Amuseddaysleeper
01-15-2016, 09:12 PM
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/4148tj/a_closer_look_at_last_nights_cle_vs_sa_game/
Despite the fact that the NBA regular season is nearing its halfway mark, there have actually been very few matchups between the league’s top 4 teams (GS, SA, CLE, OKC). One was the season opener between SA and OKC. The only other two games have both involved CLE (home against OKC, at GS), one in which Kyrie didn’t play and one in which he just came back (same for Shumpert).
So last night’s game between CLE and SA, really marked the first time we were seeing two of the league’s best at (near) full strength. In addition, both were on 8+ game winning streaks and maybe most importantly, Pop actually decided to take this game seriously and didn’t punt it by resting some/all his starters.
So even though it’s just a regular season game, it at least gave us a sneak preview of what could possibly come in June. And what we got was exactly what I hoped for, a close wire to wire game that answered a ton of questions I had going into this thing. But there’s two that I wanted to focus on:
SA’s defense matching up against Kyrie and Lebron; They’re notorious for defending the pick and roll well so was CLE going to use more post ups or off ball screens/action to free up Kyrie and Lebron. How big of a factor was Love’s floor spacing going to be as SA likes to zone the paint on pick and rolls and ignore the flaring big man. More specifically, how well does SA defend against CLE three point shooting (3rd in makes, 7th in 3PT%) when Lebron and Kyrie inevitably do get into the paint.
Crunch time lineup and execution; what plays each team were looking for and how it was defended. Would SA stick with their big lineup of Duncan + Aldridge? Given the amount of 4th quarter minutes Love has sat in close games, how much was he going to be on the floor during money time? Do they replace him with Delly for defense?
The first quarter alone answered a decent amount of these questions. Let’s start what with was expected; SA’s philosophy on guarding Lebron remained unchanged; keeping Leonard as the primary defender while doing their best to keep him out of the paint. When they do help, it rarely comes off of shooters, with SA much more content to funnel Lebron towards helping bigs (Duncan) where the lane can get clogged and 2 defenders can guard three offensive players. It’s no secret that CLE role players are accustomed to wide open threes from Lebron penetration; a luxury that SA does its best to take away.
To counter, it was very interesting to see how much focus CLE put on getting Kawhi to switch off of Lebron through pick and rolls. I’m going to preface it by saying that no one person stops Lebron, especially over the course of a series if these two teams were to meet in the finals. But with that being said, I’m not sure if there’s any individual that does a better job on him than Kawhi. He’s done it for years now, and tonight was no exception; getting the better of Lebron on two of their rare one on one encounters in the first quarter.
http://imgur.com/x1gry7k
In this first sequence, the Cavs call for an isolation on the post for Lebron. The spacing is about as good as you can get; the complete left side of the court free for Lebron to operate. And this right here, is where having Kawhi Leonard is the difference. As Lebron squares up, SA is content to not double, trusting that Kawhi can do a good enough job by himself. At the same time though, notice Parker and Aldridge both creeping off their man just a step, ready to help if needed. The end result is a very difficult angled hook shot for Lebron.
http://imgur.com/gsoC5mX
This second sequence happens just minutes later, Cleveland runs a one-three high pick and roll with Lebron and Delly, with the sole intention of trying to switch Mills onto Lebron. But as you can see from the video, Patty does a great job of hedging out on the pick and roll, forcing Lebron to move much further to the right that he intended, allowing Leonard the time to catch up. As Delly comes back to try it again, SA applies the same effort, with Mills slowing Lebron down just enough so Kawhi can regain defensive position as he drives to the hoop. The rest is all Leonard playing picture perfect defense; staying with Lebron every step of the way until he’s able to use his long arms to get the block, igniting the fast break.
On the flip side, when CLE was able to get a switch for Lebron , there needs to more of these sequences:
http://imgur.com/mueIa3T
And less of these:
http://imgur.com/s14YKGA
In both high pick and roll plays, neither big man (Mozgov and Thompson) is really a threat from the outside, allowing for Duncan to lay low on the screen and zone the paint, with the objective of keeping Lebron out. The rest of the Spurs are staying home on shooters, essentially making this a simplified 2 on 2 game.
