Many basketball fans in the NBA chant “Defense, defense, defense!”, with claps in between each word, to hype up the defending team’s spirits. The NBA finals are being played between the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets. The Miami Heat had to deal with the extremely difficult challenge of slowing two of the league’s most dangerous players, the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, during the first game of the N.B.A. finals in front of their home fans. But with the Heat’s new defensive plan, who play a zonal defense a style in which defenders guard areas of the court instead of individual players, unlike any other team in the league. However, since this piece was written after the NBA finals ended, the Miami Heat ended up losing to the Nuggets in a 4-1 series, even with their secret plan being used. In my opinion, this tactic did not work properly and failed to make the Heat defeat the mighty Denver Nuggets in the series.
Unfortunately, in the third game of the series, the Nuggets defeated the Heat 109-94 on June 9 in Miami. The two most dangerous players on the Nuggets, Jokic and Murray finished with double triples for a game, which had the Miami Heat’s unbelievable defense being unfazed. One flaw to this creative zonal defensive tactic was that the Heat did not offer much pressure and resistance to the Nuggets’ attacks. “We didn’t offer much resistance,” said Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra, who bemoaned his team’s lack of effort but considered it an anomaly.
This can give a lot of space to sharpshooters such as Nikola Jokic, a two-time NBA MVP Award winner. So, to slow down the Nuggets’ attack, the Heat switched from a man-marking defense to a more zonal one. Statistics include the Heat’s zonal strategy which limited opponents to 0.937 points per possession. In comparison, their opponents averaged 1.009 points per possession when the Heat used man-to-man marking. The Heat’s zonal defense strategy carried them all the way to the conference finals, where they beat the Boston Celtics and moved on to meet the Nuggets in the Championship finals, but this was not enough to defeat Denver as the Nuggets won the NBA Championships in a 4-1 series.
Still, the zonal defense system remains a little rare for various causes. N.B.A. rosters are being filled with precise three-point shooters, and when passes fly from one side to another, zone defenders are often too slow to react, leaving opposing players with easy shots from 3-point range. Additionally, defenders are barred from hanging in the lane when they are not marking an opposing player. “And that changes everything, N.B.A. coaches are still reluctant to play zone because you can’t just stick a guy in the charge circle and protect the paint,” explained Alex Popp, the head boys’ basketball coach for IMG Academy’s postgraduate team in Bradenton Florida.
In conclusion, I believe that the zone defense system has some flaws in modern basketball because a lot of passes are thrown at high speeds from one player to another. This would obviously give zonal defenders a harder time marking their opponents and slow their reaction time.
Unfortunately, in the third game of the series, the Nuggets defeated the Heat 109-94 on June 9 in Miami. The two most dangerous players on the Nuggets, Jokic and Murray finished with double triples for a game, which had the Miami Heat’s unbelievable defense being unfazed. One flaw to this creative zonal defensive tactic was that the Heat did not offer much pressure and resistance to the Nuggets’ attacks. “We didn’t offer much resistance,” said Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra, who bemoaned his team’s lack of effort but considered it an anomaly.
This can give a lot of space to sharpshooters such as Nikola Jokic, a two-time NBA MVP Award winner. So, to slow down the Nuggets’ attack, the Heat switched from a man-marking defense to a more zonal one. Statistics include the Heat’s zonal strategy which limited opponents to 0.937 points per possession. In comparison, their opponents averaged 1.009 points per possession when the Heat used man-to-man marking. The Heat’s zonal defense strategy carried them all the way to the conference finals, where they beat the Boston Celtics and moved on to meet the Nuggets in the Championship finals, but this was not enough to defeat Denver as the Nuggets won the NBA Championships in a 4-1 series.
Still, the zonal defense system remains a little rare for various causes. N.B.A. rosters are being filled with precise three-point shooters, and when passes fly from one side to another, zone defenders are often too slow to react, leaving opposing players with easy shots from 3-point range. Additionally, defenders are barred from hanging in the lane when they are not marking an opposing player. “And that changes everything, N.B.A. coaches are still reluctant to play zone because you can’t just stick a guy in the charge circle and protect the paint,” explained Alex Popp, the head boys’ basketball coach for IMG Academy’s postgraduate team in Bradenton Florida.
In conclusion, I believe that the zone defense system has some flaws in modern basketball because a lot of passes are thrown at high speeds from one player to another. This would obviously give zonal defenders a harder time marking their opponents and slow their reaction time.
