The Cavs had been one of the highest zone defense teams in the NBA this past season, playing zone defense for 8.6% of their defensive possessions. Ranking only behind the Miami Heat (who always lead the NBA in zone played) and the 76ers in terms of how often teams play zone, and 3rd in the NBA in zone PPP only behind the Rockets & Warriors (No wonder that 1st round series was a zone bloodbath).
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For a majority of the season the Cavs had stuck with the typical 2-3 zone setup with 2 guards at the top and 3 players down low - typically 2 wings with a big in the middle of the floor.
At times they would change up the scheme to put a wing in the middle of the zone at the top of the key, switching to a 3-2 zone defense.
The key against the Pacers? Moving the NBA DPOY Evan Mobley to the top of the key to use his length as a weapon - something we hadn’t seen the Cavs show all season.
From the postgame media it seems like this was partly out of necessity due to foul trouble, but also to change the game up and not something the Cavs had planned from the beginning.
Media from Spencer Davies on X.
I can’t embed the post here because X is dumb, so I posted the video directly. Give him a follow - great coverage for the Cavs.
Coaching Clips
I am very familiar with this defense, it was our zone defense this past season so I did a huge deep dive into how the rotations and coverages work as well as playing it this season. I have included a 20 minute video below of our practice from install & repping it live as well.
This season we finished 39th on Synergy high school teams for zone defense in PPP, as well as top-30 for how often we played zone - around 25% of the time. Here are some clips of us playing our 3-2 zone:
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