In the first sequence, Lebron’s much more assertive, recognizing the singular advantage that he has over Duncan, taking him off the dribble and having the elevation needed to finish over the top. But in the second clip, he disappointingly bails them out with a long jumper after fighting so hard to get the switch. It’s especially puzzling considering the success he had from the previous play. The Spurs defense is way too good for these opportunities to be wasted like this.
Lebron is just one of a handful of players who can finish this play with regular success; a testament to both his skillset and physical gifts. Here’s a nearly identical sequence with Kyrie in the pick and roll.
http://imgur.com/X7DzTPa
Again, Duncan zones the paint, giving up any pull up opportunities to Kyrie in exchange for the ability to protect the rim. SA stays home on shooters and Irving ends up making pretty much the same play as Lebron, with the biggest difference being the fact that he’s about 6 inches shorter, making this shot much more difficult.
And this, this is the meat of the SA defense. It’s something I went into more detail here, but it bears repeating, SA’s main objective is to protect the paint and easy threes, opting to give up as many long twos as you want.
One thing I did notice Cleveland having success with was involving pick and rolls with Lebron as the big.
http://imgur.com/rq3BPJS
This first one is with Kyrie as the ball handler. Parker does his job correctly by funneling Irving baseline, but because the roll man is Lebron, Leonard doesn’t have the luxury of staying low and ICE-ing the side pick and roll, forced to stick to Lebron’s body as he sets the pick. This requires SA to send a third help defender to slide over (West), and gives Kyrie one of his few good looks at the basket all night.
http://imgur.com/n6415pp
In this second sequence, it involves Delly as the ball handler. And in a very rare occurrence, Kawhi is actually caught slightly out of position (he’s too high up, giving Lebron too much space to the rim). He recognizes this immediately, and slips the pick and roll, diving towards the hoop. Duncan would normally be in position to help any other big, but because of how quickly Lebron explodes to the basket, along with his finishing ability, he gets there slight late, giving up the layup.
Despite the success of playing Lebron off ball on these pick and rolls, CLE used it very sparingly throughout the game, something that I would’ve loved to see more of, especially considering Lebron’s passing ability out of double teams.
Most of the second and third quarters saw the Cavs continue to hold the lead, with the Spurs slowly chipping away with their trademark defense and better execution on offense. But it was the beginning of the fourth, that they grabbed control of the game, thanks to their bench.
They’ve been a monster all season, easily leading the league in bench differential and near the top at total bench points.
With Lebron resting, SA took advantage of CLE’s slower rotating bench.
http://imgur.com/sWsQTOW
The first clip is off a semi-transition rebound, where Kyle Anderson initiates a pick and roll with David West. The two defenders guarding the set are Jefferson and Mozgov, not exactly the two most reliable. Jefferson makes the mistake of leaving way too much room for the man CP3 once deemed “the 17 foot assassin” and gives up 2 points.
http://imgur.com/sVUKE8Y
In the very next play, SA attacks Mozgov again in the pick and roll, with Parker initiating a very high screen and driving right at him, getting the goaltend call.
After one more sequence, where a Kyrie turnover lead to a corner Danny Green transition three point attempt (Mozgov foul), CLE was forced to return Thompson to the lineup (with Love and Lebron quickly following suit).
In the fourth CLE for the most part, ran their usual offense, with Lebron in the high pick and roll.
http://imgur.com/WZyJBhH
This is SA’s defense at their absolute best. Unlike the pick and rolls shown in the first half, this one involves a great shooting big in Kevin Love. And accordingly, the SA defense is different. Kawhi hounds Lebron as close as he can without drawing a foul, maneuvering his body around the screen. And on both screen attempts, West doesn’t stay low like Duncan did earlier, he gets up and hedges Lebron, extending out his arm and bumping him so Kawhi can recover. Once Leonard does, West is scrambling back onto Love, taking away any passing lanes if he were to dive. The end result is again what SA is willing to give up, a contested long two.
This is part of what makes SA so great on defense; the ability to adjust so seamlessly depending on which opponents are involved in the play. Too many times we see teams, even good defensive ones, stick to one philosophy on defense, unable to, or perhaps, unwilling to switch it up to something more effective. Sometimes it’s a lack of communication, lack of practice time covering the play, or just a lack of personnel to do it (unfortunately not every team has a Kawhi Leonard).
