LUKA DONCIC HITS brakes, changes direction with a dribble behind his back, then grabs the ball and backs to his left before throwing a 3-point pointer.
It’s March 31 at TD Garden in Boston and Celtics goalie Marcus Smart, one of the NBA’s top ball defenders, has just gone from Doncic’s breathing distance too far to dispute the shot in less than a second. .
A couple of possessions after that bucket, Smart picks up Doncic halfway down the court. This time there is no dancing. Doncic passes Smart to his right, collapsing Boston’s defense before throwing Jalen Brunson through an open 3-pointer on the left wing.
The Celtics change after a high screen the next possession, and Doncic makes an easy mid-range retreat over Grant Williams. Then Kemba Walker gets stuck in a switch and Doncic easily hits a 3 back. A couple of trips later, it’s Jayson Tatum’s turn, and he actually stays with Doncic as the Dallas Mavericks star crosses from left to right and backs away.
Do not care. Doncic practices the 3 disputed, giving him 24 points in nine attempts of field goal when it lacked approximately one minute for the first part.
Finally, the Celtics find a solution to stop Doncic: a double team. Even the best defenders struggle to individually resolve such a large, skillful, and multifaceted offensive threat.
There is no surefire plan to contain Doncic, who averages 28.6 points and 8.6 assists per game in this third season of the NBA, placing him in the top six in both categories.
ESPN asked a trio of the best ball defenders of recent decades: Tony Allen, Bruce Bowen and Metta Sandiford-Artest, who teamed up to win 18 selections for defensive teams and five championship rings. What would be your approach? have been to defend Doncic.
“When I look at Luka, I always think, ‘How could I have stopped him?’ says Sandiford-Artest, who was known by his birth name Ron Artest when he won the 2003-04 Defensive Player award.
“It’s getting harder and harder to see.”
‘You know what? I’m not giving this 3 “kick back
ALLEN, THE MAN Kobe Bryant, anointed as the best defender he had ever faced, would sit on Doncic’s left hand. “The Grindfather” is well aware that Doncic is right-wing and is more than capable of cutting defenses out of the ditch. It’s Allen’s respect for Doncic’s 3-yard touchdown.
This is Doncic’s favorite skill. According to NBA.com/stats, he is 71 years old by 191 (37.2%) in 3 steps back this season. Like Brooklyn Nets star James Harden, Doncic has a rare ability to slow down, especially given his 6-foot, 7-pound frame, which helps him stop and change direction while maintaining body control. keys to create space for shooting. Doncic has worked on functional strength training to further improve his balance, as well as spending hours perfecting his shot put.
This has helped Doncic develop his step back in one of the most lethal moves in the league, and is the only tool Allen promises he would not let Doncic use against him.
“I don’t give up. I don’t give up,” Allen says. “All you have to do for me is have to go right. I know this is your strong hand, but you can get nine points in three shots on that left hand, so I think that’s more deadly.
“If you score me, every time you have to score me so hard. But one thing I take away is this dribble to the left to step back in that shot. That pace, nah, I I never let you feel comfortable for go deeper. I’m yours. “
At this point, the 6-foot 4 and 220-pound Allen falls into a defensive position. It aims to shade Doncic to the left of the oversized.
“Go right. Do whatever you want to do,” Allen yells, sliding as he speaks. “Do you want to drive and fix it? All right, I’m going to argue. Can you take a step back to get it right? Okay! You’ll have to do everything on this right side. What if you try? I’ll come back here? I’m here, mother, — I’m taking it!
“You can’t be discouraged with prolific players. They’re going to score, but their job is to contain it and reduce it. I can give you what you’re going to take because you’re cold. That’s how good it is, because you’re Luka Doncic, but [if he gets comfortable with his step-back], it’s like, “Damn, who’s hooking him? Next! ‘ If I defend him, I will test myself and say, ‘You know what? I’m not giving this 3 “kick back.
Allen admits his approach may draw too much attention from referees, especially because of the way they are instructed to enforce the rules in the current NBA. Allen assumes he probably couldn’t get out with the forearm he’d want to use to brake Doncic while trying to drive. But Allen would do the limits as much as possible.
“I can spell my first foul, set the tone and say, that’s how I’m playing tonight, so I can know when and what not to call so it’s physical,” Allen says. “I want to waste my first foul and let him know I’m here tonight, either to really press my ass or whatever. I’m here! ‘Ref, go ref. I’m First -Team All-Defense! So Come on, man, let me play.
“Now we have a battle.”
“Make him work, work, work”
BOWEN’S PLAN IS make Doncic uncomfortable every time he has the ball in his hands, no matter how far he is from the basket. The goal: to pass mental and physical bill to Doncic.
“Even though he’s not a rushed player, I’m going to pick you up on the full court as much as possible and I’ll make you work (spin, spin, spin, spin) so you don’t have a new mindset when it comes to attacking midfield track, ”Bowen says.
