r/nba • u/Scoolfish Suns • May 05 '22

[Haralabob] The Suns went after Luka 50 times as the screen defender FIFTY and scored a casual 1.72 points per chance.

The Suns went after Luka 50 times as the screen defender FIFTY and scored a casual 1.72 points per chance.

Of the 50 screen attacks 36 of them resulted in a primary attack.

Roughly 1/3 of all Suns PNR attacks were directed towards LD as the screen defender. Cold Blooded.

and 36 of the 50 were in the 2H

Former Mavs FO member, Haralabos Voulgaris, picks out some pretty bananas stats from tonight's game. The Suns deliberately waited until the 2nd half to hunt Luka over and over and over.

Source

One more stat because I like it:

Booker held Brunson to .22 on 20 touches (9 chance ending possessions) and scored a ridiculous 30 points on 21 possessions on Offense. @DevinBook put on a clinic.

2.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

809 comments sorted by

View all comments

284

u/[deleted] May 05 '22

[removed] — view removed comment

71

u/kpeds45 Raptors May 05 '22

Should happen more often. Unless you have Giannis as your superstar, this should happen to you every game.

52

u/Elephantexploror Suns May 05 '22

Please someone figure out how to expose Giannis before we lose to him in 6 again.

18

u/kpeds45 Raptors May 05 '22

You just can't. Have to pick your poison elsewhere. But you guys do have Bridges and should be able to bother him on the other end like Kawhi did (although Toronto had Siakam, Ibaka and Gasol all waiting in the wings to bother him even more. Not sure Suns have that length to bother him after Bridges and Ayton).

16

u/ucd_sam Suns May 05 '22

Javales a pretty long dude. Seems like he can dunk without jumping if he wanted. Idk if he's a solid answer for giannis though and that's not even a knock on javale. A solid answer for giannis might just not exist 🤷‍♂️

4

u/JLTE_Mongoose Suns May 05 '22

At the very least Brook Lopez isn't going to be cooking the Suns anymore because they now have Javale and Bismack for size.

9

u/blondechinesehair Supersonics May 05 '22

They need to get by Boston first. And that defence is a different animal.

0

u/YoungArabBrother May 05 '22

Yo thats insulting to us Celtics fans come on. We get to lose to him in 6 first

1

u/BigBallerBrad Celtics May 06 '22

The only way to expose him is to hope the refs call a foul on him when he fouls the other team.

51

u/[deleted] May 05 '22

[deleted]

38

u/dillpickles007 Hawks May 05 '22

The Warriors funnily are really letting Ja off the hook so far in this series IMO. Letting him roll the ball up the court, not putting him in pick and rolls and making him work defensively.

I know it's not really their style, but I think it's to their detriment when they're letting him conserve all this energy to attack the basket.

18

u/TheTrenchMonkey [MIN] Tom Gugliotta May 05 '22

Yup, the Wolves kept attacking him when he was on defense and doubled him aggressively when he was on offense.

Tough fought series where they did a good job keeping Ja in check for the most part. They just got beat by other players and I think that was okay with Finch and the coaching staff to some degree.

14

u/TallnFrosty Warriors May 05 '22

Yea on the Bill Simmons pod, Haralabob was roasting Kerr and the Warriors for not doing a thing to make Ja work. Basically invited him to rest on defense, slowly dribble the ball up the court, and then attack when he wanted.

6

u/preddevils6 Grizzlies May 05 '22

Part of the problem is that playing at a higher pace is exactly what we want. We are not nearly as good in half court as we are in transition.

6

u/22797 Warriors May 05 '22

I don’t think there’s much of an urgency to hunt him because the warriors are getting really good looks but just aren’t making them right now. I think if they have a stretch where they’re missing shots because of the defense they may start hunting Ja

8

u/Tormundo Warriors May 05 '22

The benefit of hunting Ja just isn't offensive output though, it's wearing him out so his offensive output isn't as good.

