Miami’s Pick And Roll Defense Against Steve Nash
Against the Phoenix Suns, the Miami Heat were concerned with the Suns’ pick and roll, and rightfully so, and this is because Steve Nash is one of the most dangerous point guards when coming off of a screen. To defend this, the Heat decided to employ a different defensive strategy when defending the Suns’ pick and roll.
Instead of switching or using a quick show (or hedge), the Heat decided to show hard and basically double team Nash, with a man rotating to the roll man, until he gives up the basketball. Once Nash gives up the basketball, then everybody rotates back to their man. Here is what it looks like:
As Nash comes off of a Robin Lopez screen, Big Z shows really hard. Lopez is going to roll to the basket, and because Big Z is showing on the screen, the help man rotates over to the paint to prevent Lopez from getting an easy look.
Because Nash is doubled here, he can’t really get a ton of zip behind the pass, so the pass to Hill is sort of a lob one.
This allows the defender to recover and keep Hill from getting a clean catch and shoot look. As this happens, Big Z rotates back to his man to prevent Lopez from getting an open look in the post.
Hill is forced to take a tough contested jumper that he misses, and then the Heat grab the rebound. Here is the play in real time:
This is a terrific strategy to use against a player like Steve Nash. It keeps him from getting to the lane, and because the man usually showing is a big, it means that Nash isn’t going to be able to get a good view of the court and who is open. More often than not, Nash is going to have to make that pass away from the basket rather than hitting the roll man, and that is a win for the defense.
I think what really makes this strategy unique is the extended show. It basically is a double team or trap on Steve Nash. Most teams don’t want to double Nash because it allows him to find the open man, so they have their bigs quickly show or hedge and then try to get back to their men. This is where Nash usually picks apart the defense. The Heat decided keep their bigs on Nash until he gave up the basketball, thinking they could either deflect the ball or force a turnover. Once the pass gets made, the bigs just return to their men.
Here, Joel Anthony’s man sets a screen for Nash, so he shows hard, and as this happens, Mike Miller comes over the screen and gets back on Nash. Normally, Anthony would try to return back to his man, but he stays with Nash and he and Miller double team him. Anthony’s length forces Nash into a lob pass (rather than a zip one) to the corner, allowing Jones enough time to challenge the shooter.
Here again, you see the trap from Anthony. This time, Anthony is able to get his hands on the basketball and force the turnover from Nash.
The one thing about playing a defense like this is that the rotations need to be crisp. If they aren’t you can run into problems.
In the above clip, it is basically the same play that resulted in a tough jumper from Hill. However, James Jones gets tripped up as he rotates back to his man, and this results in a three pointer from Jared Dudley.
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This was a great change of strategy by coach Spoelstra and the Heat. They know that the threat of the quick roll (Amar’e) isn’t there anymore, and that Nash creates on the PNR by penetrating after the screen. By having the big man show and stay until a pass is made, they don’t let Nash penetrate and create havoc.
The other interesting thing is that this wouldn’t really work with a pick and pop (too hard to rotate to shooter/pass on the pick and pop is easier to make for Nash), but with Channing Frye struggling, there is no other real pick and pop threat on the Suns. I expect to see some teams with mobile bigs try to duplicate what the Heat did last night, but you can also expect the Suns to be better prepared for it.
Moving forward, it would be interesting to see if the Heat use this strategy against a team like the Celtics. It might be a bit harder (the Celtics have a lot more scoring options in the half-court than the Suns do), but this is something that might be effective against the Celtics.
