On paper | 15 shots to analyze the special ace tactics of the Thunder Hope Star in the high-end round

Little Little Chick MJ

2024-05-18 13:43Posted in Beijing Sports Creators

Let's talk about the Thunder and Mavericks series.

I haven't written it before, but in this article, we combine some representative pictures of G5 to systematically talk about the offensive and defensive logic of the entire group of duels.

The beginning of G5 is actually quite dangerous for the Lone Ranger, let's take a look at the above two rounds -

After Daigneault's "PUA" press conference several times, he finally removed Giddey and replaced Joe as the starter. With this, the Mavericks' first-hand misalignment defense principle, which is that Gafford [right but not defensive] Giddey, guarding the basket under the basket will no longer be able to use.

At the same time, when Holmgren returned to the opposite position with Gafford instead of PJ Washington, he and Alexander covered the back of the outside shot, grabbed Gafford and lowered the weak delay to protect the basket first, such a space advantage was reflected -

Immediately, Holmgren's first shot in the opening game was a three-point shot at the top of the arc, which was completely empty; At this time, Gafford cowered in the paint area, ready to ambush Alexander;

The second touch was to clear Alexander's space for a second break after leading Gafford to the bottom corner of the weak side. Thus seized a half-empty opportunity to take advantage of the contraction of the Lone Ranger after the breakthrough, resulting in the bottom corner Joe-

At this point, the Thunder started the game with everything they wanted after adjusting their starters:

Holmgren's spatial attributes against Gafford in the match, Joe's punishment in the weak bottom corner, and the long-range shots from the perimeter after SGA and Jalen, who relied on the Thunder's positional battle, took turns to break down the defense.

These three points are all achieved at the beginning; While the Thunder blasted out a wave of 8-2, it was a very dangerous signal for the Mavericks.

Let's take a look at Kidd's subsequent defensive response, which was also the best part of the game:

The Mavericks' defensive logic is divided into two scenarios:

The first scenario is when the SGA counterpart, usually Jones, can get past him to ensure that his defensive position is in front of him when he is covered, then option one is used. That is, at this time, there is no change of defense between the No. 5 position, and the original arrangement of the counterpoint logic is maintained, but on the breakthrough path of the SGA, a wide range of near-side defense and card swiping are used to block the breakthrough route——

For example, in the position of Josh Green in the picture, he is emptying Jalen Williams, who has a certain outside accuracy in the bottom corner. At the same time, because the threat of outside long-range shooting at the No. 5 position is still there, on the premise of retaining the center not to overpenetrate the inside basket, the player on the weak side resolutely shrinks the basket under the basket in a large area.

Even if this is against Dort's Owen, his height is difficult to interfere with at the critical point of the basket; But at the very least, Kidd's goal is to make the inside line as crowded as possible; At the very least, you can have an extra hand when it comes to protecting rebounds.

At this point, the Mavericks' first plan formed such a logic: Josh Green's near-side pinching, strong defense, and even we can find that the Mavericks often directly empty the bottom corner to stand in the position of the horns - the purpose is to block Alexander's first layer of breakthrough, in other words, so that he can't get up, can't go deep into the hinterland of positional warfare, and can't disrupt the defense line deeper.

As I just said, one of the underlying logic of the Thunder's positional battle is to rely on continuous breakouts and cooperate with the group of pitchers outside the 5 to overwhelm the defenders. So the purpose of the Lone Ranger's strategy is to dismantle the Thunder's most accustomed way of breaking positions from the beginning.

So from Dort's point of view, it reveals a point that Kidd has been emphasizing throughout this set of series -

Treat the Thunder's true 5 as a false 5 outside defense: in terms of shooting percentage, Jalen Williams made 42.7% of three-pointers in the regular season, Dort 39.4%, and Joe 41.6%; They have a large group of elite-level three-point shooters, at least in terms of shooting percentage, and the Thunder ranked first in the league in three-point shooting percentage during the regular season.

