Kiwi Steve in the NBA #3: Tackling The Big Assignments
Steven Adams is a clutch-time basketballer. Probably not to the level where he’s gonna be in contention to win the new The Jerry West Trophy awarded to the Kia NBA Clutch Player of the Year (registered trademark of the National Basketball Association)... but when the going gets tough he’s a bloke you want on your side.
That might get forgotten amongst the plebs due to his benching for match-up reasons in the first round of the last playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The real ones know that the way Steven Adams performed when he returned to the floor against the Golden State Warriors in the following round should eliminate any dumb yarns about his viability in the postseason. However those efforts did slip under the radar beyond those of us that follow Adams specifically, hence there’s still a lingering tendency to overlook what he does for the Memphis Grizzlies and focus exclusively on the homegrown trio of Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, and Jaren Jackson Jr.
Those guys are brilliant... but so is Steven Adams (and Dillon Brooks might like a word while we’re on the topic too). It’s really a golden starting five that this team possesses. Stink thing is we still haven’t seen that quintet log a single second of action together this season due to overlapping injuries. That day is coming though, and that day will be a day of reckoning for the rest of the league considering that the Grizzlies are already soaring up the standings winning hectic games with one of their best players still to return (get well soon, Des).
In the last few weeks the Grizzlies have sent a message to the rest of the competition to let all and sundry know that they’re going to be title contenders. Bonafide killers. Recent wins over the Philadelphia 76ers and Milwaukee Bucks certainly hammered home that statement.
Yet there’s another aspect to both those fixtures and also the defeat to the Denver Nuggets most recently and that aspect is what this article is all about. Because in each one of those games we saw Steven Adams as the predominant defender of a major international superstar. He locked horns with Joel Embiid against the Sixers. He went to battle against Giannis Antetokounmpo against the Bucks. And he slugged it out with Nikola Jokic against the Nuggets.
Those match-ups were all heavyweight clashes worthy of a worldwide pay-per-view... and each of them is also about to get a deeper focus in this here article so buckle up, amigos.
Steve-o vs Embiid
The Memphis Grizzlies had to work to secure a 117-109 win over the Philadelphia 76ers in early December. A 35-point second quarter put them into a lead that they refused to let slip... although having been 18 points up early in the fourth quarter, things definitely got frisky when the Sixers got back within five with only a few minutes remaining. That was until Jaren Jackson Jr delivered a resounding block on Joel Embiid at the rim with 25 seconds remaining which pretty much confirmed the victory. Good win. Tough win.
Ja Morant scored 28 points. JJJ had 22 points with 4 blocks. Dillon Brooks also chimed in with 17 points. Meanwhile Joel Embiid starred with Joel Embiid had 35 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists for the Sixers... but despite all that it was Steven Adams who got a lot of the praise after the game. His coach made a specific point of it...
Tyler Jenkins: “I know Embiid scored 35, but I think (Adams) won the game on the margins with a lot of the little things he did.”
And the opposition coach had similar things to say when highlighting how the rebounding battle proved to be a major factor in the result. The Grizzlies had 57 total boards compared to 42 for the Sixers, with Adams alone grabbing 16 of the bad boys. Incredibly 10 of those rebounds were offensive boards which is as many as the 76ers had combined as an entire team.
Doc Rivers: “It’s offensive rebounds. That was the difference. It just killed us. Adams is great. I’ll give him credit. We even doubled-teamed him twice on the glass and he still got them.”
This was the eighth time that Adams has gone head to head with Embiid in their careers and it was the fifth time that Adams has out-rebounded the Cameroonian All Star. We’re talking about a dude who routinely averages double digit rebounds and who is one of the few blokes in the NBA who actually has a genuine size advantage over Steven Adams.
While it may look like Embiid had a field day offensively scoring 35 points on 13/26 shooting, it’s not that simple – as Taylor Jenkins said. Philly were missing James Harden in this game therefore Embiid basically ran the show when they were in possession. The plan from Memphis was to have Adams carry the main burden of guarding him and that’s how things worked out with Funaki in closest attendance for 85% of Embiid’s offensive touches – limiting him to 9/21 shooting in those moments (meaning that when Adams wasn’t around, Embiid shot 4/5).
There was even a point when Adams was due to check out of the game but then Coach Jenkins noticed that Embiid was staying in so he had Brandon Clarke sit back down again to wait it out. They didn’t want to expose their smaller alternative centres (Clarke or JJJ) to that task. Jackson did spend a couple total minutes guarding the big fella, including time spent shared with Adams, but Clarke had just 1.2 partial possessions matched with him... Embiid scoring his only field goal against him.
The advantage of a dude like Clarke is that he’s quick and athletic for his size (6’8) which allows the team to switch and play proactively – but he doesn’t have the same heavyweight presence as Adams. Meanwhile Jackson is always tossed up as someone who can blossom into a stretch five someday given his shot-blocking... although whether that ever happens is another matter. He seems to play his best stuff when paired with Adams, giving him a bit more freedom to challenge guys at the rim from unexpected angles as a help defender. Both of them have scenarios in which they’re extremely useful in that position. Those scenarios don’t include going directly up against Mr Trust The Process himself.