But talking about adjustments, it wouldn’t be fair if we leave out Lebron’s own brilliance.
http://imgur.com/Ut6OXAT
After recognizing how SA is guarding the pick and roll in the previous few possessions, he makes them pay with this beautiful spin move back towards the middle, away from the pick, collapsing the SA defense and getting a high quality look for Thompson.
On the other end, SA’s singular goal seemed to be attack Kevin Love, getting him involved in every way they could imagine. I'm only showing two plays, but basically for the last 5 minutes of the game, it was find Kevin Love and make him play defense.
http://imgur.com/zmp9Vi6
This starts off with a very standard high screen and roll between Parker and Duncan. And While Love does a decent job of hedging on Parker, there is a lot of miscommunication on CLE’s end. Kyrie inexplicably switches onto Duncan while Love is expecting him to fight over the pick onto Parker again. Thus, he’s kind of caught in no man’s land when he looks to rotate back to Duncan, and realizes that Kyrie never had the intention of covering parker again, giving up a wide open mid-range jumper.
http://imgur.com/IzIM1SB
This is essentially the play that ices the win, sending it to a three possession game with just over half a minute remaining. This is a set play from SA’s flex offense, again designed to attack Love’s limited mobility. Parker initiates the play by dumping it to Duncan in the high post and immediately moves baseline to set a pick for Manu who curls towards the middle of the court. Parker’s pick is able to slow down JR Smith just enough to allow Manu to receive Duncan’s handoff cleanly. From here, Duncan now sets a second pick on Smith, forcing Love to switch onto Manu and contest the drive. On the weakside of the court, notice how Lamarcus clears up space by moving to the corner while Leonard remains at the three point arc. Lebron, reluctant to step away from the league's best three point shooter, gives no help to Love and Manu ends up with an easy layup going to his strong left hand.
Now, there’s no shame in being out-executed by SA, but there should be some alarm in the fact that they specifically targeted Love again and again down the stretch of the game, exploiting the holes in his defense. And perhaps more discouraging, CLE wasn’t really able to make SA pay on the opposite end by using his offensive talents (something that’s been a problem in his entire stint in CLE). He was able to connect on one open three pointer but outside of that, very little impact; nothing in the post or even the offensive glass.
And as I said earlier, I would’ve liked to see more Kyrie/Lebron pick and rolls, something we saw only once in the fourth; here:
http://i.imgur.com/BCAOriT.gifv
In this high pick and roll, you can see the reluctance that Kawhi has in leaving Lebron, only showing half-heartedly on Kyrie’s drive, doing little to slow his over progress in fear of Lebron rolling to the basket. And even though Kyrie misses this shot due to Duncan’s great contest, it freed up the opportunity for Thompson to get an offensive putback.
Overall the game was definitely competitive, and had all the feels of a standard playoff game; very slow and defensive oriented. It’s something that, on paper so far, would favor SA. But this is still too early in the season to make too much out of just one game. Lamarcus played abysmally, while Irving and Love were subpar at best. Pop is still figuring out his rotation (playing a total of 11 guys), specifically trying to assess who will be Kawhi’s primary backup Simmons or Anderson come playoff time. On the other end, Kyrie’s only been back for 10 games or so, and is clearly still rusty, especially his legs.
But some of what we learned in the game, are definitely going to come back again if these two teams are to meet in the finals. If CLE is to continue using Love in their crunch time rotations against SA, they’ll have to come up with a better job of helping him on defense while putting his skillset to better use on offense. Additionally, it’s hard to tell in just one game what the bench impact will be (especially since Mo was out this game), but over the course of a series, it becomes a much bigger factor. If CLE is unable to survive droughts with Jefferson and Mozgov in the game, are they forced to play Lebron even more minutes? I know it's easy to look off a a two or three minute stint here and there, but these are exactly the opportunities that GS captured last season in the finals; there is little reason to believe SA wouldn't do the same.
There’s still way too many questions to be answered or at least previewed to call this matchup in favor of either team yet. However, I do admit, that as of now, it seems that SA has the slightly upper hand, and it will be CLE that will have to adjust to match the Spurs.
