08-30-2021, 01:08 PM
(08-30-2021, 01:04 PM)dirkfansince1998 Wrote: Dame´s career high is just one of many examples but him scoring 61pts just spamming high pick and roll against KP is concerning. Other teams are doing the same and so far KP and the Mavs had no answer for it. They tried a lot. Nothing worked.
And it´s not only about KP. It´s the league wide trend to hunt mismatches and expose the weak link on defense. When it mattered the Jazz tried to hide Gobert on the worst shooter. Against the Mavs it was DFS. Against the Clippers it was Mann. Leading to career highs for both of them. Same case for Embiid. Whenever Simmons was on the bench Young and Capela scored at will. He had no answer and gave up the open floater or lob dunk every single time. Compared to KP both are way better defenders but even the best traditional bigs can be turned into defensive liabilities. The days where teams could get away with drop coverage are over.
Seems like the trick is to have the right tools in your kit to match up (or overload) against your opponents' lineup. For example, the Mavericks never had enough wings to match up with the Clippers. They just put 5 wings out there and hunted mismatches.