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ONE ON ONE.(professional basketball's five best individual matchups)(Statistical Data Included)
A breakdown of the NBA's five best individual matchups
The next time Vince Carter or Kobe Bryant hits for 50 points, look beyond the box score and search for the reason why.
Basketball is a team game, but the NBA is about individual matchups--whichever team wins the most matchups wins the game. It's the matchups that aren't mismatches, the ones that are strength-vs.-strength, that are fun to watch.
We've picked five--one at each position--that we enjoy watching the most:
CENTER
Shaquille O'Neal, Lakers vs. David Robinson, Spurs
History: Things started to get interesting in O'Neal's second year, when Robinson's teammates helped The Admiral score 71 points against the Clippers on the last day of the 1993-94 season. Robinson passed O'Neal for the scoring title (29.8 ppg to 29.3 ppg), and O'Neal claimed Robinson put the scoring race before the good of his team. Shaq hasn't had much nice to say about Robinson since.