Usually Im on Kobe Island, its a lonely place.
Because this is Shane Battier, who has held Kobe Bryant below 44 percent shooting while sharing the court with him over the past five seasons, sending him out to sea has never been a particularly bad idea. Put Battier on Bryant for the majority of a game, and you can be sure that on most shots, Bryant will have a hand in his face. Put Battier on Bryant, and you can be sure that, even if the shots are falling, Bryant is likely going to shoot below his average the more shots he takes.
Put Battier on Bryant, and you can be one of the few teams that feels a semblance of comfort when Bryant has the ball.
That wasnt good enough for the Miami HEAT last night. Even if Battier was headed to Kobe Island, he was going well rationed, well equipped and with a Galleon providing cannon fire from off shore.
For a defense capable of consistent execution, a game plan for a scorer like Bryant can never come down to simply deciding whether to give him single or double coverage. Thats making things far too easy on the offensive player, reducing each of his touches to one of two possible defensive looks. No matter how good one or both of those looks might be, players get comfortable when they know what to expect.
But if you increase the number of looks thrown at a player, their ability to adapt is dramatically reduced. Whether youre forcing turnovers or simply forcing them to eat up more of the shot clock as they decipher the defense, anything done to prevent a scorer from getting comfortable is a worthwhile endeavor.
All this one-on-one, mano-y-mano, is a great story line, but its not really the truth, Battier said.
We wanted to keep him out of a comfort zone. The good players in this league, if you allow them to operate at their rhythm, they slice and dice you. We just wanted to make him uncomfortable, get multiple hands in the passing lanes and just give him something to think about.
On Pick and Rolls
Though the Los Angeles Lakers run pick-and-rolls through their ballhandlers on less than a tenth of their total possessions under Mike Brown, Bryant has used over half of the Lakers 110 such possessions by himself, scoring just under a point each time out. Essentially, though its a secondary weapon for the team, Bryant is still one of the Top-10 most efficient players in the league dribbling off screens.
Against Miami, he didnt use a single one of them.
Use is the operative word here. The Lakers ran pick-and-rolls for Bryant, but in order for one of them
to qualify as used, Bryant would have had to shoot, get fouled or turn the ball over in that situation. With some quick traps off screens, the HEAT ensured he wouldnt get a chance to do anything.
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These are simple shows by the big man, but made particularly effective by the quickness and length of Joel Anthony, along with the awareness of the secondary big-man Chris Bosh and Udonis Haslem in those clips to immediately slide over and play Anthonys man and plug any holes the aggressive defense opens up.
And with those holes covered, the initial show is left to accomplish its purpose with diminished risk: choke off any free space Bryant may be afforded.
On Post-Ups
These are Bryants bread-and-butter. He uses isolations far more than any other type of play, but relative to how often he uses post-ups (17 percent of the time) and how efficient he is in doing so over a point per possession, second only to Pau Gasol among players with 50+ post-ups this is where Bryant does his most effective damage.
But instead of outright taking this weapon away from Bryant with harsh doubles which you can also do by fronting in the post and helping from the backside, at the risk of defensive positioning the HEAT opted for a little more tact.
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Though Curry doubled quickly here, those doubles are still something Miami has been practicing, particularly if theres an opportunity as a player makes a move toward the lane as Anthony did in the second clip. But the far more common look against post players in the guard feint from the elbow, as Chalmers shows off in the third clip, constantly threatening the double without committing until Bryant goes into a shoot motion or deliberate move.
Its just instincts, really, Chalmers said. Its something we work on here, every day in practice, shrinking the court and being two places at once. You just take what you practice and apply it to the game.
Its not something hes perfected quite yet, but Chalmers has still been effective in the post support role.
Hes getting better, Spoelstra said. He has incredible potential with his wingspan, his activity, his instincts. But, like most players, he tends to gravitate towards his own man. But he has the ability to do both. We talk about it all the time. Being two places at once, thats when were at our best.
Off Screens
Every time Kobe came off a pick and roll or a screen, there was a big guy, hand in the passing lanes, and thats when you can be effective against the top players in the league, Battier said.
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Battier may have been all by himself with Bryant at times, but there was always someone ready to help. And that was a little more than he was used to.
Its very nice, Battier said. I told the big guys, Im appreciative of your effort tonight.
It was also a different kind of effort for Miami, one more focused on creating disruptions defense that turns into offense than simply playing the best straight-up defense possible.
Our personality this year is a little bit different, with how were trying to play defense, Spoelstra said. He missed some open shots he normally makes; we made it tough on him. Other times we were able to be active and force some mistakes which is something we want to make a habit for us and our personality.
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