Teams in the NBA don’t run the zone defense as their primary defense, but a lot of teams like to run zone to switch things up.  For the most part it seems to work too.  I don’t know if it is because teams aren’t expecting it and they take too long to identify it, throwing their whole offense out of whack, or if teams just don’t know how to attack it.  Today we are going to look at a few ways you can properly attack the zone.

Shooting Over The Top

One of the reasons a team runs a zone defense is if they want to pack the middle to try and stop a post player.  The best way to counter this is to use your shooters to spread the court, then knocking down the shot when it becomes available.  I have had the pleasure displeasure of watching the Nets and teams like to run the zone to shut down Brook Lopez.  Since the Nets don’t have any outside shooting threats, they are able to pack the zone in:

Normal teams have shooters, and if a team is knocking down outside shots against the zone, teams are unable to pack the zone in like this, and they are quick to take the zone off.  Here is a clip of the Atlanta Hawks attacking the zone:

Look at that ball movement.  The Hawks make 5 passes, and the only time the ball hits the ground is on a bounce pass.  There is no dribbling, or anyone holding the basketball.  The ball just goes from one side of the court to the other along the perimeter until there is an open player that the zone can’t cover.

Attacking The Middle

If you think of a zone defense as a turtle’s shell, the lane is the underbelly.  If you can get the ball into the lane, you are on your way to beating the zone.  This is because the area is hard to rotate to.  If the guards drop down to play the pass made in the middle, the outside is open.  If the big men come up to challenge the player in the middle with the basketball, that leaves cutters open in the baseline.  Here, the Spurs swing the ball around, and when it gets to the wing, Ian Mahinmi flashes to the middle, you can watch the rest:

Mahinmi’s cut takes him right into the middle of the zone, splitting the distance between the guards and the big men.  Because he catches the ball in a spot where there aren’t any responsibilities to cover, he is able to make the catch and get to the rim for the dunk.

Crashing The Boards

Within the first couple of possessions of a team playing the zone defense, you will most certainly hear one of the announcers say “these guys are really going to have to buckle down and crash the boards now.”  You know what?  They are right.  Rebounding out of the zone is much harder than rebounding out of man-to-man.  This is because in a zone you are responsible for an area, not a particular man.  When a shot goes up, there isn’t really a man in every zone, so sometimes a player needs to go out of his zone to get the rebound.  When this doesn’t happen, the defense is susceptible to giving up offensive rebounds.  Also, because teams try to beat the zone by shooting over top of it (see above), this means there are more deep shots, and these shots come off the rim farther away from the basket.  This too leads to more offensive rebounds:

As you can see, the ball gets swung around and there is an outside shot taken.  There is a long-ish rebound that bounces over the Nets’ bigs and right into Al Horford’s  hands.  Sure, that is a lucky bounce, but if you look at it closer, you can see the problem of boxing out of the zone.  You have two guys boxing out Al Horford there because neither one of them is sure whose zone Al Horford is in.  If the Hawks sent a few more guys crashing the boards, they would have had a few guys free to get the rebound.

Also, off the offensive rebound, stuff is so unorganized, it leads to easy buckets.  In the video above, Horford gets the rebound and hits Jamal Crawford for a wide open lay-up.

Overall Theme

If you pay attention to all of the videos, you notice one thing in every single one.  Quick ball movement.  This is probably the biggest key against the zone.  When teams play zone defense, you can’t hold the ball or pound it into the floor.  This lets the zone get set and adjust to the passes as it’s made.  Let’s say the pass gets made from the top of the key to the wing.  If the guy on the wing holds the ball, he lets the defense adjust to the pass and get into position.  If you move the ball around quickly, you never let the defense get set, and they always seem to be chasing the pass.  Here is one final example.  Watch as the ball gets swung around, the defense is too late rotating over, and Brook Lopez gets the pass in the middle for the bucket.

The Cavs have only lost 11 times so far this year in 43 total games, but there is a trend that is starting to develop when you look at who the Cavs have lost to.  The Cavs really seem to struggle on the defensive when there is a shooter in the frontcourt.  It doesn’t really matter if it is the PF or the C who can shoot because Anderson Varejao ends up covering them either way.  The Cavs like to put Shaq/Big Z on the less active frontcourt player (for example they were matched up against Bosh when they played Toronto), with Varejao covering the outside shooting threat.  Let’s look at 4 examples:

• 10/28 Loss To Toronto – Andrea Bargnani – 23 points on 11-15 shooting.
• 12/20 Loss To Dallas – Tim Thomas – 22 points on 7-14 shooting (only one of which was in the paint).
• 1/14 Loss To Utah – Boozer/Okur – 32 points on 10-28 shooting
• 1/20 Win vs. Toronto – Andrea Bargnani – 19 points on 7-15 shooting.

So why are stretch the court/shooting big men so successful against Cleveland?  Because Varejao is so active on the defensive end, he tends to over-commit, leaving slight openings where shooters can take advantage.  Here is an example:

Here the Raptors are running a play where there point guard, Jose Calderon, has an two screens to run off of.  Calderon picks Chris Bosh to be his screener, and Big Z is hedging out.

Because Big Z is one of the slower big men in the NBA, Varejao slouches down to help out on Chris Bosh’s roll.

As Varejao slouches, Bargnani spots up at the three point line.  He has a good 15-20 foot cushion.

Bargnani makes the catch with Varejao closing out, but Bargnani is so tall Varejao’s hand doesn’t effect the shot, which is knocked down.  Check it out in real time: