Joe Wolfond

Early in the third quarter of a loss in Toronto on Thursday night, Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert ducked in, sealed Raptors forward

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The Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Houston Rockets are in Las Vegas ready to duke it out for the second annual NBA Cup.

When Brook Lopez arrived in the summer of 2018, he helped transform the Milwaukee Bucks and proved to be the perfect frontcourt companion for Giannis Antetokounmpo. At one end of the floor, the two formed the bedrock of the best defenses in basketball, a pair of gigantic watchdogs prowling the paint and safeguarding the rim in their own unique ways. At the other end, Lopez's newfound role as a stretch-five opened up the court for Antetokounmpo's devastating rim runs.The Bucks strayed from their longstanding defensive identity last season following their offseason trade of Jrue Holiday for Damian Lillard, slipping to 19th after several years of top-five finishes. They looked old, slow, and disorganized. And the first three weeks of this season brought more of the same; the Bucks lost eight of their first 10 games while running the league's eighth-worst defense.That start feels like a distant memory now that the Bucks have won 13 of their last 16 games and leapt up to 13th in defensive efficiency. The most recent of those wins didn't even register in the standings, but it was easily the most impressive of the bunch - a 97-81 beatdown of the West-leading Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Cup final, with Khris Middleton in street clothes. And while contributions came from all over the roster - Lillard was awesome, Andre Jackson Jr. hounded Shai Gilgeous-Alexander up and down the floor, Gary Trent Jr. and AJ Green made timely shots and battled on defense - the standout performances came from the frontcourt tandem that's been bludgeoning opponents for the last seven seasons.With Chet Holmgren on the shelf, the Thunder didn't have the size to match up with Lopez and Antetokounmpo. They stuck center Isaiah Hartenstein on Lopez and used a rotating cast of wings - mostly Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, and Alex Caruso - to check Giannis. The Bucks responded by initiating a lot of their offense through him in the post. He went right through those smaller defenders for layups or free throws, and when the Thunder doubled him, he took advantage with some very sharp passing.Antetokounmpo finished with 10 assists, and that doesn't account for the hockey assists he picked up with post skips to the weak side, like the one that got Lillard a dagger three off a Trent swing in the fourth quarter. OKC built a wall against him in transition, but he did a great job countering that, too, including tossing a slick live-dribble feed to Bobby Portis for a trail three in the first. The Thunder basically had no answer for Giannis at either end, and watching them struggle to come up with one was a strange sensation because they usually have an answer for everything. You could see how the threat of his interior scoring sowed panic and threw OKC's defense out of its usually crisp help-and-rotate patterns. Here, for example, Gilgeous-Alexander and Hartenstein saw the post mismatch and decided to help at the same time, leading to an accidental triple-team that gifted Lopez an easy score: Your browser does not support the video tag. ESPNThat was one of two layups Lopez got by throwing the post entry to Giannis and cutting from the top, and Giannis got a lob finish of his own when the two ran a similar action with roles reversed on the other side of the floor. Whether it was Blind Pig, 4-5 pick-and-roll, or basic high-low passing, their big-to-big synergy was on point. Lopez also shot 3-for-6 from long range and buried a pair of deep triples in quick succession to effectively put the game out of reach with Antetokounmpo on the bench to start the fourth.It was at the defensive end, though, that the two of them truly took over. The Thunder being completely unable to hit a three was the biggest hindrance to their offense, but they were also forced to rely on jump-shooting because they couldn't get anything at the rim with Antetokounmpo and Lopez patrolling the back line. They attempted just 18 shots in the restricted area (compared to 34 non-rim 2-pointers) and made just 10 of them.They also only got up 32 threes (compared to their season average of 40) because Milwaukee's perimeter defenders could press up and guide OKC's ball-handlers into the bear trap waiting for them inside. On a mid-range-heavy diet, Gilgeous-Alexander finished with just 21 points and two assists on 29 total used possessions. Williams finished with 18 and three on 23 possessions. The Thunder scored 31 points in the second half.At 36 years old, playing alongside an all-time great defender, and playing against one of the best defensive