Zone defense working for Miami tonight

They're still gonna lose though.

 

its just one of those days which the suns are shooting brick 3s. The suns practice everyday to run and gun from the 3 so this time Miami just got lucky. btw who is pat burke and is he a really good 3 pt shooter?

 

A zone? For us? Nonsense.

What good would a defense that stops dribble penetration and keeps our 7'6 center from switching onto PG's and picking cheap fouls help us at all

 

Didnt watch the game but the heat managed to shut donw amare completely with the zone!

 

not really, i think it was just one of those games where the hot hand was marion. The zone D was a bunch of scrubs on the miami side, kind of like what happens when you get "scrappy" 12th and 11th men tryingto prove themselves. Thats just my 2 cents

 

I doubt it. As I have said before numerous times - when players execute (or fail to execute) the coachng maneuvers are almost irrelevant in a league like the NBA.

You're extrapolating (despite all of the evidence to the contrary, insofar as the Suns are built to destroy the zone) that zone defense is the way to go and would have crushed the Suns.

I doubt it, I call it a coincidence where Miami and its scrubs who wer playing hard, happened to be playing zone at a time when Phoenix slacked off and went cold - it happens in basketball.

Nothing is going to be 100% effective or ineffective every time, 48 minutes a game 82 nights a season. But more often than not, the Suns are going to obliterate a zone with their ability to 1. run and beat it down the court, and 2. bust it with outside shots. Not so much because they employ a magic genius D'Antoni system - but because they have players who can execute it.

I mean look at the Rockets game last night. The scrubs + Luther Head destroyed the Lakers whereas the best C in the league was on the bench. Totally illogical and counterintuitive but it workd out in favor of the rox. Do I extrapolate from that that Rockets should play a lineup of all backups all game and could have destroyed the Lakers? Of course not.

EDIT: I should add, jsut watching some of the highlights in Sportscenter, that the Heat appeared to be playing zone with their starters against Phoenix in the first half, when they gave up 45 points in the second quarter.

 

Just as long as somebody extrapolates Rafer Alston to another team, that's fine with me...

 

LOL. SamFisher is right though. DaDakota simplified the idea of defense way too much. And the Rockets half court Defense was actually pretty good against Phoenix.

I broke down the defensive problems against Phoenix here:
http://bbs.clutchfans.com/showpost.php?p=2634224&postcount=24

And during the game, Barbosa was just way too quick. Zone or no zone, Barbosa was splitting double teams and getting around defenders at ease. There's no defense you can throw that would work if they get constant penetration against a double team.

I'm not against criticizing Van Gundy, and I agree that he has adapted slowly to using the zone. But, the fact is he has incorporated using the Zone quite a bit this year. Van Gundy has really kept Yao around the paint more these days on defense. Yao has done an exceptional job of paint help defense, but his rebounding % is down (just my opinion) even though he's staying in the paint area a lot more than before.

 

errr... I only watched the first half, so i cant really say how effective the 3/2 zone was in the second... but in the first half its was utterly and completely destroyed by the suns 3pt shooting in the tune of giving the suns a 16pt lead at halftime.

And if you had watched the first half, you would also have noticed that the announcer (Collins) was commenting how riley went to the zone to close off the paint and instead GIVE the sun's the 3.

 

I don't know, if we can get our hands on someone like Quinton Ross or Greg Buckner before the trading deadline... we wouldn't have to worry so much about slow rotations against Phoenix with quick perimeter defenders who can move their feet. We are just too slow at the 1 and 2.

 

That was an inspirational run.

 

They used a 3 2 zone for all of the 2nd quarter and most of the first. What zone did they use in the 4th quarter?

And no doubt it s a great idea to have a 2nd option to throw of a teams offensive rythmn and EVERY TEAM and EVERY coach has 2nd options/adjustments to their defense whether they use a zone or not. Zoning is but just one of the many myriad of schemes coaches use to "switch" things up with in the NBA... along with adjustments to "trap" "double" "playing off a player" switching every pick and roll, leading penetration to the middle or to the baseline etc etc.

 

blahblehblah - did somebody actually post that in your signature in a non-sarcastic way? If so....wow.