How The Zone Defense Is Taking Over The NBA Playoffs: Heat vs Celtics
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- čas přidán 16. 05. 2024
- The zone defense is a basketball defense used at all levels, but we rarely see it featured prominently in the NBA playoffs. But here we are in the conference finals, and both the Celtics and Heat use their zone defense in meaningful ways. The Heat use a 2-3 zone and harass teams with their energy and length. In this video, I breakdown why the zone works in the NBA, how to attack it, and also why it will be used more and more. Jimmy Butler. Jayson Tatum. Kemba Walker. Brad Stevens.
- Sport
Hey guys. I just want to say, I apologize if any of my recent videos lack polish or aren't quite as coherent as normal.
It's tough to try to produce quality content in the playoffs, because there's only one day of rest between games. In the other 10 months of the year, I usually take my time and make a video every week. Now I basically have to rush and churn out videos, because I need to take advantage of the views bump the playoffs draw so I can make some money.
Thanks to Monday Night Football pushing the Celtics/Heat game 4 back, I was able to spend more time on this video, and *hopefully* that means this one is a bit more clear and polished.
Anyways, thanks for watching!
Loving your videos as always bro. I like your playoff videos even better
I agree
Great videos as always man keep it up. 👍
Does anybody know how coach gets the full game footage to edit into these videos?
Raymond Qiu You can get access to full games with NBA League Pass (or other less legal ways).
Spoelstra vs Stevens is a coaching matchup for the ages. So was nurse vs stevens
the eastern conference playoffs has been insanely entertaining to watch
Calvin Zhang people always say the east is weak but they have the most the most interesting matchups/series imo
Rayane Bensouda Since they Have Knicks, Hornets, And Bulls
Rayane Bensouda Every Single Team In The West Could make the playoffs.
The east seems like it has better coaches and overall teams, and nearly all the well known players like Lebron and AD are in the west. Could be wrong about the coaches tho
The game becoming more and more complex. I'm surprised that the trend of 3 point mindset is actually equalized by newer defensive schemes
Defenders are also evolving too. Having to cover for 3 point shooters means more athletic versatile defenders, ones capable of covering the ground required to run a zone in the NBA. It's more surprising to realize how undeveloped the game was only 15 years ago. You know, one day Dirk decided to shoot off one foot etc. Now everyone does it, like these guys weren't in a gym experimenting on all this wild ass shit. The Shammgod. AI's moves.
These are not “newer defensive schemes”. They’ve always existed. They’re being brought back to combat these soft rules favoring the offensive side of the game. Nick Nurse made the zone popular again in 18-19 as the video showed.
There’s always a trade off with zone. 2-3 gives up ez 3pt shots and 3-2 gives up ez drives. Team use mainly 2-3 to stop drives since it’s nearly impossible to stop anybody 1v1 nowadays bc they get phantom fouls all the time; hence 2-3 zone’s effectiveness.
Players are not used (struggle) to the zone bc they haven’t had to face it until recently, and bc some lack basic IQ and/or very good 3pt shooters.
The Heat have always used the Zone. Riley essentially invented it so its a core part of their identity. The zone is rarely used because most teams lack the discipline to use it right. Only Rick Carlisle uses the zone as much as the Heat. The fact that the Heat has so many versatile, high IQ players means they can capitalize on it more than most teams.
@@johngriller4997 I suppose it goes full circle. It's a cycle. Then again I think the game becoming more complete compared to years prior even when you take into the account the adjustments to the trend.
Yeah, i like it too).
One of the most underrated channel. Love your breakdown analysis to be honest, a straight forward one, No BS.
A 2:3 zone is the best zone defense there is. Three days ago I had a game and we were down by 15 points so we all stopped playing man to man and went into a 2:3 and the rest was history! We won 76-73.
Nah it’s very easy to give up threes in a 2-3
Depends on the opposition's weaknesses
truth seeker exactly why I was disagreeing with it not being the best zone defense
Jeaden Santos it is if you think about it. Especially in rec games where bums can’t shoot lol. In the NBA is still effective since most of the league are mediocre shooters. League avg is always around 36% which is mediocre objectively. However, GSW can punish 2-3 in their sleep. So it depends on the opponent like someone else said^
Zone defense not working on a team that can shoot 3s.
I knew already Brad Stevens vs Spoelstras coaching will clash 0 to 100 real quick, may the best the best wins this conference finals 👌💯🏀
Great content as usual! The switch into the zone for the Heat in Game 2 was the key to their victory!
