Claw School: Kawhi Leonard's Defensive Master Class
来源：http://goo.gl/oBs9HO
It’s hard to pick out the best single defensive play of the entire 2013-14
NBA season, but Kawhi Leonard’s block of Russell Westbrook in overtime of
Game 6 of the Western Conference finals deserves serious consideration. That
tense bit of #freebasketball is mostly remembered for Tim Duncan’s
turn-back-the-clock domination, but Leonard’s moment of defensive genius was
probably the game’s biggest individual inflection point.
要在整个2013-14球季中选出最佳个人防守球员实在不容易，但Kawhi Leonard在西
区决赛G6加时阶段对西河的火锅绝对足以让他被列入审慎考量。而这个火锅可能也
算得上这场比赛最重要的转捩点。
Down one point with less than a minute left, the Thunder’s 3-on-2 fast-break
chance represented a huge opportunity to take a late-game lead. As Reggie
Jackson raced down the floor, he was flanked by Kevin Durant on his right and
Westbrook on his left. The only Spurs defenders ahead of them were Leonard
and Boris Diaw. Leonard confronted Jackson near the top of the arc, forcing
him to dish the ball to a surging Westbrook — but Leonard wasn’t done yet.
Leonard changed the game with his giant left hand — like taking candy from
an all-world point guard. It was simultaneously unbelievable, understated,
and vital. If it’s true that the league’s biggest superstars make the
biggest plays in the biggest moments, then it’s also true that Kawhi Leonard
became a superstar in the 2014 NBA playoffs — just a different kind of
superstar, making different kinds of superstar plays.
在雷霆落后一分，比赛时间剩不到一分钟时，Reggie Jackson发动一次三打二快攻
右边跟着KD、左边跟着西河，而马刺退防的球员只有Kawhi和Diaw，眼看这将是一
次让雷霆在决胜阶段逆转的大好机会。这时Kawhi在弧顶先迫使Reggie把分球给西河
，而这时候Kawhi用他巨大的左手改变了这场比赛。
在那一瞬间Kawhi把球从西河手中抢了过来。要是我们借由在关键时刻做出伟大的攻防来
定义联盟最伟大的球星，那么在2014季后赛Kawhi绝对通过了伟大球星的认证，只是用不
同的方式成为了不同的伟大球星。
Leonard is now 23 years old and the reigning Finals MVP, yet when it comes to
his basketball celebrity, he seems to take a backseat to other emerging young
talents, like Kyrie Irving and Stephen Curry. Part of this is by choice; he
doesn’t really draw attention to himself. You’ll never catch Leonard in an
ad pretending he’s an elderly playground legend, or wearing a fake mustache
and houndstooth, impersonating an elite insurance salesman — though, to be
fair, if you’re watching TV in Texas, you can catch him in a toga with his
teammates in a local supermarket spot.
He missed the league’s glitzy fashion show during All-Star Weekend. His
brand has only one lonesome vertical: being really good at basketball. By
nature, by choice, and by association, the Kawhi Leonard experience is
antithetical to the league’s contemporary star-making apparatus — kind of
like one of his iconic teammates.
And in 2015, even the nerdiest basketball observers still fail to to
adequately assess the very thing Leonard is really good at: defense.
This chasm between what we see and what we understand about hoops was on full
display last Sunday night in San Antonio, as the Spurs crushed the Minnesota
Timberwolves, 123-97. Leonard finished the game with 15 points, six rebounds,
and one assist. That’s certainly not a bad stat line, but it seems
incongruent with the following postgame quote from Flip Saunders, who coached
against Leonard that night: "Kawhi Leonard just took the game totally over...
just mauled."
Usually, when an opposing head coach explicitly says somebody “took the game
totally over” or “mauled” his guys, that means that person scored 40, or
grabbed 20 boards, or dished out 15 assists, but this was not the case with
Leonard. He took the game over by playing spectacular on-ball defense.
