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Kobe Bryant leads his struggling Lakers into Madison Square Garden Thursday night to take on a Knicks team that is 8-0 at home and led by Carmelo Anthony, a guy playing like an MVP candidate.

As part of the hype machine for that game, Kobe sat down for an interview with ESPN (Stephen A. Smith to be exact) that the network played plenty on Wednesday. Among the things discussed in that interview was the hardest player for Bryant to guard in the NBA.

His answer was Anthony, reports the New York Post.

His answer was Anthony, reports the New York Post.

The Lakers star said Anthony, the Knicks’ MVP candidate, is the “most difficult” guy for him to guard in the league, even harder than LeBron James, he told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on Tuesday.

“For me?” Bryant said. “Yeah….”

“I’m [180 pounds] soaking wet,” said Bryant, who is Melo’s teammate on Team USA. “Going up against that bull, it’s fun, but it’s hard.”

That kind of matchup, Carmelo on Bryant, is why Anthony at the four is such a matchup nightmare — if Carmelo has Kobe on him he can take Bryant down into the post with Amare Stoudemire not there and back Kobe down, where ‘Melo has the size and strength advantage, then he can spin and take short fade-aways over either shoulder. If Stoudemire is in the post and Anthony is out on the wing trying to use his quickness on Kobe, then Kobe can hang with him and contest everything.

The Lakers likely go with Metta World Peace — a bull himself — on ‘Melo, but he is going to need help from Dwight Howard and others.

And if the Lakers defensive rotations look anything like they did in the first half of the Cleveland game, Anthony is not going to put up monster fourth quarter numbers because he’ll be sitting on the bench resting as the Knicks bench closes out a blowout win.