forward to another MVP trophy and is downgrading Bryants performance, but he knows better than that, its just a low blow comment on his part.


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## KDOS (Nov 29, 2005)

Sir Patchwork said:


> . You almost think that he if held Kobe to a mere 40 points one night, he might start calling himself the Kobe-stopper.


 :laugh: Bell was just trying to hide the fact that he got destroyed by Kobe Bryant, advising that _he did his job_ on Bryant by letting him score 51 pts just as long Kobe's teammates didnt contribute much.


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

He did his job? Kobe shot over 50% and scored 51 points. Kobe completely embarrassed and owned you, buddy.

The rest of the team did their job, that was why the Suns won. Or more to the point, the rest of the Lakers didn't do their job.

Raja Bell, on the other hand, failed miserably.


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## Steez (Nov 28, 2002)

Personally, I feel that the Lakers can beat anyone in a 7 game series.
But thats my personal opinion.

Spurs? we can beat em
Dallas? we can beat em
Denver? we can beat em
Clippers? we can beat em
Grizzlies? we can beat em
Suns? we can beat em
Kings? we can beat em

and I am serious!


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## King Sancho Fantastic (Jul 19, 2005)

why is it that all the Suns player choose to focus on the fact that Kobe scored 51 on an excellent percentage and they choose to ignore that fact that the other Lakers couldnt hit a damn shot? Kobe is a SCORER. Its what he does. Its what hes supposed to do. The sun comes up in the east, Jenna Jameson is hot, and Kobe scores... Facts of life.

People ignore the REAL reason we lost. *No one other than Kobe could hit a shot.*


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## AK-47 (Jul 7, 2005)

Kobe can score 101 points, and the rest of his team can score 8 points. But all the suns need to do is get 110+ (which they get a lot). And are you kidding? NO ONE IN THE LEAGUE CAN 1 ON 1 GUARD KOBE. You know kobe is going to have a game of 40+, so you just 1v1 bryant and let your other 4 guys not give the other laker players easy shots, or uncontested. So you let kobe score his 40-60 points, and then you just need to hold the other players to 40-60 points or less and you need 100+ points for the win.

It's actually a good idea, because by doubling kobe your just letting him pass to a wide open laker. Odom has been deadly from the 3 pointer with wide open 3's. Doesn't anyone else see that it was actually smart to just do your damn best against him and let your other 4 do the rest on the other lakers?


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## unluckyseventeen (Feb 5, 2006)

Indeed. I also recall a Mavs/Suns game in the playoffs last year where the Mavs' strategy was to let Steve Nash score and not leave their man. The Mav's won the game when they started implementing it.

It's a pretty goofy strategy, but it seems to work.

Also, I wouldn't consider either Nash or Bell to be disrespectful. Nash is about as wussy as they come, and Raja Bell has never, nor (I think) will ever try to be a jerk on purpose. They just stated the gameplan and were probably glad that they got the win. Bell downright said "I don't care if he drops 50, the important thing is that we win." They won. They did their job. You guys all keep focusing on the fact that Kobe scored 50, and that Kobe owned Bell.

Oh well. Team concept is more important than a single player's achievement. The Suns stuck to their game plan and drug out a W. Though it may have not been the best strategy, they still got it done.


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## Eternal (Sep 7, 2005)

unluckyseventeen said:


> Indeed. I also recall a Mavs/Suns game in the playoffs last year where the Mavs' strategy was to let Steve Nash score and not leave their man. The Mav's won the game when they started implementing it.
> 
> It's a pretty goofy strategy, but it seems to work.


It could not have worked too well, if the Mavs lost the series. Mavs stopped doing that strategy for a reason.

Sure the strategy may work one game, but it won't work consistently.


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## Hibachi! (Sep 18, 2003)

Raja's Bells job may have been to stop Kobe, but his overall job is to end the game with a W. They ended with a W... Say what you want about Nash and how you "lost respect for him" after those comments, but all he simply said was, if Kobe is taking all the shots that they didn't have to worry about the teamates. Have any of you played basketball? Even in a pickup game? Have you ever played on a team where you had one BOMB player who just tore up the opposing team... I never play hard when I got one guy on my team doing everything. On the defensive end, even if he tears you up, you start to not worry that there are other guys on the team... O and let me get this straight... Kobe can say... "I've got bigger fish to fry than Raja Bell," he said. "Are you kidding?" Yet Nash is the *******?


