ALBA Berlin and Cazoo Baskonia Vitoria-Gasteiz are teams that stand out from the rest of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague in many ways. And when they meet on Thursday in the Turkish capital, some of what sets them apart may be put on display.
Just as the motion that ALBA uses more than other teams on offense is something that defenses are not used to, so too the team has adopted unconventional defenses to keep opposing stars at bay. The box-and-one defense has been something of a lightning rod in recent weeks. Essentially, with the box-and-one Coach Israel Gonzalez uses one of his top perimeter defenders – often Maodo Lo – to guard one of the opponent’s stars at all times while the remaining four players sit in a 2-2 zone. That way whenever said player gets the ball, he is instantly double-teamed by “one” and the zone player in his area.
ALBA first brought out the zone in Round 14 to stifle AS Monaco’s Mike James in what became a narrow loss. The same defense was used against LDLC ASVEL Villeurbanne’s playmakers, Nando De Colo and Antione Diot, for most of the second half in last week’s victory.
At first glimpse, Baskonia might be the type of team susceptible to such a defense as it leans heavily on the production of its guards. However, dig a little deeper and you just might find that Baskonia could be immune to ALBA’s defensive creativity.