Stotts absolutely MUST adjust his defense against Memphis. Giving up the mid-range jumper is a recipe for disaster against the Grizz as that it their bread and butter shot. They have injuries on the perimeter and you must trap and pressure that weakness.
You would think right? Stotts is bordering on Nate levels now if he refuses to adjust his defensive schemes
Offensive adjustments: Run the P/R with Nic/Lillard where Nic has the ball and Lillard is setting the screen. Sure, a PG screen is smaller than a PF/C screen, but the way LMA/Rolo set picks Lillard's won't be any worse. This will put pressure on the defense to decide if they're going to pressure Nic or stay on Dame. Nic has the height advantage to be able to pass over the top to a diving Lillard, and also has a fairly decent pull-up jumper if he's able to get space off the pick. Now, Nic's dribbling isn't great and that's what always keeps him from being able to get all the way to the hoop, but it's not like Lillard was having any success the way he used picks last game. Option B on the Nic/Lillard P/R would be Leonard at the 3-point line - put him on the strong side and Nic can pass to him off the screen, or put him on the weak side and it gives Lillard (or Nic) an outlet if they get the ball diving to the hoop. Move Lillard's P/R to the elbow extended - it's not working from the top. Play Lillard off the ball. Put him in the left corner, have Blake collapse the defense from the right wing. Blake passes to Lillard, Nic or Leonard come down from 3-point line to set a screen at the elbow extended for Lillard to curl over the top and now he's coming towards the hoop at more of an angle than when he comes from the top. LMA dives down the right side of the lane to give Lillard a passing option if Marc closes on him at the rim. This could also be a decent play for CJ in either the Blake or Lillard role. Defensive adjustments: Jump their screens and recover! It's that fucking simple. Frye and Hickson were both able to do it - no reason LMA shouldn't be able to. Don't fucking switch - jump and recover.
Oh, another adjustment is that we've got to use LMA as a decoy. Pass him the ball in the post in order to set up ball movement, rather than just having him shoot every time he touches the ball. 1 - Nic passes in to LMA on left block, runs off LMA's right shoulder where there's the potential for a hand-off for the baseline dunk. OR... 2 - Nic can fake the LMA screen if his man goes under, and cut back to the close corner for an open 3. OR... 3 - Nic keeps going past LMA, along the baseline to the weak side corner. LMA takes two back-down dribbles and kicks to Lillard at the 3 (who rotated over to Nic's starting spot), Lillard swings the ball to Leonard swings to Nic in the corner. Variation: Leonard passes to Nic cutting along baseline, then dives towards the hoop. Nic either gets a lay-up or passes to the diving Leonard, depending on what the defense does.
We need to stop playing to MEM's strengths. They outscored us 15-6 in fast break points in Game 1. That should never happen and we need to reverse that, and then some, for the remainder of the series to beat them. MEM is a great half court team on both ends of the floor. If you allow them to get their half court defense set, we will continue to struggle to score. All of their bigs; Gasol, Randolph and Koufas are slow footed plodders. We have gazelles like Aldridge and Leonard. We need to push the ball, run their bigs into the ground and get some easy baskets before they have a chance to set up their half court offense. And, while we have faster, more athletic big men than they do, it's really Dame, C.J. and Nic that need to push the pace. The one area Dame really improved his game this season is finishing at the rim, but he can't take advantage of that new found skill if Marc Gasol is camped in the paint waiting for him. There is no reason on god's green earth than Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum and Nic Batum (and Arron Afflalo, Steve Blake and Tim Frazier) can't beat Marc Gasol down the court each and every time. So do it! And attack the basket before Gasol is there to protect the rim. If we have Afflalo back, plus Blake and Frazier and the other three, we six of ball handlers capable of pushing the tempo. Shitcan the rigid 12 minutes on 6 minutes off rigid substitution patterns. Tell all our guards to go balls out pushing the ball on every play and pull them out for a rest every 4 or 5 minutes. Do that continually throughout the game and we will wear down MEM's bigs much faster than we'll wear down our guards. We did a great job controlling the defensive boards in Game 1 - one of the few things we did well, but by walking the ball up and allowing MEM to set up their half court defense, we failed to take advantage of our strong defensive rebounding. Get the ball, make the outlet pass to a guard and push the fucking ball up the court. We can't force MEM into an uptempo game when they have the ball, but we sure as hell don't have to slow things down and wait for them to set up their defense when we have it. Doing so is very Nate McMillanesque and we all know how much success Nate had in the post season. By pushing the ball, we will also get more wide open threes for the guys trailing the play. The 1st rule of defense is to stop the ball, which is what the first and second defender back will be trying to do. That leaves the three point line unprotected for anyone running the court behind the player with the ball. Collapse their fast break defense and when they commit to stopping the ball, find the open trailer at the 3-point line. If they don't commit to stopping the ball, take it all the way to the rim. Start playing to our strengths, not theirs. More fast breaks will lead to more layups without Gasol in the paint, for Lillard and C.J., more open 3-pointers and MEM's bigs gasping for air. Do it!!!! BNM
And honestly if we are able to get out on them early, we can get them on their heels. They aren't a team that can usually recover from being behind by double deficits. Then as they start scrambling more, we can exploit even more. Right now, Memphis is totally confident that they can take any punch we have. We need them to second guess themselves. Doing so is forcing them to play our game like you suggested.
