Danny Salazar Recalled from Triple-A
April 18, 2015So It Begins… Cavaliers-Celtics Game 1: Behind the Box Score
April 19, 2015As we get ready to kick off the Cleveland Cavaliers’ pursuit of the Larry O’Brien trophy on Sunday afternoon at The Q, I wanted to cover one last theme before the Cavs and Celtics tip-off. At times, the Cavaliers get a little excessive when it comes to switching on high ball screens involving a guard and a big. One perfect example of this was the night of Kyrie Irving’s 57-point performance against the Spurs. In that game, Tony Parker splashed in 31 of his own on 15-of-23 shooting. When you see some of the looks that Parker gets in the following clips, you can see how this strategy may become problematic against Parker or other elite point guards in the postseason. Let’s get right to it.
In this early game look, Tony Parker gets a pair of staggered screens from Tiago Splitter and Tim Duncan going right from the left wing. Splitter sets his screen completely beyond the three-point line, giving Parker much more room to operate. Duncan’s screen is meant to be staggered and delayed, on the chance that Irving gets through the first one.
Love starts on Duncan, but picks up Splitter on the roll to the hoop. The biggest flaw here is that nobody pops out to show against Parker and force him to stop or head back in the other direction. Irving gets completely taken out of the play and takes his time getting back into it. This is not Kyrie’s finest moment in a year that he has made great strides on defense.
Mozgov is forced to pick up Parker, but Mozgov’s stength is not guarding a quick guard in space. He over-pursues to cut off Parker’s right handed drive and leaves Parker to take an uncontested 14-foot jumper in the middle of the paint. The Spurs’ offensive spacing prevents anybody else from helping in this situation.
In the next sequence, the switch occurs in the corner where Matt Bonner sets the screen and Love shows and then picks up Parker. Love gets credit for properly showing, but Irving needs to fight through that screen more effectively with Love showing to prevent a drive and then recovering to Bonner, a spot-up shooter, in the corner.
Love is in pretty good position to fight over the top of Duncan’s pick, but Parker wisely goes opposite of the screen, beating Love with his superior foot speed. Once that switch is made, there’s nothing you can tactically do except provide slack and allow the mid-range jumper as shown previously. To me, it’s why the Cavalier guards must work tirelessly to get over the top of the screens or fight underneath them, depending on the matchup.
Next, we’ll see a couple of crunch-time possessions with the Cavaliers’ best big man switch candidate, Tristan Thompson, put on the spot. With Iman Shumpert now covering Parker, Duncan flashes to screen on Shumpert’s left. Shumpert slides over the top of that attempted pick, but once again, Parker is wise enough to go opposite of the action and force Thompson to pick him up.
Thompson moves his feet and shakes a couple cuts from Parker. When Parker pulls up, Tristan slides out quickly and gives a true shot contest. While the shot goes in, this was much better defense than the two previous clips that were an uncontested mid-range shot in the middle of the floor and a layup with trailing help. Thompson compares favorably to Anderson Varejao from a few years ago in that he’s one of the better switch candidates around the league in terms of being athletic enough to pull it off consistently.
We see the same thing unfold on the next trip down the floor with Shumpert fighting over top of the Duncan screen and Parker going left and away from the pick. Again, Tristan cuts off Parker’s right, but as Parker goes left, Tristan is confident enough to stay closer to him this time.
When Parker’s shot goes up, it is only after all of his forward momentum is gone. He does a stepback and pulls up from nearly the corner and about 18 feet away. Parker misses the shot, and the Cavaliers rebound in a huge sequence that would lead to the wine and gold sending this game to overtime. This is absolutely a shot you can live with any day of the week against the Spurs. It was a two-pointer, it was contested, it didn’t allow the Spurs to flex their strength of moving the ball for a layup or dunk, and it didn’t affect the defensive balance of the team. For example, a mid-ranger that was contested by multiple players could throw the rebounding scheme off, but that doesn’t happen here, and the Cavaliers are able to grab the miss.
Finally, we take a look at Love getting caught in the middle when his man, Boris Diaw, screens for Parker. This time, it’s on the left wing for the right-handed Parker, who uses the pick on Shumpert to attack the middle.The screen is set so low that going underneath it as Shumpert does is problematic.
Notice also here how Love gets caught in the middle. Because he doesn’t aggressively show and sort of hovers for a second before going out to contest Parker, he arrives too late to truly affect Parker’s sight line for the shot.
In the final three plays, you’ll also notice that the rim protector Mozgov is nowhere to be found. The Cavaliers defense is at its best when they’re funneling dribble penetration out of the middle, down one side of the floor, and right into Mozgov’s arms. With this lineup of Thompson and Love, the rim protection isn’t the same.
Parker’s not an elite mid-range shooter by any stretch, but if he catches fire (or any point guard in the postseason, for that matter), the Cavaliers may have to adjust with how much ease they choose to switch. When they’re playing with a smaller lineup and LeBron at the four, this is easier to do. However, with Love or Mozgov involved, you’re asking for a mid-range look or the guard sliding by the big in space. Tristan is really the only big I feel comfortable switching with so frequently, and even that has its own associated risks.
Looking at the stats, the Cavaliers have actually handled pick and roll situations quite well despite Parker exploiting them a bit in this game.
Defensively, they allowed just 0.76 points per possession on ball handlers in pick-and-roll situations, which ranks T-8th best. Teams use their possessions on this style of play 14.7% of the time, around league average. Some individual clips include Kyrie Irving (0.73 ppp), Iman Shumpert (0.79), and Matthew Dellavedova (0.79).
The Cavaliers have improved their defense drastically from January going forward. This strategy likely won’t hurt them against Isaiah Thomas, Marcus Smart, and Avery Bradley with the Celtics, and it would probably work against either Derrick Rose or Michael Carter-Williams in the second round. However, switching their big onto the pick and roll ball handler isn’t going to work against Steph Curry, James Harden, or Chris Paul, should the wine and gold be fortunate enough to make it far enough to see one of those players again this season.
Until next time, the film room is closed!
2 Comments
I know that Coach Blatt allows the bigs to decide whether or not they switch in these situations. I also know that they’ve been handling these situations a bit differently since acquiring Timo.
Good stuff, Kirk.
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