I'd like to discuss ideas on strategies to beat the different playoff teams, how to stop them defensively, and what matchups to run offensively that will cause them the most problems. I'm going to start with what I feel is fairly obvious to me. Would like to see what the other posters feel are the best bball strategies against these teams. Phoenix - If I was coaching against Phoenix with Amare and Shaq playing on the block, I would pack it in with a tight zone and take away Amare catching the ball at the FT line with the zone defender fronting the area. Force him out just a little bit higher to catch it, say 18-20 feet. He's not gonna shoot it from out there. A packed in zone takes away his catch and shoot from 15 feet which is turning into his bread and butter offensive play outside of the dunk. A packed in zone also negates Shaq's effectiveness with the fronting zone. One defender in front and one in back, same thing everybody attempts to do to Yao. Make Nash and the boys beat you from the outside. Negate as much penetration as possible by continuing to pack it in tight and force them to have to shoot over you. They'll hit some but if you take away Amare and the interior, they're up against it, big time. Utah-We should start Hayes and let him defend Boozer one on one. Force Boozer to have to try to beat him. Put Shane on DWill and cheat off Kirilenko with McGrady helping on Boozer and DWill. If Utah sends Kirilenko to the opposite side of DWill and Boozer, switch off McGrady and our point guard on Kirilenko and keep McGrady's length strong side to help on both DWill and Boozer.
I love this thread. Lakers - For starters, Shane has to do a lock down job on Kobe, because anybody who wants to beat this team will still have to go through the best player in the game. Matching up with Gasol/Bynum will be tough. Deke will have to give us at least solid 30 min, and Landry will have to up his defense +2. Deke and Landry will be taking Gasol 1 on 1, and I think they shouldn't worry about pushing him too far out like you have suggested with Boozer. It's not that Gasol isn't more effective around the rim, rather we NEED these guys around the cylinder to protect against the Lakers racking up 120 points against us. I like Bobby Jackson better against Derek Fisher. Bobby is quicker than Rafer, and IMO it is the wrong approach to try and match Fisher's gritty defensive posture when you have a player who can run around him. Make Fisher chase Bobby. I'd say start Bobby and let Rafer/AB pick up the remaining 20 minutes between them. The final piece to beating the Lakers is preventing Lamar Odom from scoring easy buckets within fifteen feet. Scola will likely find himself in this matchup alot of the time, but for me Landry is a much more ideal matchup. Keeping an eye on Odom will be the most important point. Kobe will get his and Gasol might against our forwards as well, but you have to limit Odom's easy buckets to win. Hornets - Obviously, you must account for Chris Paul. You WILL win if you keep him out of the paint, even half the time, but I don't see that happening. The more practical approach is to cover their auxiliary options like Chandler and Peja. Our biggest point for beating them will be for Rafer to keep his cool. He tries to match cp3 and ends up forcing more than he would normally. Though, I still like him best running the point against this team. Bonzi will be tough to find a dancing partner for as you know they will force him on us. Tracy could handle the bulk of the duties here. I like Hayes on West, as Hayes usually does well against bigger players who like to put the ball on the floor. Their bench will be tough to account for.
Rockets - try to play big, and out rebound them, especially with yao out. make pfs, have extra scouting report on how to shut down landry's easy dunks. make rafer alston shoot the 3, he lives and dies by them. don't play any short player on shane. when deke and hayes are on the floor, you're points per possesion just went down alot, so you have to play good defense and try to lure the ball handler to deke and hayes, and then get the steal/rebound and try to run. double team tracy mcgraday as soon as he uses the screen, that way, you make the other players do the scoring, not tracy. wow, we have so many weaknesses on offense. but, our defense is one of the best.
shipwreck (fakers) - imo, adelman would never be able to bring alston off the bench in favor of bjax because of his fragile ego
Shipwreck, I feel like our best matchups against the Lakers is Shane on Kobe like you said, but let McGrady take Odom. McGrady's got the length and athleticism to give Odom problems. If Odom decides to post up, why, that's to our advantage as his strength is the faceup and his weakness is the postup. I think Gasol will have to be handled by Hayes/Scola/Landry and I think Hayes can hang with him pretty good unless Gasol decides to face up and shoot the 17 footer over him. That's where I'd have my guards peeling off whoever is at the top and helping out backside on Pao to force him to throw the ball back out. I really don't see Bynum as being a factor in the playoffs as he is coming off injury. Shane should dog Kobe the whole live long night as far as I'm concerned and don't give any help on Kobe unless he starts getting hot. Offensively, against the Lakers, I would try to create mismatches by getting Pao rubbed off on screens so he has to defend McGrady and Scola. I'd look to get the ball to the man he is defending and force him to D up. Pao is a notoriously weak defender, especially against the postup. Scola and McGrady are our definitive post up options. I don't see the Lakers scoring 120 ppg against us. The Lakers have a tendacy to match up Kobe on McGrady especially going down the stretch. Most of the time, Kobe goes on McGrady in the second half after playing on Battier the first half. It would be nice if we could get a little bit more out of Battier offensively, by just having him make a bunch of cuts and forcing Kobe to have to expend energy guarding him in the first half, kinda sap his strength as much as possible. This also goes into effect on the defensive end. With Shane single guarding Kobe, the idea being to force Kobe to put up a bunch of shots early and carry the offensive load for the Lakers early. I'd rather have Kobe hot early and shooting a bunch of shots, then come at him late with Shane and help and force him to give it up or take tough, tough shots down the stretch. If Kobe defends McGrady, we may have to go small to get another scorer on the floor, either by running out Landry to go with Scola or by taking out Shane for Luther. I like our bench over the Lakers at this point. To me, a big key against the Lakers and probably all the playoff teams we face is going to be our foul count. If we can keep our foul count down and stay out of the bonus and get Pao and/or Odom in foul trouble, it will go a long way towards our success. Conversly, if we get into foul trouble, specifically Scola/Landry, we have very little chance of success.
Against LA you want to limit the play of their role players. Make Kobe have to work for his points versus a good man defender, let the role players start standing there/get disinterested, then double Kobe selectively, then wait for the disinterested/tight role player to miss their Js, which get's Kobe more frustrated with his teammates and hallhog more, than more doubles, etc. So basically at the start I think you want to keep them from getting Gasol or Odom off to a good start even if it allows Kobe to get easier shots than he will get later. I still think their chemistry and teamwork is somewhat fragile. Against SA I have a hard time seeing what the Rockets can do honestly. I just don't see the personelle without having Yao. Against the Suns will be tough for the Rockets. Nonetheless I think the key is wearing them out and having MDA coach stupid--which he can be prone to do. Some of the little things you can do in the half court defense is cheat off of Grant Hill some and foul Shaq. Also, Barbosa can seem to be taken off rythum with physicality and closing in on his J. What you want to limit is clean 3s by Nash and Bell, and Amare with the ball inside of 17 feet with only one defender nearby--those are very efficient shots for the Suns most other teams cannot keep up with. Also, late in the game with Hill and Shaq and somewhat worn down Nash and Bell their defense and quickness can really deteriorate. I am less sure of a formula per say versus Utah or NO. I think they present less problems than the above 3, or to counter, the Rockets have a better chance against them.
