Lakers Packing the Paint, Kings are Playing Defense, Jokic’s Rim Protection
Here are some of the interesting actions, schemes, adjustments from game 3s
We’re back with another playoff round up! If you haven’t checked out the previous breakdown where I went through Jaren Jackson Jr’s growth on offense, Jalen Brunson & Stephen Curry being hunted in screens, and the Phoenix Suns helping off Russell Westbrook, then you should go check out that first.
Today’s breakdown will be going through all of the game 3s that have happened(game 4s breakdown tomorrow):
- Los Angeles Lakers packing the paint
- Sacramento Kings’ defense
- Nikola Jokic’s poor rim protection
Hm. Looks like the theme for this breakdown is more focused on defense.
The Lakers Packing the Paint
If you looked at the result for the game, the stats don’t look that bad for the Memphis Grizzlies, but when you look at only the first quarter, the numbers are shocking.
In the first quarter, the Grizzlies shot 2-for-8 at the rim and 0-for-1 in the paint — they attempted 11 above-the-break 3s.
The Lakers' plan was simple. Defend the paint. Not even in a way where you let guys walkthrough. No. They did everything they could do to stop anyone from getting even past the free-throw line.
They sent help early, had guys rotate a lot earlier, help off guys, help at the nail, and have everyone have a foot in the paint:
Every Grizzly saw multiple defenders in the paint at once. Even if they were going to put up a shot, it was going to be contested by at least two defenders.
But more importantly, that wall of defenders discouraged players from taking shots completely. They barely made it inside the paint and it was a kick for elsewhere.
They also defended Ja Morant extremely well early in the game:
Just look at that first clip! Jarred Vanderbilt’s defense there to deny him the ball was impressive. He eventually gets the ball but it only takes around six seconds for him to do so. And once he got it, he saw three defenders all at the top of the key. The Lakers aren’t respecting anyone else and their goal was to stop Morant.
His pick-and-rolls also were negated by either early help when he attacked(LeBron James rotates quite early to meet Morant’s drive well above the restricted area) or the help is early to take the roll and there’s no advantage anywhere.
The Lakers honestly couldn’t have done a better job at defending Morant and the paint in general.
The Kings are Defending!
You know, for all of the talk about the Kings’ defense, I feel they’ve done a great job at defending everything.
Per Cleaning the Glass, their defensive rating is 115.0 through four games. That’s not great or even above average for the playoffs, but it’s better than what they did in the regular season.
But it’s also more than just the numbers. I’ve just liked the activity, the rotations, the switches, and the general effort on that end:
Take that second clip. That was perfect defense from start to finish. Stephen Curry sets a backscreen for Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell communicates the switch quickly. Harrison Barnes kept Curry with him so he can’t relocate. Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk switch off the ball effectively. That entire pick-and-roll defense was great from everyone. Everything was spot on.
In other clips you have guys going over screens perfectly to blow up the dribble handoffs, switches communicated well and early off the ball, Barnes rotating early from the corner to peel switch on a drive, and this particular possession:
Like, come on! That defense against Curry from Mitchell is something else.
The Kings certainly have shown a lot on defense so far.
Jokic’s Rim Protection
This isn’t some anti-Jokic talk or saying he’s a defensive liability that is hurting his team. I just want to get that out of the way. But I’ve noticed this in game two where he also looked a bit off when protecting the rim.
There were a couple of plays where he just wanted to draw a charge instead of contesting the shots. He was also caught off guard on some of the drives. Since then, that was something I was watching out for and this became a more common thing in game three:
They’re just awful defensive possessions from Jokic. There is no excuse for that and I don’t think it’s him being a bad defender, that’s more giving less than 50% on defense type of thing.
I’ve watched plenty of Denver Nuggets games this year and that’s even worse for his standard.
Things That Caught My Eye
The Atlanta Hawks decided to put Clint Capela on Marcus Smart and they really picked the wrong game to do that. Because this is Smart we’re talking about, he, of course, decided to shoot 5-for-12 from deep — the last time he made at least five 3s was on 28th November 2022 against the Charlotte Hornets.
I also haven’t liked some of Jayson Tatum’s decision-making and shot selection. He’s 3-for-10 on early or very early 3s. Those shots are just bad decision-making for me, especially when sometimes he has a mismatch and settled for those stepback 3:
But you know who I’ve been impressed with? Onyeka Okongwu’s defense!
And back to the things that I didn’t like. Julius Randle's decision to isolate and kill the clock for no reason:
The ball sticks a lot with Randle and that just kills the offense, especially when he’s struggling to shoot out of those isolations:
Randle hasn’t been good when he holds the ball or dribbles the ball:
- Touch time <2 seconds: 5/6 2pt & 6/22 3pt
- Touch time 2–6s: 6/19 2pt & 1/6 3pt
- Touch time 6s+: 2/9 2pt & 1/3 3pt
- 2 or fewer dribbles: 10/20 2pt & 7/27 3pt
- 3 or more dribbles: 3/14 2pt & 1/4 3pt
In game two, the Cavaliers put Brunson in pick-and-rolls a lot and they used either Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, or Caris LeVert as screeners to get him to show. They did that at times in game three:
That has been one of the ways for the Cavaliers to get the defense in rotations and get good looks. But I liked the adjustment from the Knicks to have Brunson guarding Garland instead(now, the Cavaliers could have just had Garland screening):
Brunson being the on-ball defender and navigating screen is a much better option than having him be involved in guard screens where he’s showing.
