Horrible 3 Pt Defense: Coach or Players?

[italianleather]

First of all, hell of a job by Phil for the past 3 years. This is not a bash Phil thread.

I just saw the highlight of the game and our 3-pt defense is atrocious. Wide open for most of Terry's and Peja's attempts. After 4-5 makes, you reckon that adjustment would be made, that they will chase down and close out on the shooters. Sadly, nothing was changed.

IMO, Terry and Peja did not play out of their mind. They played their usual game and knocked down open shots. They are dead-eye shooters.

So whos fault is it? Phil or the players?

[96 Til Infiniti]

Both.

[chefy]

both

I don't like that Phil tries to double Dirk and leave Mavs three point shooters open. Didn't work in game 1, same results in game 2, made adjustments in game 3 but still tried to doubled him in some plays.

I don't like that Phil sacrificed defense (blake, barnes) for offense (brown) in the regular season. the two had no confidence and looked lost in the playoffs.

to the players.

we suck at rotating it has been our weakness for for ages. we cant guard penetrations and kick outs.

we can't counter back on offense. we have no shooters. we have players that supposed to hit the 3 point shots and spread the floor. but they weren't effective. our bigs weren't effective either.

fish being our pointguard finally took it's toll. we got away with it the last 3 years. when our bigs are effective and we had a young Kobe.

though sometimes it just a matter of will and playing hard. Dirk's cast outplayed us, they wanted to win more, they're were hungrier than us. maybe the lakers are just tired.

[TyCobb]

Absolute lights out shooting by the Mavs.

[Desiderium]

last i checked chuck person was our defensive "specialist"...which i find extremely ironic...

[Dr Aki]

funny, we had the leading defense vs 3pt shooting.

im inclined to say both players and hot shooting from the mavs

[LAKESHOW]

folks, this 3 year run to the finals has run its course. we were done mentally and were waving the white flag ready for summer. time to regroup, recharge, and prep for another title run next year.

[tlifeset]

The lack of 3 point defense is Phil's fault. 100%. Here's why ... the players were too tired to execute the old defensive game plan, which is help defense and then quick close outs on 3 point shooters so they are contested. Phil and staff (but mostly Phil) never adjusted when they saw the fatigue and lack of success--and the adjustment would have been simple... don't leave your man. The Mavs weren't setting picks to free up their shooters--they were doing it to set up plays. So it would have been easy for Phil to say: I don't care if they're making running jump shots or Dirk fadeaways BUT I refuse to let them shoot open 3's. You can decide that as a coach. It was 3 pointers that cut our leads, that allowed them to pull away late, that allowed us to be butchered in game 4 and Phil never said, no more 3s, I'm only trading 2s. It's on him and not the players who clearly couldn't execute his lazy been-there, done-that game plan. Simple as that.

[Kilroy]

Absolute lights out shooting by the Mavs.

And the Hornets... (were shooting %80 from the field at one point)

Why?...

Because you had to catch a taxi to get from them to the nearest defender...
And even then, nobody was jumping.

It was lack of motivation and old legs...

So yeah, both.

[Gek]

I'd have to say that it's the players mostly. If you watch footage, the players are always just slightly out of position and a half a second late on rotations. That's hustle, IMO.

[Kilroy]

I'd have to say that it's the players mostly. If you watch footage, the players are always just slightly out of position and a half a second late on rotations. That's hustle, IMO.

Good point...

Last season during our run everybody was talking about our gritty hustle plays... I kept waiting for some of those to happen for us... They just didn't.

After Kobe went down against NO... It was like nobody wanted to get dirty...

[supaflash]

Both. I've never liked Phil's defense, we just don't have the athletes to execute it properly. It is irritating too because Dallas has no post presence other then some fadeaways by Dirk. Yeah they have some penetrating guards that were working the pick and roll but man how we did not go under and force Barea to hit log jump shots is beyond me. Something happened to this team I'm convinced of it. When we started to clamp down in game 1 and at times in game 3 we were fully capable of stopping them, even when hot but the focus and effort just went away. Even guys like Fish were getting stuck on screens, sagging to spots that didn't need help, etc. That is definitely on the players but Phil is a big part of that, just never made adjustments really.

Have to give Dallas credit, they hit shots and their ball movement was fantastic. Their coach put the right guys in at the right times too, like putting Peja in late in game 3 when Odom was in and a huge mismatch on the offensive end.

[vmor]

funny, we had the leading defense vs 3pt shooting.

im inclined to say both players and hot shooting from the mavs

+ 1

[Edrees]

It was the players faults for slow rotations, but the coaching staff should have recognized this, as has been said, so I agree with both.

[Jajwanda]

Dallas was shooting extremely well but the Lakers could have won game 1 and game 3 just by rotating out. Nowitzki hit four threes wide open in game 3 and that was a crusher. Dallas played extremely well, but if you play hard on defense you can still be 2-2 in this series. They simply didn't. They didn't have the every play mantra. I hated that about this team. I can't blame it on Phil because the old Bulls rarely ever were blown out and won series as quickly as they could be won.