Knicks · How Exactly Do You Defend Against The Three? (page 1)

My God, when Al Horford was hitting threes like Ray Allen, we knew we were in trouble.

Every announcer and every media guy and every coach and every fan spouts the same cliché: "We've got to defend against the three better."

Well, exactly how do you do that? Getting a man out there in the shooter's face is the obvious response, but there has to be more to it than that. The Atlanta guys had no trouble with our perimeter defense. What really is the secret to "defending the three"?

play calderon

that usually works

I agree--it's a concern. I guess it involves better awareness, less cheating off your man and closing out much harder but yeah definitely, they gotta clean that up. Been going on for a couple of years now where that's been a problem. Another thing I wanna see this year--protect the homecourt much better. Can't let teams just waltz in here and get Ws. I wanna see us play our best ball at home and even when we're not, find a way to win a majority of these home games anyway.

Finestrg wrote:I agree--it's a concern. I guess it involves better awareness, less cheating off your man and closing out much harder but yeah definitely, they gotta clean that up. Been going on for a couple of years now where that's been a problem. Another thing I wanna see this year--protect the homecourt much better. Can't let teams just waltz in here and get Ws. I wanna see us play our best ball at home and even when we're not, find a way to win a majority of these home games anyway.

old school says to stack the paint, new school says to run everyone off the line and DON'T give up threes.

we need to force other teams into shooting long 2's like other teams do to us.

The key is Calderon's lock-down defense. You put Jose on Horford, and it's game, set, match.

Put 'em in a body bag Hoe-Zay!

mreinman wrote:play calderon

that usually works

This comment actually made me angry. I can't take much more of Calderon. There was a lot of chatter about the offense today but we simply gave up too many easy baskets to compete in the game. Jose will ensure this continues. I can't take much more.

Like Clyde keeps saying...you need to stay on your man when somebody penetrates and your man is a known 3pt shooter. It's as simple as that. This also means that your big man has to be able to protect the rim which I believe we have now. It's just a matter of knowing the player you are guarding.

It's simple. Hand down. Man down.

That was Kristaps guy by the way, Al Horford.

Sambakick wrote:It's simple. Hand down. Man down.

That was Kristaps guy by the way, Al Horford.

not fair to blame him when your guards are allowing penetration on every play.

Sambakick wrote:It's simple. Hand down. Man down.

That was Kristaps guy by the way, Al Horford.

It was Robin Lopez guy, check the tape:

ChuckBuck wrote:

Sambakick wrote:It's simple. Hand down. Man down.

That was Kristaps guy by the way, Al Horford.

It was Robin Lopez guy, check the tape:

ha! Kp was not on him for a single play.

nice job samba

ATL won the game. the knicks were not defeated, ATL flat out played great!!!

No secret when a team shoots 60% in the first half its not easy to win the rest of the way unless you get hot.
Knicks didn't.

Chaulk this up to the better team won. I know y'all wanted it, but we gonna have lots of "teaching moment" games.

ATL is basically the same as last year with good chemistry. Give them credit.

Nalod wrote:ATL won the game. the knicks were not defeated, ATL flat out played great!!!

No secret when a team shoots 60% in the first half its not easy to win the rest of the way unless you get hot.
Knicks didn't.

Chaulk this up to the better team won. I know y'all wanted it, but we gonna have lots of "teaching moment" games.

ATL is basically the same as last year with good chemistry. Give them credit.

how'd you like our defense? Was it good but atlanta was just better?

It's extremely hard to defend a team that spaces well and has 4 guys on the court at once that can knock down the three. And all a player needs to shoot is 33% from three and it is the same as making 50% of twos. So there are so many reasons that teams are becoming 3-point shooting teams and working to make every big man with range a 3-point shooter. Good news for us is we have the ability to fight fire with fire. KP gives us a big man that not only has the length and versatility to guard 4s, but also hit threes. A true stretch 4. At any given time we should have 4 3-point capable shooters on the floor, and that's a very good thing for the future of this team.

Knixkik wrote:It's extremely hard to defend a team that spaces well and has 4 guys on the court at once that can knock down the three. And all a player needs to shoot is 33% from three and it is the same as making 50% of twos. So there are so many reasons that teams are becoming 3-point shooting teams and working to make every big man with range a 3-point shooter. Good news for us is we have the ability to fight fire with fire. KP gives us a big man that not only has the length and versatility to guard 4s, but also hit threes. A true stretch 4. At any given time we should have 4 3-point capable shooters on the floor, and that's a very good thing for the future of this team.

good post.

Also, having calderon allowing penetration on every single play will destroy your defense. It was a disgusting sight (unless you were an atlanta fan).

Well we have 2 7 footers playing ball. That means we can extend out on our man

BRIGGS wrote:Well we have 2 7 footers playing ball. That means we can extend out on our man

Ding Ding Ding. That is what I am saying. Stay with your man. We have bigs that are good at protecting the rim.

NYKBocker wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:Well we have 2 7 footers playing ball. That means we can extend out on our man

Ding Ding Ding. That is what I am saying. Stay with your man. We have bigs that are good at protecting the rim.

ah ... but our big 7 footers our being stretched out to the arc and can't help when their guards take our guards off the dribble. And, if they try, havoc!

don't know why this is so complicated. Briggs thinks that our 7 footers are just sitting and waiting to help under the basket cause thats where their man is. It does not work like that anymore.

mreinman wrote:

NYKBocker wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:Well we have 2 7 footers playing ball. That means we can extend out on our man

Ding Ding Ding. That is what I am saying. Stay with your man. We have bigs that are good at protecting the rim.

ah ... but our big 7 footers our being stretched out to the arc and can't help when their guards take our guards off the dribble. And, if they try, havoc!

don't know why this is so complicated. Briggs thinks that our 7 footers are just sitting and waiting to help under the basket cause thats where their man is. It does not work like that anymore.

This has been a problem for several years now. The 3s simply can't be defended since people are trying to help to avoid giving up uncontested layups. I don't really see this changing too much throughout the year with Calderon playing 20 + min a game, but I will hope for the best.

another issue is that old school philosophy is to not switch on the pick whereas the new school philosophy is lots of switching.

guess which philosophy is ours?

There's also the fact that some guys, like Korver, don't need a whole lot of time to set themselves, square up or anything like that at all. They just have the knack. They don't need a whole lot of room to operate. You just have to straight up chase them around and be up their butt the entire time and deny the ball from getting in their hands in the first place. With some guys, it just comes down to that.