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Why NBA teams have trouble with a good zone defense!

carolinajazz

Well-Known Member
.....they play so much "one on one" that when a zone is thrown at them, they are clueless on how to break it or what to do! Plus, you can't practice breaking a zone defense....with only 24 seconds to shoot! They still try to do it by using their "athletic" ability...but when run properly some zone defenses can wreck havoc with "hopper" teams and players! Even the Lakers, one of the smarter teams in the league are struggling right now with the Sun's zone defenses! Can they figure it out and win in L.A.? I suspect so. However, this next game should be a close one, because the Lakers have enough hopper types on their team to make it a nightmare to break!
 
No. Actually the zone defense is passé and ready to exploit, but success against it depends alternately on falling shots and top-of-the-key plays. The Lakers didn't succeed because they flat out sucked.
 
No. Actually the zone defense is passé and ready to exploit, but success against it depends alternately on falling shots and top-of-the-key plays. The Lakers didn't succeed because they flat out sucked.

This. They just played awful other than Kobe.
 
No. Actually the zone defense is passé and ready to exploit, but success against it depends alternately on falling shots and top-of-the-key plays. The Lakers didn't succeed because they flat out sucked.

....so, you're saying the way to break a zone defense is to call a time out....and tell your players they "suck?"
 
The reason why I can't stand zone defense, generally speaking, is it badly affects your ability to protect against offensive rebounding. However, somehow, the Suns were able to avoid that problem. Usually the middle of the floor also will open up if you move the ball well against the zone, thus being able to find a big man in the paint which in LA's case is Gasol . Having a good point guard helps a lot, and L.A. doesn't have that...Fisher is good in the triangle offense but as a pure pointguard? Not really. Farmar is inexperienced. My guess, however, is they'll put a lot of emphasis on swinging the ball around to exploit the middle, rather than jacking up 3's (Of course against us their 3's went in a lot more often <sigh> ). PHX has enough length in the middle to at least make it difficult on the Lakers though.
 
Don't mistreat your grey cells over this, CJazz. Zone defense is hopper ball.

...hopper ball only applies to offensive play...not defense. Some of the most lily white teams in College basketball play nothing but zone defenses....and they could not possibly be mistaken as playing "hopper" ball! Hopper ball has more to do with a selfish style of play than anything else...since the hip hop culture is based on selfishness, me first, heck with anybody else attitude and life style! Thus, a player who regularly goes off on his own and ignores his teammates on the court when their team has the ball can be correctly classified as playing "hopper" ball! Of course, an entire body loaded with tats is also a pretty good indication as well....and a hat turned sideways with pants to the ground!
 
The reason why I can't stand zone defense, generally speaking, is it badly affects your ability to protect against offensive rebounding. However, somehow, the Suns were able to avoid that problem. Usually the middle of the floor also will open up if you move the ball well against the zone, thus being able to find a big man in the paint which in LA's case is Gasol . Having a good point guard helps a lot, and L.A. doesn't have that...Fisher is good in the triangle offense but as a pure pointguard? Not really. Farmar is inexperienced. My guess, however, is they'll put a lot of emphasis on swinging the ball around to exploit the middle, rather than jacking up 3's (Of course against us their 3's went in a lot more often <sigh> ). PHX has enough length in the middle to at least make it difficult on the Lakers though.

The Lakers scored plenty of points against the Zone for most of the game. The problem was it negated their Iso game in crunch time. That and they couldn't stop the Suns.
 
...hopper ball only applies to offensive play...not defense. Some of the most lily white teams in College basketball play nothing but zone defenses....and they could not possibly be mistaken as playing "hopper" ball! Hopper ball has more to do with a selfish style of play than anything else...since the hip hop culture is based on selfishness, me first, heck with anybody else attitude and life style! Thus, a player who regularly goes off on his own and ignores his teammates on the court when their team has the ball can be correctly classified as playing "hopper" ball! Of course, an entire body loaded with tats is also a pretty good indication as well....and a hat turned sideways with pants to the ground!

Man, you tortured me with 234,740 posts over the years and now you start all over again at 101 with the definition of hopper ball? ;)
 
Lakers are NOT a great offensive team so when they suck on defense(which they are normally very good) they are usually in trouble.
 
OK... The Suns were obstinate about the zone-d and look where that got them: the Lakers had no trouble scoring against them and later they built a big lead. Zone-d totally exploited! I still say it has too many holes in it to be called a legit defense system.

What do you say now, CJazz?
 
OK... The Suns were obstinate about the zone-d and look where that got them: the Lakers had no trouble scoring against them and later they built a big lead. Zone-d totally exploited! I still say it has too many holes in it to be called a legit defense system.

What do you say now, CJazz?

...I say the zone defense worked well enough to get them two wins and send another game almost into overtime! It was better and smarter than the pathetic man to man defense we played against them that got us swept!
 
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