The Clippers and Nuggets faced off in a seeding game to determine their first-round match up. The Clippers won the game and the Nuggets gave up 40 points in the third quarter. Today, I go over the Nugget’s PNR defense in the third quarter and how they can improve. *Note: I am not entirely familiar with Malone’s defensive scheme but I think I have the gist. Feel free to correct me.
Possession 1:
On this possession, the Clippers clear out one side and run a sideline PNR with Paul George and Zubac. Jokic and Millsap trap George and Craig rotates from the lowest man to stop the roll and Porter bumps down to cover Kawhi. Murray splits the difference between the two perimeter shooters. The initial rotations were great but the Clippers still scored off a Kawhi fadeaway late in the shot clock. This is a possession that the defense can live with.
Possession 2:
On this possession, the Clippers run a PNR with Kawhi and Zubac. Kawhi gets downhill on Jokic and Porter incorrectly collapses to the paint as that is Murray’s job as the lowest man. Porter is supposed to split the difference between the two perimeter players. Chaos ensues as Jokic, Porter, and Murray all collapse the paint leaving two Clippers wide open. Ideally, you have Murray help by attempting to take a charge above the restricted area, porter will split the difference between the two Clipper players and close out to the ball if it is kicked out. This should buy Murray time to recover to the perimeter.
Possession 3
On this possession, the Clippers once again run a PNR with Kawhi and Zubac. Craig bumps down to stop the roll and Porter is in no man’s land. Kawhi makes the skip pass to the corner and Craig has the difficult task to attempt to close out to Paul George from the paint. Porter must be more aware and buy time for Craig to recover to the perimeter. There are two ways to do this. Either Porter closes out to Paul George once the pass is made to George which gives time for Craig to recover to Reggie Jackson or Porter can pre-rotate towards George before the pass is made and close out on Reggie Jackson (if the pass is made to Jackson) which buys Craig time to make it back to George.
Possession 4:
On this possession, Jokic simply does not show high enough to take away the three and George makes him pay. Jokic has to trust his back line defense and show high with active hands to bother passing lanes.
Possession 5:
On this possession, the Clippers run a PNR with Reggie Jackson and Zubac. Once again Jokic does not play high enough. In this instance, Jackson has too much space to make the skip pass. If Jokic plays high, that is a difficult pass to make.
Paul Millsap rotates to the paint to stop the roll and Jackson finds the open man in the corner. Both Millsap and Craig close out late on the shooter which cannot happen. I don’t know the exact defensive scheme so I don’t know who Malone wants to make that rotation but I believe the issue could be solved if Craig split the difference between the two Clippers before the pass is made. This way, Craig will be right there on the close out and Millsap would know to rotate to the other Clipper’s player. The play still resulted in a stop but it was still a defensive breakdown.
Overall, the Nugget’s defensive rotations were late and the main culprit on PNR defense was Michael Porter. They did have multiple possessions of good defense that the Clipper’s talent overcame. However, I have a glaring question about the PNR defense: Who is responsible to close out to the corner shooter? It is bad that I have watched the Nuggets the past two seasons and I still do not entirely know what the defensive scheme is. Malone must have this figured out by the playoffs.
