LeBron James has very few weaknesses to his game, and there are even fewer ways to truly shut him down as a result. LeBron has dominated multiple generations of NBA talent, with only a handful that can truly say they slowed his production. However, Skip Bayless pointed out one player he believes did an excellent job defending a young LeBron.
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While hosting Paul Pierce on his show, Bayless said that he was impressed by how well the Boston Celtics legend was able to contain the uber-athletic superstar in his mid-20s.
The longtime sports talk host even went as far as to call Pierce the toughest individual defensive matchup LeBron has ever had to face. Pierce was never touted as a bad defender, but he was never nominated to an All-Defense team in his career, so this high praise comes as a bit of a surprise.
When Bayless asked Pierce what his secret was for containing LeBron during his first tenure in Cleveland, the 47-year-old shared his strategy. “The thing with LeBron, you have to take away his straight-line angles,” Pierce stated. “And he wasn’t really a great shooter coming in. So you had to negotiate the ball screens, you had to negotiate whether you’d go under or over. I always went under on him.”
While young LeBron’s lack of a reliable jumper made it somewhat easier to predict his next move, Pierce explained that wasn’t all it took to keep James from taking over. “You gotta put your hands on him. You gotta be kind of a little more physical with him. Knock him off his spots.”
Unfortunately for the Celtics and the rest of the NBA, this strategy would not work today as James just made nearly 38% of his threes this year, solidly above league average.
Pierce shared that his priority was to make LeBron work whenever he matched up with him. James’ early-career shooting inconsistencies and free-throw troubles made Pierce’s defensive decision-making easy. He’d go under screens every time and foul LeBron if there wasn’t a way to get a stop. This led to some scrappy contests between the two.
LeBron James and Paul Pierce faced off in several postseason matchups
When it comes to individual player rivalries, few are at the level that LeBron and Pierce were during their primes. The two matched up 71 times throughout their shared time in the league, including 20 playoff games. LeBron just barely outpaced Pierce in the victory column, winning 36 of their matchups.
Pierce got the better of LeBron early in his career as he helped send the Cavs home in the 2008 Eastern Conference Semifinals en route to his first championship. Pierce’s Celtics once again knocked out James’ Cavs in the 2010 ECSF, but once James joined the Miami Heat, his fortunes against Boston quickly turned for the better.
Alongside Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, a prime LeBron was able to send home an aging Celtics core in both the 2011 and 2012 playoffs. The Heat, of course, would make the NBA Finals both years, losing their first appearance and winning the second.
Both LeBron and Pierce had their opportunities to shine over the other. Age eventually slowed down the 10-time All-Star, but few handled their battles with James better than Paul Pierce.