In other words, from the logical point of view of numbers, the two bottom corners of the Thunder can punish the opponent's shrinking and defensive strategies. But Kidd's game is equivalent to splitting the Thunder's positional warfare offense into two parts:

The first layer is the main attacker and the role shooter when Alexander and Jalen Williams hold the ball;

The second layer is whether when the position is initiated, whether it is to break through the development attack to the individual finish to complete the attack, or to break through the development attack to the peripheral shooter to complete the attack;

Kidd chose to pinch the former strictly, blocking the star core when holding the ball, and letting go of the latter to give space to the character shooters.

But this is only the execution of the strategy, and the framework of the Kidd tactical board; To put it bluntly, Kidd is gambling, he is gambling. But there are some variables in this –

Still looking at this shot, Alexander's first breakthrough, Josh Green contracted to force it to stop, and at this time there were three defenders in front of Alexander, blocking all three breakthrough routes on the front, left and right. Alexander's second breakthrough was still the same routine, and he was still forced to stop.

This is the underlying logic. But we have to pay attention to the fact that the Mavericks' defensive rotation is quite good, whether it is the timing and position of returning to the position after assisting the defense, leaving the Thunder with a semi-empty position that can be shot or not; The timing and speed of the defense and the change of defense on the move are quite beautiful.

What gave the Thunder in the end of this round was a chance for Aaron Wiggins to break through Doncic; It is still to let go of the distal end to contract. After the Thunder gave the corner, Jones' return speed and position control were very good. This is where the Lone Ranger does a particularly good job.

It's also the quality they rely on when they need to maintain this defensive logic consistently; Otherwise, in the face of the Thunder's sudden points and so many sudden points, it is very easy to make mistakes in rotation, and the defense is very easy to be defeated.

This is the Lone Ranger's own aspect, and the Thunder himself has some problems, mainly in terms of experience-

Two words to describe it are "hesitation".

Len Williams, as the second main attacker, was too hesitant to handle the ball, not only dangling outside the three-point line and trying to shoot non-shots, but also breaking through slowly after shaking, and even a few rounds could clearly see that he didn't think about which side to break through from in advance, "where to hit it"; Or is it the character shooter who becomes afraid to shoot in a half-empty situation and turns to break through.

Admittedly, the Thunder's advantage in the regular season is that everyone on the court can handle the ball, and everyone can shoot from the outside; After shaking it again, he can hit the inside line and create a complete big vacancy. But in the high-end game, non-elite-level breakthrough ability cannot survive, and this is a disguised waste of the semi-empty space created for them by SGA.

In this way, it became what we said at the beginning, Kidd treated these young children as a pseudo-5 way to prevent them.

The same is true for Holmgren. His basket protection, perimeter threat and some ball-handling offense in the first round did far exceed expectations of him playing the playoffs in his first season. But in the high-end game, when Holmgren gave up his long-range shooting from the outside and dribbled to play Lively and Gafford with flexibility, we could see what he still needs to practice in the future.

So, in such a clear-handed situation, Daigneault's follow-up adjustment, in addition to tightening the rotation, is to pour some ecstasy soup into these new recruits, just like Kidd did with PJ Washington and Jones - to make them resolute not to hesitate anymore.

Oh yes, and another optimization for Thunder Positional Battles is that you don't have Dort play so many long-cut and dodge screens on the line between Alexander. Although the original intention was to pull Doncic to the line and do some roll call attrition.

But after the last round of the Mavericks, when facing this kind of cover, especially when Dort was still a point abandoned in the Mavericks' strategy, Dongzi closed in the opposite side of the horns and did not come up to change the defense. There is no point in such a shooter dodging at all, it is better to add some more Joe's upline offensive involvement.

Let's talk about the second set of defensive logic of the Thunder (I won't put the corresponding GIF here, put a Thunder in a good round and play its own content):

It's actually quite simple. When Alexander's original opponent is hung up by cover, the Mavericks will quickly have to cut out the mode of switching defense + helping defense. The goal is actually the same, always keep the first-line defender in front of Alexander, and not give the opportunity to break through quickly.

This kind of rotation is especially used when the interior is Gafford on the inside. Alexander has a habit of pulling back a few steps to make a second impact after facing these changes, and the Mavericks have ambushed several other positions to assist in the defense.

