Jackson Jrs Offensive Growth, Hunting Brunson & Curry, Helping Off Westbrook

Here are some of the interesting actions, schemes, adjustment so far in the NBA playoffs

So, by the time I’m writing, all but two teams have played three games and one series is over. And so far, the playoffs have been pretty damn good. Though I find myself saying that each year and I think it’s simply because each year I watch way more games than previously.

There have only been 23 games and we already had some great games and performances. We’ve had four players go off for 40 — Devin Booker, Norman Powell, Anthony Edwards, and Jamal Murray.

All of the Sacramento Kings versus Golden State Warriors games were fun to watch. The Miami Heat beating the Milwaukee Bucks on the road was also fun to watch. Everything has been fun to watch.

So, let’s go over some other fun stuff in the games.

JJJ’s offensive growth

Jaren Jackson’s Jr growth on offense has been something. In two games, he has scored 49 points on 63.3% true shooting, including 57.7% on 2s. That’s one of the numbers that stand out the most.

Did you know that in last year’s playoffs, he shot 32-for-84 from inside the arc? That’s 38.1% from 2!

In the first game, they went to him in the post often:

And it worked. He was finishing over anyone. Getting around defenders, getting easier looks, and not settling for looks. He was aggressively looking to score.

Now, it was a bit of a drop-off going to the second game where he only scored 18. But there’s a reason for that. The Los Angeles Lakers adjusted to how they defended him by sending more help and doubles quicker:

Not only was he drawing a simple double team but there were 2 extra defenders pre-rotating to his side whenever he got the ball.

In the first clip, he’s going against D’Angelo Russell, then draws Anthony Davis digging from Luke Kennard and Troy Brown Jr coming over to his side to help from the back.

But the last play is the most important one. He tries to seal Rui Hachimura and has Dennis Schroder helping off Desmond Bane, which allows him to beat the closeout.

Having another guy that can both kill you on the inside against single coverage, even score once he draws the defense, and use that threat to force the defense to help early to create looks for others will make the Memphis Grizzlies even more dangerous.

JJJ’s defense

But as good as his offense has been, it’s still his defense that is on a different level. When I was watching the first game, Anthony Davis was the clear best defender in that game. That completely flipped in game 2.

He was a genuine monster on that end. He was everywhere at once, getting blocks in transitions, deterring shots in the paint, defending multiple actions and drives, and making rotations that were just wild in real-time:

In the first clip, Russell manages to reject the screen and have a clea — nope, nothing clean there with Jackson rotating just in time. Same thing in the third clip, Davis going out in transition thinking he’s going to get a bucket. Nope!

But it was this defensive play that was woah to me:

The Lakers had Davis in the strong corner, which I assume was to not have Jackson defending the rim. Instead, that job should have been on Tyus Jones being the low man.

When Austin Reaves, slipped the screen and was already at the elbow, it was Jones who needed to rotate at the rim — I guess Jackson had a different plan. I have no idea how he managed to get there so quickly and alter the shot when Reaves was so close already.

This defense is always going to be there. But if he can continue to develop and grow that offense, you combine that with this, and that’s one hell of a two-way player.

Garland PnR & Short Roll

One of the plans for the New York Knicks on defense was to force the bigs to make decisions on the short roll, whilst still sending early help inside.

On Darius Garland's pick-and-rolls, they showed and there always was a short roll available to him:

That is the right pass from Garland out of that PnR, but they can’t capitalize on it, even when the help is early inside the paint to make life harder for Evan Mobley.

You can see in the first clip, once he gets the ball on the roll, Jalen Brunson is already helping off Isaac Okoro from the strong corner(one of the reasons why he can’t be on the floor) and you have Mitchell Robinson coming up early. That should’ve been a lob to Jarrett Allen.

His finishing is also a struggle. He gets swallowed in the paint and hasn’t been able to finish through traffic. So, if he can’t score well or make the right reads quicker, it makes the Cleveland Cavaliers offense much harder to get.

Hunting Brunson in Shows

To make their offense easier, though, hunt Brunson in the PnRs. There was a lot of that in the first half that got the Cavaliers a big lead. And it all was rather the same thing over and over again.

