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OK, time for a #videothread! Because Bogey/Niang/Clarkson all went nuts offensively, the storyline will be about them last night. But Rudy was dominant defensively, so let's walk through them, starting with the play that prompted this tweet. Here goes... 1/ https://twitter.com/danclayt0n/status/1387603672012496898
2/This frame tells the story of why this matters. The *instant* the pass is out, Gobert's attention is back on Metu. Ball hasn't even gotten to him yet and Gobert is fully back in front. But more importantly, look at where the other 3 defenders are. At home. Not needing to help.
3/That's huge. Most tms bring help to P&R. Utah's great 3pt def is in part because they don't need leave shooters to help Rudy. Like here: Rudy cuts off the drive, which lets Niang get back in front. But nobody comes off their man to tag Metu because they know Rudy has him, too.
(Side note: Niang deserves his own D thread from last night. But anyway...)
4/Let's zoom out & look at Rudy's entire first half. We'll see more of the same, but if we go chronologically, here's Rudy using his awareness & length to save a bucket and turn it into 2 pts for Utah.
4/Let's zoom out & look at Rudy's entire first half. We'll see more of the same, but if we go chronologically, here's Rudy using his awareness & length to save a bucket and turn it into 2 pts for Utah.
5/Here are two early plays where Rudy stops the ball on *side* P&R and still gets back to impact Holmed. Empty side P&R is tough for this scheme. Almost every other team is bringing a helper to tag Holmes and then shifting back as the big recovers. Jazz don't need to.
6/By now, Sac is sick of 1 dude blowing up their P&R actions. So they try something else: they use different screeners. But watch Rudy *still* show on the ball and get back to Holmes.
Again: nobody comes in to help on Holmes, so that's the ONLY pass Haliburton has.
Again: nobody comes in to help on Holmes, so that's the ONLY pass Haliburton has.
7/Sac keeps trying to use other screeners to keep Rudy out of the P&R def. But to do that they have to park Rudy's man on a crowded weakside baseline, which makes it too easy on both these plays for Rudy to roam over to the driver while someone else plays safety on the weakside.
8/OK, that didn't work, so Sac keeps searching. Here are consecutive plays where they go back to Rudy's man screening, but have the guard snake the pick. Jazz will live with these pullups, esp because again: look at the 3 other defenders. They never have to leave the shooters.
9/Like seriously, this is great collective defense. Haliburton actually gets a clean look here because Jones moves on the screen so Joe can't get back in front. But it hardly matters. That pullup is Haliburton's ONLY option here, because everybody else is one step from their man.
10/A little more creativity from Sac here. Holmes slips this staggered pick as the backscreener, so now if Rudy's going to show on the ball someone *does* have to come in and tag Holmes. But Niang does a good job helping and then recovering. (Again, Niang was great on D too.)
11/Twice in the span of 5 seconds, Rudy is going to commit to the ball here without needing help on his guy. I like how he also directs Ingles here: "no, we're not switching, I've got this." With a nice help from Ersan, Joe's able to recover and send his guy into Rudy a 2nd time.
12/And just for kicks, let's end with this one, where Rudy moves his feet and gets a transition block. I left the sound on for this one so you can hear Niang very loudly yell, "Hell yeah, get that shit out!" You're welcome.
Too long? Oops. That was only the 1st half, too! Simply too many plays that show why Gobert is a nightmare for other teams to score against, & why his ability to guard multiple guys allows helpers to stay home. Opponents just don't have good options when Rudy is this good. /end
