Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokic are two of the toughest players to guard in the NBA. Despite not being as physically gifted as other players in their position, the 2-time Most Valuable Players possess the most unique offensive skillset in the history of the game. Draymond Green, who has played against the Joker and shared the floor with Chef Curry, understands just how lethal the two superstars are. Hence, on a recent episode of his “Draymond Green Show” podcast, the former DPOY revealed how easily their offense can collapse zone defense.
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Jokic and Curry are two modern players who revolutionized basketball.
At 6-foot-11, the Nuggets’ big man has made the sport more positionless than ever – shooting, passing, handling, and rebounding equally effectively. Whereas, the 6-foot-3 GSW guard has completely changed the way the 3-point line is perceived.
Even though they are often referred to as ‘scrawny’ or ‘sluggish’, respectively, Steph and Nikola are defenders’ worst nightmares.
“Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokic are the toughest to guard in a zone”: Draymond Green
During the recent episode of his podcast, ‘The Draymond Show’, Dray shed light upon the zone defense Erik Spoelstra used in Game 1 of the finals.
According to the All-Defensive player, the zone seemed to be working when the Colorado-based franchise was missing their shots. However, things changed when Nikola kept making plays when he was left wide open in the mid-post. Green broke down a few plays from the 2nd half of the clash:
“The zone works when Denver isn’t shooting the ball well. So, yes it worked to a certain extent today. But if all else fails you just throw the ball at Joker at the mid-post. A, the defense has to collapse. If not, he’s hitting that shot at a 70% rate. And if they collapse or even overhelp just a tad, we know he’s making a play. Had one dropoff to Jeff Green, really nice pass to Jeff Green as he snuck behind the defense. Like, Joker gonna make the play.”
Further, the 4-time NBA champ drew similarities between Stephen and Nikola by calling them the toughest players to guard “in a zone”. Even though their styles of breaking the defense down are completely different, Draymond praised the two generational talents.
“Outside of Steph Curry, there’s a tougher player to zone in the NBA. Steph cause he shoots the light out of it. Like he’s shooting it from anywhere. And Joker, he makes every play, his touch is crazy, can shoot it. I don’t think there’s a tougher player to guard in a zone, in the NBA, than Steph and Joker.”
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Draymond Green’s words on this topic certainly make sense. Further, his points only get harder to deny when you consider how much the Heat benefited from using the zone in the 4th quarter of Game 1.
The Heat went on an 11-0 run in the 4th quarter thanks to the zone defense
The Denver Nuggets were in control of the game right from tip-off. Leading by as much as 24 points at one point in the game, they entered the 4th period with a 21-point lead.
However, shifting to the zone defense played a huge role as Jimmy Butler and Co. would make a valiant effort to come back as they went on an 11-0 run to begin the final period.
Unfortunately, as Green mentioned, the Serbian superstar kept demanding the ball in the mid-post and kept making the right play one after the other. And in the end, the Nuggets put their opponents away.
But, even though they ended up losing the contest, we will definitely see the smaller Miami Heat use the zone defense more, throughout the series. After all, if it works, why wouldn’t they?