As I mentioned in the original series thread, MEM is a great defensive team with one glaring weakness - Zach Randolph. We NEED to exploit that weakness. We cannot let them hide Zach Randolph on the defensive end. In the half court, when we don't have a fast break opportunity, we need to locate Zach and go to work. We have an abundance of guys who are much bigger and more athletic than Zach. So, let's use them. If Zach is on Aldridge, it's a no brainer, get the ball to LaMarcus and let him go to work. Since Aldridge is our best offensive weapon, if he gets it going, I expect to see a lot of Gasol and even a little Koufas on him. Which means, more Meyers Leonard and more Chris Kaman. We need to see a LOT more of two bigs that can score in the game at the same time to take advantage of Zach. We can't allow them to shut down our big men with JUST Marc Gasol. If Gasol is on Aldridge and Kaman is in, use Aldridge to draw Gasol out of the paint and then force feed Kaman on the low block against Zach. Do the same with Meyers. We saw in the BRK game how he can abuse a shorter defender (Thad Young) on the low block. He's 4" taller, much longer and more athletic than Zach. Ue that size damn it!. With Meyers, we can also mix it up. Use Aldridge to pin Gasol to the low block and then kick it out to Meyers for the 3. Zach isn't used to guarding a guy 4" taller then him that far from the basket. And if Zach runs out at Meyers, have him cut back door for the lob - again, take advantage of the fact the Meyers is taller and more athletic than Zach. Go ahead and start Lopez for continuity, but lets see much more of Kaman and Meyers; 20 - 24 minutes each, rather than 14 - 16. And, from what I saw in Game 1, our defense and rebounding won't be any worse with Kaman or Meyers in the game in place of Lopez. It might even be better... BNM
I agree with this. But it means that we need Meyers and Kaman crashing the defensive boards - they're the only two bigs that are able to throw an outlet pass. If the defensive board is snagged by Rolo or LMA they will wait until the back-court is clear before handing off to a guard. I suppose we should also send CJ to the defensive boards too, and just have the other guard and SF leak out. CJ's quite crafty at coming up with rebounds, and once in his hands he can push the ball up court faster than anyone...except maybe Frazier!
I said this in another thread, but we rarely do this. It's mainly because our guards aren't that great on defense.
Finally, forget the fuck about defending the 3 like our life depends on it. It doesn't. We're playing MEM, not GSW. MEM was 29th in 3-pointers made and 23rd in 3FG%. It's simply not their strength. So, why put so much of our defensive effort into taking away a weapon they don't really have? Others have already addressed the pick-and-roll defense, but I'll add, collapse the defense to put more defenders in the paint and midrange, which is MEM's bread and butter and what killed us in Game 1. MEM made THREE 3-pointers against us in Game 1. DARE them to take that shot. Courtney Lee is really the only MEM player we need to avoid leaving wide open on the 3-point line. Lure than into hoisting 15 - 20 3-pointers. They're MUCH more likely to go 5-15 (or worse) than they are to go 10-20. Again, it's just not their strength. Focus our defensive effort on their inside and midrange games and force them out of their comfort zone. Zach, Gasol, Beno and Conley are much more likely to beat us inside the paint than outside the 3-point line. And their bench is even worse. Beno, Vince, Calathes and Pondexter all shot below .300 from 3-point range for the season. When those guys are in, we need to REALLY collapse the defense and dare them to shot from distance. BNM
Defensively, this is exactly what I want us to do. Show zone defense and dare them to make that 3 point shot. Even if they make 3-4 in a row, the law of averages will even itself, especially in a 7 game series. Once they start missing those, then they will start second guessing themselves.
BOOB FOR BOSS!! Well stated, boob. Seriously. We have to stop playing to their strengths, and instead attack their weaknesses. I'm holding my breath.
