Because James, who had not yet bulked up during this period, possessed extremely explosive charging speed, so once he got moving on the court, he could easily make a breakthrough into the paint to deal damage to the opponent's interior defense.
As a one-on-one perimeter defense specialist, Pietrus did not have many means to handle James's quick start.
After all...
Standing at an actual height of only 196 cm, he was at a natural disadvantage in this matchup.
Plus, this season, there were only Kobe, James, and Iverson averaging over "30+" points per game in the NBA.
Therefore, failing to stop James at this moment does not mean that Pietrus's defense is not good enough.
Because you can't expect a player with an annual salary of only 1.91 million US Dollars to shut down the opponent's star player every game.
In fact, effectively limiting James depends on the Warriors' interior rotation.
In the paint, Qin Yue and Brown almost instantly helped on defense.
