to analyze the first three preseason games of Lakers .
first talk about the defensive end.
defensive system
First of all, from training camp and earlier interviews, we learned that Ham's main transformation of the Lakers is that reshapes the Lakers' defensive system.
The most important ones are two points: 1. Require inside players such as Davis to stay more at the basket instead of expanding defense or switching to the outside line; 2. Require outside players of the Lakers to chase down opponents more aggressively.
In fact, in short, it is to move the defensive system of Bucks to the Lakers - taking advantage of the inside double towers, locking the inside and mid-to-close distance, and leaving the outside defense to the outside players themselves to solve it.
The author's understanding, Ham's transformation of the Lakers' defensive system is also based on two points:
1. The current personnel composition of the Lakers
2. The Lakers' defensive problems last season
first talk about the personnel composition.
After a series of signings during the offseason, the Lakers' lineup distribution showed obvious characteristics - has many inside lines and many defenders.
Thomas Bryant and Damian Jones are both centers worth having more than 25 minutes of playing time and strong franchise protection ability. There is also Anthony Davis - in the Lakers' lineup, which means that the Lakers need to play in large lineup most of the time.
And don't forget, in fact, now James needs to be regarded as an inside player on the defensive end.
And on the back line, the Lakers are even more crowded: Westbrook , Beverly , Nunn , and Lonnie Walker. These are the four most expensive players outside the Lakers James and the other two are also worth 20 minutes of playing time. Moreover, the Lakers also have Schroder , Reeves, Christie , and the top two are worth 20 minutes of playing time.
Here I would like to express my own views on the Lakers' guard "Kang Yu" issue - actually has its own two sides. You can call the Lakers' guard position "overcrowded" - or they can say that their guard position is "excellent".
The key is how the coach uses it.
But here we will talk about the second point first - The Lakers' defensive issues last season.
The Lakers' defense ranked 21st in the league last season, which is very bad. Everyone knows that Westbrook and James have become targets of criticism - we have discussed this for a long and long period of the offseason.
Now I will ask another question, where is the Lakers' defense bad last season?
Let’s take a look at the data given by Clean the Glass - the hit rate of each area of the Lakers opponent:
From left to right, there are effective hit rate, penalty area, mid-range, mid-range, three-point shooting rate, and three-point shooting rate in each area. The number with color in the background indicates the ranking of this hit rate in the league (because it is defensive data, the higher the hit rate, the lower the ranking).
We can see - it is obvious that the main problem of the Lakers is in the penalty area rather than the outside line - the opponent's shooting percentage in the Lakers' penalty area is an exaggerated 67%, ranking 23rd in the league. (I'll add one more thing: the Lakers' opponent's shooting frequency in the penalty area is 35.6%, the third most in the league)
So, now we can think about why Ham uses this defensive system to squat the inside and squeeze through the covers on the outside.
First of all, inside guard squat — on the one hand, on the one hand, make full use of the frame protection advantages of thick eyebrows , Jones and Tobu; on the other hand, reduce the consumption of frequent defense swaps in the regular season on Davis.
As for why we don’t adopt [strong delay] defense, I think it’s two points: First, delayed defense tests rotation discipline, and the Lakers have Westbrook, who has a low defensive IQ, and Walker also relies on his body rather than his brain to defend; second, there are many new players and young players, and delayed rotation system requires more practice before using it. First practice a set of defense system in the preseason, and don’t complicate things.
Another point, squeezed through the screen and shot from the outside - on the one hand, it took advantage of Beverly, Nunn, Schroeder, and Reeves' fast pace and strong ability to squeeze through the screen, so that they can solve the problem by themselves, so that the inside can stay in the penalty area to protect the frame;
, on the other hand, it consumes physical strength by squeezing through the screen and chasing the defense! Everyone will do their best to prevent for 15-20 minutes, and change when they are tired. Will "overwhelmed" become "excellent in depth"?
