Нью-Йорк Никс баг нь Жоел Эмбиидийн сул талыг олж харан, түүнийг зохион байгуулалттайгаар онилж, тоглолтын туршид давуу талыг ашигласан.
Энэхүү тоглолтод Жоел Эмбиидийн хөдөлгөөний хязгаарлалтыг ашиглан Никс баг түүнийг будагтай талбайгаас холдуулах стратеги баримталсан. Тэдний зохион байгуулсан пик-энд-роллууд нь Эмбиидийг тогтмол талбайгаас холдуулж, бусад тоглогчдод нээлттэй байдал бий болгосон. Үүний үр дүнд Никс баг 39 онооны зөрүүтэйгээр ялалт байгуулсан нь сүүлийн тоглолтууд дахь тэдний давамгайлал үргэлжилснийг харууллаа.
Тоглолтын эхнэлээс эхлэн Никс баг пик-энд-роллын үеэр Эмбиидийг тогтмол талбайгаас холдуулж, Жош Хартын оролт хийх нээлттэй зам, эсвэл Жален Брансоны татгалзах шидэлтийг бий болгож байв. Тэдний энэ стратеги нь тоглолтын туршид үргэлжилж, 72 хувийн хоёр онооны шидэлт, 51 хувийн гурван онооны шидэлтийг хийхэд хүргэсэн.
Никс багийн дасгалжуулагч Майк Браун нь Филадельфийн багийн “урьдчилсан шилжилт” стратегид бэлтгэгдсэн байсан бөгөөд тоглогчдодоо Эмбиидийг талбайгаас холдуулахтай холбоотой нөхцөл байдлыг хэрхэн зохицуулах талаар зааварчилгаа өгчээ. Тоглолтын туршид Никс баг нь Эмбиидийг 27 пик-энд-роллд оруулж, 44 оноо авсан нь тэдний нарийвчилсан төлөвлөлт амжилттай болсныг баталж байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — It did not take long for the New York Knicks to identify their target.
Plopped in the middle of the Philadelphia 76ers’ defense was Joel Embiid, or at least what looked like Joel Embiid, the former MVP whose joints now squeak upon the slightest movement. Embiid remains gargantuan, capable of scaring away drivers, deterring shots and every once in a while — with his 7-foot frame, never-ending arms and brilliant basketball instincts — swatting away a shot. But the Knicks had deemed him vulnerable.
At his peak capabilities, Embiid was a menace. His mere existence prompted teams to adjust their shot selection. If he was down low, drivers steered clear. Cutters veered in other directions. He repelled any reasonable actor from what would otherwise be the cushiest spots on the court. But in Game 1 of the Sixers’ Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series against the Knicks, Embiid was no scarecrow. Animated across his chest, instead of that all-caps P-H-I-L-A, might as well have been a bullseye.
Offenses have spent all season bringing Embiid into actions. Pull him far from the paint, and they can better take advantage of his rickety legs. The Knicks, the same team that struggled with this concept in sparse moments during the regular season and even at points in a first-round series versus the Atlanta Hawks, sought out one defender, then destroyed the Sixers from there.
The result was a 39-point victory, New York’s largest win since … the last time it played a basketball game, when it ended the Hawks’ season with a 51-point drubbing. The Knicks got whatever they wanted in the finale against Atlanta and in the two previous matches before it. The trend carried over to the debut against Philadelphia because the Knicks made a concerted effort to go at Embiid. And they did not stop.
They did it a minute into the game, when Karl-Anthony Towns wrestled with Embiid in the high post, pulling him away from the hoop and clearing a driving lane for Josh Hart. They did it two minutes in, when Jalen Brunson ran a pick-and-roll with Towns, Embiid dropped all the way back into the paint, and Brunson cooked his defender, VJ Edgecombe, with a stepback jumper from the right elbow.
The middle of the court will be open for the Knicks during this series, which they clearly knew heading into Game 1. Purely from a stylistic perspective, the Hawks could not present themselves more differently than the Sixers do. Atlanta’s approach to the Knicks’ ball screens was aggressive. Its handsy guards, Dyson Daniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, got into the chests of dribblers. Its big men aren’t huge but move their feet well, which meant sending them closer to guys like Brunson.
Embiid drops back. Far. Well into the paint.
It leaves the mid-range area unoccupied, especially if whoever is defending the dribbler cannot fight through the screen with enough vigor. It’s how Brunson was able to get to all of his favorite locations in Game 1, when he dropped 35 points on 12-of-18 shooting. It’s why three minutes into the game, Mikal Bridges, who had vanished from the offense until Game 6 of the Hawks series, appeared for his first pick-and-roll, one that was naturally against Embiid.
Towns screened. Bridges facilitated. The Sixers switched. Bridges created an open corner 3-pointer for Hart, but Hart missed. Still, it was sound offense. If the Knicks repeated the process, they would likely score often.
