As expected, the Dallas Mavericks ran trotted out their zone defense against the Oklahoma City Thunder in game one of the Western Conference Finals, and though they didn’t run it as much as they did during the regular season (I personally counted six zone possessions), it was just as effective. The main reason why the zone was so effective in game one was the same reason why it was effective during the regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder settled for jumpers:
This is the first possession where the Mavericks threw the zone at the Thunder, and they just didn’t look prepared for it. You have guys standing around and pointing, trying to figure out what to do with the basketball. Eventually, after trying to penetrate, Durant is forced to kick it out to Westbrook on the wing. The defense drops off of him, and Westbrook settles for the jumper.
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:
The Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook pick and pop with Durant coming off of a screen away from the basketball is a play that the Oklahoma City Thunder ran against the Memphis Grizzlies in the past with mixed success. When they ran it against Tony Allen, the Thunder struggled to score:
The reason that the Grizzlies are able to stop the Thunder’s pick and pop here is because Allen has absolutely no interest in hedging on Russell Westbrook coming off of the screen. This allows him to stay attached to Durant’s body and prevent the pass from going to him.
However, when they ran it with Shane Battier covering him, they had some success due to Battier’s tendency to hedge on Westbrook coming off of the screen:
For whatever reason, Battier decides to hedge and this allows Durant to get off of his defender’s body and cut to the rim where he gets the pass and the dunk.
With 6.1 seconds left in the 2nd quarter, it looked like the Oklahoma City Thunder were going to go into the half with a 13 point lead and some momentum. However, with the Grizzlies taking the basketball out on the side, the Thunder were forced into a mistake, allowing the Grizzlies to get a three pointer at the buzzer that completely shifted the momentum in Memphis’ favor. That mistake? Poor communication between Thabo Sefolosha and Serge Ibaka:
As the ball goes to Battier, the trigger man, Sefolosha is playing off of him a little bit. This allows Battier to have a clear passing lane to Darrell Arthur who flashes to the wing, looking for the basketball.
After making the inbounds pass to Arthur, Battier quickly cuts off of him, getting the ball back from Arthur. This essentially sets up a screen situation with Arthur setting the screen after handing off the basketball.
Most of the Memphis Grizzlies’ offensive firepower comes from the block with Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol posting their men up. As an offense, once you establish that post threat, you can do some things working off of that post threat, using it as a decoy, and setting up other stuff. In the first quarter of game six against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Grizzlies gave us a perfect example of how to use a post threat to open up stuff for others:
As Mike Conley brings the basketball down the court, Marc Gasol sets a pindown screen for Shane Battier. Battier uses the screen and flashes to the pinch post, where he receives the basketball.
After setting the initial screen, Gasol continues to walk to the block where he sets another screen, this time for O.J. Mayo. Mayo comes off of the screen with his defender Thabo Sefolosha trailing him.
In game six against the Memphis Grizzlies, the fourth quarter was a real struggle for the Thunder as they only scored 15 points on 31% shooting. While there is going to be a camp that blames Russell Westbrook and a camp that blames Kevin Durant (in my opinion, they both played an equal role in the quarter), there was one Thunder player on the court that made things difficult for them to score and that player is Kendrick Perkins.
Coach Scott Brooks kept Perkins in the game for the final eight minutes in the fourth quarter, where he posted a +/- of -5 during that stretch (according to the fantastic PopcornMachine.net). While Perkins’ free throw shooting is poor, that isn’t even the reason why Perkins shouldn’t be in. Kendrick Perkins shouldn’t be in the during the fourth quarter of close games because of the fact that he isn’t a threat on the offensive end. This allows whoever is covering him (in this case Marc Gasol) to basically ignore him and play off of him. In this particular case, Gasol was able to shade towards Kevin Durant and keep the ball out of his hands. There were three specific plays that come to mind when looking at Perkins and how Marc Gasol is able to play off of him:
This play starts with Russell Westbrook bringing up the basketball along the sideline. As that happens, Durant gets a cross screen set for him by Nick Collison. Durant jab steps one direction and then comes back towards the screen, using it very well.
