Friday, May 14, 2010

Low Post Defense: Triple Switch

In the semifinal game of the Euroleague’s Final Four, Barcelona showed an interesting and new (at least for me) low post defense.

CSKA use Siskaukas, probably the best “3” in our basketball (although maybe Barcelona’s Pete Mickael has something to say about this by now) in low post to play against smaller defenders. Also Planinic and even Ponkrashov (big PG’s) go to low post quite often.

In that game, Barcelona decided to defend both Siskaukas and Planinic one on one, with Mickael and Rubio. And their defense was good. The problems started when Grimau or Lakovic were on the court and had to face the Russian team’s players.

In that moment, Barcelona used this defense, as we can see in the video. They managed to defend in low post with a bigger player, although they lost power on help side, having some rebounding problems. Also, they ended up defending a wing with a big player outside of the key (minor problem anyway). I’ve circled in red the mismatches favourable to CSKA and in green those favourable to Barça.

They used this defense three times: CSKA’s center, Kaun, rebounded in the first one (and was fouled), Barcelona forced a tough shot in the second (after a GREAT double team), and CSKA’s player, Ponkrashov, was fouled again in the third.

Now I’d like you to watch the video and comment about this defense:

Have you seen it before? Do you think is a good option or does it create many options for the offense (offensive rebounds, mismatches…)? How would you improve the defense (in case you think it needs to be improved)?

Let’s go…

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