English
Español
No two names, across sports, produce more tangible juice than Lakers and Celtics. A sold-out crowd, with an unusually large number of Boston fans, packed the building in anticipation of the annual matchup in downtown Los Angeles last Sunday.
LA wins the opening tip, and the ball finds its way into Luka Dončić’s hands. Right away, big man Deandre Ayton sets his customary high ball screen, while the Celtics counter with a deep drop. It’s a defensive coverage that has plagued the team all season, and something the team will need to find answers for.
Luka comes off the pick with a wide amount of space, staring at a big man sitting in the paint, and a pull-up jumper whispering to him like the green goblin mask. Boston’s guard defender does his job chasing, and Luka drives and steps back for the contested long two, taking the bait.
He would go on to shoot 1-11 from two-point range on shots outside the restricted area.
The Celtics controlled the entire game and went on to rout the home team, a worrisome trend against physical defenses.
“There were opportunities, I think, to put more pressure on the rim,” head coach J.J. Redick said postgame. “Particularly in the first half, we took 11 non-paint twos. We were 13-29 on non-paint twos. That’s not normally what we shoot.”
Many teams across the league play this defensive style, but a few lean into it as their ethos. Namely, Boston, Phoenix, Portland, and San Antonio, which centers paired with physical guards that cater to this style.
Heading into Thursday’s matchup against the Suns, the Lakers, with the 10th-best offense in the league, were posting an abysmal 107.5 offensive rating against those four teams. That mark would rank last in the league by a mile.
This coverage doesn’t just give up halfway-decent looks from midrange, but it invites them. The objective is to keep a pick-and-roll defense a two-on-two game. The guard chases and gives back pressure, while the big man sits back and accounts for any rolling big or attack to the rim.
Watch below as Austin Reaves comes up to run the high ball screen with Jaxson Hayes. The floor is flattened out to maximize space with Luka and LeBron James on opposite wings.
Navigating against the back pressure, Reaves gets into the middle of the floor, where no advantage was created to kick the ball out. After overpenetrating to the rim, he uses a pump fake to draw a foul to no avail before forcing a twirling shot that falls short.
Watch below as the Celtics apply the same defensive scheme to Luka.
He catches it against ball denial, comes off the screen and eyes the big man in retreat. Ayton rolls while every other Laker remains stationary. No pass reveals itself, leading Luka to force up a contested floater that finds the bottom.
“I think a lot of times when teams are on that deeper drop versus us, all our guys that play pick and roll, it kind of puts you a little bit in a bind of not having the obvious choice to pass,” Redick said. “So we just got to do a better job of finding guys and moving the ball.
Reaves, LeBron, and Luka can hit these shots on high volume, but it’s a trade the Celtics and other great defenses will continue to make: Bait LA’s ball handlers into high-volume twos while keeping the rest of the team uninvolved.
As with every defensive scheme, it is susceptible to open shots with some adjustments.
One is a pick-and-pop threat. With the big man dropped back, it creates space for the pop guy to be open. Watch below as LeBron runs the screen and roll with Rui Hachimura.
Nikola Vučević does his job dropping back, but there’s too much space to recover as Hachimura nails the three.
Another is relying on their offensive-leaning center. Ayton was signed this summer as an elite pick-and-pop threat from mid-range. That shot has precipitously dropped not just in percentage, but also in volume.
In the month of February, Ayton has shot his lowest amount of field goals and has taken one mid-range jumper in seven games. He recently made comments of his disdain of how he’s been deployed on offense, but the team will need high levels of production from their starting center to win these games against contenders.
Also, some of these pull-ups and jump shots will have to go down to make defenses honest. Luka and Reaves continue to lead the league in scoring as a duo, and their shooting is a pivotal feature of the Lakers’ offense.
It has not had the efficiency required to beat the great teams, and LeBron is shooting just 29% from 3-point range in the new year.
“When teams play the deep drop, we have our counters,” Redick said. “Sometimes when the ball is changing ends quickly, it’s easy to just get into drag after drag.. I took ownership of that.”
Teams have scouted the Lakers’ initial drag screens and preliminary actions. With not much time remaining, how these counters are implemented will decide if they go home early for the third straight year.
You can follow Raj on Twitter at @RajChipalu