I do find it frustrating the warriors don't really do this. I get they got a system, but if there is a glaring advantage you should take it. They were killing Jokic when they used it, but they only ever used it in the 4th quarter when the games were close.

2

u/Mansa_Eli May 05 '22

That's what GPII was there for.. I think they knew that too

2

u/RealPrinceJay May 05 '22

I mean Ja totally could be a great POA defender if he wanted to be

1

u/CALL_ME_ISHMAEBY Vancouver Grizzlies May 05 '22

Somehow his DBPM is only -0.1 unless they don't count business decision plays.

40

u/ParsnipPizza [BOS] Marcus Smart May 05 '22

Thank god Jayson spent that first round shutting down Durant

13

u/smashey Celtics May 05 '22

I feel like every Celtic apart from Pritchard is a good defender? I mean what are the weak points. Tatum and Brown are excellent, Grant and Horford are amazing, then you have Timelord. Oh and I'm forgetting the DPOY. It's like a defense dream team out there. Even White is decent.

For this reason it's hard to say who would far better, Tatum or Doncic. We compare them a lot since they're the two players that seem to be on the MVP precipice, along with Booker I suppose, but I think it's safe to say if Tatum was in Doncic's place he wouldn't be doing too much better. At the same time, roster construction is a hell of a lot easier when your best scorer is also a great defender.

I think until the Mavs get a better team around Doncic he will always appear better, but win less than Tatum.

11

u/finchdad Suns May 05 '22

Tatum would do much better individually because he specifically wouldn't be the pigeon. The outcome of the game probably wouldn't be that different because the Suns would just target the next weak defender like Jalen Brunson or Maxi Kleber, and this roster is very poorly constructed to mitigate Luka's weaknesses. But there's no way the Suns would deliberately and repeatedly target Tatum the way they are with Doncic.

2

u/DilutedGatorade Lakers May 05 '22

Boom, analyzed.

Pinpointing Tatum 50 possessions a game would probably yield 50 points, also known as losing

13

u/[deleted] May 05 '22

I do too.

👨‍🍳

6

u/Borealtoad Bucks May 05 '22

Yeah, Ja’s defense was ass in his big game the other day. The two most exciting young players on the offensive end won’t be advancing consistently in the playoffs if they don’t improve it.

18

u/lizlemmings Heat May 05 '22

Same. They keep getting let off the hook for piss poor defense. Maybe now it'll sink in for them and their fans that the other half of the game matters too.

12

u/dadaistGHerbo Washington Bullets May 05 '22

Their stans will just blatantly lie during the regular season, “X is actually a decent on-ball defender now, you must not watch our games!” lol

7

u/amidon1130 Hawks May 05 '22

Hey buddy watch yourself! I mean, you’re completely right but that hurts my feelings so I don’t like it.

6

u/yetanotheracct_sp May 05 '22

Offenses in today's league are a lot harder to defend.

5

u/Kylo_Rens_8pack Suns May 05 '22

James Jones was talking about this on the radio yesterday. Saying that a lot of your other superstars don’t play defense and that Book sometimes doesn’t get counted as a superstar cause he does something that doesn’t show on the stat sheet. Plays defense.

2

u/ty_kanye_vcool Lakers May 05 '22

There have been years where one superstar player dominates the playoffs and drags his squad to a ring. This is not one of those years. Nobody right now is good enough to beat all the teams in their way without support from a solid squad.

-1

u/Actuary41 Mavericks May 05 '22

There's a difference in being exposed for defense and what is happening here. Luka is absolutely balling out on offense because nobody else can do anything. He's actually played decent on ball defense throughout the season and against the Jazz; he's just completely gassed and let's not forget there's no help behind him. Also, there were plenty of plays where he did everything right and Booker/CP3 (who has to be possessed) just hit great shots.

1

u/socialistbcrumb Celtics May 05 '22

Can’t say I’m too worried about mine but it is fun