Did Dallas Show Us How To Stop Rajon Rondo?
On November 8th against the Mavericks, the Boston Celtics had what was probably their worst performance of the season in a 89-87 loss. This game was the Celtics’ worst shooting game (in terms of eFG%), worst performance when it came to getting to the line (7.7 FTR), worst shooting performance at the rim, and the least amount of three pointers attempted.
To me, all of these struggles were due in large part to the fact that the Mavericks did a very good job defending Rajon Rondo. Here is what they did:
I have been thinking about this post for a little while, but I waited because I wanted to see if any other teams duplicated what the Mavs did or cae up with a better strategy…neither happened
Sagged Off Rondo/Chased Shooters
We have seen teams really sagging off of Rajon Rondo a lot as of late, and while it makes sense for defenses to do so (because he doesn’t really have a shot), the problem with this is that it lets Rondo see the whole court. This is where the chasing shooters part comes in. Rondo is able to get accurate passes out on time to his shooters, so that puts pressure on the players covering Pierce and Allen. Dallas did a very good job of this:
In all of these cases, the Mavericks chased Boston’s shooters around screens and challenge shots hard. In fact, in the final clip, Allen isn’t even able to get a shot off. This was a theme during this game. Boston averages around 13.5 threes per game this year, they took 8 against Dallas.
Keeping Rondo Out Of The Paint
Rajon Rondo creates havoc when he gets into the paint, both with his passes and with his shots. Rondo averages right around 5 shots at the rim and 5 shots everywhere else on the court. The Mavericks really made an effort to keep Rondo out of the lane in the half court, and they were very effective in doing so. Rondo’s two makes at the rim came in transition, and in addition to his 4 shots at the rim, Rondo took 11 shots from elsewhere on the court (including 6 attempts from 16-23 feet). The Mavericks used a number of different strategies to keep Rondo out of the lane:
Switching Screens
The Mavericks did a whole lot of switching on screens with the goal being to keep Rondo out of the lane. It is interesting, most teams tend to go under screens rather than switch them because they don’t want to have to deal with mismatches. One of the reasons that the Mavericks were able to switch screens is that they have Jason Kidd as their starting point guard. Kidd isn’t the fastest guy, but he is big enough that when they switch there isn’t really a mismatch:
Here, Paul Pierce sets a screen for Rondo and Dallas switches it so that Rondo can’t get in the lane. Kidd is now covering Pierce and Pierce tries to put him on his back. However, Kidd is able to get his hands on the pass and create the turnover.
In this clip, Rajon Rondo gets a bunch of different screens and the Mavericks simply switch every single one of them. The result is Rondo is dribbling side to side rather than attacking, and he is forced to take a jumper with the shot clock running down.
This above clip is the final play of the game where Rondo is forced to take a three pointer. Here, Rondo first tries to attack, but because Dallas switches the screen, he can’t get into the lane. He is again forced to dribble side to side rather than attacking, and the result is a three pointer from Rajon Rondo that goes begging.
Team Effort
It is interesting, most teams play off of Rajon Rondo and they don’t really commit double teams or other defenders to him. Since the Maverick’s main focus was to keep Rondo out of the lane, they were willing to send multiple defenders at him to do so, and it worked out for the Mavs:
Here, Rondo gets the basketball on the wing and gets a screen for Kevin Garnett in an attempt to set up a pick and roll. What is interesting is that both defenders run at Rondo to try and keep him out of the lane. It’s a little unusual (since Garnett is allowed to roll uncovered to the basket), but it works because the pressure on Rondo forces a bad lob, and that leads to a miss from Garnett.
Here, Rondo tries to press the issue and attack the rim. As soon as he starts to attack though, Rondo is swarmed by Mavs’ defenders and it eventually leads to a Rondo turnover.
Here, Rondo is trying to attack in transition. As he does, the Mavericks meet him as a team forces him to dribble out of the lane and effectively stopping the fast break.
Forcing The Passback
Because of the Mavericks’ team effort when trying to keep Rondo out of the lane, they have to give up something else. What they were willing to give up was the pass back to the elbow/foul line area:
If the Mavericks have to give up anything, this pass makes the most sense for a number of reasons. First, it is a long pass backwards. It allows for the defense to closeout/recover effectively. It is also towards the middle of the court. Which means that if you don’t get a good close out, you have a lot of different help defenders who can come from anywhere.
The Mavs gave up that pass back when the Celtics would set a screen at the elbow for Rondo. The man defending the screener would hedge hard on Rondo, keeping him out of the lane. He would only return to his man until Rondo’s man was back in position to defend Rondo. The pass back to the elbow is open, but because it is a backwards pass, the defense is able to close out pretty effectively (as in the above clip).
Another reason why the Mavs wanted to force this pass back is because it increases chances to get steals (like in the clip above). This pass is a longer one (when compared to passes from the wing to the corner) that gets made back into the defense. This means there are opportunities to step in and get steals.
The only negative? It gives up a number of open shots for the initial screener (Kevin Garnett/Glen Davis more often than not). The Mavs were willing to live with this shot and it almost came back to hurt them (Garnett was 3-6/Davis was 3-5 | This was actually above average since both Big Baby & KG shoot 45% from this spot), but I think teams would be willing to live with this shot if it meant keeping Rajon Rondo out of the lane.
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It is crazy to think that a 15 assist game from Rajon Rondo is actually good defense, but taking a closer look, you realize that it was. The Mavericks forced Rondo into a lot of jumpers he didn’t want to take and a good chunk of his assists (I counted 5) came on these pass backs, which is what the Mavericks were willing to give up. The key for the Mavericks was to keep Rondo out of the lane and you can see how important it was to them. When Rondo gets into the lane, defenses really break down because he can make the pass or even finish at the rim. Keeping him out of the lane makes him less effective.
I think teams with bigger point guards (the Jazz for example) would benefit from using this blueprint. I wouldn’t be surprised to see teams mirroring Dallas’ defensive strategy.