teams in NBA history, Lopez still managed to be the most impactful defender on the floor. When he wasn't swallowing up drivers in his typical deep-drop coverage, he was mixing things up with hard shows and even the occasional switch, proving plenty capable of hanging with OKC's guards: Milwaukee having Brook Lopez switch pick and roll in the second half. One of my favorite subplots of this season is Brook switching, seeing the drive and immediately spinning to get to the rim. pic.twitter/9vIUDCCEyB— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) December 18, 2024 This play was subtler, but it was an incredible on-the-fly read from Lopez. He anticipated Gilgeous-Alexander's back cut against the top lock and swooped down to cut him off, forcing a mid-range miss on a play that probably creates a layup attempt nine times out of 10: Your browser does not support the video tag. ESPNMost of the Thunder's pick-and-rolls were guard-guard actions designed to attack Trent or Lillard, but the Bucks survived those because of the help they got from their bigs on the back side.Giannis spent the game guarding Caruso and Dort, and that allowed him to roam to his heart's content, mucking up drives and rim-rolls at every turn: ESPN ESPNHe also spent the game making second-effort plays like this. And this: Giannis SWAT. ❌He's doing it all right now as the Bucks take a 13-point lead into the 4th...🏆 #EmiratesNBACup Championship📺 MIL/OKC on ABC pic.twitter/2uAOfN0sd6— NBA (@NBA) December 18, 2024 Sheesh. He tacked on a couple more emphatic blocks for fun late in the fourth, as Milwaukee comfortably closed things out and won the second annual Cup. Giannis finished with a 26-point, 19-rebound triple-double that included five stocks. And he served notice (if his play over the last month hadn't already) that Nikola Jokic has company in the early MVP race.The victory, eye-opening as it might've been, doesn't erase the many genuine concerns about the Bucks' ability to meaningfully contend for the real prize this season. But when you see what their starting frontcourt is still capable of, and what they just did to a team that has a strong claim to being the best in the NBA, it's hard not to feel a tinge of optimism. If the two of them can keep playing (and especially defending) at this level, anything feels possible. Even for this aging, oft-shambolic team that's liable to leak oil on the perimeter.Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.

It's not like we needed further proof the ascendent Cleveland Cavaliers are a force to be reckoned with.

Knicks' quietly improved defense makes them look like contenders

Acommon misconception about today's NBA is that as teams and players have mastered the art of efficient scoring, defense has come to matter less. The reality is the exact opposite: The evolution of offense has made defense more important than ever. Coaching staffs and players have to work that much harder, and be that much more creative, in order to keep pace.In the face of offensive advancement, one of the most important defensive counters sweeping the league is cross-matching, especially with centers. Because of the difficulty of guarding modern pick-and-rolls, the increasing skill level of big men, and the way offenses increasingly orient their schemes around those skills, defenses are seeking ways to keep their own centers in optimal help position and out of compromising actions.If there's a remotely shaky or hesitant shooter on the floor, or even just a low-usage perimeter player who isn't usually involved in the offense, a center is likely to nominally "guard" that player (no matter what size he is) at some point in a game, while a wing-sized player slides up to defend the opposing five.Rejiggering matchups in that fashion has two significant benefits for defenses: One, their best rim-protectors can hover around the basket rather than constantly getting drawn into high ball-screen action or having to account for stretchy bigs on the perimeter. And two, opponents' 1-5 pick-and-rolls become a lot more switchable - not just because wings typically have a better survival rate than bigs when marooned on an island against guards, but because those wings have their center behind them, ready to provide cover at the rim even if they get burned on the switch.Most teams deploy that tactic in select situations and matchups, but some - like the Boston Celtics, Charlotte Hornets, and Houston Rockets - use it as part of their base defense. And those teams' coaches all branch from the same tree: Ime Udoka started cross-matching his centers regularly during his lone season as the Celtics' bench boss, and now he's doing the same thing with Alperen Sengun in Houston. Joe Mazzulla, Udoka's assistant turned successor, has taken the baton and run with it in Boston. And Mazzulla's former lead assistant, Charles Lee, has done the same thing as a first-year head coach in Charlotte.Those