Between Luka Doncic, Trae Young and Deandre Ayton, these playoffs have been heavily shaped by the top of the 2018 NBA Draft.
Coming into the playoffs, the biggest unknown on an otherwise reliable Suns roster was how Deandre Ayton, in just his third NBA season and with a spotty defensive track record, would hold up under the playoff microscope for a team with legitimate championship aspirations.
Ayton’s dunk with less than a second remaining to seal Game 2 against the Clippers was a deserved culmination of the best stretch of play of the 22-year-old’s life, but also a representation of what he’s been asked to do offensively.
Excepting Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid, playing center in the current era of spread pick-and-roll requires constant movement, continual re-screening and a feel for how opposing defenses will react to ball-handlers.
The Clippers will likely continue searching for ways to pull Ayton from the rim on defense and limit his touches on offense, but their efforts to date have done nothing to slow him down.
The most important defensive tactical question the Bucks faced ahead of the Eastern Conference Finals wasn’t how they would match up individually with Trae Young and the rest of Atlanta’s perimeter attack, but how they’d deal with Young in the pick-and-roll.
For most of Game 1, each side stuck to its comforts, with the Bucks dropping its big men deep into the lane while Young sauntered into floater after open floater.
He positions himself to be able to take away either option at a moment’s notice, and his deceptive length allows him to bother shots even with late challenges.
A Young floater, on average, isn’t efficient enough to outweigh the value of an open layup or 3, and by dropping him back into the lane and having Young’s defender fight over the screen, the Bucks could defend the pick-and-roll two-on-two while other three defenders stayed home and denied kickout 3s.
The Bucks closed the game with a more versatile defensive lineup capable of switching screens, and the Hawks could no longer get the kind of penetration that led to so many open looks earlier in the game.
Mike Budenholzer might lean into that approach more often in Game 2, though playing Lopez any less would risk running Giannis Antetokounmpo minutes into the mid-40s or using a dangerous amount of Bobby Portis.