With seven minutes left in the third quarter, the Toronto Raptors found themselves trailing the Atlanta Hawks 70-64.  The Raptors decided to go to a zone to try and change things up.  The Hawks really seemed to struggle against Toronto’s zone, so much so that the Raptors decided to play their zone defense for the remainder of the game (except for a few possessions).  The Hawks scored just 21 points on 27 possessions against the Raptors’ zone shooting 6-21 (29%) including 3-13 (23%) from the three point line with 5 turnovers.  The Hawks were lucky to get that many points as 6 of the 21 points came on Jamal Crawford free throws where he was fouled on three pointers and another 3 came from a contested 35 footer as the shot clock expired.

The reason why the Hawks’ struggled against the zone is because it seemed that they reverted to their ISO tendencies once they saw the zone.  The ball really started to stick, and that is the worst possible thing that you can do against the zone.

After each pass in this possession, it seems like the Hawk catching the ball waits a few seconds before he decides what he wants to do.  Mike Bibby then throws a jumping skip pass, and Josh Smith is forced to take a contested three as the shot clock is expiring.  This was the first possession that the Hawks saw the zone, so I guess that can be used as an excuse.

However, in the next possession, the Hawks do the same thing.  The ball seems to stick to every Hawk that gets a touch.  The two biggest offenders here are Mike Bibby and Al Horford.  Bibby has a chance to swing it to the corner, but he holds the ball and lets the defense reset.  Horford’s mistake comes after he makes a catch in the middle of the zone.  This is exactly where you want to get the basketball against the zone, but the man who makes the catch in the middle needs to make a quick decision.  Horford does not, and again the defense is allowed to reset and challenge the Josh Smith shot.

In addition to quick ball movement and quick player movement, the offense needs to make quick decisions when playing against the zone.  The above clip is a perfect example why.  The Hawks actually get a good offensive set going, getting the ball in the middle and then swinging it out to the opposite side on the perimeter.  Jeff Teague has a wide open look, and he needs to take it.  Instead, Teague holds onto the basketball and starts to overdribble.  The result is a palming violation.

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The Atlanta Hawks did just about everything they could to look bad against the zone, making just about every mistake you can against it.  Despite that, they were able to eek out a win with a Mike Bibby three.  It was against man to man defense.