I’ve linked to Kevin Ding’s article about the Lakers’ pick and roll defense quite a few times here, and I am doing it again.  Their strategy comes down to funneling all of the action to their bigs (particularly Andrew Bynum).  It was very effective all season as they only gave up 0.775 points per possession to pick and roll ball handlers (sixth in the NBA).  However, the one flaw is that it frees up the midrange.  Quoting Ding’s article:

The concession is the Lakers will let opponents take mid-range jumpers from 15 to 19 feet. The Lakers can stay out on 3-point shooters better and keep point guards from getting all the way to the basket. When Tony Parker got hot early for San Antonio on Sunday, the Lakers moved up their plug just enough to deter him.

Person said “the only true mid-range shooters left in the game” are Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce anyway. New York’s Carmelo Anthony jumps to mind, but he gets a lot of his work done with physicality and isn’t necessarily a pure shooter. In any case, let’s all watch closely how Atlanta’s Joe Johnson, Miami’s Dwyane Wade and LeBron James and Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki do with the mid-range jumpers they get the rest of this Lakers trip.

As I mentioned in my series preview (where I predicted a 30+ point game and a win for the Hornets in the first two – ok I’m done bragging now), this is what Paul does best off of the pick and roll.  Yesterday was no different as Paul forced the Lakers to abandon their pick and roll defense early going from their original strategy, to hedging hard, to finally being forced into switching.  None of these defenses worked as the Hornets scored 29 points on 20 possessions with Paul as the ball handler in the pick and roll, good for a PPP 1.45.  That’s almost double what the Lakers give up normally.

Funnel To Bigs:

Here, Paul comes off of the ball screen and attacks the rim.  You can see that the Lakers are funneling him to the middle, preventing any kick pass to his teammates.  The problem is that Paul is so quick that Bynum is unable to step up to Paul in time, allowing him to get the runner at the rim.

Here is that midrange jumper the Lakers were willing to give up.  You can see the defense on the perimeter is worried about defending the Hornets on the outside with Bynum in the paint ready to protect the rim.  Paul is able to pull up and knock the jumper down.

Hedging:

Right after that Paul jumper, there was a noticeable change in the Lakers’ defensive strategy.  Instead of funneling the basketball to the middle when Paul comes off of the screen, they were hedging him, trying to keep him from getting in the lane so quickly.

Here, you see Paul coming off of the ballscreen and Pau Gasol trying to cut him off.  Paul is so quick that he is able to get around Gasol easily and get into the paint.  Because the gameplan isn’t to funnel the basketball into the paint anymore, the defense is forced to collapse on Paul, which allows him to kick the basketball out to the corner for the three.  What’s interesting is this is what the Lakers’ original pick and roll defense was designed to stop.  Again, quoting Ding:

Jackson noted how Miami was trying Sunday to have its big men come all the way out to show on pick-and-rolls by Chicago’s Derrick Rose — to no avail in stopping the ball. Rose could not be checked and thus was easily able to create offense for the Bulls — something that often happened to the Lakers with Bynum and Pau Gasol: “Now when that guard gets around that screen, you’ve got 5-on-3,” Jackson said.

“As a consequence, we’re starting to try and funnel them in to a place where we have Andrew in position,” Jackson said. “He’s a plug. He’s in there stopping penetration.”

The concession is the Lakers will let opponents take mid-range jumpers from 15 to 19 feet. The Lakers can stay out on 3-point shooters better and keep point guards from getting all the way to the basket. When Tony Parker got hot early for San Antonio on Sunday, the Lakers moved up their plug just enough to deter him.

With Paul forcing the Lakers into a different pick and roll defense, he was able to open up that corner three for the Hornets.

Again you have Paul coming off of a screen and Gasol trying to hedge on him.  Paul is able to get by him so quickly that Gasol isn’t really sure what to do so he traps Paul.  What’s interesting is this wasn’t really a designed trap, because if it was, the defense would be rotating on the backend.  They don’t here, and Paul is able to hit Ariza flashing to the rim.

The problem with hedging a guy like Chris Paul is that he is so quick that he is able to get around the hedge so easily that it’s like the hedge man (in this case Gasol) isn’t even there.  So as a defense, you are basically wasting a defender and now forcing the rest of the defense to rotate over.

That’s what happens here.  Gasol is unable to impede Paul’s progress and Paul is able to attack the rim easily.  This forces Lamar Odom to step up and protect the rim, leaving his man (Carl Landry) wide open.  Landry gets the pass under the rim and Kobe Bryant is forced to foul him as he was a bit late rotating over.

Switching:

Now, I don’t know if this was a coaching decision, a decision Gasol made on his own after getting beat on the hedge so many times, or just something Gasol was forced into doing, but the Lakers (Gasol in particular) starting switching Chris Paul ballscreens.  As you can imagine, it did not go well:

Here, you see Paul come off of the ball screen and instead of hedging out Gasol straight switches.  Because he is defending the quick Chris Paul, he is forced to play off of him a bit, and Paul knocks down the jumper.

Finally here, you have Chris Paul using the screen and Gasol switching again.  Paul smartly pulls the ball out, gets the ball back, and then takes advantage of the mismatch at the top of the key.

The Lakers are a smart team, and I know they will attempt to make some adjustments but if Paul is making that midrange jump shot, I don’t know what the Lakers can really do to stop this pick and roll.  This isn’t to say that I think the Hornets will win the series or anything, mainly because I don’t expect to see the Hornets’ bench guys playing as well as they did yesterday.