the knicks’ offense may rise and fall with their 3-point shooting, but their attack is a straightforward mix of efficient pick-and-rolls and wing isolations for carmelo anthony. as the team proved in the regular season, its personnel and style are suited for high scoring. with anthony at power forward and relatively unathletic players on the perimeter, however, defending requires a bit of smoke and mirrors.
in game 2, the knicks’ magic tricks confused and flustered the indiana pacers, who turned the ball over 21 times and failed to decipher the swarming defense. the pacers have struggled with turnovers this season and coughed up 16 of them in game , but most were self-inflicted. in game 2, the knicks forced pacers miscues by sending aggressive double teams to roy hibbert and david west in the post, and mobbing ball handlers on pick-and-rolls.
“it’s been our achilles’ heel ; we just didn’t take care of the ball, ” the pacers’ paul george said. “the turnovers, 21 to 6, that’s tough to overcome. and being on the opponent’s floor, you’re just digging yourself into a hole. ”
according to the energetic big man kenyon martin, sending multiple defenders to the pacers’ most dangerous players was the plan all along. the knicks simply did not execute with the precision necessary to stop the pacers in game .
“so we looked at the film to get a couple things in walk-through that we didn’t do right, ” martin said, “and i think we just followed the game plan to a t. ”
an early steal from j. r. smith in game 2 indicated how much better prepared the knicks were for the pacers’ bruising post game. as west, who may be the strongest power forward in the n. b. a., backed into anthony, iman shumpert sprinted down from the 3-point line to help, initiating a chain reaction from the knicks’ guards. west wanted to pass out to shumpert’s man, george, but raymond felton had rotated to take away that option. west instead threw to george hill, felton’s man, on the other side of the court. but smith knew felton would be leaving hill on shumpert’s double team, and presciently rotated off his man to steal the pass.
these are the jenis of complex, coordinated maneuvers that the knicks repeatedly executed in game 2 but did not in game . the knicks like to scurry and switch on defense, a style that can stagnate and confound opposing offenses just as it can leave the knicks embarrassingly vulnerable to the simplest plays. not only must pregame preparation be sharp, but it is also vital that the knicks players communicate clearly and immediately in those unscripted moments.
part of why coach mike woodson likes veterans like pablo prigioni and jason kidd is that they are smart and experienced enough to diagnose and react to the other team’s moves. in game 2, both were at their pesky best, flitting into driving lanes and muddling the pacers’ sets.
martin got in on the party, too, and was especially disruptive defending pick-and-rolls. instead of sitting back to protect the rim, a strategy that works well for the plodding pacers big men, he blitzed the dribbler and forced steals and deflections. just as the knicks rotated quickly when double-teaming the post, their perimeter defenders anticipated martin’s traps and moved quickly to take away the obvious pass.
coach frank vogel chalked up the pacers’ 21 turnovers to “not handling their pressure enough, ” in addition to some self-inflicted mistakes.
pressuring the ball as the knicks do can leave a defense exposed to 3-point shots, but woodson is committed to forcing the pacers into such shots. the knicks simply were not going to allow hibbert and west the space and time to bludgeon them inside. the powerful frontcourt duo combined for 14 field-goal attempts ; west alone took 15 shots in game .
the knicks’ coordinated, scrambling defense in game 2 was effective, but more for how it executed than for the ingenuity of the scheme. the pacers will no doubt respond saturday with their own adjustments. for instance, sending more cutters to the basket when the knicks are rotating will make it tougher to cut off passes to the perimeter.
if turnovers are the pacers’ fatal flaw, inconsistency has been the bane of the knicks’ defense all season. with the knicks having surrendered home-court advantage, it will take a string of disciplined, intelligent games to overcome the pacers, whose top-ranked defense has not missed a beat all season.
game 2 offers a blueprint for how the knicks’ defense can disrupt and befuddle the turnover-prone pacers, but even fulfilling it is not a guarantee of victory. the pacers still found good shots when they were able to elude the double teams. despite 15 turnovers through three quarters, the pacers were right in the game until their catastrophic meltdown in the fourth.
“they ramped up the pressure a little bit, ” george said. “still, it was a winnable game. ”
source : http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/sports/basketball/knicks-defense-gets-an-a-for-execution-in-game-2.html?_r=0
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