Exactly how good are John Stockton and Karl Malone at operating the pick and roll?
“They run it like a machine,” said Kendall Gill.
Call them a well-oiled machine because Stockton and Malone have been together so long (16 years, if you’re counting) that they could probably put together an NBA instructional video for how to work the two-man game. And as a matter of fact, when Byron Scott’s club met the Jazz in Salt Lake last Friday and fell victim to a 97-85 defeat, that’s pretty much what they witnessed.
“I thought our pick and roll defense didn’t work,” the head coach said. “A lot of it is just that we didn’t recognize situations quickly enough the first time, and there’s no reason for it to be that way because they are a very patient team. It’s not like they’re getting into [their offense] in a hurry.”
Coming off a somewhat disappointing 1-3 road trip, the Nets return to Continental Airlines Arena tonight to see if they can silence the Jazz, end a three-game losing skid and reach the .500 mark all at the same time. Figuring out how they’ll attempt to do so doesn’t exactly require a degree in basketball strategy. Basically, you can boil it all down to this: rotate defensively and stop the pick and roll.
“We just have to try to make them do other things,”said Stephon Marbury. “They’ve been running [the pick and roll] so long, it’s like second nature to them.”
To that end, the Nets’ big men were primarily the guilty parties in the teams’ first meeting, as Evan Eschmeyer, Jim McIlvaine and Co. were late on a few rotations, resulting in more than a few Jazz layups. Because the Utah big men are often the ones setting the picks, the Nets’ backcourt is unlikely to have to switch quite as much.
According to Scott, though, his team also needs to remember the big picture on defense.
“I said to the guys today, ‘I don’t know what you’re looking for on the weak side, but Stockton and Malone are pretty damn important so you better be paying attention to them instead of your guys,'”the head coach said. “I don’t think [Olden] Polynice or [Greg] Ostertag are more important than Stockton and Malone.”
Once again, the job of guarding the man who’s regarded by many as the greatest power forward in NBA history will fall to Kenyon Martin. The rookie did a solid job on the 37-year-old Malone the first time, holding him to “just” 20 points, 3.5 below his season average.
“I thought I played him pretty well,” said Martin. “I’m basically going to do the same thing this time.”
While praising his teammate’s defensive effort, Marbury did mention that tonight he’d like to see Martin be a bit more aggressive on offense.
“I hope he can play at a high energy level and make Malone play more defense,” the point guard said.
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When asked by a reporter if the Nets needed another player to knock down shots in the halfcourt, Scott laughed and said, “That guy’s hurt,” a reference to Keith Van Horn. Out since Oct. 17, the Nets’ forward will be X-rayed today to determine if the broken bones in his leg have completely healed.