Leonard has a habit of turning great players into average ones. That night,
he shut down future rookie of the year Andrew Wiggins, stealing the ball five
times, and disrupted several Wolves possessions by doing stuff like this:
在2015年，即使是最专注于篮球数据研究的单位仍未能发明适妥的数据来衡量Kawhi在场
上最擅长的事：防守。
上周日马刺以123-97击败了灰狼之后，赛后访问灰狼队的总教练Flip Saunders说Kawhi完
全掌控了比赛且痛击了灰狼队。一般来说，会让对手的教练明确说出“掌控比赛”及
“痛击”这些字眼，就表示对手有个人得了40分，或是抓了20个篮板，或是传了15次助攻
，但这些Kawhi一个都没有做到。实际上，Kawhi借由惊人的对球防守掌控了比赛。
那个晚上，Kawhi守死了可能是今年最佳新秀的Wiggins，抄了五个球，干扰了好几次灰狼
的团队进攻。这就是Kawhi的“习惯”：把对手伟大的球员守成普通球员。
[video]
Leonard played only 25 minutes that night, but while he was on the floor, the
Spurs outscored the Wolves by 24 points. Wiggins logged a minus-32.
Kawhi只打了25分钟，但当他在场上马刺对比灰狼多得了24分，同时也让对位的Wiggins
吞下-32的正负值
In the last 20 years, only two forwards have led the NBA in steals per game:
Scottie Pippen and Gerald Wallace. As of today, Leonard is on pace to become
the third. He currently leads the league in steals per game, with 2.3. That
may not seem like a lot, but steals are extremely valuable events, and that
value is often undersold by the little integers that show up in the box score
the next day.
在过去20年，联盟抄捷榜第一名只有两名前锋排得上：
Scottie Pippen和Gernald Wallace
现在Kawhi占据抄捷榜第一名，每场可贡献2.3个抄截。这数字可能看起来不多，但抄截确
实是个非常有价值但常被低估的数据。
For over a decade now, the savviest basketball analysts have been talking
about points per possession. But not all possessions are created equal. As it
turns out, the nature of how a possession begins has a huge impact on its
eventual fate. Leaguewide, possessions that originate with “live ball
turnovers” — like steals — are generally the most effective possessions in
the game. And the value of a steal does not end with the turnover, as steals
also typically yield extremely valuable ensuing possessions going the other
way.
This isn’t exactly a new idea, but thanks to new kinds of performance data,
we now have numbers to back it up.
这十年来，篮球分析纳入了更精确的points per possession。而如何开始球权将彻底影
响一波球权的结果。其中以活球失误，例如被对手抄截，而开启的球权是最有效率的进
攻球权。这并非一个新的概念，只是多亏这些新的资料，现在我们可以用数据来为这种
贡献背书。
As of today, the Clippers and the Warriors have the most efficient offenses
in the league. Both teams average 109.3 points per 100 possessions, just
about four points better than the league average of 104. But even those
incredible offenses can’t hold a candle to the efficiency of an average team
following an average live ball turnover. Overall this season, NBA offenses
scored a whopping 124 points per 100 possessions1 following a live ball
turnover. In other words, even the most mediocre NBA teams suddenly morph
into dominant offensive forces immediately after the kinds of live ball
turnovers that Leonard is really good at creating.
以现在进攻PPP最佳的两个球队为例：快艇和勇士，它们每100个球权可以获得109.3分。
然而透过活球失误，每100个球权可以产生124分。换句话说，即使是联盟最会进攻的球队
，进攻效率也不及抄球反击，而这正是Kawhi最擅长的事。
So it’s not enough to say that steals turn defense into offense. They often
turn defense into the best kind of offense. Here is Leonard demonstrating the
basketball version of a pick-six:
因此，仅用“转守为攻”并不足以形容抄截的价值；抄截不但能转守为攻，还能从防守转
为最有效率的进攻
[video]
Here’s another example, from Friday night’s Spurs win over the Celtics, in
which Leonard takes Evan Turner (a.k.a. “Evan Turnerover”) to Claw School:
[video]
Another thing to note here is that Leonard’s steals, unlike many of his peers
’, are hardly ever the result of defensive gambling. He’s not riskily
jumping into passing lanes or leaving his assignment open. His takeaways are
usually a product of him playing terrific defense. That’s why steals, as a
metric, offer an incomplete picture of defensive skill. They can be
reflections of which players gamble the most as much as symbols of who plays
the most consistently great defense.