Despite the fact that the NBA regular season is nearing its halfway mark, there have actually been very few matchups between the league’s top 4 teams (GS, SA, CLE, OKC). One was the season opener between SA and OKC. The only other two games have both involved CLE (home against OKC, at GS), one in which Kyrie didn’t play and one in which he just came back (same for Shumpert).
So last night’s game between CLE and SA, really marked the first time we were seeing two of the league’s best at (near) full strength. In addition, both were on 8+ game winning streaks and maybe most importantly, Pop actually decided to take this game seriously and didn’t punt it by resting some/all his starters.
So even though it’s just a regular season game, it at least gave us a sneak preview of what could possibly come in June. And what we got was exactly what I hoped for, a close wire to wire game that answered a ton of questions I had going into this thing. But there’s two that I wanted to focus on:
SA’s defense matching up against Kyrie and Lebron; They’re notorious for defending the pick and roll well so was CLE going to use more post ups or off ball screens/action to free up Kyrie and Lebron. How big of a factor was Love’s floor spacing going to be as SA likes to zone the paint on pick and rolls and ignore the flaring big man. More specifically, how well does SA defend against CLE three point shooting (3rd in makes, 7th in 3PT%) when Lebron and Kyrie inevitably do get into the paint.
Crunch time lineup and execution; what plays each team were looking for and how it was defended. Would SA stick with their big lineup of Duncan + Aldridge? Given the amount of 4th quarter minutes Love has sat in close games, how much was he going to be on the floor during money time? Do they replace him with Delly for defense?
The first quarter alone answered a decent amount of these questions. Let’s start what with was expected; SA’s philosophy on guarding Lebron remained unchanged; keeping Leonard as the primary defender while doing their best to keep him out of the paint. When they do help, it rarely comes off of shooters, with SA much more content to funnel Lebron towards helping bigs (Duncan) where the lane can get clogged and 2 defenders can guard three offensive players. It’s no secret that CLE role players are accustomed to wide open threes from Lebron penetration; a luxury that SA does its best to take away.
To counter, it was very interesting to see how much focus CLE put on getting Kawhi to switch off of Lebron through pick and rolls. I’m going to preface it by saying that no one person stops Lebron, especially over the course of a series if these two teams were to meet in the finals. But with that being said, I’m not sure if there’s any individual that does a better job on him than Kawhi. He’s done it for years now, and tonight was no exception; getting the better of Lebron on two of their rare one on one encounters in the first quarter.
http://imgur.com/x1gry7k
In this first sequence, the Cavs call for an isolation on the post for Lebron. The spacing is about as good as you can get; the complete left side of the court free for Lebron to operate. And this right here, is where having Kawhi Leonard is the difference. As Lebron squares up, SA is content to not double, trusting that Kawhi can do a good enough job by himself. At the same time though, notice Parker and Aldridge both creeping off their man just a step, ready to help if needed. The end result is a very difficult angled hook shot for Lebron.
http://imgur.com/gsoC5mX
This second sequence happens just minutes later, Cleveland runs a one-three high pick and roll with Lebron and Delly, with the sole intention of trying to switch Mills onto Lebron. But as you can see from the video, Patty does a great job of hedging out on the pick and roll, forcing Lebron to move much further to the right that he intended, allowing Leonard the time to catch up. As Delly comes back to try it again, SA applies the same effort, with Mills slowing Lebron down just enough so Kawhi can regain defensive position as he drives to the hoop. The rest is all Leonard playing picture perfect defense; staying with Lebron every step of the way until he’s able to use his long arms to get the block, igniting the fast break.
On the flip side, when CLE was able to get a switch for Lebron , there needs to more of these sequences:
http://imgur.com/mueIa3T
And less of these:
http://imgur.com/s14YKGA
In both high pick and roll plays, neither big man (Mozgov and Thompson) is really a threat from the outside, allowing for Duncan to lay low on the screen and zone the paint, with the objective of keeping Lebron out. The rest of the Spurs are staying home on shooters, essentially making this a simplified 2 on 2 game.