So they repeated it. And they finished the night hitting 72 percent of their 2-pointers and 51 percent of their 3s.
They would not deviate from the goal.
Find Embiid. Then attack.
Four minutes in, Hart ran a pick-and-roll with Towns. Embiid was on the back side of the play once again. Five minutes in, with Mitchell Robinson substituted into the game for Towns, Robinson laid a screen for Brunson up near the half-court line. It was too far out for Embiid to trek. He stayed in the paint. Brunson dribbled right and pulled up for a wide-open 3-pointer, which clanked. But the play set the tone.
The game was tied at 10, but the Knicks were getting shots they wanted. They had to keep at it.
Six minutes in, Brunson ran another pick-and-roll at Embiid and found Robinson for a lob. Seven minutes in, Robinson laid a screen for Brunson again, and the All-Star point guard went to the basket for a layup. On the next possession, the Knicks ran three pick-and-rolls at Embiid. The sequence ended with a mid-range swoosh from Brunson.
They kept going and going. By the end of the first period, Embiid had defended 18 pick-and-rolls, the second-most for him in a single quarter all season, behind only the team that exposed this strategy for the Knicks.
The Boston Celtics tried to pull the same act off in Round 1 but couldn’t hit enough shots to prevail. The Celtics bombarded Embiid with ball screens. They ran 19 pick-and-rolls at him during the first quarter of their series’ Game 7, which Philly eventually won. But Boston’s demise bore fruit for New York.
There was a time not long ago when the Knicks did not look so disciplined, when their decision-making, cutting and screening weren’t as purposeful as they have been during this four-game winning streak, over which they have outscored the Hawks and Sixers by a combined 135 points. The Knicks aren’t just locking in on what they want; they focus like eagles and then adjust with the adjustments.
Leading into Game 1, head coach Mike Brown prepared the Knicks for how Philadelphia might react to the hunt of Embiid. This wouldn’t be the first time Philly had dealt with such a strategy; nor was it new when the Celtics leaned into the same ideas.
The Sixers had become adept at “pre-switching” when opponents angled Embiid into pick-and-rolls. Before his man could venture to the top of the court to set a pick, Philadelphia would switch another defender onto the preferred screener to keep Embiid around the hoop and out of the action. Brown warned the Knicks of the enemy’s intentions and drilled the team on how it should react.
“We’ve had to practice it a lot,” Brunson said. “I think once we get into the right positions, we know how to read each other.”
Come the second quarter, while already trailing by double-digits, the 76ers put their plan into action, and the Knicks responded. On the final possession of the first half, Brunson dribbled out the clock, awaiting a screen from Ariel Hukporti, to whom Embiid attached himself. But before Hukporti crossed the free-throw line, Embiid and Sixers wing Kelly Oubre Jr. switched assignments.
Oubre took Hukporti and Embiid moved to the Knicks guard who was in the weak-side corner, Miles “Deuce” McBride.
The Knicks recognized the change immediately. Brunson shooed away Hukporti, the little-used big man thrust into a high-pressure situation because both of the Knicks’ top two centers found themselves in foul trouble. Hukporti immediately recognized why. He turned around and headed back to the paint, pointing to McBride from across the court. Hart, stationed on the left wing, did the same, motioning for McBride to screen for Brunson.
“A lot of it is just reading and reacting,” McBride said.
The Knicks — Brunson, Hukporti, McBride, Hart and Bridges, who positioned himself in the opposite corner and was the first one to wave McBride over to his point guard — were reading, reacting and then communicating in perfect sync.
McBride curved around the left elbow, hoping to keep Embiid as far away from Oubre as he could. If he neared Oubre, the two could switch back to their original assignments. The route took him near Hart, where his defender, Maxey, switched onto McBride. Once again, a pre-switch took Embiid out of the action.
But it didn’t thwart the Knicks.
New York had accomplished the next-best option. It had pulled Embiid away from the basket, where his impact was muted. McBride screened for Brunson, whom two defenders followed. Brunson passed to an open McBride at the top of the key. Embiid raced his way as well as Embiid can race. McBride swung a pass to an unguarded Hart in the left corner.
Hart missed the 3-pointer, but because the Knicks had pulled Embiid so far out of rebounding position, because they had sent the Sixers into a frenzy, scrambling the defense into uncomfortable rotations, Bridges snuck into the paint for an offensive board. He kicked the ball to Brunson, who drained a 3 to end the second quarter.
He had 27 points at halftime. The Knicks led by 24.
The 27 pick-and-rolls they put Embiid into during Game 1 led to 44 Knicks points, according to Second Spectrum. That’s 1.63 points per possession, nearly the same efficiency as Brunson going to the line for two free throws.
The Knicks got off to a hot start in Game 1 because they identified one of the 76ers’ most glaring issues. But just like during the previous three blowouts, they trampled a team for all four quarters because of their attention to detail.