tactics are partly why the Rockets rank fourth in defensive efficiency even though Sengun is vulnerable in certain ball-screen coverages and offers below-average rim-protection for a center. The Celtics rode their defensive formula to a championship last year and are once again a top-five unit this season. Even the Hornets, one of the worst teams in the league, have been halfway respectable on defense, ranking 18th. All three teams are in the top 10 when it comes to defending the rim."I think offensive guys are too good to see the same thing, (even in) one game, let alone throughout the season," Udoka said. "So you try to keep them off balance. But also it's a necessity for us to use our guys and play to their strengths. We've got a rim-protector that's a little bit different; we try to work around that and switch as much as we can to take away certain things, like we did in Boston with Al Horford and Rob (Williams III) playing off the ball. And Alperen's really starting to understand what we want him to do as far as roaming and being a rim-protector."The Rockets allow 4.6 fewer points per 100 possessions and their opponents shoot 4.2 percentage points worse at the basket with Sengun on the floor, per Cleaning the Glass. He was one of the most improved defenders in the league last season, and playing a free-safety role more often has helped elevate him another tier this season. Your browser does not support the video tag. Space City Network"Even before the NBA, I was just really good at help defense - blocking shots, stopping the ball," Sengun said. "Ime just saw that in me and let me show it. ... We started (cross-matching) a bit last year. Couple games he was trying it with me, and it was working. So this year is, like, much more of that. He wants me to be on the help side."Udoka's had Sengun spend entire games as the primary defender against off-ball guards who are low-volume 3-point shooters, like the LA Clippers' Kris Dunn and the New York Knicks' Josh Hart. That can pose individual challenges for Sengun when those quicker players handle the ball and try to attack him in space, but it serves the aims of Houston's defense as a whole."I feel like when I'm guarding the those guys, we change their game plan, you know?" Sengun said. "Like, Kris Dunn is usually not bringing the ball up, but when I'm guarding him, he's bringing the ball up. That's not how they want to play, right? Or we're forcing (a non-shooter) to shoot, and if he makes it, he makes it. We're taking that." On the other end of the positional spectrum is Jrue Holiday, the Celtics' nominal point guard, who occupies a unique place in this tactical movement. He spends ample time guarding big men in Boston's matchup-scrambling defensive scheme, and he's also increasingly guarded by roving bigs at the offensive end - not because he's a bad shooter, but because opponents are searching for any viable help point when facing Boston's five-out attack."For me, it's probably more weird having a five guard me (than the other way around). That's never happened before," Holiday said. "Being that wide-open and getting a rhythm like that is - I mean, I enjoy it. But I do see the aspect of, if you're missing threes ... "But there's so many different ways, especially as a guard, that you can combat that if you're not making shots. There's ways to get the whole team in rhythm, rather than just bringing it to me solely all the time. For us, it's a lot of pitches to screen-and-roll to get the ball in the pocket, you can drive the dribble-handoff - just making it confusing for a big, not knowing how to play with my speed."As Holiday notes, there are obvious counters to cross-matches, including guards setting ball screens and then utilizing their driving and playmaking skills on the short roll. But to Sengun's point, many defenses are happy just to force offenses that can otherwise hum in their sleep to deviate from their usual approach."We (practice for it) all the time," Holiday said. "Last year against Denver, (Nikola) Jokic was on me a bit, and I think we figured that he would be. So there are things that we do in shootaround ... where we've gotta figure out if we want to put the five in (the action), or if we want to take him away from the basket, where do I go and what do I do?" Justin Ford / Getty ImagesThe Dallas Mavericks, whom the Celtics beat in last year's Finals, also love to cross-match, which allows them to unleash wily second-year center Dereck Lively II as a back-line rover. (Their scheme often resembles a one-man zone where he isn't guarding a specific player but is just responsible for the weak-side corner and dunker spot, tracking or tag-switching onto whoever cycles through.) Lively says the Mavs asked him to pick up that coverage in his first training camp, so he entered the league tasked with the responsibility of being, in his words, "a defender who could guard anybody and also cover for everybody.""If