You have to love how easy the coaches makes it look
Loved the macro analysis of league-wide shift to zone
As a Celtics fan I love Brad Stevens
As A Laker Fan I love Rob Pika
Your analysis is so incredible. It makes me enjoy the game better
"Zone gives up alot of 3s and that's ok"
Me: *laughs in warriors*
Ya steph and klay will basically change that statement again 😂😂
@@Rinpuia24 facts
RamCruz_03 Easily. That’s why it’s so effective bc most of the league have mediocre shooters. But against GsW you cannot ever go 2-3 unless u wanna get burnt lol. 3-2 can slow down their 3s but Draymond is so smart that he’ll eat with his passing inside and their elite cutters in Klay and Steph. It’s impossible to defend the Warriors lol
@@johngriller4997 not impossible but pretty fucking hard 😆
I mean, Steph was called the Zone Buster, so yeah XD
I have truly never understood why, since it has been legal in the NBA, that more teams don't use zone defenses. With practice and solid coaching, they are way more useful against most teams than man.
You can figure out zone if a team uses it too much. That’s why the heat mostly only used it in the playoffs
@Erik Lerström great point!
I was really impressed with the Celtics zone. That’s how you conquer the heat offence
impress? They just zone in the out of bounce to avoid the beauitful out of bound plays of HEAT. You can't zone like the HEAT zone Celtics. HEAT is no.1 3 pt shooting team in the NBA.
Crypto Berto I understand that, but part of their great 3pt shooting is how they get open shots, but the zone is a good way of defending their offence. Go watch coach d’s video about the heat’s offence. You’ll see how zone is a good way to defend their o
They still won’t go to the finals. Spo is a great coach with a great system. They will just adjust.
The Heat just need to make more shots and limit turnovers. Something that but them in the ass in the first half of game two.
Christopher Menendez brad steven’s is also a great coach with a great system. celtics will adjust to anything miami does 😂
Christopher Menendez yeah I agree I had heat in 6 and I’m still going with that
Nice vid. I’m happy that I wasn’t the only one who caught crowder pushing his own star on D but I didn’t see the overload.
I wish this video explained clearer what adjustments Stevens did for the Cs to win game 3.
You should show the Lakers beating the zone. I think they attack it the best
Excellent video as always Daniel!
In Europe, there's no other defence...
Ikr its so common in europe and asia, the nba make it man to man in regular seasons to help offense more than defense and get more highlights
That's not true. We mix zone and man to man.
@@yq7760 Nah, NBA players are much better than European and Asian players, you can't leave anyone open when everyone can shoot.
@@jhliu408 you not getting the point
Because teams in Europe don't care so much about show and high score but for win.In NBA there isn't any team defence but personal defence.
Great content as usual
what a video ! God bless you bro ✝️
Every time I hear MoOoving on, I immediately *smash* that like button!
Great video coach! Can you do a video on what made Boston have such a good game last night in game 5?i feel asleep and couldn't watch but would love to see what adjustments they made.
Btw great background instrumental music 👌
A few things:
1. A well coached zone is NOT weak in rebounding. You have to train for that, sure, but everyone should know how to pick a man and box out. It's not any weaker than 1on1 after a defender has been beaten and help comes.
2. It's now pretty common to switch from zone to man on man defense, mid-possession. The switch happens usually after a certain number of passes, when the ball reaches a certain point/player or even by a signal from the coach. Spain did it perfectly at the 2006 world championship and it became kind of a trend.
3. The very first thing you get taught against zone defense is a high post entry, create a strong/weak side then and have your big man distribute the ball from the high post. I don't get why the Celtics don't do that more often, having a clear height advantage.
Crowder playin his best right now, lookin like a bigger Marcus Smart
I would love to see the Splash Brothers against some of these zone heavy schemes. Especially with Draymond at the point forward. Can't wait for next season.
You had me as soon as. Heard the music
Playoffs in the West have a lot of star power while the East has been very tactical
Nuggets and Jazz played very much like this Heat and Celtics teams tho, about the only in the West. Good basketball wins this year. Except for the Lakers, they just elite defensively and then have AD and this dude called LeBron James, he's pretty good
I actually like how NBA teams are now very smart and run what would have been odd defensive schemes in the NBA 10 years ago and how teams can adjust accordingly. This is what good playoff games are all about. A chess match between teams, trading adjustments after adjustments every game. That is also why I find it simplistic to say that there's no defense and all teams do is shoot 3s in today's NBA.
