Should/would Thibs go to the zone against the Heat?

the way we defend is kinda like a semi zone and i think thats why we had success against miami last year in the regular season. but when lebron and dwade start hitting 834832948324832 threes in a row. theres no strat against it

But I wouldn’t mind seeing it if only to fluster Miami every now and then; further take them out of their game.

Oh, and your memory is a bit off, my friend. Bulls are only 18th in pace and yet 3rd in fast break points, which is quite weird but also screams ‘sample size.’

if it truly is the heat’s kryptonite, some bush league team will pull the upset for us.

I’m pretty sure he is going to see what worked against Mia and find way to use it in his scheme somehow.

I don’t want them to change it up one bit.

Besides, I’m not sure that Miami is weak against the zone. I didn’t watch the Miami-Atlanta game, but on paper, Miami has a bunch of shooters and the two best ball-handling and passing wings in the league. If Miami’s having problems with the zone right now, it’s not because of their personnel, but because they haven’t prepared for it and practiced against it. I’m sure that’ll change if the zone continues to be a problem for them.

related – http://www.hoopinionblog.com/2012/01/truehoop-hawks-slow-down-heat-in-miami.html

Here’s an article from ESPN about it from Tom Haberstroh. Pretty good. Also, a pretty wild quote:

To be clear, most teams don’t fare as well against the zone compared to transition. It’s just easier to pick apart a backpedaling defense than a settled one that packs the paint. That much is obvious.

But the key here is that the Heat’s efficiency has fallen off a cliff even more so than we’d expect. The average team scores 112.8 points every 100 possessions in transition; the Heat have scored 121.6 points. The average team scores 101.9 points every 100 possessions against the zone; the Heat have scored a paltry 74.0 points. The gap is enormous and teams are undoubtedly taking notice.

Still don’t know why Thibs wouldn’t use this, at least a little bit here and there to throw them off. Maybe he just uses it in the Playoffs in a situation where we could use a little boost

about the Celtics’ use of the zone against Miami. I took two points from this article. First, Miami thought the real problem was their defense; if they force turnovers then their opponent has no chance to set up a zone. Second, Miami was fine against the zone during the regular season last year and is the type of team that should thrive against the zone, so maybe this is a temporary issue.

first and foremost, as stated above, limit the turnovers, which the Hawks did last night. that just keeps them from getting out and running.
but as far as the zone is concerned, I think the Bulls have the combo of length and speed to play successful zone D. Noah, Deng, Brew, and to some extent Rip, are long players that can cover a lot of ground, which is essential to running a good zone. if Boozer can truly learn to close out properly on perimeter shooters, that’ll help, but I think the zone is better executed with Taj. Wade and Lebron have only attempted one 3 between them. they are totally aware that it’s not their strength and that they’re letting the defense off easy by shooting it. I think a zone could force that hand. plus, the Heat, according to them, aren’t running much set offense which makes sense since they have two to the most naturally skilled players in the league and why not let them play off instinct. but man D might suffer a bit against such a fluid offense as its a bit more difficult to scout their sets and anticipate what cuts and screens they’d make on offense.
as in football where you want to play to your strengths and not let the opposition dictate what you want to do as a team (Thib’s philosophy), basketball is much more fluid and almost necessitates exploiting a weakness when it is found and making the adjustment to do so.

But it’s also an easy defense to break because you’re giving up a ton of rebounds and 3-pointers in the process.

Also, it’s early in the season. Let’s see how effective the zone works against them in March.

It wouldn’t hurt to show the zone every once in a while. For all the love of running Rip has, chasing Wade will be tough and he’s gonna need to be physical with him, which I’m not sure he can handle like a Brewer or even Bogans last year. Zone will solve some of the issues, but we will need to rebound the hell out the ball and watch the turnovers aganist those freaks.

in the fourth quarter should these two meet up.

The Bulls strong man-to-man defense is fine, and it wasn’t the Heat dribble penetration that hurt the Bulls the most, it was both Wade and LeBron hitting key 3 point shots late, so the zone wouldn’t have helped defended against that.

also playing a half court game helps against the heat

Which makes me thinks Thibs might go to it.

Don’t use it at all against Miami in the regular season. If the Bulls have success with it and Miami hasn’t solved it by the playoffs, spring it on them then.