Re: Zone defense

[Roy Enrile <renrile@qualcomm.com>]

It looks like the Celtic zone is different from what the Timberwolves are
running.  Minnesota's sometimes running a traditional zone that Flip
Saunders says he pulled up from his college films.  The Celtics semi zone
was used the entire game in Toronto and they've used it before, but 
jumpshooting/passing teams like Atlanta were breaking it.

Against against Carter and Mcgrady (isolation guys), they're just playing
last years illegal defense, every single play that goes inside.
It's man to man, with most of the defenders cheating towards the paint(one
foot in).  When the ball goes to the post or someone gets beat on the
perimeter, THREE to FIVE people swarm to the ball, and two people are
jumping to challenge the shot.

The rotations to cut off the first open man are coming hard and
beforehand, so one on one offensive players are getting frustrated.  When
the ball gets back out, even Antoine is sprinting to the shooter so it's
not a wide open J.  It seems to work o.k. when the opponents have
unconfident long range shooters out there(Kidd, Jefferson, Mo Petersen,
all the Toronto PF's, the Orlando team without Hill (injured) and Miller
(foul trouble) ).

Kenny, Paul and Antoine still have abnormally quick instincts for
deflections from the Pitino era.  But in those days the C's doubled on
the perimeter and gave up more layups than I've seen from any team ever.
Now with the crowds inside, there's a lot of collisions, misses and
defensive boards.  For now, E.W. and Strickland fit this style better than
a J.J. or Forte(who would've been good in Pitino's press).

Our PF and backup center still can't block shots, and transition
D is weak though.  Dick Harter seems to have helped the same way he did
with Bird and Pat Riley.  There's a little defensive pride and hustle
showing even on a back to back!


On Mon, 3 Dec 2001, j.hironaka wrote:

> I have a question to pose to you all concerning the zone defense.
> 
> Is Boston's zone similar to what the Timberwolves are doing? Has Obie been 
> using it since before the Toronto game, or does it seem like they unveiled 
> it for the first time last night? All game or just the 4Q, I listened to 
> only the first half on radio. Thanks in advance for any comments/insights.