29 Comments

Great EP as always Eric. Will be really helpful for me to understand how the Dubs use these defenses, how the Mavs evolve (if they do) and how the W’s demonstrate their Darwinian ability to evolve faster.

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May 20, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot

I just had an inspiration on what to call this series: "Explain Ws" (pronounced "explain dubs") where the Ws is pulling double dub duty to refer to the team and to wins, since you (mostly) post new content after wins. And, as a plus, it's short in character count so you have more space in your YouTube titles.

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Great breakdown! Interesting to see how the Mavs were already starting to adjust to the high tag, looking forward to adjustments by both teams in game 2.

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May 19, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot

Great breakdown, Eric. If you have the time, I'd love to see an E1P showing Poole's absolutely sick moves getting to and finishing at the basket. There was one last night, I think in the second half, that left me with my mouth hanging open. I can only imagine what he'll be able to do if he figures out that he needs new shoes that have better traction wrapping around the sides. He slips and falls way too often when making hard cuts with the ball.

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I hope JP makes more stunning moves in a future win

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May 19, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot

"even if it's old junk defense, it's still rock and roll to me"

Pretty sure that Eric's subhead did not come from Duby's playlist....

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Baller Joel

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May 19, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot

Didn't LeBron eventually find a way to make high-tag less effective? Something about exploiting the timing or something... I think that's how we ended up with pre-switching Steph right?

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Happy you broke down that play around 3Q10:57. In real-time, I remember seeing Dray just show up in front of Luka and then hauling ass out to the perimeter... couldn't find the play to see what happened.

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LeBron did finally come up with some counters, but I don’t think GSW ever stopped using it as a base D for Steph. Harden was the one guy that it never worked on and they just ended up letting Steph switch to him, and Steph held up all right.

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May 19, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot

incredible defensive breakdown, Eric – I learned a ton!

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May 19, 2022·edited May 19, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot

So did I. Thanks!!

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May 19, 2022·edited May 19, 2022

I'm a little worried for James Wiseman.

Apparently the profile for the perfect defensive center for the playoffs is to be 6'9", move like somebody's grandmother, and be able to jump over two phone books.

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One phone book too high.

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I guess he'll just have to play point guard.

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It always makes me laugh watching guards throw head fakes at Looney. Yeah, he's not gonna jump....

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it was the absolute funniest thing to watch Looney defend Harden's endless dribble moves

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That's when I knew for sure that Loon was a keeper. Nothing Harden did fazed him, so the Incredible Shrinking Harden just kept retreating.

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Defense centric E1P - now that's the way to get those little grey cells humming in morning. Thanks EA.

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May 19, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot

@10:30, Interesting point about how Dallas started working on counters to the tag defense during the game. I'm not actually sure it was smart of Dallas to do that since it gave the Warriors a look at their counter, but maybe they have more up their sleeve for Game 2.

What is the counter to these screen counters?

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I honestly don't get how high tagging succeeds at all, it seems like it would be pretty rudimentary to just, like, ignore? Just pass or drive as soon as Curry peels off, you're unguarded at that point and know it's coming every time that you have a second or so to do something. I don't get it!

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May 19, 2022·edited May 19, 2022Author

If you ignore it, then you’ve just got an ISO on Wiggins and the Warriors defeat your plan to force Steph to switch to you.

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Better positioning I'm assuming.. or Steve Kerr can run out and be the extra defender on the edge

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It’s a pretty clever counter. I think once GSW knows the flat rescreen is happening, Steph and Wiggs can navigate around it better.

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JONES BARBECUE FOOT MASSAGE!

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Maybe THAT's the name for the new death lineup?

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I second this.

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May 19, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot, Daniel Hardee

I need more information where I can procure BBQ and a foot massage, because that sounds incredible.

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May 19, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot

The really good news is that if you go to Jones for those services, you can also obtain a big ass truck and inexpensive legal representation, as well as daycare for your children.

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They also offer prepaid janitorial services and home taxidermy kits!

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