The man-to-man myth

[Tammo29@xxxxxxx]

  I sent this e-mail to Snoopy while the list was down.  I think it provides
a lot of information on the Celtics defense that some people may not be aware
of.
The gist being you cannot judge this team on defense using man to man
principles because despite O'Brien's constant claims to not playing a zone,
anytime you play a space rather than a man you are in fact playing a zone.

  It was funny to me to hear Tommy Heinsohn use almost the exact words I
wrote on Monday on the Celtics replay yesterday.  "The Celtics players are
responsible for an area on the floor in this defense until their player gets
the ball and then they play the man."

And then O'Brien was quoted in today's paper again reinforcing what I had
written on Monday afternoon.

 ''We quantify hustle stats,'' said O'Brien, ''then we talk about the phases
of the game that allow you to have success defensively, namely keeping the
ball from being penetrated to the middle, keeping the ball out of the very
low space by fronting it [the low post], challenging 45 percent of opponent's
shots. These are areas where the statistics don't lie.''When the guys are
doing that, you know that you are hustling at a level that has been proven
over many, many years of NBA basketball. You're playing at a standard of
excellence that is enough to make you an elite team.''



Something else I'd like to add....I cannot remember a single opponent getting
more open looks at the basket than Pat Garitty got the other night.  I'm
talking wide open, no defender anywhere in sight. Thank goodness he was off
most of the night.  Guess who's man that was?  Antoine's.
This is no knock on Antoine's defense.  I think he has played marvelously.
He has come off his man and disrupted the opponents flow with steals,
switches, and great blitzes on the pick and roll.  But it does point out that
it is very difficult to play defense on a three point shooter in this
defensive scheme.  It's asking a lot to play your space, limit penetration,
run through multiple screens, be ready to help on the blocks, and still be
able to get a hand in the face of a three point shooter when the ball is
reversed.  Now try doing that for 40 minutes.  There will be times when they
just can't get to him quickly enough.  All you can ask is that they try.
If they stand there with their hands at their side and just give up the shot
you have a beef.  Very few times have a seen that happen this year.


Snoopy,
  What you must remember about this defense is that the Celtics don't play a
straight up man to man.   
O'Brien doesn't like to call it a zone, but the fact remains since all
players are responsible for not only their man, but a particular space
according to where their man is on the floor and who they are guarding, it's
hard not to call it a zone.  
I pointed out this particular defensive philosophy during preseason last
year. At the time I called it a match-up zone.   O'Brien vehemently denied
it, but when the creator of the matchup zone says it's a match up
zone...well.

Watch the players defending away from the ball on the weak side.   They
always play on the edge of the paint.   The reason for this is simple.   No 
lay-ups.
The Celtics force their opponents to rotate the ball and shoot the outside
jumper.
When they play against teams with big strong inside players, they will always
have a defender fronting and a defender waiting in the wings to pounce if the
opponents go over the top, contesting their shot or making them pass back
out.   When the play is ball side the second defender is usually also ball
side.   When the opponents rotate the ball the primary defender from the
opposite side must rotate to the ball side leaving his man to the opposite
wing defender to now front, leaving a corner shooter open.   If the opponent
rotates again, or makes a skip pass, the wing defender must leave the man he
is fronting (not his man) and make a dash to try to get a hand in the face of
the corner shooter (which is his man).
Some teams have taken to using a pick and not allowing the defender to
recover, but that's another subject all together.

That is why the Celtics opponents shot more three pointers than any other
team in the league last season. That is also why the Celtics were excellent
in keeping their opponents out of the paint. I believe they were something
like third in the league.  
It's not because our interior defenders are so strong, on the contrary, it is
because our whole philosophy is predicated on helping to defend the interior
and denying penetration.   In order to be able to help you have to be in
position to help.   That means playing a space rather than playing uptight on
your assigned player. 
There was a perfect example last night when Pierce picked up that offensive
foul against Brown.   The Celtics were fronting PJ and Pierce, standing
outside the paint on the opposite corner, recognized the pass was coming over
the top.   He made his way across the lane and set himself up to stop Brown
from an easy dunk.   If he had been playing even halfway between the paint
and his man he would not have had the time to respond.
Also look at the Atlanta game.   Walker "blitzed" Terry numerous times in the
series leaving Rahim open.   If our defense had not been prepared to rotate
Rahim would have had a field day.   Many times it was Pierce who picked up
Rahim, especially towards the end of the game. In this case the team plays
defense according to the opponents strengths.  They would much rather have
Ira Newble shooting an open jumper than Rahim or Robinson.  It's a calculated
risk that has helped them win many games in the last couple seasons.  Hard to
argue with what works.
That is the Celtics defense in a nutshell.  The fact that Pierce plays so
many minutes and is more often than not defending on the weak side away from
the ball may make it seem he's playing defense differently, but he's not.
Don't watch the centers or the point guard, their responsibilities are
different.  Instead watch your tape and see what happened in the four minutes
Pierce was out.  Who was the weakside defender?  Where was he set up on the
floor?  McCarty and Williams both play weakside exactly the same.  Delk
played Pierces position when Pierce went out for a series in the fourth
around the nine minute mark.  Check your tape and see where Delk was
playing.  Exactly the same way.
There are plenty of articles from last year that back me up here and I've
included them in this post.  There was one in particular I was looking for
and couldn't find.  It had O'Brien explaining exactly what he was trying to
accomplish with his defense and how he felt since Pierce was so long it
allowed him to recover to his man quicker and therefore pay more attention to
help defense. He explains how they want the opponent to take those shots but
at the same time he wants to get a hand in their face to make it as difficult
as possible.
If I find it I'll pass it on to you.
You could also go to your local bookstore and pickup a book called  "NBA
Prospectus".  I think it is put out by The Sporting News.  Just read the few
pages on the Celtics, no need to actually buy the book.
It goes into great detail about the Celtics defense and explains just how
well it worked at limiting easy shots. 
The downside is that sometimes you will get a team that is patient about
rotating and who has a secondary player that just catches fire from the
outside.
That is what happened against Toronto.
It also happened against Detroit in the first game of the playoffs when Curry
and Robinson both had great outside shooting games.  And to a lesser extent
New Jersey, although the transition is what really killed us there.

