05-23-2024, 10:05 AM
(05-22-2024, 11:45 PM)KillerLeft Wrote: I would get out of drop as fast as I could to prevent those lobs (which shouldn't be happening against Minnesota) and force Luka to give the ball to Gafford and/or Lively on the short roll, just like OKC did all series, to great effect. Neither is very good in that situation (Lively is much better, but still not stellar) and while they will run the risk of giving up some open corner 3's (which they clearly didn't want to do tonight), I think that's a poison I'd pick (both the short roll decision makers and then the corner shooters) over letting Luka cook against drop. His midrange game has been the only consistently passable tool in his belt this post season as a scorer, and we all know his chemistry with both bigs is through the roof. Even Kyrie was eating in the midrange tonight. The drop completely negates the size disadvantage he has in this series, and was probably the biggest reason for his great first half.
But, that's me. I hate drop coverage. And, that's just kind of how Minnesota plays. So, I'm hopeful they'll be stubborn about it.
In the postgame interview with Kyrie, they specifically asked him whether he thought Minnesota would change to a blitzing defense, since their drop coverage wasn’t working very well. Kyrie got a funny look on his face and said that that’s the defense that they play.
The implication is that they don’t really have many defensive tools in their bag other than drop.