After an epic triple overtime game, the Oklahoma City Thunder ran away with game five, beating the Memphis Grizzlies by 27 points. Perhaps the biggest problem the Memphis Grizzlies had with the Thunder was transition defense, as they allowed the Thunder scored 25 points off of their 14 transition opportunities.
While some of the opportunities were simply the Thunder being a better team, a good chunk of the chances were due to poor transition defense from the Grizzlies:
Mistake 1: Everyone Stops The Basketball
This break opportunity starts with Russell Westbrook getting the basketball and pushing it up the floor. Westbrook’s speed creates a four on three fast break chance.
Whenever the Oklahoma City Thunder find themselves in a close game late, it seems like everyone watching the game (and talking about it on Twitter/TV) focuses on Russell Westbrook, and when the Thunder don’t have success and Kevin Durant isn’t touching the basketball, everyone seems to bash Westbrook for it. That is exactly what happened in game four, a game the Thunder eventually pulled out in triple overtime.
In the fourth quarter and in overtime, Kevin Durant didn’t get a shot off in about nine minutes or so, and despite Russell Westbrook being the point guard, this isn’t on him. It is on Kevin Durant, who seems to struggle more and more when it comes to moving off of the basketball late. We saw plenty of examples of this in game four.
Lack Of Movement
Something that should be extrememly concerning for Thunder fans is that Kevin Durant is starting to watch Russell Westbrook more and more. Instead of moving off of the basketball, Durant is getting flat-footed behind the three point line, even when his man turns his head/leaves him to help on the basketball:
Collapse might be the best word to describe what happened to Oklahoma City, who had a 11 point lead with 7:43 left in the 4th quarter, but ended up losing in overtime after scoring just 4 points in that time. With the ball in Russell Westbrook’s hands and with Durant not scoring, just about all of the blame has been heaped onto Westbrook. While he deserves a large chunk of the blame, there are others who deserve blame as well. Even though it may not be equal, Russell Westbrook, Scott Brooks, and Kevin Durant all deserve to be blamed for the Thunder’s loss yesterday.
Scott Brooks:
Scott Brooks playcalling should definitely be called into question here, because throughout the final minutes of the game, the Thunder were just standing around, running simple pindown screens for Kevin Durant, or running the same play over and over. Too often, the result was Russell Westbrook with the basketball as the shot clock was winding down, forcing him to attempt to make a play. I think the most egregious error made by Brooks came at the start of the collapse, coming off of the heels of a great play:
This is a fantastic play called by Brooks and executed well by Westbrook and Durant. Durant gets a screen from Nick Collison and comes off of it to set a screen for Westbrook. With Battier trailing, he is forced to try and hedge, and that frees up a lane for Durant to roll into.
After a timeout and a three by Memphis, the Thunder had the basketball looking to once again go up by double digits. Instead, they ran the same play and the result was a turnover:
Because there was a timeout right before this possession, running the same play isn’t a smart move by Brooks. This is because Memphis was in their huddle talking about how to stop this play (Durant’s man didn’t hedge and Westbrook’s man went under the screen). With their initial read now stifled, Westbrook and Durant are left to try and create on their own, and they end up turning the ball over.
One of the reasons why Zach Randolph was able to be so successful was because the defense (especially Serge Ibaka) was giving Randolph a little bit too much space. Ibaka was up on him and defending, but it seemed to me that he was more worried about the drive than Randolph’s face up jump shot. This allowed Randolph to face up, create enough space, and get his rainbow shot off with ease:
On post of these post ups from Game one, Serge Ibaka is in fact covering Randolph, but notice how easily Randolph is able to get his shot off. It’s simply turn, face, and then shoot. This is because of the space that Ibaka giving Randolph as soon as he makes the catch on the block.