I'm guarding someone who doesn't shoot, I've gotta control the paint and tell all my teammates where to go," Lively said. "If someone gets back-cut, I gotta be able to cover that. If someone gets blown by, I gotta be able to cover them. It takes a lot of trial and error and a lot of trust between you and your teammates."It's also knowing the player personnel, knowing who's comfortable enough and confident enough to shoot, knowing who you need to close out on. And then if they're putting it on the floor, making sure they're going to their nondominant hand and making them as uncomfortable as possible."Lively's ability to excel in that role as a rookie was a big part of Dallas' playoff run, especially its second-round triumph over the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder. Throughout the series, the Mavs primarily guarded multitalented 7-footer Chet Holmgren with 6-foot-7 forward P.J. Washington while sticking their own centers on non-spacing guard Josh Giddey or Lu Dort.That coverage helped short-circuit OKC's offense, even though it was nothing new for the Thunder; they've been cross-matched by virtually every NBA defense over the last two seasons. Coach Mark Daigneault chalks it up mostly to the challenge of guarding Holmgren."He's so versatile that he's basically a perimeter player, and when you start looking at how to match to him, that sometimes becomes the best solution," Daigneault said. "So I think it speaks to that trend offensively in the NBA, and the skill of some of the bigger players in the league."It's true that centers with Holmgren's skill set make the guards and wings playing alongside them more likely to see cross-matches. Holiday's seeing them because he plays next to stretch-fives in Horford and Kristaps Porzingis. Hart is seeing them way more this season because Karl-Anthony Towns showed up to play the five in New York. Victor Wembanyama's San Antonio Spurs teammates will have to deal with them for most of his career, as rookie guard Stephon Castle has quickly discovered.But in some ways, the coverage also bets against modern big men being able to punish height mismatches. Bigs like Holmgren and Wembanyama, talented as they are, don't typically enter the league with developed post games or body types conducive to backing down shorter defenders with lower centers of gravity. That gets especially dicey with help defenders prowling and swiping at bigs' high dribbles, not to mention the roving center lurking with back-side help."We can take the big out of the play if he goes to set a screen," Holiday explained, alluding to Boston's ability to take away lobs or pick-and-pop threes by switching. "Or, if he posts me up, I know that KP or somebody else is behind me if he ever gets too close to the rim." Jokic is the rare big who has passing and shooting skill and post footwork and mismatch-mashing brutality in spades. For now, players like Holmgren and Wembanyama are more likely to attack a size mismatch by shooting over the top than by putting their defender in the basket, and the former is often a mid-range attempt that the defense is willing to live with.Lively isn't a shooting big, but he came into the league as both a high-flying lob threat and a polished short-roll playmaker, which makes it dangerous to drop or blitz Dallas in the pick-and-roll when he's screening. He had a hard time accessing either of those skills in the Finals, though, when Boston put a smaller defender on him (usually Jayson Tatum, sometimes Holiday), put Porzingis on Derrick Jones Jr., and switched nearly every ball screen. Lively suggested the best way to beat that coverage is speed, not force."When they do that, we've just gotta be able to play the passing game," he said. "You know, drive, kick, swing, re-drive. And for me, it's just finding the open space, sealing, or getting to the other side. So whoever's guarding me has to make a decision whether to help and give up a laydown or stay with me and give up a layup." Adam Hagy / NBA / GettyOf course, while skilled bigs may be the biggest impetus for cross-matching, the coverage puts poor-shooting smalls under the most pressure. The stakes for them can become almost existential; they risk being marginalized or played off the floor if they can't make the defense pay, especially in the playoffs. A decade ago, Tony Allen became the first major casualty of that strategy. Giddey was the most recent, and he won't be the last.Trading Giddey this past offseason didn't stop opponents from guarding the Thunder's centers with wings and their wings with centers, even with the non-shooting Isaiah Hartenstein playing in the injured Holmgren's place. Dort, Cason Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, and Alex Caruso have all gotten the cross-matching treatment from opposing bigs. Sometimes it's a defense's only hope of deterring OKC's army of drivers.Caruso, who arrived in the trade that sent Giddey to the