Rudy Gobert-the best defender of the rim of his generation. This is the only thing that people tend to agree when it comes to defending it. Discussion, criticism, mockery of Drading Green, all this is due to his work around the perimeter. “Can Rudy Gobert switch?” This is one of the most dividing topics in the whole basketball.
The numbers are slightly mixed in annual calculus. This, as a rule, occurs with small samples, such as the protection of isolation, which can swing rather wildly when firing by luck. But in general, he was pretty good. According to Synergy Sports, he estimates the 34th percentile according to the points permit allowed in isolation. This, obviously, is not very good, but in his four seasons of the defender of the year he appreciated in the 81st, 66th, 90s and 69th percentile. He, say, is not Evan Mobe or Bam Adebayo, when it comes to the protection of the perimeter, but he is far from bad.
But these are bad moments that usually stick. The game of Therans Mann in 2021, perhaps, was ultimately that Gobert-Donovan Mitchell Jazz killed. Mathematics claims that it does not expect a 3-year fence from a second year, gaining an average of less than 19 minutes per game. It happened. The clippers tortured Gobert, at the same time putting five shooters on the floor and forcing him to choose between the protection of the basket, as he had all year for the sake of putrefactive defenders in front of him or close the corners to challenge Manna. The result was a humiliating disorder. Speaking of humiliations, you probably remember the victorious 3-Office of Luke Donchich fell on the head at the end of the game of the 2nd final of the Western Conference.
Gobert does. And yet he firmly leans to the numbers. “It is obvious that they saw this clip from a step thousands. “This is one of the clips among many other defensive possessions. I know that many people do not like numbers, but for a long period of time the numbers speak more than a test on their eyes … Let’s see what happens within hundreds and hundreds of things. ”
Well, Los -Angeles Lakers seems to be considering Gobert’s opinion as a problem. Until now, they have not gone for him for “hundreds and hundreds of possessions” in their series in the first round, but they are approaching, as far as possible, in a tiny sample of one series of playoffs. After two games, but especially in the game 2, Lakers devoted a rather significant part of their attack, simply connecting Gobert around the perimeter.
According to Synergy Sports, in the game 2 Lakers had 83 offensive substances with a half field. They used 15 of these possessions to directly attack Gobert around the perimeter. For the sake of clarity, we are quite strict regarding our definition here. These are not the peaks-rolls in which the driver of the leiker attacked Gobert in Skryska or tried to shoot against him as necessary. These are plays in which the loker-bar-Handlers directly looked for Gobert either because of the profitable cross-match in the crossing, or for the switch around the perimeter and went on one on one. These 15 plays represent about 18% of the possessions with a half court, which Lakers had in the game 2, or 30% out of 50 and a half court, within 29 minutes of action. Simply put, when Gobert was on the site, Lakers used almost one third of their full possessions, raising it.
Passing each of these possessions on one with a thin gear comb, it would subordinate us to some individual bias related to the game that overwhelmed this narrative, therefore, in the interests of veneration of faith Gobert, we are going to avoid breaking the game into the game. However, a selection of these 15 possessions can be seen below.
So what the numbers say? They are not particularly kind. If you do not take into account offensive rebounds, Lakers scored 13 points for 15 possessions. If you calculate two points that Lebron James scored on one of these mistakes, this is 15 points for 15 possessions. In any case, this is not good in the great scheme of things. According to basketball, this season the NBA average crime scored 1.145 points for owning.
Lakers generated four attempts to a penalty of these possessions (and made them all) and turned the ball once. They shot 1 of 6 on 3 poles and 3 of 6 on 2 indexes. James was a ball for only one of these possessions. Austin Reeves used three. The remaining 11, as expected, came from Donchich.
Donchich, apparently, seemed to think that this crime was working for him and Lakers. After one particularly exciting shot of Gobert in the second quarter, he seemed to signal Timberwolves on the bench that they should pull Gobert out of the game.
Such moments contain the entire erroneous nature of this discussion. Yes, there were such main points. Reeves also had several. If you just look at the tape of these moments, you would suggest that Gobert was incredibly vulnerable, and if you are wondering why Donchich is so striving to go to him, it begins with muscle memory, which is formed in such games. But one of the reasons why I shared all 15 clips in one video was to emphasize that such moments represent only one game. The main bucket still has only two or three points, and these plays should be buried among the less noticeable. In general, this violation does not actually work.
Put these numbers from these specific possessions to the side for a moment. In the end, 15 possessions are a reasonable sample. Another of these 3 guides enters, and they look completely different. But think about the attack by the Leaker in the whole two games. They won the game 2, scoring 94 points. They lost the game 1, scoring 95. Yes, the series is connected, but it would be difficult to assume that their crime is responsible for this. Their offense in the regular season scored 115 points for 100 possessions. Until now, in this series they are reduced to 107.4, which puts them ahead of only wizards and hornets among the teams of the regular season. This number drops to 99 when Gobert was on the floor.
This is partly due to the hunt for the switch made by the Lakers, but are just as important that everything that they Not does. Lakers an average of 290.2 passes per game during the regular season, but in the play -off they fell to 253. It never was particularly heavy movement, but their insulting players ran an average of 9.44 miles per game, according to NBA.com tracking, but in the playoffs they decreased to 8.61. Lakers are so fixated in search and challenging Gobert that they commit a stationary crime. The ball does not move, like their players.
That’s where everything starts becoming more complicated. The playoffs, to some extent, requires more basketball one on one. This is especially true later in games and especially later in the series. The game slows down when very good teams begin to get acquainted with each other. Part of what Lakers makes such an exciting possible opponent is that they are perhaps the only team in the playoff field with three banks that can create simple pictures and take complex ones at All-Star level. They are developed to some extent to play in this way.
But think about an exhibition of shooting of 3 points in Minnesot in game 1 and how easily it feels. They made simple readings and accepted what the defense gave them. Lakers showed too much help to Anthony Edwards. He answered with nine gears, almost all to open arrows that made 21 out of 42 3. No matter how you want your superstars to take tough pictures, you also need their presence to create simple ones. This does not happen if all the violation, apparently, is built around the search for a four-time defender of the year and challenging him one on one. These isolations do not generate the advantages for the leaker crime with almost the speed in which they should work.
It is difficult for the loakers right now from their staff. I wrote About the problems that did not have the center created for them after the game 1. All this is still applied. DONCHICH would prefer to run a peak in the cover against Gobert and kill him with the help of Lob passages right now than to force the problem one on one. No matter how incredible, like the winner of Game 2 years ago, his game with two people with Daniel Gafford and Derek Lylivli was his bread with oil. This is not available to him right now. He makes from what he has. Right now it can be five reliable teammates in the attack. James and Reeves are stars. Rui Khachimura can do a little self -composure. Gabe Vincent and Dorian Finni-Smith can make the 3rd with malfunctions. Jarred Vanderbilt is such a bad shooter that Timber Volts does not even guard him. Jaxon Hayes looked unpractable at both ends in the game 2.
Thus, to some extent, Lakers will have to continue to play in one-on-one attack in order to get by. They have no depth or adaptability in their list. But as Gobert suggested before the play -off, Timberwolves can live with a crime that the style creates a longer example. It may look stupid on some brighter ribbons, but if Timberwolves continues to hold Lakers below 100 points, they will win this series. The task now is to find out what other matches can be used, and how they can do it so that everything is involved, and not one player at a time.
Share this content: