GAME 14: DAL (9-5) @ PHX (11-3) | 98-105 loss

[dirkfansince1998]

Yeah, those Crowder 3's in the corner were scary open. 

But to be fair, the Mavs, with a first year coaching staff and players just learning to play together in a new system, were facing a team that went to the NBA finals last year with one of the best PG's of all-time. I think Kidd hoped the zone would confuse the Suns temporarily (as we see happen to teams from time to time) but it turned out that they knew how to break the zone more than Dallas knew how run it.

This. Running a zone is not easy and it takes time to learn the different concepts. If we go back all the way to 2011 many Mavs fans wondered why the Mavs were running zone in the regular season. If I remember it correctly Casey forced the issue because he knew that at some point in the season they would need it. Kidd and Marion didn´t like it. They prefered to run man defense.

Found the article...

https://www.si.com/nba/2018/03/06/dwane-...tucky-ncaa

Casey landed in Dallas as a defensive coordinator, with more aging stars, and he wanted to devise a zone the Mavericks could use like an eephus pitch. P---y defense, players grumbled, and point guard Jason Kidd abandoned the zone if it allowed a basket. At training camp in ’10, Casey told the Mavs they were going to build the best zone in the league, and grousing continued. “I like to lock up, man-to-man,” Shawn Marion said.

“Trust me,” Casey replied. “We’re going to need this at some point.” The Mavericks spent 10 minutes on zone slides at every practice and deployed the zone for an entire preseason game in Chicago. Still, they used the zone sparing during the regular season, until the Finals against Miami. The Mavs had no one to match up with LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. Dallas was too old, too slow and too small in the backcourt. “It was finally time to whip out that f------ zone,” recalls former Mavs guard Jason Terry. Dallas alternated between a 2–3 and a man-to-man defense in which they sank guards to the elbows and bigs to the boxes. “Miami ran iso like 80% of the time with LeBron and D-Wade,” Terry recounts. “You beat me, here’s another guy waiting. You beat him, here’s Tyson Chandler waiting. There was nowhere to isolate and nowhere to kick out. Remember, they didn’t have Ray Allen then. LeBron had to shoot jump shots. And what was LeBron’s weakness at the time? Eighteen foot jump shots.”

Bottom line. A good zone defense isn´t created over night. Requires practice and in game reps.