Amar’e Stoudemire’s Poor Pick And Roll Defense
The Lakers ran a ton of pick and rolls in game 2 with Pau Gasol as the screen man for most of them. This allowed the Lakers to take advantage of Amar’e Stoudemire’s poor pick and roll defense since he was the Sun usually responsible for defending Pau Gasol.
Defending The Ball Handler
Now Stoudemire wasn’t asked to defend the ball handler coming off the pick and roll too much, but when he was, he didn’t do a very good job of it.
In the above video, Jason Richardson gets caught in the Pau Gasol screen, forcing Stoudemire to defend Ron Artest. When you are defending the ball-handler on the pick and roll, the ultimate goal is to prevent him from getting where he wants to go with a hard hedge. Stoudemire doesn’t hedge hard at all, allowing Ron Artest to basically walk to the elbow and knock down an easy jumper.
Even though Artest isn’t really a threat to attack the basket, Amar’e plays off of him and even as he is squaring up (shown in the screenshot above), Amar’e doesn’t get his hands up to try and effect the shot.
Defending The Roll Man
This is where Amar’e Stoudemire really struggled. One of Stoudemire’s biggest problems is that once he comes out and hedges and prevents the ball handler from getting to his spot, he thinks his job is over. He doesn’t bust his ass to get back to the roll man, but instead he causally tries to get back to him as if there is no way the roll man is a threat to get the basketball:
In both of instances shown above, the initial pick and roll defense is good. Amar’e Stoudemire hedges out, preventing the ball handler to get where he wants to go. Soudemire never finishes the job, and in both of the PNR situations, the Lakers are able to wait…and wait…until Gasol gets to the rim before they get in the pass. In fact in the first instance, the pass isn’t even made directly to Gasol, it goes from Kobe to Odom then to Gasol, and Stoudemire still isn’t even a factor in the play.
To me, it all comes down to being willing to work hard on defense. Ama’re Stoudemire has the physical tools to be a good defender because of his length and quickness, he just doesn’t use it. And while the two above plays were bad, the one I am about to show really displays Amar’e's laziness on the defensive end.
Amar’e Stoudemire shows way too early, as if to get a head start on his hedge. Kobe simply waits until Pau slips the screen and then hits him for the easy lay-up.
Looking at the screenshot, there is no reason whatsoever for Amar’e being that high on his show before Kobe even dribbles the basketball. He is basically inviting Pau Gasol to slip the screen here. Steve Nash is in pretty good help position, but eventually he has to leave the lane to avoid a defensive three seconds call. As soon as he does, Gasol slips the screen and gets the pass.
