Update on J.R. Smith’s three-point bonanza: WFNY Stats & Info
February 2, 2015Johnny Manziel enters treatment
February 2, 2015This edition of the Cavalier Film Room, we’re going to cover the defensive improvement of the wine and gold. The most clear change in defensive strategy made during the current nine-game winning streak has been how the team is defending the middle of the floor and specifically high pick-and-rolls. With a rim protector successfully acquired in Timofey Mozgov, the Cleveland Cavaliers can now funnel dribble penetration toward him in an effort to better protect the middle and challenge and alter shots.
To dissect, we’re going to dive into last week’s victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, who got a star performance from LaMarcus Aldridge but dealt with shooting struggles from Damian Lillard.
Let’s start with a sequence that didn’t go as planned where the Cavaliers fell back into bad habits. Simply put, the drastic change for the Cavs in their defensive approach has been their angle on the high ball screen. Letting the offensive player get into the middle of the paint with a head of steam is almost certain death for a defense.
Here’s a transition scenario where Lillard is allowed to get middle.
Matthew Dellavedova doesn’t pick up Lillard early enough, allowing him to get a head of steam going. Delly seems to be expecting Iman Shumpert to cut off Lillard’s middle avenue as the new strategy would dictate. Because of that assumption, Shumpert drifts away to pick up another runner in the fastbreak and the middle is wide open for Lillard. He slices in and draws contact to head to the foul line.
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Granted, the strategy isn’t always going to work, but what you hope is that more often than not, it will yield less favorable outcomes for the offense. Take for instance this set where Nicolas Batum is guarded by J.R. Smith.
Notice how Smith gets parallel to the sideline, inviting Batum to take it down the left side of the court. This accomplishes two things. For one, obviously, it makes Batum have to try to make a move with his weaker left-hand dribble. Secondly, it protects the paint and gives the dribble drive a less favorable angle on his trip to the hoop.
Kaman floats out to set the pick toward the middle, but Smith is already overplaying it so much that Batum can’t possibly use Kaman’s help. Smith travels with Batum almost tracing the boundary of the key with Mozgov shuffling in position, sagging on Kaman.
The smart thing Portland did here was take both big men out of the paint for a quasi-five out look. With everybody on the perimeter, it made an easy slip bounce pass back to Kaman for a jumper. Smith does recover just a second late but is able to at least throw a hand up to contest. Still, I’d rather have Chris Kaman taking somewhat-contested 15-foot jumpers than Batum driving into the middle of the paint. It’s a tradeoff that Portland wins in this sequence.
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The wine and gold have looked downright pathetic in transition defense this year at times, but this strategy of defending against the pick and roll and top of the key action aids that.
Will Barton pushes the fastbreak for the Blazers, guarded by Mike Miller. This is a terribly uneven matchup. Barton should be able to put one move on the athletically limited at this point in his career Miller and get to the rack. Notice how Miller employs the strategy though, shuffling up to render Kaman’s screen ineffective. Barton chooses the open lane and is met by Mozgov.
Miller does a little bit better job of pinching Barton once he gets down to Mozgov, which forces a corner kickout. Kyrie Irving’s sitting right on that route though, and he knocks away the pass as the Cavs recover it and start up the floor the other way.
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The real test of a defense is usually when things don’t go exactly according to the coaching script and one must instinctively react to a situation on the fly using the principles they’ve learned. Here’s a really positive scramble drill by the Cavs, if you will.
The ball starts out top with Irving covering Lillard. Damian dribbles to the left wing, where Barton sets a pick for him. Irving, however, gets low and in a great defensive position, opening the route for Lillard to take it toward the sideline rather than the middle. Again, it’s a win for the defense already in that regard.
Miller, who had Barton, is there to stay between Lillard and the rim, influencing him to the baseline where he has no shot. The ball quickly goes from Lillard to Kaman at the high post, covered by Mozgov. Kaman knows that Miller has left Barton to help on Lillard and is out of position, so it’s a quick bounce back to Barton.
Here’s where the real growth is. Mozgov instead of letting Barton get an open look or waiting for one of his fellow Cavaliers to miraculously get back goes out on his own to contest. Even Mozgov uses the same approach, keeping him out of the middle and making him go left. Kyrie Irving sets up for the charge, takes it, and it’s Cavs ball going the other way.
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This time, we’ll see the Cavs influence not go as originally desired but still work out. Lillard gets the ball out top, guarded by Iman Shumpert. Shumpert wants Lillard to go left, but the pick set by Meyers Leonard is a good one, hip-checking Shumpert and giving Lillard passage on the right.