Finally a channel that has a good tactical and technical analysis of NBA. Most of the channels are overrated. You got another subscriber
crowder def one of my fav players
zone is like a double edge sword; satisfying when it works, life draining when it doesn't especially those last second threes or last second fouls. very frustrating
I was just thinking how would this great heat zone play against the lakers?! Would they have to make a huge change due to the lakers size?
Nice analysis. Since espn won't let Doris call games anymore this season, maybe you can jump in. XD
I don't get much from Jeff and Marc arguing over where to eat cornbread.
Just formed a new amateur team just trying to figure out which is better zone or 1v1 for medium level basketball
Thanks
Bey coach can you do años analysis vídeo of biliy donovan going to chicago
a good zone is SO frustrating to make plays against. everything has to be deliberate, there is constant pressure, player movement and off-ball screens only get you minor adjustments as opposed to major rotations. i also feel like zone encourages exploiting the smaller gaps in the midrange - and we all know that most teams and players would rather avoid those shot attempts.
I feel the key to hurting a 2-3 zone is a couple of deadly 3 point shooters or a really good big man in the high post you can run the offence through. Even better when you have both.
@@BenC20B 100% agreed. 2 reliable shooters at the hash marks and the pg runs PnRs to collapse the defense - still, i feel zone messes with a lot of players because you can rarely ever abuse a matchup/beat your man.
You guys see Tim Duncan posting up in mid range? That's how 2-3 zone is destroyed i think
In the Philippines amateur league, we always use zone, we use man to man in crunch time.
I haven't seen this much zone in the playoffs since Shaq and Kobe were at it.
A big man like Jokic is the key to break the zone. Just put him in middle, 3s will be raining.
Moooooooving on
in the regular season the Celtics would have Tatum in the middle of the zone and it was extremely effective because of his mid range shooting, length, and passing ability but we haven’t seen it at all against the Heat. 🤔
I never understood it was illegal in the first place!!!
Idea.. to make the NBA watchable. take away the zone defense so teams like Houston won't end up shooting 60 threes a game. #toughtowatch
Yessss
What makes it OK to give up a high volume of three pointers though? Is it a defensive tendency that is product of the modern offensive tendency of shooting a lot of threes? What do you gain from it though?
First off, the best defense's this past season were much more likely to prevent shots at the rim than prevent 3 point shots. Why is this? It has something do to with rising offensive efficiency of late, so allowing 3's isn't as big of a deal as before.
Bam adebayo looks like dwight Howard. Lol
I would say he looks like a cross between Dwight and Derozan. Lol
how do you get access to those second spectrum numbers?
I know some people with access.
@@coachdaniel8163 Got ya. Thanks for the reply!
Spoelstra is a genius
If you can run zone like that and winning games, then you should be coach of the year.
Miami has a great length. Herro, Dragic, Butler and Robinson.
All my life I was told that in the NBA, zone defenses are illegal and that the defensive strategy of each teams should be man-to-man defense. I believed it because every game that I have watched was both teams using man-to-man (Atleast in my observation). Guess I was given the wrong information.
its not a bad thing to give up alot of 3s as long the opposition cant hit them, this coincides with this year not having warriors splash brothers.
what music is the background?
oh honey by delegation
@@coachdaniel8163 thank you sir! keep up the great videos.
Man to man defense should only be played in higher levels of basketball. If you are playing pick up, zone will always be the most effective. I'm willing to give up all the 3s in the world because the people playing pickup are not nba shooters. They will brick it every time. Especially on double rim. Especially outdoors with wind.
When are we getting "Moving on..." merch?
Haha, maybe someday.
7:19 Crowder was open
So basically the zone is really effective if you already have great defenders at the Forward position like Butler and Crowder where you can put them up front to hide your weak guard defenders and at the same time if you have an eraser at the center position like Bam it also makes the zone defense really effective.
So basically the zone is really effective if you have the Miami Heat's roster?
Why is giving up more threes suddenly okay in 2020/21?
They really need your "How to embarrass a 2-3 zone" video
Haha, they attacked it pretty well last night, but didn't hit enough shots to win or get enough shots on defense.
Steph and Klay gonna rip these zones apart when they come back.
Why is the zone more vulnerable to giving up offensive rebounds?
Each defender doesn't have a specific matchup, so often it can be easier for the offensive player to get inside position without having to deal with a box out.
The Zone is great with the right players, but you better be successful with it and efficient when on offense. Cause them dudes are gonna be tired.