(You Westbrook doesn't want to come down, I'm tired of running you, can you still not come down? #Manual Dog Head#)
Next, let's take a look at the results of this defensive system in the first two games of the preseason.
The Lakers beat the Kings. In the second minute of the game, Westbrook ran through two screens after Fox - Do you still remember the challenge Ham set up for Westbrook in the summer? "I need you to chase opponents like a Bulldog and play high-level defense. I know you have this ability."
I am willing to call Ham a MBA PUA master...
Of course, the coach is treated equally, not just Westbrook, except for the three inside players, everyone in the Lakers is going all out to chase and defend.
Christie stubbornly wrestled Keegan Murray like a candy - this young man's basic defense skills and attitude are OK.
Even Old James chose to squeeze through the cover - to be honest, it was a bit difficult, but it can be seen that thanks to this defensive strategy, Jones stayed at the basket, and Thunder Brows could safely save the opponent's bottom corner three-pointer after the ball was released - Thunder Brows's defensive coverage area of the league was finally no longer wasted (change defense).
beverly squeezes through the screen to interfere with book shot.
Beverly squeezed through two screens in a row, staying in front of Booker - when the defender can do his own thing, James on the weak side only needs to swipe the card to assist in defense. If Beverly doesn't try to squeeze through the screen, James will have to help him make up for defense, and he will miss the three-pointer on the weak side.
So, the ability to squeeze through the screen and the three-pointer effect of the diving and defense are complementary - especially when you are a small lineup. The short inside line originally had poor ability to protect the frame and protect the rebound (need to shrink). If you still need to make up for defense for the defender and then make three-pointers on the outside, will it be a bit difficult for you?
Let’s see the animation of Lakers’ pick-and-roll defense last season:
This kind of ball is “James missed another three-pointer” in Kuroko’s mouth. But please, if James doesn't leave him, Benbri, who will make up for Clarkston?
won’t talk about bad things anymore, continue to the topic:
After Reeves was blocked, he still tried his best to defend and blocked the mid-range shot of Paul - in fact, in addition to the aliens such as Curry and Lillard , most players in the league still walk in after pick-and-roll, so squeezing through the cover + retreat are also doing multiple-choice questions for the opponent - the lowest-efficiency in the mid-range field, do you want to take action?
And the tougher your outside defender and the faster you squeeze through the cover, the less time you give the opponent to think.
Nun squeezed through the cover to interfere with Bridges——Note this ball, Nunn solved the problem by himself, so the Lakers can use two people to hug Aiton ———The Lakers can finally let the opponent's center enjoy the treatment of Anthony Davis. (Forecast, this season, the Dark Browser typed, Embiid , the data comparison should be better than last year)
"Juaner" Tuscano Anderson's ability to squeeze through the screen is also excellent. I wish him a speedy recovery. He is remarkable in both single defense and auxiliary defense.
The Lakers still have many exciting scenes in defensive screening in these two games, so I won’t all of them come here. Friends who want to watch can go to my homepage to see a highlight analysis post.
Next, let’s talk about another improvement in the Lakers’ defensive system - their assisted defense.
Successfully squeezed through the cover will certainly have many benefits, but you must know that even the best defender will be blocked by the cover - then it is very important what to do after the leader is blocked by the cover.
Let’s take a look at several Lakers’ defense postures:
There is a saying that freezing three feet is not a day’s cold... Oh no, it’s Rome not built in one day. As expected, Westbrook failed to squeeze through the cover every two minutes after the first successful cover.
But the Lakers were prepared for this long ago - Damian Jones chose to switch defenses (we talked about his excellent switch skills in detail in his personal analysis), spreading his arms and thick eyebrows to pull up a "big net" from the strong side, forcing Fox, who knew his ability, to give up singles.
After Fox made the ball, Jones and Thick Brow quickly shrank the inside, preventing the two rushes of Barnes and Sa's - quite a bit like the Lakers' "no-fly zone in the inside" in 2020. Jones said he would play the role of McGee and Howard . What he said is true.
