Fat Qiang | Recap of the real cause of the Lakers' defensive rout against the 76ers Defensive adjustments to the Great are the real countermeasures
The text continues from the previous one.
As we mentioned in the last part, Philadelphia defeated the Lakers on both offensive and defensive ends in the last game - first strangled the Lakers' offense in the first quarter with a 2-3 joint defense, and as the offensive end hit a wall one after another, the Lakers began to be affected on the defensive end and gradually exposed problems.
In this game, let's talk about the Lakers' weaknesses and strategic mistakes on the defensive end against the 76ers.
Speak directly with the game.
In the opening stage, the Lakers' most basic alignment and strategy were exposed.
This round is typical, and you can clearly see that when Embiid gets the ball in a high position in the elbow area, the Lakers' approach is to immediately come and wrap it up.
What does this mean? It shows that they don't have confidence in Davis's defense of Embiid alone — especially for fear that Embiid will cause Davis to foul — so they want to force Embiid to play as soon as possible.
Their original idea was for Christie to wrap the bag, Prince to defend Maxey, and let the ball move to Harris or even Batum. (Forcing the ball out of the opponent's core and forcing the opponent to move the ball more is a correct defensive strategy)
But that strategy failed from the start — Embiid was out too fast. Almost without stopping the ball, he found Maxi.
In fact, Embiid has been on a roll, and his ability to handle the ball when encountering a bag in focused training has improved a lot every year. And this year, under the transformation of Nas, it has reached a new peak:
At present, Embiid is second only to Jokic in assists of all interior players in the league, higher than Sabonis Jr. and Shin Jing, and when the frequency of handling the ball has skyrocketed compared to last season, Embiid can still control the turnover rate at a level second only to Jokic - enough to see his current passing skills.
Keep watching.
It was Embiid's elbow zone just now, and this round is Embiid's free-throw line response.
In this round, Philadelphia played a bull horn screen tactic, Maxey first used Embiid to cover and cut in, and was defended by Christie, then gave Harris a cover cut and quick release, and was defended again, and then went out to the top of the arc, first picked up Batum to cover no chance, and then played a hand-to-hand with Embiid and finally scored.
It was a round full of Jamal Murray's déjà vu.
(Christie has done a good job, but Maxey is the one who has run the longest offensive end in the league, according to the stats.) ）
A problematic problem for the Lakers on the court — what do you do when Embiid dribbles directly from the backcourt to the middle of the frame?
In the first half, the Lakers resorted to letting Davis solve the problem alone, but Davis couldn't withstand Embiid, who was getting up to speed.
The Lakers also took the approach of letting Beverley (around the cover from the bottom line) in an attempt to test the 76ers' projection.
But alas, the test failed.
Ham then tried to limit Embiid with a joint defense, only to lose a backcourt rebound.
(In this lineup, one Davis takes four players with the lowest rebounding rate in the same position)
Then after Christie went off the court, Maxey began beating Prince like every outside ball carrier this season — and Prince's "Meet the All-Union Guards" series began.
Davis pounced and Hayes continued to lose rebounds.
Of course, in some times when they didn't drop rebounds, the Lakers' "twin towers" combination had a good effect on limiting Embiid.
(But alas, the Lakers didn't use the twin towers more in the future)
At the beginning of the second quarter, Maxey continued to beat Prince. Prince couldn't keep up at all in terms of speed.
Then the Lakers put up a joint defense again - terrible joint defense, and the 76ers only need one burst to get a chance at a 45-degree angle.
On the one hand, the Lakers' joint defense is poorly flexible, and on the other hand, the 76ers' three-point accuracy, you can review how difficult it was for the Lakers to attack the 76ers' joint defense in the previous article (because they couldn't shoot).
Then the Lakers changed their defensive style.
They started to pinch Maxi - but the consequence was to be punished by Maxi for his shots.
In just two minutes, the 76ers quickly scored points, and almost all of them were activated and blossomed in more points. The margin quickly widened to 20 points.
Then the Lakers stopped wrapping up and replaced Christie to try to save the game, but the 76ers were in a completely hot state - can they stop it?
Philadelphia also found a way to attack the Lakers' twin towers - Wood likes to retreat and defend Embiid directly charged and lunged, and Wood paid for a foul.
The Lakers switched back to Davis, and Embiidra hit a three-pointer from the high post.
Embiid Maxey turned the two, Embiid's crotch passed the ball and flew up, and Maxey hit again.
The Lakers' defense was completely broken.
And in the second half, it turned into Embiid's personal show.
The inside line should be strong and eat thick eyebrows.
The high post should pull the thick eyebrows out and assist Maxi to cut in.
Dribbling to the front court and lowering the center of gravity -- it means, "Are you going to protect Davis? ”
The Lakers shrank and split the ball straight - Melton hit two three-pointers in a row.
45 degrees without shrinking, the back went straight to the inside, Prince came up to wrap the clip, and leaked Batum behind him. (Prince's off-ball air defense cut awareness has been catastrophic)
The elbow area doesn't shrink either?okay, Davis second foul.
After the second offense, of course, you have to take advantage of the victory to chase after - the low post again needs to play a thick eyebrow to score - not to wrap up, Embiid will take the thick eyebrows at will.
Okay, Davis' third offense.
At this point, the game is effectively over.
Summary and countermeasures
This is my post-match tweet.
Obviously, the Lakers' loss in this game was not just due to poor offensive defense and inaccurate three-point shooting - in fact, the 76ers did not use joint defense again in the second half, and the three-point shooting of Lakers Prince and others also improved.
The reason why the Lakers still lost the game by a large score is actually because of the defense - their leaders, especially the second-team leaders, are really poor, and the lack of targeting for Embiid has led to the 76ers' duo doing whatever they want on the court.
Let me tell you what I think about "what to do".
There's not much to say about Maxey's defense, Christie is actually doing well, and the key is Prince in the second team - when Vincent, Vanderbilt, and Reddish return, this problem no longer exists.
The key is to defend Embiid - actually, I think the Lakers' brief two-tower mistake at the end of the first quarter was actually quite desirable, but there were a few details (rebounding) that needed to be highlighted.
The correct defensive set-up I think is about:
Take Wood/Hayes/Hachimura against Embiid, don't shrink inside and watch Embiid dribble past half court, but stick to the defense earlier to prevent Embiid from getting up to his dessert zone;
Davis is always ready to help defend while covering one side of the corner, while James covers the other (against Harris and Batum, respectively);
Reddish/Vincent/Vanderbilt against Maxey to strengthen the lead, but also to improve the area coverage (which allows for better interference after shrinking) and defend against air cuts, and finally Russell/Reeves against Melton.
The goal is to reduce the number of Embiid and Maxey who can score directly or create opportunities with a single pass in this game - allowing the 76ers to move the ball more on the offensive end, and also allowing Embiid to break through more, thereby disrupting the rhythm of the 76ers.
Hopefully, this defeat will give Hamm some "lessons from the past" and let's look forward to the next meeting between the two teams.