Guardin’ party
Why Brewer defending Mitchell isn’t an issue
Corey Brewer thinks he needs to be more aggressive. The world at large thinks he needs to swap with Paul George. There are a whole lot of voices chiming into the “Who guards Donovan Mitchell?” conversation.
The Jazz rookie is averaging 27.5 points per game as the Thunder and Jazz head to Salt Lake City for Game 3 of their Western Conference first round series tied 1-1. But Mitchell’s deft drives and changes of speed didn’t put into perspective what Brewer had done much of the game.
Mitchell sprung loose toward the end of the third quarter against the Thunder in Game 2. The argument was made for George to be on the sensational Jazz rookie without looking at the other factors, namely Brewer has played Mitchell well and George isn’t healthy.
“Last game I tried to push up on him, make it tough, but he got it going in the fourth quarter,” Brewer said. “That’s what good players do.
“He was being aggressive and getting to the basket. Can’t let him get to the basket. Gotta be up more.”
Getting up on the hip of a defender and keeping him from the basket is a Paul George specialty.
Leading into the series, George said publicly he was up for the challenge of guarding Mitchell, but Thunder coach Billy Donovan has opted to use George to blanket Utah’s Joe Ingles instead. While Mitchell is the better individual scorer and creator, Ingles was utilized heavily in Utah’s offense as a catalyst for ball movement during the regular season.
While Brewer chases Mitchell around, Ingles has been reduced to a spectator by George through two games. Ingles has three assists in 66 minutes and no secondary assists — a category he tied with Mitchell on in the regular season with 37. Secondary assists are awarded when a player passes the ball to a player who recorded an assist within one second and without dribbling.
According to Second Spectrum data on NBA. com, Mitchell is scoring 0.258 points per possession against George (eight points on 31 possessions with George as the primary defensive matchup)
compared to 0.293 points per possession against Brewer (24 points on 82 possessions) in more than double the amount of possessions. Brewer has committed just one shooting foul on Mitchell in those 82 possessions.
It’s not without question that Brewer is a better matchup on Mitchell than George.
It’s also not enough of a difference to say Brewer is doing a bad job considering the Thunder’s gameplan of negating Ingles’ impact.
George has admitted that guarding a team’s No. 1 option following Andre Roberson’s season-ending injury took its toll on his offense. “Playoff P” jokes aside, George may have the confidence and track record (Ex: defending LeBron James in the 2014 Eastern Conference finals) to say he’s used to defending the best offensive player in the playoffs. But what if George’s body simply doesn’t allow for it right now, particularly to balance his offensive load and 40-plus minutes?
George said he could barely change clothes without pain after picking
up a left hip contusion in Game 1. According to Donovan, George essentially pulled himself in the fourth quarter of Game 1 because he didn’t think he was helping.
Ingles is a more static, less physical defensive assignment than Mitchell’s stoutandexplosive6-foot3, 211 pounds. Brewer was able to help keep Mitchell to 4-of-14 shooting and no free-throw attempts until a dubious blocking foul with 54 seconds left in the third quarter started an avalanche.
If Brewer plays the way he did against Mitchell through nearly three quarters on Thursday, there should be no complaints about him defending the Jazz’s No. 1. Still, Donovan will never admit George’s injury is keeping him from seeing more of Mitchell on defense.
“I think defense is defense,” Donovan said Thursday.
“You’re down in a stance. You’re going to have to move laterally, up, back. I don’t want to say the injury enables him to guard Ingles or Mitchell better than the other.
“He’s battled the last few days. I think I said he wants to be out there. He’s a tough guy. He’s a competitive guy. He’s never going to make excuses.”