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In-depth analysis: The Dallas Mavericks have suddenly become a defensive team

preface:

Before starting this article, let's look at a set of statistics, the Dallas Mavericks achieved an 11-2 record throughout January, defensive efficiency of 98.8 all-league first, 9 of 13 games to limit the opponent's score to 100 points, 23 consecutive games to limit the opponent's shooting rate to less than 50%. Compared with last season's Lone Ranger's defensive efficiency of only 113.0, ranking 20th among 30 teams, in just one year, the Lone Ranger has changed from a team with poor defense to a top defensive team.

In-depth analysis: The Dallas Mavericks have suddenly become a defensive team

Strong execution, perfect pinch

This summer, the lone ranger's coach became Kidd, who has been an assistant coach for the Lakers in previous seasons and has also been a head coach at the Bucks and Nets. Kidd was an excellent defender as a player, and he won 4 best defensive firsts and 5 best defensive seconds in his career, which can be said to be the best defender in that era. And he also brought his defensive concept to the Lone Ranger, in the head coach period, Kidd was very fond of the strategy of pinch attack, but at that time Kidd never understood the timing of the pinch, after several years of experience, this problem has been solved by Kidd. Judging from Kidd's arrangement, the best time to pinch is the moment the ball holder takes the ball.

For example, in the previous game against the Warriors, when defending Curry's counterattack, the inside line was delayed in the midfield, and then the players defending Curry came up to pinch, so that the Warriors' rapid counterattack was disintegrated, forcing Curry to play the ball. But such a pinch is actually not so easy, it must require the athlete to have a very strong execution ability to be able to do, coincidentally the lone ranger players did it. Their rotation speed is very fast, including the inside players can also find their own defenders after the first time after the pinch. More importantly, the Lone Ranger is very thorough in the study of the opponent, knowing the weaknesses of the opponent, such as when playing the Warriors, they try to empty the Warriors' inner line as much as possible, because the Warriors have no stars on the inside line, and it is difficult to pose a threat. But playing the Grizzlies is different, after the big pinch, there will be a choice to empty the outside of the Grizzlies, because their overall shooting rate on the outside is not high. It's like Kidd's style, he has always been a brain-headed head coach, and it is the embodiment of Kidd's wisdom to let the player deliberately overturn his water cup to trick a pause.

In-depth analysis: The Dallas Mavericks have suddenly become a defensive team

Hoard the front line and adapt to the trend

Pat Riley once said that the best lineup in modern basketball is the five Jameses. This partly speaks to the help of the strikers to the team. Forward players are not only able to attack, but also are large enough to defend in five positions. Looking at the current Lone Ranger's roster list, there are as many as 3 players in the main force who are forward-guard swingers, and the team's two core interior lines, Porzingis and Powell, are the kind of interior lines with strong movement speed and jumping ability, and they can also do the forward thing.

The only short man on the team is Brunson, but his partner is Doncic, doncic's forward figure to play point guard, completely make up for Brunson's height shortcomings, especially the defensive end, Doncic can help Brunson defend, do not have to worry about the lack of height of the outside defense, not to mention That Brunson's defense is not bad at all, he is a power defender, the defensive ability is not false Bledsoe, but the attack is better than him. When the Warriors had Durant, the best way to restrain them was to change their defense indefinitely, and the Houston Rockets almost beat the Warriors in 2018, relying on their lineup.

Paul, Harden, Ariza, Gordon, Tucker, and now the Lone Ranger's offensive ability is not worthy of them, and the defensive end can even do better than them, especially the speed of infinite change of defense and assist defense is very fast, which is a killer move to restrain modern basketball. What's even more frightening is that the overall age structure of the Lone Rangers is biased towards younger, which means that they will not have physical weakness in the playoffs and can reduce the occurrence of injuries.

In-depth analysis: The Dallas Mavericks have suddenly become a defensive team

There are enough players on the front line, and a big advantage is the speed of co-defense. In the game against the Nuggets, Jokic played very badly, because when he got the ball in the low position, the Lone Ranger's co-defense players could immediately lean over to restrict him, although Jokic still cut 27 points, but the Nuggets lost 14 points, he scored a single no problem, but if he didn't score, it was a mistake, because the co-defense blocked his passing route and cut off his contact with his teammates, and Jokic only gave 3 assists in that game.

This is similar to the thinking of the Spurs defending James in 2014, you can cut as many points as James can, but you can't lead your teammates, and at that time, the Spurs also had excellent defensive resources, Green, Leonard, Duncan, so beat the Heat 4-1 to win the championship. Look at the current Lone Rangers, and then look at the current Lakers, the Lakers have almost no reliable front-line defenders, either old or weak, the other players are basically small guards, the Lakers' defense is the bottom of the league, which is the consequence of crazy hoarding of defenders. If you look closely at the Lakers' game, you will find that they have not even figured out the defense of the demolition, because there is no way to defend, it is the guard who changes over is a small play, and you do not change the three-point opportunity to come out. And the Lone Ranger is just because there are enough frontal players, whether it is a change of defense or a detour to explain the explanation is very clear, which is a bit like the Lakers in 2020.

In-depth analysis: The Dallas Mavericks have suddenly become a defensive team

epilogue

Being able to become a defensive team is not an overnight thing, and the Lone Rangers lost a lot of games in order to build a defensive system at the beginning of the season. Now they have found the right way to defend, and the team's record is gradually improving. "Defense wins championship" has always been the same truth, the current Lone Ranger has the temperament of a champion on the defensive end, but Kidd's current offensive cards are not enough, once the cards in Kidd's hand are rich, the Lone Ranger is not far from the championship.

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