Rockets At Thunder Game 2: How A 2-3 Zone Stymied A Team of Professionals

good video

 

thanks for posting

 

Good stuff. ~lol~ I didn't notice the Thabo FT violation. Cheap a$$. Um......the Lin injury might have been intentional......

Smh at the missed call. I don't think it's missed, Stern likes OKC and wouldn't let them lose at their home floor. NBA is so rigged nowadays, sad. Oh, and Perk knows it.

Seems like all the contenders would take note of the zone against OKC, not easy for them to fix the problem.

 

Great post.

I love coach nick's breakdowns.

I do believe he suggested McHale is a better coach than Brooks hahaha.

I like the 2-3 zone because it helps our small ball line-ups get rebounds, plays to Asiks length and strengths in the middle, hides Harden's defensive weaknesses.

I think they still looked pretty tentative as to their correct positions in the zone and they can be better at properly closing out a shooter like Durant.

Also the off guard needs to sprint the floor for a break whilst the on guard needs to go in a help with the rebound on long shots. With Bev and Lin playing the guard positions, this is perfect because they can both rebound and pass quickly up court to trigger the break.

I really like the double screen for Harden or Lin at the top (not parsons). I think if one screener pops to the 3pt line whilst the other screener rolls to the basket, that gives the ball handler the choice of taking it to the hole, hitting the popper, or roller, or corner man, or the big man down low depending on how the defense plays it. I think Harden and Lin can be very efficient players when put in this position.

I'd like to run more motion like the back screens or double picks at the top down the stretch rather than ISOs.

I'm not sure the zone is effective against OKC in end game clutch situations. OKCs shooters are too good to give relatively open threes in the clutch (esp. Durant). A zone hybrid might work where you have a stopper like Parsons shadowing Durant while the other 4 are playing zone.

Sorry for the long post but the Game 2 tactics have really inspired me and given me hope that we can beat OKC.

 

sorry! I meant the off-guard needs to go in for the rebound whilst the guard on the shooter needs to leak out.

 

Coach Nick is one smart man. Love his videos. Everytime I watch them, I gain more and more knowledge of the strategies.

 

Great breakdown by coach Nick. I really enjoy watching his videos. Very informative both on good things we do and bad things we do.

 

I mentioned this in a couple other posts. I drastically over-estimated OKC's offensive composure! I thought they would absolutely punish us if we ran a zone.

This video shows brilliantly why OKC has a ZERO % chance to beat Miami! Durant is lazy on D, Westbrook is too emotional, Martin makes stupid mistakes and rarely makes the right pass, and Ibaka is a below average on ball defender - if they are gonna keep switching ball screens Miami will destroy him with LJ/DW.

If they make the finals, I'll take Miami in 4...

 

All you need to break a zone is to attack the middle of the court and to have someone that can shoot from the short corners.

It's really amazingly simple, yet it totally baffles NBA teams an NBA players over and over. And this is not even a real zone defense, as that's not even allowed in the NBA.

The freaking defensive 3 seconds rule almost breaks the zone itself, and yet so many NBA players just can't deal with it. It's really quite odd.

 

Didn't GSW try to go zone against the Rockets at the end of one game and it kept failing because Harden and Lin just kept driving and kicking?

I mean I know that Harden's elite at the drive and Lin is about Tony Parker's efficiency, but aren't there other teams with guards who are good at penetration? (say, by the name of Westbrook...)

Though, granted, that might say more about how good Asik is, than anything else.

And possibly say something about how Westbrook likes to shoot the ball instead of passing it.

 

that just made me realize how much longer parsons was being held than the viral gif portrayed...

 

Most of his videos that have been posted here are very positive about the Rockets. Does he ever post videos criticizing them like the way this one was for the Thunder?

 

thanks. good breakdown

 

Nice find, OP! I enjoyed the entire thing except this; I have to own up to still being livid while watching that incredibly blown call again at the end. That ref should be fired as a warning to the rest of them to leave their bias at home when calling a game, or else take their ****ing brains with them and not leave the organ floating in their toilet bowl. That dumb ass should be drawn and quartered. Nick was absolutely right. That's as bad a call as I've seen in a very long time. Reminds me of the bear hug on Drex back in the day. And he was right. A stolen game in OKC and the narrative about this series is a hell of a lot different, damn it.

(yeah, I'm still ticked off)

 

Love bballbreakdown on youtube.

 

The fact that Perkins flat out ADMITTED to the foul on Twitter makes it even worse for me. The league does absolutely NOTHING to show that they hold the referees accountable for anything. That foul was obvious when it was occurring.....it's even worse in slow motion.

 

yeah me too. i thought by going to a zone, we'd get killed by durant and sefolosha shooting threes. i didn't think westbrook would beat us with his threes and jumpers and i was right. he was totally inefficient with his shots. he had plenty of open shots. just couldn't hit anything.

but then again, i don't think they were expecting to see that, and they did adjust towards the end and broke down our zone D. was it because they couldn't break down a zone D, or simply an element of surprise? I'm not sure if we'll have as much success with it in gm 3 now that they've had time to practice against it.

 

I think prior to Durant passing the ball out to Sefolosha, Parsons was actually boxing out Perkins to prevent an easy pass and layup under the ball, so while Perkins was holding onto Parsons before the pass, it was only after the pass that Parsons realised he had to rotate, but Perkins continued to hold on.