“If I can be a little physical with him and make him work a little harder, I really like him [defending] Steve Nash. Now, when it comes time to finish the plays, maybe he’s not as ready to finish the plays as he was at the beginning, because he’s being pressured a bit. Now you have to worry about what I’m doing from the point of view of making him work, work, work while he has the ball and bring it to the ground.
“It’s not a comfortable thing. Yes, he can do it. But he wants to do it? Probably not.”
Bowen stresses that every detail is important while defending a player from Doncic’s skill and talent, one that easily exposes the fundamental slips.
Bowen cites dagger float Doncic after defeating Paul George in the Mavs victory on March 17 at Los Clippers. Bowen notes that George was overly engaged in the play, so he set him up to do a crossover dribble and that he “stopped playing high” once Doncic created a lead.
Bowen’s mission would be to fight every regatta and challenge every shot without having to work independently off the game plan.
“Because it’s so good,” Bowen says. “It’s as good where I want to try to create as much fun as I can, because I respect his talent a lot. Because I respect his talent a lot, it makes me work a lot harder. to go through that. ”No no No.
“First, you have to respect him and what he does. Second, now you have to match that energy with that respect to make sure you do what is necessary when it comes to following the game plan.” .
“I would definitely try your cardio”
SANDIFORD-ARTEST OFFERS a piece of advice for Doncic in this hypothetical confrontation: “Put yourself in tip shape.”
Sandiford-Artest, who played Mavs coach Rick Carlisle with the Indiana Pacers when he won Defensive Player of the Year, always wanted to turn his individual confrontations into a conditioning challenge. He can only think of a couple of opponents – LeBron James and Kobe Bryant come to mind – who were always up to the challenge.
“I would definitely try his cardio,” Sandiford-Artest said.
Sandiford-Artest was much more than a defensive specialist, averaging 18 points per game over a seven-season period in the early stages of his career. He would often be especially aggressive offensively when facing superstars, wanting to make them work at that end of the floor. But he would not be able to use this tactic against Doncic, as the Mavs usually give him the least taxable defensive task possible.
Sandiford-Artest would dare to defeat Doncic, at least for most of the match, in anticipation of his legs feeling heavy in the fourth quarter.
There is a significant risk in this strategy, as Doncic ranks among the most effective drivers in the NBA. According to follow-up data from Second Spectrum players, only Sacramento’s fast-paced point guard De’Aaron Fox has scored more points off the units this season than Doncic, who also ranks second behind Trae Young d ‘Atlanta in assists created with drip penetration.
While Doncic doesn’t have an explosive jumping ability, he is a phenomenal finalist, with a 58.2% unit discount, following only Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo among the 38 players with at least 500 such possessions this season. Doncic is a master at creating angles in traffic around the basket, with a mix of deception and brute force, and has a soft touch on floats and other finishes.
“I think one of the interesting things would have been when he drives, he is [usually] able to pull through, which would probably have been harder, “says Sandiford-Artest.” I’m playing 255, 260 [pounds], so it would probably have been difficult. But he is very cunning.
“During the first three trimesters, it would be very difficult for you to get a jumper unless you came off a screen. That was just my thought process to protect the guys. You have to drive. And I don’t. You don’t it matters if a guy gets 15 or 20 in the first trimester. If you do it against my first trimester, you’re probably done. “
Sandiford-Artest believes he could have remained more than a defender of isolation against Doncic. Not so sure what it would have been like to have tried to disrupt Doncic as a pick-and-roll operator, if solid screens were set up.
Sandiford-Artest says, “Most of the time people put up bad screens,” especially if it required a collision with it. He would punish the great men of the Mavs (Kristaps Porzingis, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Dwight Powell, all significantly lighter than the weight of Sandiford-Artest) if they stood firm on a screen.
“The guys didn’t even want to screen me, because I’m bigger than the strikers,” Sandiford-Artest says. “A lot of guys won’t keep putting screens on me. I mean, Kendrick Perkins did, but I’m 260 and I’m going full speed. We’d get them out. You have your hips, my thighs, my knees. You don’t want to keep controlling “Me, you don’t want to keep hitting me. A lot of times, guys didn’t want to set up screens, and if you went to the screen, you’re risking bills.”
When Sandiford-Artest looks at Doncic, he is fascinated by both his wisdom and his skill, easily admitting that he would have had his hands full trying to stop the Mavs star.
“Luka, I mean, this kid is special,” Sandiford-Artest said. “No and lied, [defending him] it would have been hard. What impresses me most is that he is a veteran [22] years. How he sees and feels, is someone he would have had problems with, because he would have been thinking ahead. I would have been thinking steps forward. It is not one-dimensional.
“It would have been a task that would have been for me. I think some guys just give up.”