In the first sequence, Lebron’s much more assertive, recognizing the singular advantage that he has over Duncan, taking him off the dribble and having the elevation needed to finish over the top. But in the second clip, he disappointingly bails them out with a long jumper after fighting so hard to get the switch. It’s especially puzzling considering the success he had from the previous play. The Spurs defense is way too good for these opportunities to be wasted like this.
Lebron is just one of a handful of players who can finish this play with regular success; a testament to both his skillset and physical gifts. Here’s a nearly identical sequence with Kyrie in the pick and roll.
http://imgur.com/X7DzTPa
Again, Duncan zones the paint, giving up any pull up opportunities to Kyrie in exchange for the ability to protect the rim. SA stays home on shooters and Irving ends up making pretty much the same play as Lebron, with the biggest difference being the fact that he’s about 6 inches shorter, making this shot much more difficult.
And this, this is the meat of the SA defense. It’s something I went into more detail here, but it bears repeating, SA’s main objective is to protect the paint and easy threes, opting to give up as many long twos as you want.
One thing I did notice Cleveland having success with was involving pick and rolls with Lebron as the big.
http://imgur.com/rq3BPJS
This first one is with Kyrie as the ball handler. Parker does his job correctly by funneling Irving baseline, but because the roll man is Lebron, Leonard doesn’t have the luxury of staying low and ICE-ing the side pick and roll, forced to stick to Lebron’s body as he sets the pick. This requires SA to send a third help defender to slide over (West), and gives Kyrie one of his few good looks at the basket all night.
http://imgur.com/n6415pp
In this second sequence, it involves Delly as the ball handler. And in a very rare occurrence, Kawhi is actually caught slightly out of position (he’s too high up, giving Lebron too much space to the rim). He recognizes this immediately, and slips the pick and roll, diving towards the hoop. Duncan would normally be in position to help any other big, but because of how quickly Lebron explodes to the basket, along with his finishing ability, he gets there slight late, giving up the layup.
Despite the success of playing Lebron off ball on these pick and rolls, CLE used it very sparingly throughout the game, something that I would’ve loved to see more of, especially considering Lebron’s passing ability out of double teams.
Most of the second and third quarters saw the Cavs continue to hold the lead, with the Spurs slowly chipping away with their trademark defense and better execution on offense. But it was the beginning of the fourth, that they grabbed control of the game, thanks to their bench.
They’ve been a monster all season, easily leading the league in bench differential and near the top at total bench points.
With Lebron resting, SA took advantage of CLE’s slower rotating bench.
http://imgur.com/sWsQTOW
The first clip is off a semi-transition rebound, where Kyle Anderson initiates a pick and roll with David West. The two defenders guarding the set are Jefferson and Mozgov, not exactly the two most reliable. Jefferson makes the mistake of leaving way too much room for the man CP3 once deemed “the 17 foot assassin” and gives up 2 points.
http://imgur.com/sVUKE8Y
In the very next play, SA attacks Mozgov again in the pick and roll, with Parker initiating a very high screen and driving right at him, getting the goaltend call.
After one more sequence, where a Kyrie turnover lead to a corner Danny Green transition three point attempt (Mozgov foul), CLE was forced to return Thompson to the lineup (with Love and Lebron quickly following suit).
In the fourth CLE for the most part, ran their usual offense, with Lebron in the high pick and roll.
http://imgur.com/WZyJBhH
This is SA’s defense at their absolute best. Unlike the pick and rolls shown in the first half, this one involves a great shooting big in Kevin Love. And accordingly, the SA defense is different. Kawhi hounds Lebron as close as he can without drawing a foul, maneuvering his body around the screen. And on both screen attempts, West doesn’t stay low like Duncan did earlier, he gets up and hedges Lebron, extending out his arm and bumping him so Kawhi can recover. Once Leonard does, West is scrambling back onto Love, taking away any passing lanes if he were to dive. The end result is again what SA is willing to give up, a contested long two.
This is part of what makes SA so great on defense; the ability to adjust so seamlessly depending on which opponents are involved in the play. Too many times we see teams, even good defensive ones, stick to one philosophy on defense, unable to, or perhaps, unwilling to switch it up to something more effective. Sometimes it’s a lack of communication, lack of practice time covering the play, or just a lack of personnel to do it (unfortunately not every team has a Kawhi Leonard).
