[23bluesman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bumble14

Pared, I completely disasgree with you on post defense. Post defense is challenging, but if you actually hit the NBA Academy and practice it you will start to realize you have more weapons available to you other than just a body up and spin stop. The first thing you have to realize when playing in the post is take your finger off the defense assist button. This will cause you to be out of position 99% of the time when the offensive player makes his move. The second thing you have to learn to use is small movements on the left stick once you are engaged- stop jerking the stick in big motions back and forth-slow and steady will allow you to shadow your man and anticipate his moves. The third and MOST IMPORTANT skill you need to learn on post defense in this game is about "tapping" the Y or Triangle jump button. What people don't seem to get is that if you are in good position in the post, and anticipate an offensive move, not only can you man up on the offensive player, but you can actually perform several defensive swats by tapping the jump button once (very light tap). I have been able to slap the ball out of the defenders hands when they try to make a move, block the ball just enough without going for the full jump to negate the shot, and also initiate enough body contact to make the offensive player adjust their shot and fall down. If you "jam" on the jump button hard, or use turbo, your character will gather momentum to make a big jump. If you tap jump, depending on your body momentum and movement with the left stick, your player will make a less pronounced attempt to make a play on the ball. Defense in this game is not broken, and does not need work as many of you claim. I will repeat this as I did in my article, if you play this game defensively like 2K basketball, you will fail. Live 09 has an extremely deep defensive skill set that is easy to play once you learn the buttons, but difficult to master. People who attempt to use the 2K controller style to play this game are simply going to complain that the game is broken- much like I did the first couple hours with it. It is pretty difficult to adjust to the fact that you can not spam a button and automatically play good defense like in the 2K games- Live makes you work with your left stick and buttons if you want to be successful. If you really want to learn this game, put 2K down for a few days, erase what that game has taught you, and completely relearn how you play hoops defense.

Thanks, I'll try this out the next time I play. Interesting stuff to say the least. Hey, maybe you and KDRE can collaborate to do the defensive thread?