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## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

Steez said:


> Personally, I feel that the Lakers can beat anyone in a 7 game series.
> But thats my personal opinion.
> 
> *Spurs? we can beat em*
> ...



Come now, Steez. 

You can beat those teams. But in a 7 game series? I don't think so.
Lakers can beat Dallas. I don't understand why the Mavericks have a hard time beating the Lakers
but they do. You guys should be hoping that Mavs get #1 seed and you get the 8th. You guys probale could upset them.


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## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

KOBEDUNKEDONSHAQ said:


> :laugh: Bell was just trying to hide the fact that he got destroyed by Kobe Bryant, advising that _he did his job_ on Bryant by letting him score 51 pts just as long Kobe's teammates didnt contribute much.



Did you read the ****ing quote? Nash doesn't talk ****.
You guys are blind by your love of Kobe. I read the quote and theres absolutely nothing wrong with it.
He said Kobe is a great player and they were trying to stop everyone else because they know they can't stop Kobe. 

Get over yourselves.


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## TwiBlueG35 (Jan 24, 2006)

Raja Bell obviously didn't do any thing so that Kobe could score 51 points. He didn't get his job done. Whether Suns win or not has nothing to do with Raja Bell, isn't it very obvious? If Raja Bell had successfully done his job, then Kobe should have only gotten twenty something points with thirty shots. But Kobe ended up making 57%. What the hell did Raja Bell has to do with the win? The problem Lakers lost yesterday's game was that the other Lakers couldn't efficiently score, especially during the beginning of the fourth quarter. Suns got the W, but it didn't come from Raja Bell, instead, it came from the whole Suns team. Raja Bell should just drop his head and walk out of the Arena quietly, because very apparently he was nothing compared to Kobe Bryant.


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## Sir Patchwork (Jan 12, 2005)

> "If I can keep him preoccupied with trying to beat me 1-on-1, then there are four other guys out there who aren't getting shots," Bell said.





> "You feel like if he's taking all those shots, the other guys aren't really scoring," Nash said.


Both comments are shots at Kobe, saying he is a ballhog who won't pass the ball. That is clearly disrespect. 

Nash's comments there aren't that bad, but his postgame interview and his interview on PTI kind of reak of disrespect for Kobe and the Lakers. 

Raja Bell though, is delusional. Keep doing your job buddy!


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## KDOS (Nov 29, 2005)

SunsFan57 said:


> Did you read the ****ing quote? Nash doesn't talk ****.
> You guys are blind by your love of Kobe. I read the quote and theres absolutely nothing wrong with it.
> He said Kobe is a great player and they were trying to stop everyone else because they know they can't stop Kobe.
> 
> Get over yourselves.


I hate arguing with females because their so sensitive, but ill reply to you. If you're familiar with comprehension then its a obviously a clear cheap shot on Kobe, anyway you put it. Maybe not so on Bell because to him containing Kobe for 51 pts on 57% accuracy is doing his job :laugh:, but Nash knows better not to diss a very good performance from Kobe when he gave that comment in his postgame interview.


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## KDOS (Nov 29, 2005)

SunsFan57 said:


> Lakers went on a 8-0 run when Kobe was on the bench.
> 
> Probable because there was alot more ball movement.


And get your facts straight, we were down by 1 after the end of third quarter when Phil decided to put Kobe back on th bench thats when the Suns took over the Lakers momentum that they build solidly in the third quarter.


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## Shady* (Jul 3, 2005)

How ignorant.


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## Seuss (Aug 19, 2005)

You guys are crazy.

Keep believeing Nash was attacking Kobe and "Disrespecting" him.
Because telling the truth is definately disrespectful.

Don't reply to my post because I won't reply to yours.
You guys believe whatever the hell you want.


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## DANNY (Aug 9, 2005)

You know I was being sarcastic about Nash right? ---> :biggrin:

It's obvious the tension are building up between both teams since they know they're going be facing each other in the playoffs. I really wouldn't any "hatred" between these two teams because.. well you know.. I like both...

It's hilarious how Raja Bell made that sort of comment when he got torched by 50 points by Kobe (Let's be real.. how do you come up with that kind of lame excuse when someone burns you for 50? He should shut his mouth) But let's give credit to the Suns, they ate us alive with the threes, they have the right to do the talking. 





