Players try to get into the zone

Defensive scheme working well at times for Wizards

Through the first nine games of the season, as the Wizards have lacked communication and awareness on the defensive end, there have been only tiny moments to celebrate.

One of those small victories occurred during the first quarter Wednesday night when Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart was forced to shoot a long jumper over two defenders. Smart, not typically known as an outside threat, had to take a step-back 3-pointer, with both Troy Brown Jr. and Davis Bertans raising their arms. He missed and the Wizards, much to their delight, got a stop.

This moment of defense was brought to you by Washington’s reliance on the zone.

“Especially early in the game, it really helped us slow them down,” Wizards forward CJ Miles said about the zone defense versus Boston. “Make some guys take a lot more jumpers than they wanted.”

Still, this one stop mattered little in the outcome of the game. Smart went on to make four of his eight attempts from the arc. The Celtics scored at will on their way to a140-133 win. And Washington, now with the second-worst record in the Eastern Conference at 2-7, spent another game dependent on a zone defense that has, at best, produced mixed results.

“It’s habits,” All-Star guard Bradley Beal said, diagnosing the team’s ailment on defense. “Habits, habits, habits. We got to have better habits, be locked in defensively. We got to be better IQ-wise and play smart.”

This season, the Wizards have placed trust in the zone defense, in which players are assigned an area to cover instead of a single man. Although the scheme is a rarity because the NBA’s defensive three-second rule dissuades big men from camping in the paint, the Wizards have defended using zone for 12.5% of the time under new defensive coordinator Michael Longabardi, according to statistics from Synergy Sports.

The usage is by far the highest in the league, with the Raptors and Warriors ranking behind Washington in using zone 4.5% and 4.3% of the time, respectively. In contrast, the Lakers have faced zone defenses more than any other team in the league but only 4.6% of the time.

So why has Washington counted on a scheme that other NBA teams merely sprinkle into defenses? The zone has been effective for it.

When Washington is in the zone, opponents have scored at least one point 39% of the time. But when the Wizards play man-to-man defense, opponents score 44% of the time. Also, when Washington can focus on an area, and not an individual player, opposing teams have shot only 41.8% from the floor.

“It works for us,” Beal said. “We’ve had games and stretches where we’ve got six, seven stops in a row from that zone. It confuses the offense.

“Guys get stagnant, but Boston did a good job of staying active and moving and putting their guards in the high post, which really altered us in effect.”

Though several Wizards players gave full support of the scheme in Boston, the latest loss elevated the team’s defensive rating to 114.6, the second-highest in the league.

The reason the zone hasn’t solved every problem is that the Wizards haven’t always communicated well in informing one another what’s happening on the floor. Teammates have suggested that while in the zone, they have abandoned the same defensive ferociousness they would show while playing man-to-man.

“It’s challenging because you have to communicate on a very high level,” backup center Moritz Wagner said. “Then the three-second rule obviously isn’t beneficial, but then it turns into man-man pretty quickly and you’ve got to figure out when. So it’s a learning curve.”

Playing the zone, which is more often deployed at lower levels, can also be a mental adjustment for professionals.

“I mean, it’s different for me just because I haven’t done it a lot,” Miles said. “I’m still learning so much.”

The Washington Post’s Neil Greenberg contributed to this report.