But talking about adjustments, it wouldn’t be fair if we leave out Lebron’s own brilliance.
http://imgur.com/Ut6OXAT
After recognizing how SA is guarding the pick and roll in the previous few possessions, he makes them pay with this beautiful spin move back towards the middle, away from the pick, collapsing the SA defense and getting a high quality look for Thompson.
On the other end, SA’s singular goal seemed to be attack Kevin Love, getting him involved in every way they could imagine. I'm only showing two plays, but basically for the last 5 minutes of the game, it was find Kevin Love and make him play defense.
http://imgur.com/zmp9Vi6
This starts off with a very standard high screen and roll between Parker and Duncan. And While Love does a decent job of hedging on Parker, there is a lot of miscommunication on CLE’s end. Kyrie inexplicably switches onto Duncan while Love is expecting him to fight over the pick onto Parker again. Thus, he’s kind of caught in no man’s land when he looks to rotate back to Duncan, and realizes that Kyrie never had the intention of covering parker again, giving up a wide open mid-range jumper.
http://imgur.com/IzIM1SB
This is essentially the play that ices the win, sending it to a three possession game with just over half a minute remaining. This is a set play from SA’s flex offense, again designed to attack Love’s limited mobility. Parker initiates the play by dumping it to Duncan in the high post and immediately moves baseline to set a pick for Manu who curls towards the middle of the court. Parker’s pick is able to slow down JR Smith just enough to allow Manu to receive Duncan’s handoff cleanly. From here, Duncan now sets a second pick on Smith, forcing Love to switch onto Manu and contest the drive. On the weakside of the court, notice how Lamarcus clears up space by moving to the corner while Leonard remains at the three point arc. Lebron, reluctant to step away from the league's best three point shooter, gives no help to Love and Manu ends up with an easy layup going to his strong left hand.
Now, there’s no shame in being out-executed by SA, but there should be some alarm in the fact that they specifically targeted Love again and again down the stretch of the game, exploiting the holes in his defense. And perhaps more discouraging, CLE wasn’t really able to make SA pay on the opposite end by using his offensive talents (something that’s been a problem in his entire stint in CLE). He was able to connect on one open three pointer but outside of that, very little impact; nothing in the post or even the offensive glass.
And as I said earlier, I would’ve liked to see more Kyrie/Lebron pick and rolls, something we saw only once in the fourth; here:
http://i.imgur.com/BCAOriT.gifv
In this high pick and roll, you can see the reluctance that Kawhi has in leaving Lebron, only showing half-heartedly on Kyrie’s drive, doing little to slow his over progress in fear of Lebron rolling to the basket. And even though Kyrie misses this shot due to Duncan’s great contest, it freed up the opportunity for Thompson to get an offensive putback.
Overall the game was definitely competitive, and had all the feels of a standard playoff game; very slow and defensive oriented. It’s something that, on paper so far, would favor SA. But this is still too early in the season to make too much out of just one game. Lamarcus played abysmally, while Irving and Love were subpar at best. Pop is still figuring out his rotation (playing a total of 11 guys), specifically trying to assess who will be Kawhi’s primary backup Simmons or Anderson come playoff time. On the other end, Kyrie’s only been back for 10 games or so, and is clearly still rusty, especially his legs.
But some of what we learned in the game, are definitely going to come back again if these two teams are to meet in the finals. If CLE is to continue using Love in their crunch time rotations against SA, they’ll have to come up with a better job of helping him on defense while putting his skillset to better use on offense. Additionally, it’s hard to tell in just one game what the bench impact will be (especially since Mo was out this game), but over the course of a series, it becomes a much bigger factor. If CLE is unable to survive droughts with Jefferson and Mozgov in the game, are they forced to play Lebron even more minutes? I know it's easy to look off a a two or three minute stint here and there, but these are exactly the opportunities that GS captured last season in the finals; there is little reason to believe SA wouldn't do the same.
There’s still way too many questions to be answered or at least previewed to call this matchup in favor of either team yet. However, I do admit, that as of now, it seems that SA has the slightly upper hand, and it will be CLE that will have to adjust to match the Spurs.