Nope, that’s Steven Adams territory. And although this outcome wasn’t as clearly triumphant for him as earlier examples this season such as when he held Rudy Gobert to just one rebound or limited Jonas Valanciunas to six combined points in two meetings... he limited Embiid’s scoring as much as anyone on his team and he won the crucial rebounding arm-wrestle as the Grizzlies came out on top in the one stat that matters most: the score. Some folks are hesitant to take on a match-up like this. Others are dutiful but wary. For the great Funaki, he absolutely relishes it.
Steven Adams: “It’s just different, because they put you in these sorts of positions. I don’t get to guard these [top tier opposition big men] often, so I really enjoy challenging myself. It’s really fun for me. It's good, because it makes me think outside of what I normally have to do. It's fucking great.”
Ja Morant: “I feel like that’s what makes [Adams] so great for us all around. Him taking on that challenge to guard the best bigs—being able to limit them and make their shots tough as possible. He’s a big piece to our team, and we’re definitely thankful for him.”
And if all that doesn’t work then there is still one other strategy he likes to employ...
Steve-o vs Giannis Antetokounmpo
Challenge #2 was against a two-time MVP and a fella who unlike the others in this feature isn’t a pure centre. Giannis Antetokounmpo is called The Freak for a good reason: he can play in any position. That gave the Grizzlies a fascinating puzzle as to who they’d choose to guard him. Jaren Jackson is one option as their longest defender, someone with a lot of athleticism. Could go smaller still with someone like Dillon Brooks who is the best one on one defender in the team. That would free up a mismatch elsewhere. Though ultimately what they chose was for Steven Adams to chop the wood and carry the water. Of course they did.
There’s plenty of logic to that since if Giannis has one weakness in his game it’s his sloppy three-point shot. A career 28.7% striker from deep. The idea is that you can hopefully take away some of his dynamic driving by playing underneath and letting him have the jump shot, daring him to make it. Adams does not have the lateral movement to play high and stay in front of a dribbler like that – see KAT last playoffs – but he’s large and physical and can therefore play deterrent in the paint against one of the league’s premier close finishers if allowed to give himself room to adjust to that first step.
How’d that work on the court? Bloody fantastic, thanks for asking. Adams was the primary defender on Giannis, spending 54% of the time as the closest bloke in the building. From those possessions GA scored 3 points from 1/6 shooting with only two assists. Those misses weren’t just unlucky ones where he rimmed out an open look either... this brother was getting blocked, mate. Four blocks out of a season-high five for Adams overall came directly against Giannis Antetokounmpo...
Overall Antetokounmpo ended up with 19 points on 5/13 shooting with 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Steven Adams only scored 10 points (4/8 fg) with 6 rebounds and 5 blocks.... but there was absolutely no doubt at all what an influential player he’d been out there. Because this game was a demolition. Memphis came out swiftly and knocked down a few shots, boosting out to a 33-18 lead after the first quarter and it never again got within a 10 point margin. In fact very early in the fourth quarter the Grizzlies found themselves with a fifty point lead.
The Bucks dragged that back slightly as it ended 142-101... not that it saved too many blushes. This was emphatic, mate. This was a meeting between the team with the best record in the West and the best record in the East. Just look what happened.
Giannis, bro, what’s up with that?
Damn son, your turn now Coach Bud, what do ya reckon?
Adams only had six total rebounds yet five of them were at the offensive end. Also don’t forget that this was a blowout win so neither Adams nor Antetokounmpo were seen in the fourth quarter unless you were looking for the dudes chilling on the bench wondering what they’d be having for dinner that night. It’s funky that Mike Budenholzer had the same reaction to Adams putting the clamps on his top player as what Doc Rivers had: bemoaning those offensive rebounds. One of those ultimate coach killers, not being able to get out of a possession.
And once again if the brutality doesn’t work then that familiar pestilence just might...
Steve-o vs Nikola Jokic
Finally we’ve got Steve vs The Joker. Two-time reigning MVP and putting forward a helluva case for making that a hat-trick. This one wasn’t quite like the others because the Grizzlies lost. These were the two leading teams in the Western Conference as they met but the Denver Nuggets rose above the Grizz via the head to head tiebreaker thanks to a 105-91 victory. Not a great day at the office for the team from Memphis.
Put simply, the Grizz missed a piss-load of threes early on and coupled with some unusually clunky defence they were stuck with a hefty deficit from the outset. 13-2 down with a little over four minutes into the game. They would trail by as many as 21-points in the first quarter. Memphis chipped away at that lead in periodic stints but the Nuggs always found another run to keep it safe. Ah well so it goes.
But that’s now what we’re here for, is it? We’re here to chat about that Adams vs Jokic duel, Kiwi Steve going up against a bloke who had a 40-point, 27-rebound, 10-assist triple double in his previous game and who was averaging 30.9pts/13.5reb/9.3ast across the entire month of December (eight games to that point). So let’s do that.