The pick forces Shumpert to swivel his hips and recover. He traces Lillard down the outline of the key once again, and Mozgov is right there waiting to challenge the shot. Of course, he has given up on Leonard out top, but a Leonard jumper is a much more favorable outcome than a Lillard drive. Mozgov puts up a wall, and Irving actually comes in and slaps the ball away and out of bounds.
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Finally, we look at another Lillard transition chance. Dame is picked up Shumpert with Mozgov lurking. Shumpert probably waits a little too long to check Lillard as he gets all the way to the three-point line before being closely guarded.
Aldridge tries to screen toward the middle, but Lillard goes opposite. Mozgov again shuffles down the lane, and even though Lillard gets a step and is able to get his shot off, it’s off-balance and an up-and-under move at the rim. Many times, it’s not about the shot blocks as much as it is about the shots altered. That’s true in this case for Mozgov and the Cavaliers.
So, how much of a difference has Timofey Mozgov’s arrival made for the Cavaliers? Let’s chew on a couple of these stats.
Mozogv (last 10 games):
26.5 MPG, 20.4 opponent points in the paint (21.5 MPG, 20.2 OPITP with him off court)
Team (last 10 games):
The Cavaliers have the 8th worst defensive rating in the league at 105.3 (per 100 possessions). In the last ten games, however, that number has dipped to 101.6, which would be 12th best based on season totals.
The Cavaliers allow 43.3 OPP PITP on the season (T-8th worst). In the last ten, it has dipped to 40.6, which doesn’t sound like much. However, it takes them from their current ranking of T-8th worst to 11th best when compared against season totals.
As you can see, the results are there during this winning steak. The Cavs and Mozgov are challenging more shots better, and they are putting up more resistance on pick-and-roll opportunities. The beautiful thing is the Cavs need only be an average defensive team when they have an offensive arsenal like theirs.
Until next time, the film room is closed!
6 Comments
Great work, Kirk, love this stuff.
In addition to their changed approach to the high screens and the increased effort of Kyrie and overall hustle, Mozgov’s combo of height, strength and lateral movement changes everything. Z had as good or better reach to alter shots, but couldn’t come close to sliding with his bad feet like in your last two examples. Andy can slide and hustle into position but he’s significantly smaller and weaker.
This guy has just enough of these traits that he’d be a great asset to any team, making me wonder just how much it will take to sign him after next year. Cavs may rue the day they gave Andy that extension, and in retrospect it’s difficult to see why it was even necessary given his age and injury history.
Love what Z 2.0 brings and that’s a big man who isn’t afraid to throw his weight around defensively. He was literally being physically assaulted by Pekovic against Minnesota. Also loved seeing TT come in for Mozgov and use his skills. The duo of Mozgov/Thompson has been fantastic so far.
also, there was a shot of Mozgov celebrating a play at the end of the Minny game which proves, without the aid of an expert lipreader, that his English includes a potty mouth. Little bit of grit there.
He wasn’t saying “vacuum?”
Great stuff. At the Blazers game it was hard not to notice some of the above. There was definitely a frustration in that the Blazers did do a good job of taking what the Cavs would give them, such as those 15-footers by big men, by passing well and hitting many of them – but like you said, you’d rather give a team that than easy drives or 3s, both of which the Cavs did a good job on.
There were some times where a player or two would look lost (usually Love) or rotate a bit late, but for the most part they did a good job of forcing the Blazers into corners or non-ideal or rushed shots. One piece that perhaps you could give insight on is that it looked like the Cavs have a couple of extra pieces in their D that are interesting: They’ll press a bit to force the shot clock down before the team gets set (though only Delly, Shump, and maybe JR would do this) and since the Blazers were doing so much passing around the rotation it sometimes forced a hurried shot at the end of the clock; and that also, when the shot clock is at 5 or less, you’ll see any Cav jump out to double or press someone to force a violation, which I thought was brilliant. (And if I recall correctly Blatt talked before the season about pushing the ball up on O and pressing on D to take advantage of the shot clock and what it lets teams do.) Was I imagining this or do they do this?
I agree about pressing the point. You don’t see it a ton in the NBA because point guards are typically so good at handling the ball, but if you’re only planning to play Shump for 15 minutes and Delly for 10, why not have them expend some energy in burning a few seconds off of the shot clock? It was frustrating watching Aldridge bail out the Blazers but hitting a turn-around mid-range jumper with 1 second left on the clock, but that’s LA. He’s going to burn you from the mid-range. You really do have to pick your poison with the Blazers.