Chicago Bulls, knew to expect it coming into the season."I saw some of that in film that I was watching in preseason," Caruso said. "For me, I know they're gonna go help a lot at the rim, so it's just trying to be more aggressive. When our guards are getting downhill, the big's gonna stay there, so I know that I'm gonna get pop-back threes. Or the big's gonna be playing off me, so I know I'll have space to put it down and attack or get to the next action."Caruso is having the worst 3-point shooting season of his career, hitting just 28.6% from deep, including 26.4% on wide-open threes. But he believes in his track record as a shooter - he's knocked down 37% of his long-range shots over his career, including 41% on nearly five attempts per game just last season. If he's concerned about what'll happen if playoff defenses treat him the same way they treated Giddey, he certainly won't cop to it."If they do that, I'm gonna shoot the shit out of the ball, and they're gonna have to find something else to do," Caruso insisted.As for Giddey, he's still dealing with cross-matches in Chicago despite playing next to Nikola Vucevic, a more traditional center (albeit still one with some stretch to his game). Giddey is letting threes fly, attempting them at the highest rate of his career. But since he's hitting just 31.9% from deep this season and 31.2% for his career, that willingness alone won't impact the way teams guard him."I've had to learn how to play against it. Shooting threes is the easy answer, but there's a lot of things you can do to it," Giddey said. "Getting out and running is the first one. That makes them cross-match all over the floor, not just one position." To wit: The Bulls, who ranked dead last in transition frequency last season, have jumped all the way up to second with Giddey aboard.He and coach Billy Donovan also both spoke to the importance of Giddey becoming a screener, a sentiment that Donovan almost presented in the form of a challenge."He needs to get good at that," Donovan said. "He needs to be able to slip out and roll, try to create some confusion. Because when a center is on him, if he's coming up and screening for another guard, that's a little bit of a different switch for most big men. And because of his size and his passing, he's a bigger target (on the roll). It's not like they're putting a center on a guy that's 6-foot-2.""It's taking time," Giddey said, "but I think I'm getting better at it. And I think screening has been the big one for me. Just learning how to do that, and working with the guards on that. Getting below the (on-ball defender) so I can get a low angle to get these guards downhill, and then get myself into the pocket to make plays out of there."But yeah, it's not all about sitting behind the 3-point line, just letting threes fly. That kind of plays into their hands. It's making yourself tough to guard by continuing to move, screen, be a threat all over the floor. Just keeping the big honest, so they can't stand in one place and kind of scour the court." Your browser does not support the video tag. FanDuel Sports NetworkGiddey and Caruso also diverge in their approaches to spotting up away from the play when being guarded by a center. For Giddey, it's mostly about trying to get to the corner."That's the most efficient 3-point shot you can take, so if they want to give up corner threes, I'm happy to take them," he said. Caruso has a different notion. "The idea is to put the big on somebody that they think they can leave and then rotate to, but if I'm on the wing, the big has to guard me from the elbow or from the nail," he explained. "And that's something that they're not comfortable with, something they're not used to doing." Caruso took an identical share of corner and non-corner 3-pointers two years ago, but he's now taking nearly three times as many of them from above the break. Giddey is correct about corner threes being more efficient (both guys are shooting 40% from the corners, but well below 30% from above the break), but Caruso is also right about how his positioning can mess with opponents' help points. It's why a lot of teams have started stationing their non-shooting centers in the weak-side slot.One way or another, cross-matching will continue to affect the way certain players conceptualize their roles and the way certain teams game plan, particularly as we inch closer to springtime. Even the best teams in the league are susceptible to discombobulation if they aren't ultra-prepared."We weren't seeing as many (cross-matches) when we were winning 20-something games a season, but when you get better, teams honor that and start giving you all kinds of different pitches," Daigneault said. "Those are sometimes unconventional and uncomfortable, but we'd rather be working through them in December than get to a place where we're seeing them for the first time in high-stakes games."Joe Wolfond covers the NBA for theScore.