Did Tyronn Lue find a checkmate?
BY DAVID THORPE  Move. Counter. Move. In the playoffs, theres much talk about the chess of basketball coachingtis the season of tweaking lineups and strategies, observing, and tweaking again. Like a chef adding a pinch of salt, these are refinements. Every once in a while, though, its momentous. Every once in a while, a coaching strategy changes everything. Every once in a while, a team discovers a way to play that their opponent just cant handleand just like that, the series is decided. Thats checkmate. In Game 3 of the Clippers series against the top-ranked Jazz, Clippers coach Tyronn Lue changed his teams defense. It has already turned the series around completely. The Jazz have been helpless and blown out for six quarters. Unless the Jazz can find an answer in a hurryI have some ideasLues defensive tweak will decide the series. This Clippers defense is good and solidbut doesnt make things too hard for Donovan Mitchell. What didnt work  Coach Lue decided to start five non-centers in Game 1 against the Jazz. His team defended as they had all season: relatively conservatively, trying to prevent blow-bys and just stay solid. They ranked 20th in the league in steals per game, 22nd in turnovers forced per game. Solid. They allowed the Jazz to play their typical pass and drive game,the blender as Jazz announcers like to call it. They didnt pressure Jazz guards fully, choosing to play off them some to help minimize drives. It helped Donovan Mitchell become a playoff star. He blitzed them for 45 points on 30 shots and the Jazz won a close game, only committing seven turnovers, well below their average, while making 17 of 50 3s. Lue brought center Ivica Zubac back to start Game 2, with a similar strategy and result. Mitchell had 37 on 29 shots and Rudy Gobert went for 13 with 20 boards, three blocks, and two steals. The Jazz had won two games, and All-Star guard Mike Conley had been out injured the whole time. Hes due back any day, after which  the Jazz would get even better. With desperation in the air, the Clippers were ready for a major shakeup. After going down 0-2, the Clippers tried something different. The innovation  Lue went back to a centerless starting lineup in Game 3. Only this time, there would be no backing off drivers, worrying about blow-bys. All the Jazz ball handlers had defenders in their faces far from the hoop. If they drove, more help came. Donovan Mitchell was swarmed. While doing that, the Clippers also denied every easy pass. Theres a reason teams dont do this all the time: its a ton of work, and its a very risky defensive strategy. Its hard, maybe impossible, to pressure the ball that much AND also be in great position to defend the rim. (This would be suicide against a team with Joel Embiid or Nikola Jokic. Gobert is an elite player, but no post assassin.) As Game 3 evolved, Clippers defenders gained confidence. Utahs trademark offensive movement stopped. The Jazz blender couldnt grind rocks. The Clippers couldnt keep it up all game. It was too much work. But they did it enough to crush the Jazz over two quarters after a hot Jazz start. (Teams that win a quarter by 10 or more, and dont give up a similar quarterwe call it the Thorpe Ruleare 36-0 so far this postseason.) Game 4 was a Clippers dream, until they tired a bit in the second half. The wrong counter  I dont know what the Jazz coaching staff said in response to the Clippers high-energy defense, but it looked like whoever drives the most gets a hundred million dollars. The entire offense quickly melted into drive-drive-drive. This is like telling a bug to attack a spider web. Since the Jazz led 10-2 to start Game 3, the Clippers have outscored the Jazz 198-140. Two reasons this drive-a-thon has failed:  The Jazz have a roster thats elite at all kinds of things; driving isnt one of them. Mitchell is special. He looked eerily like Dwyane Wadeconstantly, relentlessly, attacking the hard-defending Clippers. He got rewarded with 15 free throws, a playoff high (making 13). But he exhausted himself in the process. He finished 9-26 from the floor with a postseason-high of five turnovers. The Jazz have abandoned the principles of one of the best offenses of all time. This is an unrecognizable mess. In Game 1, they threw 247 passes and had 48 drives as the Clips let them run their offense. In Game 4, they had 57 drives and 221 passes. Gobert was a nonfactor, taking (and making) just four shots. In 2015, David Blatts Cavaliers looked to be on rails to a title, with a clever and aggressive defense geared to slow Stephen Curry. I will never forget the moment, late in Game 3, when Steph unraveled it all with a shovel pass to David Lee. The Warriors didnt win that gamethe Cavaliers went up 2-1but the Warriors had solved their one big problem. They realized they had always known how to beat that kind of defense. They entered Game 4 with their new approach, learned the Cavaliers couldnt stop that. The Cavaliers won just two of the next 12 quarters, and the Warriors won the title. The Jazz are the Cavaliers in this storyunless they can figure out some different moves. Two moves for the Jazz  The first is Mike Conley himself, who is expected back soon from a hamstring injury. He isnt a dynamic one-on-one player, but he is expert at something that would matter a lot against the defense, getting to the second box and making great choiceswhether shooting floaters, or finding teammates. Hes also a great shooter, one of the best defenders in the NBA, and one of the NBAs most effective players in plus/minus stats. Also important: with Conley, the Jazz have an absolutely killer bench lineup. Gobert and Conley with different combinations of reserves are among the best lineups in the league. His return can mean the world. With cuts. As the Clippers have embarked on a high risk/high reward defensive strategy, I have been waiting to see the Jazz draw up plays designed to punish that approachespecially backdoor cuts. Ive yet to see a single drawn-up Jazz play for a backdoor bucket. If the Clippers put this much focus on Nuggets perimeter players, Nikola Jokic would have a field day. Hes a threat to score at the rim. He has great hands. And his passes are art. Anyone of his teammates who was overplayed behind 3 could use a hard cut and end up with a dunk. Quin Snyders Jazz dont have Jokic, but they do have passing and cutting. As Clipper defenders race to guard shooters behind 3, theyre begging to be left in the dust by a hard cut. Handoffs are an incredible tool to punish an overplaying defense. (Look at Joe Ingles reaction!) Handoffs are just a nightmare to guard. Laser in on the cutter, and the ball-handler will fake the handoff, turn the other way and make SportsCenter with a dunk, or a lob to Gobert. Reserve forward Georges Niang has tried it a couple of times, and it has worked perfectly. Bojan Bogdanovic, Joe Ingles, and Donovan Mitchell can all play that game. But its just not something the Jazz do very often. Im not confident theyll start now. One other way the Jazz could win  For six quarters of this series, the Clippers burned with the defensive effort and intensity of a title team. We cannot. The Clippers have had the ingredients of a title team all seasonbut finished tied with the Nuggets for the leagues fifth-best record. Its entirely possible the Clippers will let the Jazz off the hook. In Game 5 tonight, Ill be watching to see who leads at halftime. If its the Clippers, thats likely a sign Lues move has decided the series. If its the Jazz, look out: this might end up being the series of the year, ten quarters of intense basketball ending in a thrilling Game 7. Thank you for reading TrueHoop!