The Heat used zone on more plays during the regular season, , than all 30 NBA teams combined in either or League-wide zone usage was up to 2.
While Miami didn't need to use its zone to beat either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks , it has been a key factor in the Heat's building a series lead in the Eastern Conference finals heading into Friday's Game 5 against the Boston Celtics p. Other coaches have taken notice. One big reason coaches have traditionally shunned the zone is that NBA players can shoot right over the top of it, but modern NBA zone defense is no longer so vulnerable to outside shooting.
This helps explain why the Heat's zone was effective against Harden. Modern offensive superstars such as Harden all but demand that man-to-man defenses switch pick-and-rolls to keep up, which puts their defenders in uncomfortable positions -- guards defending post-ups and big men defending one-on-one on the perimeter.
In a zone, those defenders stay where their coach wants them. Spoelstra has also changed where those players are by putting two athletic forwards on the perimeter in the Heat's zones, with the team's smaller guards playing on the wings in the back line. That has made Miami's zone defense more difficult for Boston to attack. From the top, a lot of times there's two different directions that someone can pass. Despite their evolution, zones remain most vulnerable beyond the arc.
So, their rise also required the NBA's shot math to change. But now, even with 3-pointers being attempted at record rates , zone is back on the rise. At that point, before adding Shane Battier and unleashing Chris Bosh as a 3-point shooter, the Heat had a shortage of shooting. Now, every team looks to have as much shooting on the floor as possible. Yet, there's a paradox to all these 3-pointers: In a counterintuitive twist, they've made controlling the area around the basket more important for opposition defenses.
There are two factors at play. First, five-out lineups in which every player on the court can shoot 3s have made it hard for defenses to cover enough ground to load up the paint against players driving from the perimeter and also get out to shooters.
They'll pick you up full-court, throw a 6'9" forward at your guard and have some of the crispest rotations in the league. Using the zone nearly twice as much as the next-closest competitor, coach Erik Spoelstra employs it as a "changeup" to help prop up their defense.
He just throws his off-speed stuff a little more often than most. Each team has a different idea of how and when to zone. The Heat are aggressive—trying to get the ball-handler to give it up—and rely on their length to scramble back into place. The Raptors proved their brazenness in the Finals.
They will try anything. They've continued to thrive this season as out-of-the-box thinkers, but whether they are in full-court zone press, or zone, the fundamental tenets on which these defenses are built remain constant.
It's not maybe something you would build your philosophy on, wanting to be in rotations a lot, but we do that pretty well too. The Raptors didn't start the zone trend—they just made it famous. Now, teams are experimenting with an array of looks, but the common threads remain consistent: smart players and good coaching.
Teaching the discipline, emboldening their players with trust and galvanizing the effort necessary to make a zone successful is no easy task. On the other side of the ball, varying schools of thought exist about how to attack a zone.
John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA. You can e-mail him here , find his archive here and follow him on Twitter. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting. You agree that your personal information will be used to send you messages about NBA related products and services, and share your personal information with NBA partners and affiliates so that they can also contact you about products and services that might be of interest to you.
News Archive. John Schuhmann. Miami in the zone The Dallas Mavericks have been playing a healthy share of zone for several years now. January 10, September 18, August 20, January 3, November 10, Want every headline right at your fingertips? Sign up to receive NBA emails! Once the offensive player passes the ball, the defender must actively guard an opponent or exit the foot lane.
The offensive team retains possession at the free throw line extended. The shot clock shall remain the same as when play was interrupted or reset to 14 seconds, whichever is greater. This means that a college-style zone is not possible, but a more limited zone can be done. Usually this is only a change of pace and not a base defense. According to Wikipedia , the NBA allowed zone defenses starting in the season:. The NBA currently permits the use of zones; however, teams generally do not use them as a primary defensive strategy and no zone defense may feature an unguarded defender inside the free-throw lane a violation of that results in a defensive three-second violation, which is a technical foul.
It was one of the reasons for the victory of the Mavericks along with bad statistics of Lebron James in the finals but not the only one. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more.
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