BBL Week 1 Round-Up: Lions’ Defense, Phoenix’s Offense & White’s Career Night
The first week of the British Basketball League is finished. This was the first time that I’ve actually watched British basketball properly and there’s been both positives and negatives.
It is so much different compared to the NBA or even FIBA basketball in the World Cup that I wasn’t sure what to expect from these games.
Obviously, there aren’t any talents like Stephen Curry, LeBron James, or Nikola Jokic in the league. The games aren’t going to be high-scoring either — eight of the 10 teams have an offensive rating below 110. Even their efficiency and shooting are nowhere at an elite level.
For the most part, I don’t think this is just because they play a completely different style or that defense is emphasized but more because of a talent issue. I think that’s been one of the reasons why the enjoyment level isn’t as high. Although offense isn’t the end-all, it’s still important to actually enjoy watching the game.
The games don’t have to be high-scoring or have guys go off for 30 or 40 each game but this didn’t seem to me like it’s bad offense because of good defense. It was just bad offense.
And I guess because of that, teams are winning by 17, 24, 22, and 18. Only one game was won by single digits. Blowouts aren’t that enjoyable to watch but maybe this is just your first week, small sample size weirdness.
Don’t get me wrong, this was still a fun weekend watching hoops. It’s still fun watching one team dominate on both ends — the defense is something that I enjoyed more from the teams that won — especially when you’re not a fan of a particular team. The top teams, such as the London Lions were fun to watch but at the moment that’s what it feels like. It’s either watching the top teams or it may not be good watching.
I guess this is just a big change going from a league like the NBA to watching this and it just takes some getting used to. But those are just my initial thoughts on the on-court product through the first week of the season.
And with that said, welcome to the weekly round-up (the official name pending). Each week, I’ll be going through some of the things that stood out to me the most — whether that’s specific plays, a player having an insane game, or seeing how a team dominated. The point here is to go through film and see exactly how they did it and why it worked.
The Recap
To kick off the BBL, saw the Newcastle Eagles and Sheffield Sharks go at it in a close game right until the fourth quarter when the Sharks ran out of gas and the Eagles comfortably won 79–72.
Both teams kind of struggled to create good looks on offense but it was the Eagles that set the tone early on defense and that helped them a lot on the other end too. It was the Eagles’ defense that allowed them to force turnovers and get out in transition to get easy points. It was also their defense that forced the Sharks into attempting so many shots late in the clock that were just bad looks.
On offense, Ricky McGill and Jordan Johnson impressed me the most with their rim pressure and the constant ability to get downhill and earn some free throws — the Eagles took 39 free throws! That’s seven less than how many shots they took.
The Bristol Flyers and Plymouth City Patriots was the Brad Greene game. There was nothing that the Patriots could do to stop him(more on that later). And when you combine that the Flyers had 13 more true shooting attempts(field goals + free throws * 0.44) off of 16 offensive rebounds and the fact that the Patriots had 26 turnovers, this was going to be an easy win.
The Leicester Riders and Cheshire Phoenix was a game. This was a shoot-out. Riders shot 58% from 2 and 47% from 3 while Phoenix shot 51% and 46%. It was surprising to see the Riders be in the game for so long.
But with Skyler White giving you 22 points with 7 3s, Aaryn Rai dropping a near triple-double with 23/7/7, and another 22-point game from Maceo Jack it was hard to overcome such firepower.
The Riders committing 20 turnovers and giving up 21 offensive rebounds didn’t help at all. And that was the reason why Phoenix had 91 TSA to Riders 63. That’s too much of a disadvantage.
If you enjoy some defense, that was the Surrey Scorchers and London Lions game. The Lions held the Scorchers to 37% from 2 and 19% from 3. That’s even worse when considering they took 36 3s to 35 2s. That was one hell of a defensive game from the Lions. It didn’t matter that Surrey had more chances to score when they just couldn’t convert.
Finally, we have the Manchester Giants and the Caledonia Gladiators. A very close game until it wasn’t. The Giants played some great defense to start the game but once the Gladiators found their groove in the second half, they started to run away with it. And a big reason wasn’t their offense but it was holding the Giants to 34% from 2! But on offense, they had Patrick Whelan being the leading scorer with 23 points.
Phoenix’s Offense
Phoenix had a 137 offensive rating! That is absurd. That’s insane for teams in the NBA — though that would still only be the 50th-highest game. And the reason for that is the shooting 21-for-41 from 2, 18-for-39 from 3, and 14-for-25 from free throw, whilst also being safe with the ball, only committing 10 turnovers.
They had three players score 20 or more and had two guys in double digits off the bench. This was just an all-around effort.
https://twitter.com/JohnJablonka_/status/1703801456187375763
A lot of the ways Phoenix got their 3s is through drive-and-kick. You can see in the first clip, It’s a simple pick-and-roll, he drives right down the middle, that forces help from the corner and it’s an easy kick.
What do all those possessions have in common? It’s that rim pressure and the ability to get those paint touches. Look at where the defense is on all of those drives. They’re all in the paint. Because it was easy for them to get by defenders up top, they were just living in the paint and that forced the defenders to help off shooters.
I also liked this action. A simple double drag. This was very common for them. It had the first screener roll with the second screener popping out. You can see that it gives them many options to go to. The ball handler himself has multiple options but even once he makes the pass, the receiver has options too. If they’re open on the pop, they’ll take that three. Or if the defense is scared they’ll shoot, they can beat that closeout. The Riders had no idea what to do with it.
Skyler White Career Game
White was huge in this game. Almost 40% of their makes came from him. There were some actions for him that I liked, but for the most part, it was just him taking and making tough 3s:
The most common action for him was a pick-and-pop. That was the easiest look he was going to get. I’ve noticed that he is so smart with knowing when to fake when the defense is biting and taking that dribble to get a better look. I liked the second clip where he faked as if he was the one screening but instead, it was him receiving a screen for the pop. But for the most part, it was just him drilling a 3 in the defender’s faces
Defensive Highlights
I have to highlight some defense and that mostly came from the Lions.
This was an A+ effort on defense from everyone. This is a minute highlight with just defense. They helped everywhere from the perimeter to prevent drives. They didn’t allow dribble penetration. They collapsed in the paint. Their switching defense was elite which stalled the offense.
And because of that, the Scorchers had no way of generating easy looks inside so they settled for 3s. They bombed away from there but had no luck because they were bad 3s to take.
This was an elite defense from everyone on the Lions.
And that is all for the first week of British basketball. I hope you’ve enjoyed this first weekly round-up!
