My boy Rob Mahoney has been doing the Lord’s work with his Moving Pictures video series over at the Mavs blog The Two Man Game. And, by happenstance, his latest episode focuses on how Dallas got lit up by the Warriors and, more specifically, Monta Ellis.
I focused on Monta’s explosive scoring ability in yesterday’s GSW/IND game preview because (a) he’s been killing it lately, and (b) his game is an apt microcosm for the entire Warriors team; he can shoot his team to victory or defeat all by himself, just like Golden State.
And while the Warriors aren’t a great team — or even a good one, frankly — and the Pacers have generally been holding opposing teams to low FG% numbers (although, less so over the past five games), the one thing that the Indy defense has really, really struggled with all year is guarding the pick-and-roll. As you’ll notice when you watch the video below, G-State routinely used the high pick-and-roll early in the shot clock to decimate the interior defense of the Mavericks the other night.
And this has me worried.
The good news is that Indiana can’t possibly play worse PnR defense than Dallas did. But the bad news is that I’m not sure Indy will have any triumphantly more successful answer to stop an aided-by-a-screen Monta off the dribble either.
I suppose we’ll find out for sure in about 8 hours. In the meantime, someone get Monta a moped.
Related Posts:
- Game #15 Preview: Stay Out of Monta’s Way or You’ll Pay. Listen to What I Say. How About I Just Go Eat Some Hay? I Could Make Things Out of Clay. Lay by the Bay. I Just May. What D’ya Say?
- Game #6 Preview: The Night Where We Find Out If Early-Season Trends Are Meaningful
Jared Wade founded 8 Points, 9 Seconds in 2009 and has written about the NBA at outlets including ESPN.com, Hoopspeak, Both Teams Played Hard, and Hardwood Paroxysm. Follow him on Twitter @Jared_Wade or @8pts9secs.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Monta can really, really, reallllly score.
Well…you were right to be worried.