G3 vs. Trail Blazers: Review of the final period of the 4th quarter and observation of the final lineup plan

The Trail Blazers' small lineup inspired the Clippers to expand their size advantage inside and ensure the second point of possession. As well as Beal's injury and Bogdan's slump, the Clippers tried a lineup with Dunn and Collins partnering with Dengkazu in the closing period. Provides a reference sample for one of the potential closing lineup options.

The lineup of [Harden-Dunn-Leonard/Batum-Collins-Zubac] has also become the first closing lineup put out by the Clippers this season.

The Trail Blazers made 22 turnovers in the game. In the second quarter, they relied on a small lineup to seize the momentum of the game. They once hit a 23-2 climax and put the Clippers into adversity. So from an offensive point of view, when Bill is injured and Bogdan is in poor condition, one benefit of using Dunn in the final stage is his "second point guard value." This is one of the reasons why he was able to compete with Jones in the starting lineup last season.

Add Dunn as another backcourt ball control point besides Harden. He can do simple work of holding the ball through the half court and getting on the ball. He does not put "eggs in one basket". At the same time, it can also save Harden's energy and gain the confidence to attack in isolation at the necessary moment.

But letting Dunn control the ball is actually a very "Schrödinger" thing, because Dunn is not a player who is very good at controlling mistakes, and the overall passing and control is not stable. So what I want to praise Dunn here is: he completed the ball control task well in the closing stage, and there was no tragedy in the transition period of the first quarter of the opening game.

For example, in the first round below, Dunn handled it very smartly: Sharp led the entire defense and the Trail Blazers flanked each other just after halftime. Dunn jumped and passed to Zubac in time, allowing the team to gain more opportunities.

held the ball through half the court and started a "reverse pick-and-roll" with Leonard to help him target Sharp.

Complex positional battles, long passes, and rounds that require a steady rhythm will be handled by Harden, who has stronger passing and control capabilities.

In addition, they did not follow the Blazers blindly to push the rhythm when the score was leading. When the score was already leading, they controlled the rhythm of the game to avoid falling into the opponent's rhythm. The above is based on the characteristics of the Trail Blazers team and the emphasis on game details and rhythm.

Returning to the Clippers' offensive ideas and strategies, they can be summarized into two points:

One is the established plan that is very "versatile" and can be adopted in all games: Leonard attacks hard solutions and calls for punishment for mismatches. The core's offense at critical moments will naturally be one of the most effective methods in anxious and critical moments of every game.

Leonard has already reached Sharp's dislocation, and he has to pick and roll with Dunn, causing Avdija to switch to guard him. This pick and roll has a completely negative effect. Secondly, when Dunn got the ball for him, the moment before Leonard received the ball, Avdija fought hard and Leonard lost his center of gravity and almost lost the ball. Fortunately, after Leonard got the ball when facing Kamara who stepped forward to help defend, he created a shooting space and relied on his personal ability to score a mid-range shot.

After Sharp was out of position, he used the familiar singles starting technique of "continuous crotch" and immediately started to break through from the right, heading to the right half of the court (the side Leonard is more accustomed to finishing on), but encountered Kamara's strong side swipe, so he turned back to adjust the rhythm. At the same time, he gradually moved towards the center with more open space. At the same time, he turned around to observe the position of the defensive player on the weak side to avoid being double-teamed after turning around. Then he immediately shot a turn-over jump shot after the confrontation and scored despite Sharp's interference.

broke through from the right, accelerated twice and entered the paint area. After facing Sharp, he grabbed half a body and faced Av's step forward to help defend and hit the throw.

The other point is the targeted attack strategy designed based on the Trail Blazers' five small lineups and the inherent advantages of their own lineup: Zubac's heavy hammer inside, trying to achieve the effect of "standing out from the crowd" by relying on the absolute high point.

and Zubac's inside finish from the second-highest Collins after attracting a double attack. The non-center player with both the aggressiveness to attack the frame and the best size. In the opponent's lineup that lacks absolute height, Collins can hit the opponent's basket after Zubac attracts defensive attention.

These two rounds of cruising in the penalty area, cutting back and then receiving Zubac's inbound pass can not only reflect its role and value in the closing stage, but also show the increasing chemical reaction and "tacit understanding" between Zubac and Collins - as I said before, this is the content of the game that I expect the two to play.

Obviously, the choices of Dunn and Collins in today’s final lineup have strategic value in facing the Trail Blazers’ five small lineups.

