Heat Offers Blueprint for Disrupting the Knicks’ Offense
By ROB MAHONEY
A demoralizing loss to the Heat told a painful truth about the Knicks’ place in the Eastern Conference hierarchy, but of greater significance was a revelation of the team’s offensive limitations. Even the league’s best offenses can be countered, and Miami, a team evidently schooled in the machinations of Mike D’Antoni’s offense, unveiled something of a blueprint for stopping the Knicks.
Not every team can pull off Miami’s approach. Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are two talented defenders capable of pressuring ball-handlers in way most wings cannot. Still, the principles of the Heat defense can be applied almost universally by Knicks opponents if they so choose, even if the result isn’t quite as successful.
The philosophy behind the defense is simple: play the numbers. Amar’e Stoudemire is a monster on offense (and particularly in the pick-and-roll), so Miami threw double and triple teams at him as often as possible. The timing of the pressure was fairly random; sometimes extra defenders would come on the dribble, and sometimes they would wait until Stoudemire had found his way to the rim. Regardless, the Heat dedicated more than just one player to the task of guarding Stoudemire, fully aware of what that would do to the Knicks’ offense.
Putting a lot of defensive pressure on Stoudemire creates two basic problems for the Knicks: it takes away their most reliable half-court offensive weapon (the Felton-Stoudemire pick-and-roll) and it forces Stoudemire to make smart, crisp passes out of double teams, something he has never seemed comfortable doing.
Friday night’s game may very well have been lost in the pick-and-roll. The Knicks execute the 1-5 pick-and-roll as well as just about any team in the N.B.A., which is a testament to Stoudemire’s hands, athleticism and finishing ability. According to Synergy Sports Technology, the Knicks average 1.27 points per possession on plays going through the roll man, a truly exemplary mark. Against the Heat, however, the Knicks were able to muster only a pitiful 0.83 points per possession in such situations. There’s a gulf between those two levels of efficiency, and things were similarly dismal for ball-handlers in the Knicks’ pick-and-roll.
In Phoenix, Stoudemire had it easy. If defenses collapsed on him, all he had to do was kick the ball out to the perimeter, and contrary to popular belief, the end result of such a sequence wasn’t always a spot-up 3-pointer. More commonly, the Suns would reset the play through Steve Nash, who then had the option of taking a shot himself or threading a perfect pass to a well-positioned scorer.
As excellently as Raymond Felton has played this season, he’s no Nash. Though the ball may eventually find its way back to Felton after the initial action is halted, he doesn’t have the vision that made Nash so brilliant in capitalizing on broken plays. So Felton drives, or runs another pick-and-roll, or pulls up for a jumper, but without the potential for consistently efficient offense.
To make matters worse, Stoudemire isn’t the most willing or accurate passer. He tends to put blinders on when within attack range, and the times he does give up the ball are typically possession-saving maneuvers; he kicks out to perimeter players often enough, but those passes aren’t always well-placed as a result of the defensive pressure. Stoudemire can have a beauty of an assist every now and again, but he’s an interior scorer, not a playmaker. It should surprise no one that his passes force shooters to compromise their footing, and take them out of their sweet spots.
That may not sound all that important, but comfort level is crucial for shooters, even in spot-up situations. Hitting a perimeter shooter in the hands with a pass results in a more fluid shooting motion with more time and space to fire. In some cases, those things alone can be the difference between a make and a miss. Stoudemire’s passing out of double and triple teams doesn’t totally account for the Knicks’ subpar 33.3 percent shooting from deep Friday night, but it’s a decent start. Throw in Miami’s excellent group of close-out wings, and it’s not exactly surprising that the Knicks had trouble from beyond the arc.
Against the Knicks, opposing coaches would be wise to take their chances with the Knicks’ shooters. That’s not to say that the shooting abilities of those on the roster are inferior. Rather, the avenues to those shooters can be limited by putting heavy pressure on Stoudemire. All things go through Stoudemire and Felton, and while that offensive approach is effective against a majority of defenses, well-timed swarms can effectively disrupt the threat of both Stoudemire’s interior offense and the Knicks’ weak side pick-and-roll alternatives.
Rob Mahoney is an obsessive student of professional basketball, dedicated to the minutiae, the overarching themes and everything in between. You can read more of his work at TheTwoManGame.com, HardwoodParoxysm.com and ProBasketballTalk.com.
12/18/2010 11:56 PM