Dallas’ Zone And How Oklahoma City Will Attack It
In each of the previews that I have done for a Dallas Mavericks’ series, I looked at the Mavericks’ zone and how their opposition might attack it. Despite playing only half as much zone as they did in the regular season (10.5% of all possessions vs. 5.2% of all possessions – 45 total – in the playoffs), I am going to be looking at the Mavericks’ zone yet again.
The reason why I am doing so is because I think the zone will be vital this series. The reason is because in the three matchups against the Thunder, the Mavericks ran a lot of zone, and had a lot of success with it. Out of the 268 total halfcourt possessions that the Thunder had, the Mavericks played zone 12.7% of the time, or 34 possessions in total (up from their season average of 10.5%, which was the most zone any team played by far). Out of those 34 possessions, the Thunder scored on just 10 of them, or just 29.4% of the time (compared to scoring on 45.7% of possessions vs. Dallas’ man to man defense. It is pretty obvious that the Mavericks are going to have to play zone, and that the Thunder’s success offensively in this series comes down to how they do against the zone.
When Oklahoma City attacked Dallas’ zone they had one set that they used, and in fact, it is pretty similar to Dallas’ zone offense with one major exception, player movement. Much like Dallas, Oklahoma City ran a 4 out 1 in style of zone offense, but instead of the type of movement like Dallas got, the Thunder players usually hang around the perimeter and stand there. The only player that seems to be working and moving is Serge Ibaka, the middle man, moving with the basketball and working to get open. When the Thunder let Ibaka work, their offense can hace success:
