One suspects Michael Malone wasn’t surprised by what he saw.
The Denver Nuggets coach gained first-hand knowledge of championship-caliber defenses from his late father, Brendan, a lifelong basketball player and longtime assistant coach with the Detroit Pistons. He was on Chuck Daly’s staff during the 1989 and 1990 championships. Most relevantly, Brendan Malone is the defensive mind behind the “Jordan Rules,” the Pistons’ blueprint for how to stop Michael Jordan from dominating the playoffs, just like Denver’s Nikola Jokic is now doing That way.
In fact, the rules are very simple.
Detroit’s Hall of Fame guard Joe Dumars, one of the best point guards of his era, would do whatever it took to prevent Jordan from reaching his favorite spot on the floor and defend him when Jordan got up for a jump shot. If Jordan beat Dumars or another Detroit defender off the dribble, they’ll get Jordan into the paint, where a host of long-limbed, grumpy Pistons defenders are waiting: Bill Laimbeer, Rick Ma Hong, John Salley, Dennis Rodman, James Edwards. They would swarm on Jordan like a pack of jackals, forcing him to take shots within their length. If Jordan tried to lift himself, one or more of them would knock him to the ground.
Over the course of a six- or seven-game series, the obvious physicality would wear Jordan down. If Jordan doesn’t get offensive help from elsewhere, the frustration between him and his Bulls teammates will only grow. Chicago endured years of postseason failure before finally defeating Detroit in 1991.
As such, Michael Malone is well aware of the mental underpinnings of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ first two games against the defending champion Nuggets in the Western Conference semifinals.
Not only did Minnesota win the first two games in Denver in big moments and take a 2-0 series lead back in Minnesota, a raucous crowd at Target Center awaited on Friday and Sunday nights. arrival. The Wolves also captured the hearts of the Nuggets, much like the Pistons and eventually Jordan’s Bulls, using defense to demoralize and rattle opponents.
“You can’t lose the game and Fight. You have to win one of these,” the Denver Nuggets’ Reggie Jackson said after Game 2.
In Game 2, Minnesota’s Jaden McDaniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker used their seemingly infinite long arms to leap Denver’s Jamal Murray at midfield with relentless energy and movement Attack him without fouling him. On Monday night, they forced a 24-second violation early in the second quarter.
Rudy Gobert won his fourth NBA Defensive Player of the Year award after a strong performance in the defensive interior in Game 1 before Gobert missed Game 2 while giving birth to his first child with his girlfriend. . In Game 2, the Wolves didn’t miss a beat without Gobert, as Karl-Anthony Towns and Naz Reed, neither of whom had been called shutdown defenders before this season, played the entire game. The game was physical against Jokic.
For those lamenting the NBA’s years-long, surgical campaign on all but the most basic elements of defense, culminating in recent years’ All-Star break, watching the Wolves harass and disrupt the Nuggets Always enjoyable. It’s like putting a VHS tape into a Panasonic PV-V4522, watching NBC’s vaunted Thursday night lineup of circa “A Different World”/”Cheers”/”L.A. Law” and then cooling it off with Bartles and Jaymes Wash down dinner.
Mom, I’m back.
you able You can still play defense in the NBA if allowed.
The league is no longer as emphasised on calling every point of contact as it was during the first half of the season, but that hasn’t done any harm in the playoff race. In fact, the playoffs were pretty exciting, with Minnesota showing a lot of offensive wizardry starting with Anthony Edwards. But there’s Jalen Brunson, Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Tyrese Maxey, Pau Banchero, Tyrese Haliber Pause… Do I still need to continue?
Minnesota used its ferocious defense to dominate and win its first six playoff games, just like Oklahoma City and Boston. Minnesota’s defense wasn’t pushing or hacking, they were just attacking. They’re moving their feet, beating the Nuggets into their favorite field positions, and won’t give up those spots easily. The Wolves didn’t do anything dirty. They are just inflicting pain on their opponents.
It was Denver’s second possession of the ball in Game 2.
“He threw it away,” TNT’s global play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan said of Jokic. But Jokic didn’t throw it away – just as Clowney began to post up, Kyle Anderson used his offhand to knock the ball out of Jokic’s hands.
Denver had the ball three minutes into the game.
Murray was limited with a calf injury. But he, like all Nuggets, suffered from opponents double-teaming Jokic.This is what Denver is all about Purpose: Jokic’s ball-handling ability is very good, and he can observe the situation on the court 360 degrees to break through the defense. This time, Towns absorbed Murray’s attack and guard Mike Conley knocked the ball down low.
David Adelman, Michael Malone’s right-hand man as his top assistant coach, has certainly seen this happen before.
His father, Hall of Fame coach Rick Adelman, led Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler’s Portland Trail Blazers to sweeps of the Pistons and Pistons in the 1990 and 1992 NBA Finals, respectively. Bulls. Portland has both Detroit’s best defense and the Bulls’ revered “Dobermans,” Bulls assistant coach Johnny Bach’s nickname for the Chicago defense.
Original members of the Dobermans included Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant. When Grant left for Orlando as a free agent after Chicago’s first three-peat, Chicago reached out to Rodman — who by then had fallen out of favor in San Antonio. Rodman elevated the Bulls defense even higher in a completely different way than Grant did. The Bulls led the league in defensive efficiency in his first season (1995-96), and the Bulls finished in the top five in each of his three seasons, all of which ended with a championship.
Jordan’s defensive anticipation was excellent, especially early in his career. He was named the 1988 Defensive Player of the Year for his long, scythe-like arms that sliced the ball away from opposing ball handlers.
However, Pippen made Chicago impenetrable.
His length, smarts, physicality and ability to jump passing lanes make him one of the best defenders in history. Chicago used him everywhere against everyone from Magic Johnson to Charles Barkley.
The Wolves are playing like the Pistons and Bulls. They make it difficult for their opponents to do what they want to do. They didn’t budge. The game is at its absolute best when one simple question is answered: Who can use their talent, will, coaching and toughness to overcome the physical obstacles of their opponents?
Minnesota’s defensive scheme is complex and executed well in real time. Like other teams in the Jokic era, the Wolves often don’t use centers to guard him.
In Game 1, they put Gobert in a roaming role behind Denver’s power forward – usually Aaron Gordon – and had Gobert protect the front of the rim. That led to Gobert’s free pass to Gordon in dunk position with three minutes left in what could have been a key shot in Minnesota’s victory on Saturday as the Wolves clung to a five-point lead. The Timberwolves got off the court in transition, and Edwards was fouled and made two free throws from the free throw line. What was supposed to be a three-point game turned into a seven-point game.
Minnesota’s defense ranks first in the league all season. The team allows the fewest points in the league (106.5 points per game) and ranks first in opponents’ effective field goal percentage (51.5%), which is where the extra value of three-pointers comes from.
Different sites have different methods for determining statistics such as defensive rating. Regardless of source, the Wolves rank first in that category.
StatMuse ranks Minnesota first in defensive efficiency at 109.0, more than two points better than second-place Orlando (111.3). That’s the largest gap between the No. 1 and No. 2 defenses in that category in eight years since the 2015-16 season when the San Antonio Spurs held a 2.4-point lead over the second-place Atlanta Hawks (101.4), as measured by StatMuse. According to calculations by NBA.com, Minnesota has the highest defensive rating this season at 108.4, 2.2 points ahead of the Boston Celtics. According to Basketball-Reference.com, Minnesota ranks first in both unadjusted and adjusted (by schedule) defensive rating metrics.
You can’t enforce the “Jordan Rules” now; the NBA has taken most of their core physicality rules out of the game. It doesn’t matter. Everything must evolve. But the mental and physical relentless defense that was the core of Detroit’s championship teams and then Chicago’s championship teams still applies. Minnesota proved in today’s game that they can coexist with incredible offensive talent.
This is a battle. Of course, metaphorically speaking.
Must read
(Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
