San Antonio Spurs Fighting the Small-Ball Craze Better Than Anyone

There is no escaping the NBA's small-ball craze. There is only accepting it, dealing with it, surviving it.

And, if you're lucky, beating it.

To see which teams are best at impeding small-ball lineups, we'll turn to our previous rankings of the 10 best undersized arrangements:

Rank	Team	Lineup
1	GSW	H. Barnes | S. Curry | D. Green | A. Iguodala | K. Thompson
2	DAL	R. Felton | W. Matthews | D. Nowitzki | C. Parsons | D. Williams
3	BOS	A. Bradley | J. Crowder | J. Sullinger | I. Thomas | E. Turner
4	GSW	H. Barnes | S. Curry | D. Green | B. Rush | K. Thompson
5	GSW	H. Barnes | S. Curry | D. Green | S. Livingston | K. Thompson
6	PHI	I. Canaan | J. Grant | R. Holmes | T. McConnell | H. Thompson
7	DEN	W. Barton | K. Faried | D. Gallinari | G. Harris | J. Nelson
8	DEN	W. Barton | K. Faried | D. Gallinari | G. Harris | E. Mudiay
9	BOS	A. Bradley | J. Crowder | M. Smart | J. Sullinger | I. Thomas
10	CLE	M. Dellavedova | L. James | I. Shumpert | J. Smith | T. Thompson

Using NBA.com's lineup data, we are going to isolate how each top combination has played against every team in the Association. The opponents with the highest combined plus/minus marks against these arrangements will be dubbed the best small-ball stoppers.

Sample sizes will vary drastically, so teams must have faced at least five of the top 10 small-ball groups to qualify for main mention, and we'll only be acknowledging those squads that have a plus/minus better than zero during these matchups.

Honorable Mentions

Jason Miller/Getty Images

Cleveland Cavaliers

Plus/Minus vs. Small-Ball Craze: +9

The Cleveland Cavaliers, who also deploy one of the league's 10 best small-ball lineups, actually have the best plus/minus against such combinations. But they have only squared off against three of their fellow top-10 billings.

That standing is further propped up by the absence of head-to-head combat with any of the Golden State Warriors' size-slighting units. The Warriors house three of the top five arrangements, each of which includes Harrison Barnes, who missed the first meeting between Golden State and Cleveland.

Atlanta Hawks

Plus/Minus vs. Small-Ball Craze: +5

This shouldn't come as a huge shock. The Atlanta Hawks rank second overall in defensive efficiency, have the league's best defense since the All-Star break and are perfectly built to battle most small-ball formations.

Al Horford is no stranger to chasing players who attack off the bounce, so the Hawks needn't worry about taking him out of the game against five-out combinations. When the opposition does force him out of the game, Paul Millsap supplants him as an ideal 5 for those situations.

Just 5 percent of Millsap's minutes have come at center this season, which speaks to the defensive versatility of Horford, as well as the rarity of true small-ball setups. Julius Randle is the lone qualified power forward who does a better job defending isolation touches, and Millsap is inescapable within six feet of the basket, as he holds opponents to shooting percentages more than seven points below their season averages.

These types of players are growing commodities—the future of NBA defenses, in fact. According to the total points added metric (TPA) developed by Bleacher Report's Adam Fromal, Millsap has saved more points on defense than all but one other player:

Although the Hawks still struggled against Golden State's "Death Squad," getting outgunned by six points through one showdown, their experience is far from the worst. The Los Angeles Clippers, who rank as the bottom-most small-ball deterrent, were a minus-28 in 20 minutes of exposure versus the same personnel package.

Atlanta did, however, edge out the season's third-most effective lineup—Boston's amalgam of Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Jared Sullinger, Isaiah Thomas and Evan Turner. The Hawks bested them by five points in their only encounter.

Houston Rockets

Plus/Minus vs. Small-Ball Craze: +5

Now this is a huge shock.

The Houston Rockets defense has taken a nosedive since last season—appearing at 22nd in points allowed per 100 possessions—while the offense is, as Bleacher Report's Kelly Scaletta so eloquently put it, wholly reliant on James Harden's creativity:

Not even the Rockets roster is conducive to withstanding stints against diminutive lineups. Terrence Jones and Donatas Motiejunas can space the floor as 5s in these instances, but both have spent ample time on the shelf with injuries, and neither is dutifully equipped to keep pace with every other stretchy center.

Houston is nevertheless even money or a net plus against five of the six small-ball titans it has tussled with. The one combination that has an advantage, Golden State's Death Squad, is the best pint-sized lineup in the league. And probably the best ever.

Most of the Rockets' success has come against Boston's ninth-place unit and the Denver Nuggets' seventh-place squad. Those two groups have, together, shot under 29 percent (6-of-21) against Houston's defense. 

All six of the Rockets' small-ball foes are shooting a combined 38.6 percent (17-of-44) against them. They are faring even worse from beyond the arc by putting in just 17.6 percent of their attempts (3-of-17).

Not bad for a Rockets team that ranks in the bottom 10 of three-point defense overall, huh?

San Antonio Spurs

Plus/Minus vs. Small-Ball Craze: +5 

It's fitting that the NBA's best defense is also the ultimate small-ball kryptonite. The San Antonio Spurs, in many ways, are constructed just to swallow these lineups—by embodying the exact opposite.

Dual-big combinations litter head coach Gregg Popovich's rotation. The Spurs grind games down to painful halts, even against quicker opponents. They smother shooters at the three-point line, ostensibly daring them to attack the rim, where a top-three interior defense awaits.

San Antonio's full range of versatility has been on most prominent display against Golden State's small-ball beasts. When the Warriors throw Green at center, it forces the Spurs into some tough choices, but they are ready.

New Orleans Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry, who was previously an assistant with Golden State, recently explained this, per Bleacher Report's Mike Monroe:

"

It works because they have a guy, Draymond Green, that's capable of guarding Tim [Duncan], but (Tim) can't get out on the floor and guard him. I think Pop is at the stage—and Tim's at the stage—where he wouldn't ask him to chase Draymond around. But Boris [Diaw] can. And then that forces (the Warriors) to put somebody on Boris, and Boris is a great post-up player and a great facilitator.

"

Incidentally, the Spurs have dominated two of the Warriors' three best small-ball casts more than any other undersized lineups. They depended on Diaw to get them by defensively during their March 19 victory over the Warriors, and while they have waged unsuccessful battles with the Death Squad, the returns elsewhere are promising:

	Season FG% (FGA-FGM)	Vs. Spurs
Barnes/Curry/Green/Livingston/Thompson	52.3% (80-of-153)	28.6% (4-of-14)
Barnes/Curry/Green/Rush/Thompson	49.2% (60-of-122)	38.9% (14-of-36)

Those two Golden State lineups are also shooting 27.6 percent (8-of-29) against San Antonio from three-point range, which is just absurd and pales in comparison to their 37.4 percent clip for the season (49-of-131).

It's not yet clear if the Spurs can hold this model over the course of a seven-game series against the Warriors. And defending the Death Squad is different from stopping any other undersized arrangement.

For now, though, they are the biggest threat to not only Golden State's tiny units, but small-ball monsters everywhere.

Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com and accurate leading into games on April 10.

Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @danfavale.