Step one. Find the fastest guards you have on your roster and dribble penetrate to get Oden and the other bigs in foul trouble. Step two. Once Oden has 2 fouls, utilize your marquee players to put points in the paint. Step three. Lay off the point guards defensively, since they are bound to not make any mistakes, so you can gamble on them and easily recover. Step four. Tempt the Blazers to fall in love with the outside shot, so when 3rd and 4th period rolls around, they forget to score in the paint. Step five. Let Outlaw look like he's a scoring machine. It's fools gold and eventually Outlaw's inability to include everyone else in the offense will take everyone out of the game. Intangibles: Make damn sure that every time Oden steps on the floor, you use your guards to always attack the rim, getting Oden in foul trouble.
You forgot one: When Oden leaves with foul trouble, BRIEFLY pull your own center making Nate forget he has another excellent rebounding/defending center on the bench, thereby luring him into a small ball strategy that's doomed to fail and cost his team the game.
Phoenix ran a zone against Miami last night. Perhaps it's time again for Nate to zone up. The team had some success with it last season.
Zone is the perfect defense for that type of offense. You take away anything inside and force them to beat you from the perimeter. You can play man up in the 4th quarter, after they are all frustrated to all hell.
