The Defensive Adjustment That Won Macedonia The Game
Before Lithuania and Macedonia tipped off, I looked at Macedonia and noted how if they continued to play the pick and roll like they did over the course of their previous EuroBasket games they were going to be in for a long night. This is because Lithuania lives and dies with their pick and roll, running it at an insane rate, and using it to create space for their below average ball handlers. When they had success, they win games. When they failed at the pick and roll, they lost games. The way Macedonia played the pick and roll in the past, it seemed like a perfect match for Lithuania. It seemed like Macedonia was so concerned with the roll man getting the basketball, the big defending the pick and roll would either stay with the roll man or hedge very softly. This gives the ball handler space, exactly what Lithuania wanted:
Not only did that space allow ball handlers to pull up for open jumpers, but it also defeated their original purpose, which was to keep the roll man from getting the basketball. This is why their PNR defense, especially when it came to defending the ball handler coming off of screens, was so ineffective in previous games.
So what happened during the game? As expected, Lithuania ran their pick and roll over and over, 35 out of 70 halfcourt possessions, a whopping 50% of the time. Lithuania scored just 30 points on those 35 possessions, committing 7 turnovers in the process. This is because there was a massive change when it came to Macedonia and their defensive strategy, deciding to hedge hard and trap the ball handler instead of playing passive. To put things in perspective out of the 162 pick and rolls that Macedonia defended before, they trapped/hedged hard just 29 times, or 17.9% of the time. Against Lithuania, they trapped/hedged hard on 25 of 35 pick and roll possessions, or 71.4% of the time. That is a gigantic shift in strategy. The result? Turnovers and contested shots due to the defense taking away space (even shots that are made are taken over defenders instead of being wide open):
There are two keys to this type of pick and roll defense. The first is a strong hedge/trap on the ball handler, pressuring the ball handler and forcing him to either pick up the ball much earlier than he wants to or force him to make a rushed decision. The second is the rotation on the back end to the roll man. If you are committing two defenders to the ball handler, a third defender has to rotate over and defend the man rolling to the rim, making it a more difficult shot. As you can see in the clips above, Macedonia was able to do achieve success both when it comes to pressuring the ball handler and rotating to the roll man.
Because Macedonia was committing three defenders to two offensive players in the pick and roll, they had to leave someone open. Macedonia decided to leave the opposite big spotting up on the outside open. Here is how the rotations worked:
As the ball handler comes off of the screen, the man defending the screener jumps out to trap the ball handler as his defender comes over top the screen to complete the hard hedge/trap.
With both defenders committed to defending the ball handler, the Macedonia’s second big (who was usually covering a big spotting up on the weak-side wing) drops to the middle to defend the roll man. This leaves the big on the wing wide open.
The defender who was originally defending the roll man tries to get back to the wing to contest the shot, but if he doesn’t get there, that is ok with Macedonia as they would rather take away the roll man finishing at the rim and give up the outside jumper taken by a big. Here is a few more looks at this rotation:
What I like about these rotations is that Macedonia knew they had to do something different to get stops. They decided to leave Darius Songaila and Paulius Jankunas open to trap the ballhandler. It was definitely a risk, but it is a risk that needed to be taken. If Songaila and Jankunas start hitting jumpers, then you adjust, but force them to make them first. For Macedonia, the risk paid off as the pair combined to shoot 7 for 21 for 16 points (6/15 – 12 points for Songaila and 1/6 – 4 points for Jankunas).
This game was a display of terrific scouting and coaching from Macedonia’s staff. They saw that the way the usually defend pick and rolls created a favorable match-up and situation for Lithuania, they found a way that they thought they could stop Lithuania’s pick and roll, and implemented it. The Macedonian players deserve credit as well. With just one day off, Macedonia completely revamped their defense and the players were able to execute to near perfection. This was the biggest win in Macedonian basketball and it was due in large part to one key defensive adjustment.