The most important role here was Caris LeVert, who typically was the guy attacking that advantage. There were a few different ways he went about that.

The less effective way was when the ball stuck with him. There was an advantage made, he got the ball and had the defender recovering but didn’t attack him right away, nor did he shoot it right away. You can see that in the third clip or the last one.

But there are plenty of great plays where he does maintain the advantage to create better looks by attacking the closeouts and getting easier looks inside. In the first and fifth clips, he did exactly that.

Was surprised that they didn’t go to this often in the third quarter when it put the defense in rotation and got so many good looks.

Extra note after finishing game 3, I’ve noticed that in game three, they made an adjustment by simply having Brunson on Garland. Putting Brunson in PnRs as a screen navigator doesn’t have the same effect as making him show.

Blitzing Brunson

On the other end of the floor, they went ahead and blitzed Brunson, mainly to force others to make plays, which also worked to perfection

In the first two clips, they successfully blitzed him and got him to make the pass. Now, both possessions ended in a much better look for the Cavaliers — an Obi Toppin isolation and a Julius Randle isolation drawing two defenders for a turnover.

That’s a huge win for the defense.

The Knicks adjusted and had Randle flash higher quickly when Brunson got trapped, but that alone didn’t capitalize on the advantage. In both instances at the end, he a wide-open pass inside that he couldn’t make — maybe he didn’t recognize it quickly or simply didn’t feel like making that open pass.

That was a great adjustment from the Cavaliers to stop Brunson from handling the ball.

Helping off Russ

Let’s head over to Phoenix and see how Russell Westbrook is treated on defense. Westbrook’s lack of shooting and poor off-ball movement has been a conversation for a while. And that makes it a lot easier for defenses to help off of him.

Having a defender not care about him makes the Los Angeles Clippers' job more difficult than it already is at finding good offense. Take this play:

Kawhi Leonard beats the closeout and is trying to find his way into the paint, but oh wait, you have freaking Kevin Durant already waiting there because he’s defending Westbrook, who’s not a threat at all from that far on the perimeter.

There is no place for Leonard to go, so it ends up with a kick to Westbrook and the defenses will live with that.

This was also an interesting play, not only when it comes to Westbrook but for the Suns on defense in general:

Again, you have Durant not caring about Westbrook. He doesn’t even bother closing out. The interesting part comes when Bismack Biyombo switches. If the Suns can switch with their bigs and not get punished at all, that’s a big deal.

Westbrook tries to attack him off the dribble but couldn’t fully get by and gets blocked.

But this is where Westbrook causes the most issues on offense for the Clippers:

3 PnRs. And 3 PnRs were stopped because the defense can fully take the roll without any worry about Westbrook. In the first clip, you have Devin Booker just chilling defending Ivica Zubac at the free throw line whilst DeAndre Ayton takes Leonard’s drive.

Same thing in the second clip. Leonard is blitzed and Booker takes care of the roll very early. The pass goes to Westbrook on the skip, but he also doesn’t have to close out hard, so he easily recovers and any advantage is gone — plus Leonard doesn’t have the ball.

Defense vs Curry

For all of the talk about the Kings’ defense and their personnel, I’ve been so impressed with their defense, especially against Stephen Curry.

Their off-ball defense on him has been great — just chasing him around, not allowing him to get open, or even use the screens.

And when he does have the ball, everyone is on the same page defending it making sure he can’t get around or get shots out of it.

Hunting Curry

One of the actions I saw the Kings go to a lot is, of course, a dribble hand-off with Domantas Sabonis and Kevin Huerter. But the reason that stood out is the constant picking on Curry by doing so.

There were a few possessions where they had Huerter get very easy looks by putting Curry in actions where he has to both chase around Huerter first and then fight through screens and pursue Huerter to contest.

That’s a lot of work for guys that are elite defenders. Now, you’re asking a player that already has a huge offensive load and is constantly moving on that end too. That would be a lot for any player, let alone Curry who’s freaking 35 years old.