Here are some of the articles I referenced. 


<A HREF="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Celticsstuffgroup/message/2716";>Harters
defense- pre rotating- trapping the dribbler-</A>
If there's one trademark of a Harter defense, other than the mad
scramble, it's what they call ''the blitz.'' Simply, it means you
trap the dribbler on every pick-and-roll and never let up. You'll
sometimes see Walker all the way out near halfcourt continuing to
pressure the ball well after the pick-and-roll was supposed to have
been executed

<A HREF="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Celticsstuffgroup/message/6541";>Making
the opponents rotate the ball and shoot from the perimeter</A> &
identifying shooters:
  ''We use this to identify shooters versus non-shooters,'' said Vogel. ''We
told our team that over a 10-game span, Strickland didn't take any
3-pointers. And when he did take one, he almost always missed.

''We go to the video and show our guys how, when the shot clock is winding
down, opposing players are running at Strickland when he's behind the
3-point line like he's some kind of threat.

''We visually prove to our guys, `If Rod Strickland is spotting up for a
three, let him take it. Don't risk a foul trying to stop him.'''

<A HREF="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Celticsstuffgroup/message/6575";>No more
layup drills</A>:
At the other end of the floor, rules that now allow clubs to double-
team before the ball is in a player's hands also contributed to the
wisdom of the plan. Whereas one of O'Brien's first orders of business
upon taking over the Celts last season was to pack in his defense -
effectively saying, ``Beat us from the outside if you can, but the
layup drills are over'' - he can now do it to even better result.

``We had this philosophy before they had the rule change,'' he said.
``The philosophy became that much more dramatic from a positive
standpoint because of the rule change."

<A HREF="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Celticsstuffgroup/message/7505";>Playing
the ball instead of the man</A>:
"We just play the ball instead of our man," Celtics forward Eric Williams
said.
"We're not letting them get to the hoop. A lot of people call that a zone,
but
it's not."

Whatever the name, it has worked. Kenny Anderson and Tony Delk have outplayed
Atkins and Jones. They know if their Pistons counterparts penetrate, there's
always help from a teammate. In turn, it allows Anderson and Delk to play
close
to their man.

"That's our rule," Anderson said. "That's what we're about -- five guys
stepping in people's faces, making it happen."

<A HREF="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Celticsstuffgroup/message/7556";>Making
the "other guy" beat you.</A>:
The Celtics were quietly glad Michael Curry scored 15 points in Game 1. That
meant he might continue shooting, which they weren't afraid of. "If Michael
Curry is going to beat us shooting threes, then we were ready to accept
that,"
said a player who didn't want to go on the record.
Curry made all three of his three-point attempts in Game 1, but went 2-of-9
the
rest of the way. By sagging on the inside, Boston was more than willing to
give
Curry the outside jump shot rather than have him drive to the basket.

<A HREF="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Celticsstuffgroup/message/7673";>O'Brien
is loath to call it a zone...but:</A>
No, really, what do you think about the fact that the Celtics have got
everyone fooled into thinking they play zone?

''If John Chaney, Hubie Brown, Mike Dunleavy, and most announcers in the NBA
say we're playing zone, we must be,'' said O'Brien. ''As soon as John Chaney
told Derrick Battie[ Tony Battie's brother who played for Chaney at Temple]
that we're really doing a great job of playing his zone, I decided that he's
probably right. Maybe it is a zone. Maybe it's more a zone than man-to-man.
I don't know what it is, but it's what we play. Let's put it this way: If we
have a zone, it wasn't designed to be a zone. Now, if it has become a zone,
and that's what people think it is, then maybe that's what it is. But it
wasn't intended to be a zone.''

TAM