Beverly can't keep up with the little Mitchell , but Davis can take over Mitchell directly, and Beverly reacted quickly and immediately rushed to Sabonis to cut off Mitchell's passing route to him-although Old Blackbe's footsteps are sometimes slow, his awareness of defense is definitely the top among the defenders (we have said in his analysis articles before)
This goal Beverly squeezed through the screen and failed again, but it can be seen that Thomas Bryant , Anderson, and James on the weak side contracted and repaired the defense very quickly. Leave a classic picture:
Continue to watch another type of Lakers' coordination defense: weak side swiping card-type coordination defense.
This goal Reeves was hung by the bridge, one position behind Booker - but Bever on the weak side used his aggressive card-swipe-style assisting defense to force Booker to stop. In these three preseason games, the Lakers' weak side assisting defense was more obvious than last season. Let's look at one more:
Almost every time the Lakers lead the defense and squeeze through the screen, you can see that the weak side assisting defense is aggressively used to swipe card-swipe-style assisting defense - forcing the opponent to shoot the ball, and then perform a small-scale save to interfere with the three-pointer.
is a very Bucks-style defense. Sometimes it may be shot through by a good-looking opponent, but it will work most of the time - at least you will not see what happened last season, after the inside line is delayed, the outside line is forced to rotate in a large range, but it has the will but lacks strength, and the inside line and the outside line leaks a clean picture.
Even Westbrook's card-swipe assisted defense is very aggressive. The three-man defense cooperation between Westbrook, Nunn and Thick Brow is very beautiful. Judging from the two preseason games, Westbrook is indeed making active changes. We should judge the matter and praise it when it should be.
In addition, one thing that surprised me was the assisted defense performance of LeBron James after returning to the wing:
First, he suddenly stepped up and disrupted the original tactical arrangement of Suns . Then after Ayton got the ball, he keenly grabbed Ayton's blind spot in the vision behind him, and suddenly shrank and made a steal. LeBron 's defensive awareness has always been there. The problem is that you can't treat him as Anthony Davis...
After realizing that Booker was forced to the bottom corner, he decisively stepped forward and double-teamed, forcing the Suns to make a mistake.
weak side swiping card-type assisted defense is very aggressive and almost caused Paul to make mistakes.
Everyone squeezed through and everyone helped to defend. This is the Lakers' outside defense in the first two games of the preseason. It can be said that so far, everyone has shown a positive attitude, and the overall outside defense has risen a lot compared to last season.
And the direct result of this is that the Lakers re-pulled the "inside no-fly zone for the 2020 season.
It can be seen that every time the Lakers' frame protection is successful, it is accompanied by the outside players squeezing through the screen and stubbornly chasing and defending - this ball Reeves sticks tightly, and strong shots are not a good opportunity, so Monk chose to break through and was randomly interfered by Gabriel who was waiting in the inside.
Christie stubbornly squeezed through the screen, and Damei always stayed at the basket. Monk was afraid of Damei's frame protection and chose to throw, but missed.
with the Lakers strictly guarding the inside. In the first half of the first preseason, the Kings made 14 of 31 shots in the paint area, with a shooting percentage of only 45%; in the second game against the Suns, the Suns made 8 of 19 in the paint area, with a shooting percentage of only 42%.
Do you still remember the data above? In the 21-22 season, the Lakers' opponents' shooting percentage in the inside was 67%. Despite the small sample size, this is a considerable improvement.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. In the player analysis throughout the offseason, I have always emphasized that defense is more important than offense. Although this is only a preseason, and although the sample is only two games, the Lakers' progress is visible to the naked eye.
Next article, I will combine the third game to systematically talk about what wonderful performances or problems the Lakers players have in the "one inside and four outside" system built by Darwin Hamm .
Please stay tuned for the next breakdown.
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