更值得一提的是，联盟很多抄截多的球员透过赌博式防守来取得抄截，但Kawhi跟
他们不一样。Kawhi不会随便断球线或是让他防守的球员出现空档，他的抄截常是来自他
自己优异的防守。这个差异也是为什么不能单以抄截来判断防守技巧。
As I wrote about a few weeks ago, the league’s player tracking system is
finally enabling us to understand defensive performances, revealing which
players are really good at suppressing and disrupting opponents’ shots. It
turns out Leonard is one of the best, not just at stealing the ball, but also
at reducing the scoring prowess of his assignments. Below is Leonard’s
defensive shot chart from last season, which reveals that he is really good
at preventing 3-point shots from even happening. Those tiny dots all around
the 3-point arc suggest that when Leonard is the assigned defender, players
hardly ever even attempt 3s. The blueness of those dots reveals that when
they do end up shooting, they exhibit significant decreases in efficiency.
[graph]
从球员追踪系统可以发现，Kawhi的防守不仅只于抄截，他还能降低对手进攻的水平。从
进攻者的投篮分布区域图来看，我们可以发现Kawhi对于三分线外投射的防守非常惊人，
被对位到的球员几乎很少能在三分线出手
Kawhi Leonard is Daryl Morey’s nightmare. Leonard’s defensive assignments
— guys like Durant, LeBron James, and James Harden — regularly fail to live
up to expectations on the perimeter. Nobody looks forward to a night trying
to play offense against Leonard.
以此统计来看，Kawhi完全就是火箭队GM Morey的梦魇。Kawhi防守的对象：KD,James,胡
子，经常很难在他们期望的有效射程内出手。没有一个人会想要在某个晚上打比赛时面对
Kawhi的防守。
Before taking the stage to accept the Finals MVP trophy last June, Leonard
had spent 11 consecutive games defending LeBron James and Kevin Durant. It
would be an exaggeration to say he shut either guy down, but it would not be
an exaggeration to say that his defensive performances had a lot to do with
the Spurs going 8-3 in those series.
在Kawhi获得FMVP前，连续11场球对位防守James和KD。若要说Kawhi守死了他们是有点夸
张了，但说Kawhi的超强防守帮马刺赢了11场比赛中的8场绝不夸张。
Leonard’s defense makes you want to come up with a more elegant stat for
defense — something like an Almost Steal. Check out how Leonard greatly
damages a Heat possession by knocking the ball away from James, but doesn’t
get the steal in the end.
有时Kawhi差点抄到球但却影响了对手的进攻球权，如下面影片对位LBJ，
这在数据上是没办法显示的，看了Kawhi在防守上的表现，会令人想要发明一个更精准
的指标来评断防守能力。
[video]
Maybe he’s not a conventional superstar, but Leonard is one of the most
important players in the whole league. Since his return from injury in
mid-January, the Spurs have gradually regained their dominant form (that
Knicks loss aside). They’ve won 10 of their last 12 games and suddenly look
like a real threat to defend their championship. With Leonard on the floor
this year, the Spurs are 35-16 (that would be the fourth-best winning
percentage in the league), but they are only 9-9 without him. In March 2015,
just three and a half years after his NBA debut, Leonard might be the most
important player on a team that features three surefire Hall of Famers.
♦♦♦
Yesterday afternoon in Atlanta, Leonard played a phenomenal game, making
plays like this, and leading his team to a statement win against the best
team in the Eastern Conference:
[video]
Two weeks ago, in that same arena, the Hawks honored Dominique Wilkins with a
brand-new statue and a ceremony that included a video tribute, featuring
Wilkins’s old rival Larry Bird. Bird used the opportunity to dust off his
Hall of Fame trash talk, joking about the statue, “I’m pretty sure it’s
not made in a defensive stance.” It was a subtly profound jab. It’s not
hard to find a basketball coach to remind you that defense is half the game,
but it’s virtually impossible to find a statue of a basketball star in a
defensive stance. If the Spurs ever make a Kawhi Leonard statue outside of
the AT&T Center, that may change.
While there’s no shortage of emergent superstars trying to be like Mike,
Leonard seems more like Pippen. And while Leonard will probably always remain
underappreciated by the folks on Madison Avenue, it’s clear he’s valued by
the people who know the most about the game.
Kawhi可能不像传统的超级巨星，但他绝对是联盟最有影响力的球员之一。比起Jordan，
他会更像Pippen一点；Kawhi可能总是被人们所低估，但最了解比赛的人就会体认到他的
价值所在。
心得：第一次翻译若有疏漏敬请见谅，期待可爱能继续进步!