And here, it highlights a difference in the lineup configuration of the two sides - because the Thunder lacks the tall or strong physical fitness of the No. 4 position that can walk the ghost area of the bottom line, so when catching this kind of defensive change, the Thunder can't play the high-altitude ball like Alexander Qiangtu deliberately walking the bottom line after the contraction circle and directly relaying in the air.

Chet, the only one with this ability, is usually blocked above the free-throw line by the Mavericks after switching defenses. This is the difference between the two teams in a positional battle that is not big or small; But the Lone Ranger has Jones' ability to dash into the ghost zone.

Therefore, under the Mavericks' entire defensive logic, Alexander, who has broken through the most in the league for many years, was forced to use one mid-range shot after another to wait for his teammates who shot hard and shot. G4 did it, G5 was half a quarter late-

The Thunder played the best game, except that the beginning may be the period after the 18-point difference, relying on the word "resolute".

15 shots to analyze Thunder: special ace tactics; Offensive and defensive structures & potential problems

At the end of an article in the regular season, we wrote about Giddey's concern at the time, arguing that "he's a slow-growing pony who can't keep up with the menacing train of the Thunder", and now that his potential problems are all thunderous in the high-end game-

Gafford misplaced Giddey and shrunk into the penalty area, and when Giddey came on the court, the spatial blow to the Thunder was catastrophic;

At the same time, he doesn't have the physical fitness we just said to go through the ghost zone like Gordon, and can only rely on throws and mid-range shots with a pair and a pair to deal with the mid-range that is missed;

In addition, they don't have the quality of the screen, and they can't bring the center to the line and give high-quality cover to dismantle the misplaced defense. Of course, the Mavericks can also use the change of defense to continue the strategy we just mentioned;

After Dort's defensive end was over-attrition and his three-point crosshairs fluctuated, the presence of him and Giddey at the same time would further destroy the Thunder's positional battle;

Not only that, but Giddey couldn't provide elite-level defensive ability, couldn't eat Dort's time off the court, and couldn't lead the core players. This makes him a burden on the offensive end, and the contribution and impact on the defensive end are not great, and even in G3, he doesn't seem to know what to do on the court when he has multiple delays and changes;

In the end, Giddey's own rebounding advantage as a tall guard in the opposite position was wiped out under the misplaced switch. That's his problem, and when he Daigneault G4, he also did a more confusing operation:

When SGA/Jalen William Sue and Giddey are there, and the dribble is still done by Jalen/SGA over the half, then Giddey's job may really be only one sideline......

Finally, let's talk briefly about the Mavericks' offense.

The offensive end is basically the same. The Thunder's defensive strategy largely follows the Clippers' approach, which is to let Jones, PJ Washington, Exum, Josh Green, and the newly brought in Hardy be the theoretically unreliable bottom corners.

Giving Doncic or Irving a pinch or delay in some rounds on the line, and using it more in the rotation phase, but generally speaking, it is still not a strong pinch outside the three-point line (except for the corner), and then encirclement when entering the three-point line.

Doncic's attempt to break Dort's entanglement requires a lot of physical strength, and the safest way is to use the screen to travel to the middle of the rhythm of the step-down jumper; The best way to break the game is to hold the ball and shoot three-point shots to penetrate the defense, but the latter is not very efficient in this year's playoffs with injuries (to put it mildly, Dongzi still has to lose weight to better get rid of the ground grappling defenders, especially this year, Dongzi has basically abandoned the low-post back play development that requires size).

The most surprising author on the Thunder's side is Carson Wallace. Although not elite in terms of projection, it is surprising that he can cause such offensive problems to Irving in his first year.

The general logic of the Lone Ranger is that when there is Isaiah Joe, Dongzi Ouzi takes turns to find cover and name Joe; After Joe is down, he will ask Dongzi to call some cover involving Alexander to consume SGA in terms of size. In addition, it is G2 and G3, grasp the advantage of PJ-Washington's body type in the alignment, and do some low-post development.

But most importantly, it was Kidd's "PUA" to PJ-Washington and Jones; Dagneault, it's your turn......

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