HoopsHype.com Columns

Zone revival at last
by Tim O'Sullivan / December 19, 2002

The league trashed the illegal defense rule last year in hopes of eliminating paint-drying two-man offenses and creating a more flowing, feng shui type game. Initial reactions ranged from disgust to doubt. Opponents of the zone believed it would decelerate the game, the opposite of the intended effect, or that the superior athleticism and skill of NBA players would make playing a zone irrelevant. As it turns out, neither of these fears came to fruition, but neither did the zone.

Last year coaches were reluctant to employ the zone in the regular season because they were simply afraid they didn't have enough time to teach it. Understanding the nuances of a zone is a long process, and without such understanding, zones end up smelling like Swiss cheese. So the lack of illegal defenses didn't revolutionize the game last season, but once the playoffs started, the beginnings of a change could be seen, most notably in the swamps of New Jersey.

The Boston Celtics' Paul Pierce torched the Nets during the regular season.When the two teams met in the Eastern Conference Finals, most expected the fire to keep burning. Pierce himself said he didn't think anyone on the Nets could stop him. Apparently, New Jersey coach Byron Scott concurred, because rather than having just one man guard Pierce, he focused all of his defensive attention against the Celtics' star in the form of a zone. New Jersey even went to a box-and-one zone, with Richard Jefferson shadowing Pierce and the other four defenders playing a two-two zone and offering Jefferson all the help he needed. The result was an ineffective Pierce and a trip to the Finals for New Jersey.

If the zone seed was planted last year, then it has sprouted this year and begun to bloom. Now that coaches have had a full year to learn, or re-learn, zone concepts, analyze how they can be used effectively and calculated the risk-to-reward ratio for all potential zone situations, defenses around the league have become more diverse and more stingy. And the best example lies with the league's best team, the Dallas Mavericks.

In 01-02, Dallas was next to last in the league in points allowed per game with a horrifying 101.0 average. Sacramento rudely knocked Dallas out of round 2 of the playoffs with a convincing 4-1 series win. Of the Kings' 207 field goals in that series, 115 were layups or dunks, which left the entire greater Dallas metropolitan area smelling like Swiss cheese.

Dallas was one of the few teams that really and truly tried to use the zone last year, just without much success. Now that the Mavs' coaching staff has had time to teach and develop their zone systems, their defense has done a 180. This season the Mavs are allowing just 93.4 points per game and holding teams to 42.2% from the field, three percentage points better than last year. The increased focus on defense hasn't hurt the Maverick's prolific offense, which is averaging 105.7 points per game, slightly better than last year's 105.2 average. Dallas was fourth in the league in point differential per game in 01-02 with a 4.2 average. This year, that average is a whopping 12.5, five full points ahead of the No. 2 team in that category, Sacramento.

But Dallas isn't the only place that's witnesses a defensive revival. Teams are scoring, or being held to, an average of 93.7 points per game this season, a significant decrease from last year's 95.3 average. Scoring
actually went up last year, by half a point, when the zone was first re-introduced. Increased scoring is what the league wanted when illegal defense was abolished, but by logic it stands to reason that scoring will lower when you take away defensive restrictions, and that seemingly self-evident theory is supported by the drop in scoring as well as a decline in shooting percentage, down from 44.2% last year to 43.6% this year. The best defensive team this year is markedly better than the best one last year. Detroit is allowing just 83.6 points per game to start this season (nearly a nine-point improvement for the Pistons), while Miami, the NBA's best defensive team in 01-02, allowed 88.7 points per game last season.

Even if teams don't play a straight-up zone, the lifting of the illegal defense rule has allowed teams to incorporate zone principals into their man-to-man defense. No team has done a better job of this than Boston. The Celtics' halfcourt defense utilizes many of the concepts of a matchup zone - ball pressure, weak side help, clogging the lane and very few uncontested shots. With the Celtics taking advantage of the zone rules without really using a zone, they went from giving up 96.8 points (20th in the league) on 45.9% shooting (25th in the league) in 00-01 to allowing just 94.1 points per game (9th) and 42.5% (3rd) in 01-02, and most importantly, went from missing the playoffs to reaching the Conference Finals.

Yet the most glaring sign of the zone's arrival came on Monday night in the desert. Just before tipoff, Orlando coach Doc Rivers was informed the Magic would be without the services of Tracy McGrady or Mike Miller. Rivers' solution? Play zone for all 48 minutes, and it nearly worked. The Magic jumped out to a 14-point lead before finally falling, 87-84. "I think that might be the first time an NBA team played zone the whole game,'" Orlando's Pat Garrity said after the game.

If a tight zone defense can nearly steal you a win on the road with your best player and another starter sitting out, it won't be the last time a team plays zone for the entire game.

Tim O'Sullivan is a staff writer at the Concord (NH) Monitor and a regular contributor to HoopsHype.com

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