The Funky Defense That’s Actually Stopping Steph Curry

The Funky Defense That’s Actually Stopping Steph Curry

At the end of game four, the chatter was mostly about Draymond Green making an incredible stop and Jimmy Butler securing a tough defensive rebound to put the Warriors up 3-1 in the series. But what had gotten overshadowed that night was a funky defense the Rockets had implemented that confused the Warriors for a lot of that game. And just two games later, this defense has left the Warriors with no answers and given the Rockets a blueprint to completing this comeback going into the series. The big headline was the Rockets approach for stopping Steph Curry. In their last regular season matchup, the Rockets had held him to three points by essentially denying and holding him as much as possible. But through the first three games, the strategy was unsustainable because it requires defenders to be locked in on Steph at every single second. Game three was the biggest tell. Without Jimmy Butler, Steph still dropped 36 points as the Rockets tried hounding him all night. The Warriors responded by bringing the pick and roll all the way to half court which gave Steph more space to work with. They specifically attacked the slow-footed Alper and Shingon and Gary Payeyton made plays in the short role to give the Warriors a 2-1 series lead. Where the Rockets had an incredible advantage though was when they played both Shingun and Adams on the floor. That’s because they can overwhelm the Warriors with their size. So, even if the Rockets don’t have great shooting, that opens up tons of offensive rebound opportunities, and that’s when they’ve generated their best offense. The downside is both bigs aren’t really mobile. So, Udoka was hesitant to play both bigs together for really long minutes. So, if he really wanted to reap the benefits, Udoka needed to figure out how to protect them on defense and also guard Steph Curry effectively. So, starting in game four, Yudoka came out with a really funky zone designated to keep a body on Steph Curry at all times. The best way to describe this is a rotating box one. Each defender shadows Curry when he enters their zone, then hands him off to the next as he moves. For example, Dylan Brooks and Van Fleet are on top. So Van Vleet is the first defender and he passes Curry off to Brooks who then passes him off to Stephen Adams. Curry sees an opening on the opposite corner and with Jabari Smith occupied on the wing, Adams follows him to the corner and Heel then has to take himself to the basket. What makes it such a tricky zone is that each defender is not really locked to a specific spot. Steven Adams wants to be in the paint, but he comes up to prioritize Curry. Shenun is pulled up because of Draymond. So, Jabari Smith sprints to the other side to get Buddy healed. Then, it’s a mad scramble drill for the last half of the shot clock. What the zone is designed to do is to keep the two big Shenun and Adams on the back line so the Warriors can’t run pick and rolls to drag them out simultaneously. It’s much harder for Curry to create separation on his matchup because each defender is just passing him off to the next guy. The only way Curry can drag them out is if he runs in Adams’ zone, but at that point, he only has to chase him for a few seconds. The Rockets also played a 113 with the guards lined up on the middle of the floor to cover those pick and rolls. That means the bigs can just stay in the paint and they’re going to live with this 31-footer. So, the Warriors then tried running a dribble handoff with Steph into a pick and roll, but Thompson is just waiting for a Curry. Vanet tells Smith, “I got Steph.” And now it’s a Jimmy Butler isolation with Adams and Shagon just waiting for him in the paint. This looks a lot different than when the Rockets are in man. Butler has an isolation and his drive draws two defenders and heel cuts in for a layup. But this zone naturally nullifies all of the cutting and screening that makes the Warriors offense so effective. When a guy is just being passed from one to the next, it’s a lot harder to really be out of position. In game four, the Rockets played the zone 27 times and the Warriors only scored 66 points per possession. In fact, Steph Curry never scored in the zone and the Rockets looked like they were going to tie the series. That was until Steve Curry went with a pretty genius move, intentionally fouling Steven Adams to get him out of the game. Adams only shoots 46% at the free throw line, and the Rockets were only nursing a one-point lead, so Udoka folded and got him out. And that ended up working in the Warriors favor. Without Adams on the floor, the Rockets went back to playing man. And then we saw the classic Warriors ball movement. Just like in game three, Shingu was moved around and the Warriors weren’t afraid of attacking the paint and went on a quick 70-0 run to take the lead. And after the Draymond Green stopped, the Warriors were up three games to one and looked like they were going to close the series. Except the rocket zone gave them a pretty significant advantage. It was so important that they only ran the zone a few times in game five because it was such an early blowout. So, they didn’t want to give the Warriors a chance to really figure out this zone. In game six, the game was much tighter and the Rockets went back to this too big zone for a lot of the game. Now, we’ve talked about what makes it so effective, but I thought the Warriors had a decent counter. The best thing the Warriors did was when they created a numbers advantage on one side of the floor. As the ball moves around, you have Post and Green on the left side against Jabari Smith. So, he moves up, Green cuts down and has an easy layup. A few possessions later, the Warriors have Green and Post on the right side against Shon. So, as Green drives, Shingun naturally comes to help and Post is now open in the corner. Essentially, what this does is force that bottom defender to make a decision. There’s two guys that they need to cover, but this mainly works if both guys are actually shooters. The only time we saw multiple Rockets in that vicinity was when Curry was there because that’s the Rocket’s priority. But with Adams dragged out of the paint, Curry can then beat him with his speed. Their offense wasn’t perfect by any means, but they were very much in striking distance after Curry made these free throws to make it a two-point game going into the fourth quarter. But that’s when Steve Cerr made his blunder. Despite making a few threes, Pachky was benched early in the fourth for the nonshooting Gary Peyton. So instead of trying to create a numbers advantage, they went to the double ball screen instead, but the Rockets just loaded up to Curry and forced Peyton to make open shots. A few possessions later, Peyton moves to the corner, but the Rockets aren’t worried about him, so they just wait for Butler in the paint. With the deficit at nine, they go back to the high pick and roll. And Green would have Peyton in the corner, but he cuts because he can’t shoot. And Adams reads that way too easily. So, as the deficit continued growing and Curry sensing that their offense wasn’t working, he started to get really impatient. If there was any sort of daylight, he would take these long 30-footers without really trying to get anything going. And that’s exactly what the rocket zone can do. The reason the zone works is that it requires very strategic movement, personnel, and patience to really break this down. Yes, the Warriors often seems like it would fit that mold, but the zone takes advantage of two of their weaknesses. One, they don’t have anyone that can challenge their big men in the paint. and two, they don’t have enough shooting on the roster. Yes, they have Steph Curry, but Heel and Pacheky are a little more inconsistent, so they’re really just making sure Steph can’t get a shot. In the fourth quarter, the Warriors only scored five points before it was effectively garbage time. And Curry went 1 for seven against the zone in the fourth to finish with 23 points on 39% shooting. Through the last three games, Curry has only averaged 19 points on 39% shooting because Emeoka has identified how to effectively take advantage of the Warriors weaknesses. So, with game seven coming tomorrow, the biggest factor is if the Warriors find enough answers to the zone. Yes, they have the firepower, the experience, the history, and this particular matchup on their side, but all of that is not going to matter if they can’t figure out this particular defense in the next 48 hours. So, hope

The Houston Rockets have come back to tie the series at 3 because they’ve implemented a very wild zone that’s slowed Steph Curry down. We go over everything that’s led up to this point and why the Warriors have not found any answers

0:00 – Brief recap of the series
1:50 – Zone defense

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Produced By Daniel Li
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