Not Raja Bell tho


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## DANNY (Aug 9, 2005)

Sir Patchwork said:


> Nash and Bell both were disrespectful by basically saying Kobe is a ballhog and trying to discredit a very efficient 50 point performance by acting like it was part of the plan to _let_ him score that many. Judging by the post game interviews, the Suns were kind of throwing it in the face of Bryant that they won they game despite a great performance. They carry around that "we play team basketball so were winners" mentality and judging from two Nash interviews and a Bell interview, they were definitely throwing that at Kobe Bryant last night. That's disrespectful.
> 
> *The Suns aren't in any position to disrespect great players like that. Kobe has more titles than anyone in their organization combined. Win a title or even make a finals appearance before you start acting like you invented the win column.*


Great point. 

It's going to be a great game next sunday. Raja Bell WATCH OUT


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## Lynx (Mar 6, 2004)

Steez said:


> Personally, I feel that the Lakers can beat anyone in a 7 game series.
> But thats my personal opinion.
> 
> Spurs? we can beat em
> ...


..and we can win NBA championship too this year. lol


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## The MAMBA (Jan 6, 2006)

What does Kobe mean when he says he has bigger fish to fry than Raja Bell? He DID FRY him. For 51 points....


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## -BasketBallBoy- (Jan 22, 2006)

He wanted like 60+! Raja Bell did not stop Kobe, Phil did. Raja Bell allowed Kobe to score an arena record(51 pts on 50+% shooting.) Thats not contributing to the team win. Congratz to Phoenix, they were a better team last time.


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## GNG (Aug 17, 2002)

Steez said:


> Personally, I feel that the Lakers can beat anyone in a 7 game series.
> But thats my personal opinion.
> 
> Spurs? we can beat em
> ...


And drunk.


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## aNgelo5 (Oct 24, 2005)

KOBEDUNKEDONSHAQ said:


> "
> 
> 
> Sad but true...Kobe's teammates really sucks.
> ...


Totally agreed 100%


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## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

Sir Patchwork said:


> Nash and Bell both were disrespectful by basically saying Kobe is a ballhog and trying to discredit a very efficient 50 point performance by acting like it was part of the plan to _let_ him score that many. Judging by the post game interviews, the Suns were kind of throwing it in the face of Bryant that they won they game despite a great performance. They carry around that "we play team basketball so were winners" mentality and judging from two Nash interviews and a Bell interview, they were definitely throwing that at Kobe Bryant last night. That's disrespectful.
> 
> The Suns aren't in any position to disrespect great players like that. Kobe has more titles than anyone in their organization combined. Win a title or even make a finals appearance before you start acting like you invented the win column.


Haha, please.  

It was obvious going in to this game that their strategy would be to go one-on-one with Kobe the entire game. If the Lakers won and Kobe took a shot at Raja Bell in the postgame interviews, I hardly think there would be this outrage from you guys. Hell, you'd probably cheer him for it. What Raja Bell said probably was a dig. Do you know how much trash they were talking in the game? Who the hell cares if it was a dig, geez...too sensitive people. Nash's comment? That's rediculous. He's said the same thing before about other stars when they play man defense. I certainly don't see why a Raja Bell comment inspires a hurl of insults toward the Phoenix organization. No more post game interviews until they win a title (well, they can talk about losses, but not wins), cool. But whatever, believe what you will...

Letting the star score and holding down the rest of the team is a defensive strategy that is used throughout the NBA. Noone can stop Kobe one-on-one. Marion couldn't touch him when he was guarding him either. There's a reason the guy averages 35, he's bound to go off anytime. Raja was right.


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## Kneejoh (Dec 21, 2004)

Thats all fine, but when Raja speaks like he did what he was supposed to do he sounds dumb. I don't care what your strategy is if your man scores 50 on you, you shouldn't talk like you did a good job, his quote should have been more along the lines of " I got torched by Kobe, but luckily when he wasn't scoring on me his teamates couldn't hit open shots, that's really the reason we won, not because I contained Kobe to 51 points."


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## ShuHanGuanYu (Feb 3, 2005)

Raja Bell:

“He was making some shots. He is tough. I’ll never say that he isn’t tough. He made some shots and I thought I made him earn some of them. I tried to keep him off the line as much as I could, but that is why he is the leading scorer in the league.”

(On why Kobe is so tough to guard)
“He is just going to get a volume of shots. He is going to keep shooting and they are going to keep giving him the ball. He gets 50 and we win the game, so at the end of the day I’m okay with that. Even though it sucks to have 50 put up against you, if we win it means that I did my job.” 

He acknowledged the 50+. He was happy to get the win, despite that. God forbid.


