Numbers don't lie:
Andre Miller -
Grant Hill has owned Andre Miller ever since Game 2 of last year's Western Conference playoff series against the Trailblazers. It was Alvin Gentry that made the switch and assigned Hill to cover Miller after Miller torched the Suns for 31 points in a Game 1 victory. Miller quietly faded into the background as Hill's size and length kept him from penetrating as he had in Game 1, he struggled shooting the ball and couldn't find space against the then 37-year-old defender.
This year, the story is the same. In three meetings Grant held Miller to under his season average numbers for a few vital offensive statistics. I
n their first two matchups - Grant allowed Miller to only score 10 points in those contests, and limited his FGA's to well under his average mark all while forcing three turnovers from Miller as well in each game.
Derrick Rose -
The Suns have seen the Chicago Bulls and Derrick Rose only one time so far this year. It was a game where Derrick Rose put up 35 points while being guarded by Grant Hill, but he also played season high 50:19 minutes.
Despite having 35 points Rose was defended well by Hill as
it took him 33 shot attempts to hit that number. He was held to 14-33 (.424) shooting and was just 1-5 from three. Oh yeah ,Hill put in 27 points of his own on 12-20 shooting.
Kevin Durant -
Kevin Durant is the pinnacle and definition of ‘elite scoring' in the NBA and we've seen Grant hold his own twice now this season against him and he dropped 30 points and 11 rebounds on KD's head too.
That was in their first meeting on December 19, 2010 Kevin Durant logged 43 minutes and put in 28 points
but on an 8-19 (.421) shooting night where he nailed only 1-6 from three-point range. Playing man-to-man Grant was limiting Durant in his driving options and also did a terrific job denying Durant the ball early in the Thunder's offense all game long. But when the team switched from a man defense to a zone defense in the 4th quarter, Durant went off for 10 points.
Their second meeting on February 4 was yet another impressive defensive effort by Grant Hill.
In this game Durant was 8-16, he did not take as many shots as he usually does and it was because of Hill's ball denial and aggressiveness on defense.
We'll see Hill take on Durant two more times this year and trust me, when you start to look for Grant Hill's defense as you're watching, it's very easy to find.
Monta Ellis -
Monta Ellis is the League's third leading scorer at the moment and three times we've seen Monta play against the Suns this year. In the first meeting, the Suns played predominately a zone defense and Monta Ellis went off for 38 points picking apart the defense and driving to the basket at will. But in the next two meeting it was a very different story.
The second time around Grant was given the assignment to guard Ellis and was extremely effective.
Ellis jacked up 17 shots and only hit five, he still ended up scoring 21 points thanks to 13 trips to the line.
For the game Ellis shot a very poor 29% from the field and visibly struggled to isolate and drive on Grant. Was it just an off shooting night for Monta? Maybe, because in Ellis' very next game, a win against the Denver Nuggets he drained a whopping 16-30 (.533) for 37 points and looked unstoppable.
But then what would explain the fact that the Warriors game after that was again against the Phoenix Suns and again it was Grant Hill on Monta Ellis.
Ellis finished the game with just eight points on 4-13 (.308).
Blake Griffin:
When the Suns played the Clippers in December,
Griffin had just 9 pts in the 2nd half when Hill started guarding him as prior to the 1st half when Blake put up 19 pts. Not to mention Hill was overmatched with Griffin's size.
In the chart below we see details of Hill's key defensive match-ups this season. Only LeBron James got the better of Grant.
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http://arizona.sbnation.com/phoenix...rant-hill-elite-defender-of-nbas-best-players
