I have to admit, I was surprised when the Suns came out and played zone for the majority of Game 4. I was thinking that it was going to be a one game thing where the Suns used the zone to grab the momentum and get themselves back in the series. However, it didn’t work that way. Coming out of halftime, the Lakers made a really nice adjustment on offense to counter the Suns’ zone. It was up to the Suns to counter that in the fourth, and coach Alvin Gentry stepped up and did.
Third Quarter
In the third quarter, the Lakers would bring the ball up and enter it to the wing opposite of where Kobe Bryant is set up. The purpose of this was to get the Suns’ basic zone to shift towards the ball and away from Kobe Bryant.
In the first quarter of Game 3, the Lakers torched the Suns defense once again. The Lakers scored 32 points in that quarter, and it ended up being the 9th straight quarter that the Lakers scored 25+ points. The Suns needed to do something extreme to get themselves back in the game, and they did exactly that by playing zone the rest of the game. In the second quarter, it was very effective. In the third, it seemed that the Lakers figured it out, but in the 4th it went back to being effective, and this is how the Suns ended up with the win.
Second Quarter
Point Total – 15
Why It Worked - It caught the Lakers off guard. The Suns sprinkled in some zone in Games 1 & 2, but they didn’t run it an extended period time like they did in the second quarter of Game 3. I don’t think that the Lakers were prepared for it, and they didn’t really know how to attack it (or where to attack it from).
The first thing that you notice in the above video (the Lakers’ second possession against the zone) is how unsure the Lakers are on offense. It is pass, catch, wait, then pass again. You attack a zone by quickly zipping the ball around the perimeter. This forces the defense to rotate with the basketball, thus opening passing lanes to the inside. When you pass it slowly, you allow the zone to shift and get set with each pass, and that is how the Suns are able to challenge Odom’s shot here.
There has been much talk about the Boston Celtics’ defense during the Eastern Conference Finals, and rightfully so. The Magic have been out of funk the entire series, but game 3 was special. How special? The Magic scored only 71 points on 91 possessions, while turning it over nearly 20% of those possessions (all numbers from Synergy Sports). In the following video, I take a look at a few keys to Boston’s defense:
The Lakers ran a ton of pick and rolls in game 2 with Pau Gasol as the screen man for most of them. This allowed the Lakers to take advantage of Amar’e Stoudemire’s poor pick and roll defense since he was the Sun usually responsible for defending Pau Gasol.
Defending The Ball Handler
Now Stoudemire wasn’t asked to defend the ball handler coming off the pick and roll too much, but when he was, he didn’t do a very good job of it.
In the above video, Jason Richardson gets caught in the Pau Gasol screen, forcing Stoudemire to defend Ron Artest. When you are defending the ball-handler on the pick and roll, the ultimate goal is to prevent him from getting where he wants to go with a hard hedge. Stoudemire doesn’t hedge hard at all, allowing Ron Artest to basically walk to the elbow and knock down an easy jumper.
With about a minute and a half left, the Celtics were down 4 points and looking to get a very important stop. They tried to do so by putting on some full court pressure to disrupt the Bulls rhythm. Also, they wanted to take the ball out of Rose’s hands, and they did so by sending a double team. The double team almost worked, but some poor communication at the back end of the rotations allowed Chicago to get a wide open three:
Derrick Rose crosses half court, with Nate Robinson right on his hip. However, Robinson doesn’t do too much to bother Rose.
The Bulls like to run a pick and roll where they have Derrick Rose coming off of a screen set by Joakim Noah. It is really tough to defend because you need to focus a lot of attention on Rose, because if you don’t he will fly right by you. There is a problem with that strategy though, and it was on display during the Bulls-Cavs game last night:
As Noah comes over to set the screen, the Cavs quickly hedge it. Zydrunas Ilgauskas comes out early and really high in an attempt to cut off Rose’s path around the screen. As a result, Mo Williams goes under the screen, waiting to see which way Rose goes to pick him up.
Not only did the Nets avoid infamy last night, but they might have also provided the rest of the Western Conference with a blueprint on how to stop Tim Duncan. Duncan really struggled last night, scoring only 13 points on 15 shots in 31 minutes and in my opinion it was because of how the Nets defended him. With Ginobili and Parker out, the Nets were determined to let the rest of the Spurs roster beat them, and they brought a double team just about every time Tim Duncan touched the basketball.
Step 1: Bringing The Double
When you double team a post player, there you have three options when sending the double. You can either go on the catch, on the first dribble, or on the first attack dribble. The Nets decided to bring the double team right on the catch against the Spurs (their strategy most of the season has been to come on the first attack dribble), refusing to allow Tim Duncan to even dribble without two defenders on him:
After Matt Bonner makes the entry pass, he is going to go to the high post to set a screen for George Hill (or at least I think that is the play design here). The double team will be coming from Yi, the man defending Bonner.
When the Bucks and the Grizzlies went into overtime, it was apparent that one player needed to step up if they wanted to get their team a win. That player ended up being Andrew Bogut, and it didn’t come from scoring the basketball.
With the Bucks up by 1, the Grizzlies set up and ran a very nice play. Mike Conley brought the basketball down and came off of a Marc Gasol screen. As this was happening Rudy Gay, who started in the corner, comes back to the middle of the floor to receive a dribble hand-off from Conley.
Late in a tied game against the Toronto Raptors, the Miami Heat needed a stop and they got one. It wasn’t because of an individual defensive effort though. On this particular play, good team defense and proper rotation is what got them the stop (and eventually the win).
After bringing up the ball the length of the court, Jose Calderon swings it to Jarrett Jack on the wing. After making the pass, Calderon cuts through the lane coming off of a soft backscreen set by Chris Bosh.
Kevin Durant scored 45 points against the Spurs last night, so when the Thunder needed a basket to send the game into overtime/take the lead (after a fantastic Serge Ibaka block), it was obvious where the Thunder were going. The playcall (and the execution) weren’t the greatest, but the real reason Durant didn’t get off a shot attempt was because of how the Spurs played defense, getting the ball out of his hands and forcing a teammate to take the shot.
As Thabo Sefolosha receives the basketball to inbounds it, Jeff Green is going to set a screen for Russell Westbrook while Serge Ibaka is going to set a screen for Kevin Durant. This is the one critique I have of the Thunder’s play. Ibaka is standing behind Durant, and they way the play is drawn up Ibaka has to run around in a circle to set the screen.
One big factor in Pacer demise against a 3-man Heat team? Tyler Hansbrough. Three terrible first half shots & two huge second half travels 15 hours ago
James and Battier came over to remind Wade that Battier wide open from the corner is a better option than Anthony finish at the rim. 15 hours ago