Bad news was that Jokic got another triple-double in this game. Good news was that this TD and the last TD were not the same beast. It was a bit frustrating that the Grizzlies didn’t go to Adams more in the post given that one obvious thing you can try against a bloke like Jokic is to get him working hard on defence. To be fair, Adams missed a couple good looks that might have deterred his team from going back to that well.
However there was definitely a steady plan down the other end where Jokic has a billion skills but he’s not particularly explosive which meant that Adams could stay with him in those high-post situations. That didn’t mean he was stopping him... but it did mean he was limiting him by at least making him work for his buckets.
At half-time the two big men actually had quite similar numbers: Adams with 4 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist while Jokic had 6 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists. Denver still led by a significant distance but then Ja Morant went a little bit crazy in the third – much of that off the back of Adams screens, which is another way to tire out Jokic by getting him to have to engage physically over and over in those spots. Morant scored 19 points in the frame... although just when Memphis closed within single-digits again, Jokic went assist, three-pointer, assist and the lead shot back out again.
For three quarters of this game Steven Adams and Nikola Jokic were joined at the hip. Steve-o’s minutes were entirely tied to whenever Jokic was on the court. That meant Adams playing the entire third quarter on account of Jokic playing the entire third quarter... but when Jokic returned in the fourth with 8:40 on the clock, Adams was still in a tee-shirt on the bench. He wouldn’t play again in this game as coach Taylor Jenkins instead rolled the dice on leaving Brandon Clarke out there for some quicker offence given their scoreboard issues. Didn’t work. Denver won it by 14 points. Even without playing at all in the fourth, Adams still logged 30 minutes which is three above his season average.
It was a disappointing defeat, albeit against a very good team – one that they may well meet in the playoffs some time in the future. There was simply no stopping Jokic from putting his fingerprints all over the contest. To be honest though, the final box scores weren’t actually that wild...
Adams – 30 MIN | 4 PTS (2/5 FG) | 10 REB (4 OFF) | 2 AST | 1 STL
Jokic – 37 MIN | 13 PTS (6/12 FG) | 13 REB (4 OFF) | 13 AST | 2 STL
Remember what Jokic has been doing as a scorer lately. To hold him to a mere 13 points... that was actually the fourth lowest scoring game of his season and in each of the three lower efforts he played at least ten fewer minutes than he did here. Nothing wrong with the way that Adams guarded him whatsoever. It’s just that there’s only so much you can do when you’re up against this level of passing majesty...
Adams did to Jokic the same thing he did to other two jerries but the difference was that Jokic could pass his way out of trouble like a literal genius. That bounce pass between his legs? Sheer insanity. But hey it’s all food for the scouting report next time. We live and we learn.
Essential Chat From Inside The Green Room
Check it out, long form podcasting prowess with Steven Adams joining current teammate Danny Green on his esteemed podcast. Green came over to Memphis in the De’Anthony Melton trade but was already injured at that point and is still recovering to this day (targeting a return around the all star break by the sounds of it) so you’d have been forgiven for not even realising he was on the roster. But Green’s veteran presence off the court was a key factor in getting him included in that trade (as were salary cap balances from Philly and the draft pick that became David Roddy for Memphis).
All things go to plan and he’ll be back to offer another three-and-D wing to the rotation in time for the playoffs. There’s also the realistic possibility of trading him again before the deadline. But whatever happens, what matters most is that he was a Memphis Grizzly for long enough to get Steven Adams onto his podcast. Adams was teammates with JJ Redick for long enough to get onto that show. He’s now done the same with Danny Green’s effort. Next step surely is to start his own podcast... although it’d probably be all about anime shows and chess strategy so possibly not so entertaining for the average fan out there.
Funny thing, in the intro to that podcast Danny Green and co-host Harrison Sanford speak about the exact theme of this article: guarding the best bigs in the game. Note that the show was recorded after the Embiid game but before the Giannis/Joker match-ups.
Green basically says that no matter how well you defend those fellas, they’re going to get numbers regardless – as evidenced by Embiid’s 35 points in that game. The key is simply to contain them as best as possible, especially if by doing so you can also limit those around them (such as forcing a dude to play more inefficiently to get his 30+ points or whatever). Hence why he referred to Steve-o’s efforts on Embiid as outstanding and one of the better examples he’s ever seen of somebody guarding the dude... which is saying something because Green was an ex-teammate of Embiid’s who saw those various attempts up close. So chuck that one on the CV under ‘character references’, Steve-o.
‘Tis The Season
John Konchar, The Bro
That’s a new one. Steven Adams is the king of the orthodox handshake, flexing a businessman’s tendency towards wrist and grip conformity rarely seen in the National Basketball Association where individual expression is always such a focus. Flipping dual birds with the hombre during team intros, on the other hand, is something else entirely.
Let’s not overlook that there was also that time at the start of the season when Adams stole a towel from outta Konchar’s hands to give to Morant whose seniority as the star player on the roster clearly had to be enforced by Adams as one of the senior leaders on the roster...
These two have the strangest friendship. It’s absolutely hilarious.
SLAM DUNKS
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