Zone D is common in FIBA and College games
when you thought zone only works on kuroko's basketball...
meanwhile stevens and spoelstra:
"...so it's no longer a bad thing to give up a high volume of three pointers... "
Yeah, try that defense with the Warriors.
not every team has splash bros. it cam work so long as you prevent paint scoring
@@rasaecnai yes, and you can even get to the playoffs with that strategy.
But, without some really good luck, the best you can hope for is losing to the Warriors in the Conference Finals or Finals.
The Celtics have been coming for a few years now. Surely this is their year, right??
Naww Jayson Tatum is the best player with the most upside but he’s not championship material yet I’ll say next season maybe
Nope never
cant win 4 out of 5 games. I must say HEAT leads 3-1 after game 4. Their time to adjust after a loss.
Crypto Berto lol
Their young core is still pretty young. When brown and Tatum hit their prime is probably their best championship window
Miami's zone would be useless against the Lakers. They have tremendous offensive rebounding and Lebron and AD can shoot over the defenders. Plus many of their points are in transition.
The NBA should abolish the defensive 3 seconds violation.
Nurse in 2018-2019 changed the game. @ me if i'm wrong
The Legend he won a championship is gone he couldn't even beat a Celtics team they didn't even have Gordon Hayward
huh? you just watch nba game in 2019? zone defense is over for many decades.
@@BertzVarquez exactly coach spo was running zone since he became a head coach. When he had the big three that was one of the best zone team of all time I believe they went on a 23 game win streak with it.
Erik Spoelstra was known for an elite defensive who ran zone when a lot of NBA teams didn't
It was a 27 win streak second longest win streak in the NBA. Chalmers was a very good Defender Dwyane Wade was an elite Defender LeBron James was an elite Defender
Chris Bosh was an elite Defender
And you had a poor mans Bam in Joel Anthony
With this lineup this is one of the best zone teams of all time.
@@elderassassin9673 That does not explain what the video said, the jump from 2 to 10 to 16 teams using zones so much in the last two years. You are saying spo has been using zone for so many years but teams only noticed the last 2 years that it could be useful? What did spo do to make zone suddenly be so popular the last 2 years?
Nuggets also play a lot of zones.
Considering the fact that 3 point shots are thought of as better value shots and the fact that players practice shooting 3s a lot more than in the past, why do some of the best defensive teams (bucks, raptors) choose a scheme that actually encourages the offense to take a three point shot? Is it maybe because layups are even higher valued from the analytics perspective and the players are so athletic these days that you have to give up some threes to stop the drives? I'm just guessing but interested to hear what other people think/know.
Who new the Lakers had something to say about this! 😏
Just overload with a high post and baseline runner. Lakers triangle would shut it down.
When played against any 2-3 zone in high school this is exactly what we did. Put a big man in the high post with a good mid range shot and run the offence through them and the zone breaks down pretty quickly.
Another example of Nick Nurse's impact on the league. Teams are getting more daring after his schemes dethroned the Warriors.
lol, Nick Nurse's schemes did not dethrone the warriors, injuries did. And its still went to 6 games with most of them being pretty close.
Wait until curry and kd comeback
Zone defense has always been there and used by many teams in Europe or Asia. But NBA teams prefer to do 1 to 1 defense....
FIBA coaches know how to teach and to attack zone defense. What we are seing in NBA is nothing special
This is European basketball
And it’s a welcome change
Real men don't play zone..teams that can't guard their man play zone..I'd rather lose like a man than embarass myself and lose in a zone..☘☘☘
@Erik Lerström its not something a non hooper would understand..everyone knows if you keep playing zone..it means you can't play on ball..its not a good look for a team that claims to be a top notch defense..shows the other team you're scared..
Of course zones could be better. The whole team is defending. Only the US is arrogant enough and oblivious to this!
Erik Lerström sure is!
look how balance the east is without lebron xD
its more like filo defense😄😄😄if you play in the ph
Sona
Heat are doing the same thing this series …
This only works cuz the Warriors dynasty isn't around
Zone is lazy d.
Clearly you have never played organized basketball
If you think having to constantly rotate and having to cover more ground is lazy then you’re pretty stupid
Zone don't work agianst a healthy Golden State team. lol
copycat league
lazy defense
Clearly you have never played organized basketball
If you think having to constantly rotate and having to cover more ground is lazy then you’re pretty stupid
Doesn’t work against the Lakers. Game 1 today was proof.
Stevens and Nurse are so average as coaches. Spoelstra is better.