elbows to the face

[Raymond]

Been going back-n-forth with couple Laker fans in email today. One of them is a D2 official.

I didn't see the game last night but I heartell that Kobe's elbow made another landing last night (4 stitches to Barbosa's chin). The Laker fans excused the elbow saying the defender was crowding Kobe therefore responsible for the contact.

My question: Is there some sort of space requirement for legal guarding position? If defender is playing extremely tight defense but still maintaining LGP is there some sort of allowance for an offensive player's natural movement to allow contact with the defender.

There was a play in the NIT final where the defender was elbowed in the face and a couple forum members said "too bad" b/c he shouldn't have had his face there. In the play from the NIT final the defender was standing straight up, he wasn't leaning in face first.