Leonard was not present, so he simply asked Zubac to execute his "Cross Seal" tactic. He set up a "Cross Seal" for Collins and then cut to the basket to receive Harden's reverse hang, attracting Grant to double attack and then pass inside to Collins.

Zubac hit Holiday in the low post, Sharp came to attack, Grant defended two on the weak side, and Collins responded with an air cut.

Of course, Collins also has his problems. The offensive end frequently shows weakness in the follow-up processing of fixed-point attacks. This is a problem he has exposed in the preseason.

Although there was a factor of being tripped by Grant in this round.

Also, when Dunn, Zubac, and Collins are on the same court, the team's space will still be challenged, especially when encountering opponents with strong targets - the Nuggets' targeting of Dunn in the playoffs and their containment of the Clippers' pick-and-roll system are still vivid in my mind..

When opponents use flanking attacks and aggressive help defense against core players more frequently, can Dunn's weak-side response and Collins' fixed-point processing stand the test?

On the defensive end, the Clippers' Harden-Dunn-Leonard/Batum/Collins-Zubac lineup is quite imaginative. Ideally, it can combine defensive strength and size. It has both first-line lead defense pressure, upper line help defense and harassment, and also has the support of lower line defense and size. It left a theoretical foundation for the Clippers to play a multi-dimensional three-dimensional defensive performance.

One more thing here: Although there is a factor of defensive IQ problem, the coaching staff should put forward higher requirements for the defensive habits brought by Collins's former club. Also, from a visual point of view in the past three games, I am not satisfied with Collins' presence in assisting the rim protection. Reflected in the data, Collins has only attempted 6 rim protection attempts in the past 3 games, which is obviously unjustifiable (of course, the success rate of 4 successful rim protection attempts is still very high).

Back to the final stage of this game, the Clippers' defense against the Trail Blazers was not very good.

The Blazers' offensive thinking is to first rely on the mobility of the small lineup and the vitality and speed of the young team to try to seize transition attack opportunities. This is also an obvious problem on the defensive end of the Clippers at this stage: they were beaten by the Trail Blazers with a very high success rate in transition attacks.

Secondly, after falling into a positional battle, the Blazers' idea is to rely on a small lineup of five foreign players + multiple ball-handlers to name, target, and dispatch Zubac. At the same time, the Blazers' ball-holding points are relatively scattered, and it is not easy to catch "key players" in an absolute sense. Combining these two points has formed a certain degree of restraint for the Clippers' defensive system.

Even if an attack fails and Zubac is successfully moved away from the basket, he can still try to grab offensive rebounds.

Of course, at this stage the team should have emphasized creating mistakes and intercepting the ball, which still caused some trouble for the Blazers.

But some rounds were counterproductive due to execution issues.

Summary

In the final period, the Clippers can see the sense of design and pertinence in terms of rhythm control and detail control on the offensive end, as well as the overall offensive ideas and strategies. It laid the foundation for the Clippers to stabilize the score and win the game in the closing period. Leonard's attack and Zubac's absolute height in the paint that changed the defense were the keys to the Clippers' eventual victory.

Among them, when facing the Trail Blazers' small lineup, Dunn was used as the "second point guard" in the closing stage, and Collins was the second height in the paint with both body type and frame attack% 26, which can better reflect the value of the two "final lineup candidates" and their strategic role in this game.

However, Dunn, Collins, and Zubac playing together will still bring some challenges to the team's space support. When facing a more targeted opponent, Dunn's weak-side response and Collins' fixed-point handling will be tested.

On the defensive end, this lineup has a lot of room for imagination. Ideally, it can combine defensive strength and size. It not only has front-line lead defense pressure, upper line help defense and harassment, but also has the support of lower line help defense and size. It left a theoretical foundation for the Clippers to play a multi-dimensional three-dimensional defensive performance.

However, Collins’ issues of focusing on his opponent and his investment in assisting defense are all issues that need to be emphasized and supervised by the coaching staff.

The Clippers' defense was not very good at the end of the game, although their emphasis on making mistakes and intercepting the ball caused some trouble for the Blazers.

However, the Blazers relied on the mobility of the small lineup and the vitality and speed of the young team to achieve a very high success rate in transition attacks. Secondly, in positional defense, the Blazers rely on a small lineup of five foreign players + multiple ball-handlers to name, target, and dispatch Zubac. The ball-holding points are relatively scattered, and it is not easy to catch "key players" in an absolute sense. Combining these two points has formed a certain degree of restraint for the Clippers' defensive system.