Defence tactics against the Big-Threes

Recall the two games lost to the Wizards recently, their zone defence has been pretty successful (held Celtics to below 42% FG and 31% 3P). Why does this defence model work against the Big-Threes.

Scott Souza of Daily News gives his analysis. The model does work when Celtics are not moving the ball and instead taking jump-shoot. That's what the zone wants them to do - take quick shots, keep it on one side of the floor and not making the defence to move.

"The zone is just the latest way teams have tried to get a handle on the Celtics offense. Early in the season, foes looked clueless as Boston rang up one blowout after another. Then the focus became stopping Kevin Garnett with more physical play and double teams in the post. Recently, there has been another shift with opponents following the Detroit model of jumping out on the pick-and-roll and slowing the Celtics at the point of attack 25 or 30 feet from the basket, leaving them little time to run their offense ..... Another development has been that teams have chosen to target Ray Allen aggressively considering he has been the least proficient of the Big Trio for most of this season. The goal seems to be to lure Pierce into driving into traffic and taking their chances with House and James Posey."

The latest tactics is to pressure whoever (other than Rajon Rondo) is dribbing the ball up court and force turnover. It works for a while, but eventually the Celtics pushes the ball up the court via the pass rather than the dribble to greater success.

Another possible tactics is taunting selective Celtics in attempt to upset the player and his composure. In the Celtics-Knicks game (NBA TV highlight), Pierce has been ejected after his defender was overzealously physical in defending him, drawing four personal fouls -- and causing the refs to call two double-technicals to both.