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## madskillz1_99 (Dec 5, 2004)

ShuHanGuanYu said:


> Raja Bell:
> 
> “He was making some shots. He is tough. I’ll never say that he isn’t tough. He made some shots and I thought I made him earn some of them. I tried to keep him off the line as much as I could, but that is why he is the leading scorer in the league.”
> 
> ...


Yeah, but if we wanna get picky and break things down, he didn't "do his job" in any way shape or form. And he didn't really help his team win the game. His team won the game because the rest of the Lakers couldn't make a shot.


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## Kneejoh (Dec 21, 2004)

madskillz1_99 said:


> Yeah, but if we wanna get picky and break things down, he didn't "do his job" in any way shape or form. And he didn't really help his team win the game. His team won the game because the rest of the Lakers couldn't make a shot.


 Exactly, Raja Bell had nothing to do with why the Suns won, we could have taken somebody off BBB.Net and would have probably done better against Kobe, the mere fact that he's trying to get credit for the Suns winning is pathetic, he didn't do anything to contribute to the win, in fact he was the reason the Lakers were in the game, because he couldn't handle Kobe.


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## HKF (Dec 10, 2002)

The thing about the Lakers vs. the Suns, is that the Lakers can't defend this team for 48 minutes. They still get no shot blocking out of the 5 spot and no defense out of the 1 spot. 

Even if the Lakers couldn't hit shots, the reason they lost is because the Suns seem to always shoot 50% or more against the Lakers.

The Kings can beat the Suns, because Bibby can (and will) outplay Nash and Artest can (and will) lock up Marion.


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## PauloCatarino (May 31, 2003)

HKF said:


> The thing about the Lakers vs. the Suns, is that the Lakers can't defend this team for 48 minutes. They still get no shot blocking out of the 5 spot and no defense out of the 1 spot.
> 
> Even if the Lakers couldn't hit shots, the reason they lost is because the Suns seem to always shoot 50% or more against the Lakers.
> 
> The Kings can beat the Suns, because Bibby can (and will) outplay Nash and Artest can (and will) lock up Marion.


True that.

The Lakers lost because they can't defend the Suns. Nothing gome, nothing less.


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## Silk D (Feb 6, 2006)

ShuHanGuanYu said:


> Raja Bell:
> 
> “He was making some shots. He is tough. I’ll never say that he isn’t tough. He made some shots and I thought I made him earn some of them. I tried to keep him off the line as much as I could, but that is why he is the leading scorer in the league.”
> 
> ...


See, I'm not mad at that. I actually don't find any of the comments disrespectful. I just think they make Raja Bell look like a *******. Mabye we're reading a little too much into "...it means that I did my job", but seriously, STFU. Kobe couldn't have had a more efficient scoring night; no matter what the gameplan was, no matter what the outcome of the game, YOU got owned.


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## King Sancho Fantastic (Jul 19, 2005)

The Sun didnt because of Raja Bell. They won in spite of him.


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## JT (Mar 1, 2004)

The game was lost when Kobe and Steve were on the bench, meaning that from 1-10 the Suns have more depth and talent. For Nash and Bell to try and pin this on Kobe means nothing, they have pride and nobody likes to be shown up to the tune of fifty on great shooting, but still they left with the win and to the victor goes the spoils.

Back to the game-Kobe being out there is the great equalizer, but once he went to the bench Barbosa and House pretty much had free reign over Smush/Sasha which lost them the game. I also thought Phil made a mistake not putting Kwame in at the start of it but really I forsee that during the playoffs posters here will be surprised at Phil's technique, since right now he is just testing out lineups.


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## Sir Patchwork (Jan 12, 2005)

ShuHanGuanYu said:


> Letting the star score and holding down the rest of the team is a defensive strategy that is used throughout the NBA. Noone can stop Kobe one-on-one. Marion couldn't touch him when he was guarding him either. There's a reason the guy averages 35, he's bound to go off anytime. Raja was right.


I'm fine with that, but when I read the comments, I don't get that vibe. Reading the comments you posted below your post does though. From the first comments however, they were saying "Kobe takes all the shots so nobody else gets to take shots" type thing. That's entirely different from "Kobe is going to get his production so we just try to stop other guys" type thing. The first comment is saying that Kobe is responsible for his teammates not scoring, which rubs off the wrong way without a doubt. The other is saying that the Suns are responsible for stopping the Lakers roleplayers. There is a clear difference, to me anyways.


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