High school basketball is almost an entirely different sport than the NBA in some respects.The  2-3 zone defense is more common than man-to-man, and all sorts of traps, presses and other defensive concepts distort the game in ways that are rarely seen on the professional level.

These defenses aren’t supposed to work in the NBA, but Nick Nurse and the Toronto Raptors are testing those boundaries for weaknesses. They famously stymied Steph Curry in the NBA Finals with a box-and-one and play more zone defense than any team in the NBA this season other than the Washington Wizards.

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The Dallas Mavericks did not seem particularly impressed with Toronto’s defensive strategy for most of last Sunday’s matchup. Dallas dominated the first three quarters, carving up the Raptors’ usual mix of man-to-man and zone defense, particularly in the third quarter. The Mavericks built their lead up to 30 points with 2:10 left before trimming it down to 23 to start the fourth.

Nurse decided that he didn’t have enough time to continue to use the same tactics that he employed up until that point. One of the benefits of running a full court press is that it compresses more possessions into the same amount of time. Many possessions are over in eight-to-10 seconds when a team presses, regardless of the outcome. The offense may break it and get a wide-open dunk, but if nothing else, that’s going to happen quickly.

A 1-2-1-1 press, also known as a diamond press, is the most aggressive full-court defense. Unlike most presses, the first “1” — Rondae Hollis-Jefferson on the play above — pressures the inbound passer with his hands high and active to make the opponent’s job as difficult as possible. While that’s happening, the “2” on the next level — Terence Davis and Malcolm Miller — play ball denial on Seth Curry and Ryan Broekhoff. Their task is to try not to let either Mavericks player catch the inbounds pass.

The pressure on the passer combines with the ball denial to force a good deal of turnovers on the inbounds pass when correctly executed at the lower levels of basketball, but that’s a rare best-case scenario in an NBA game. Davis and Miller succeed at denying Curry and Broekhoff the ball, so Dwight Powell comes swooping in from the next level to receive the initial pass.

Hollis-Jefferson has the hardest and most essential job in a Diamond Press because of what he has to do in this exact moment. He has to sprint and combine with whichever teammate is on that side of the floor on the next level of the press to trap the ball-handler. Dwight Powell tries to dribble ahead, which is what Diamond Presses want offenses to do. It’s much harder to beat this type of pressure off of the dribble than it is with passing.

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Davis walls off Powell, allowing Hollis-Jefferson to catch up and trap him. Again, high hands are essential here, and both defenders do precisely that. Powell reverses the ball to Delon Wright in the “safety” position, and Hollis-Jefferson’s role as the all-time-trapper leads him to double-team Wright alongside Miller.

Chris Boucher is responsible for the advance pass to Broekhoff, and Wright spots an opportunity. Maxi Kleber is just inside the free throw line, even though he should be next to the basket, and you’ll see why in a moment. With Boucher out on the perimeter, Kleber and Lowry are the last two players back, and Kleber is a step ahead of Lowry.

Lowry’s job in these situations is to be the “protector,” meaning that he needs to drop back as quickly as possible if a pass goes over his head. Boucher needs to do the same as he recovers from the wing to try to help Lowry. Both Lowry and Boucher begin to do this right as the ball is being passed, which is another crucial element of executing a Diamond Press correctly. They converge on Kleber and Wright’s slightly overthrown pass turns into an interception for Boucher. Had Kleber been correctly positioned by the basket, he probably would’ve had a dunk.

They needed a little help from mistakes by Wright and Broekhoff, but only an extraordinary combination of fundamentals, hustle, and talent from Lowry and Boucher could have made this work.

Jalen Brunson has admirably filled Luka Doncic’s shoes as the primary ball-handler for Dallas, but what he can’t replace is Doncic’s size. Brunson is listed at 6-foot-1, with just a 6-foot-4 wingspan, so Hollis-Jefferson and Miller use their 14 feet and 2 inches of collective length to dwarf him as they trap.

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Dallas is helping Toronto by not running an organized press break. Ideally, Brunson would have one option up the sideline and one option behind him, and to his left, as a “safety” pass in case he can’t advance the ball. The Mavericks don’t have anyone in either spot. Organized press breaks often call for the ball-handler to have an option to pass middle as well, where Kleber is in position.

Brunson tries to pass the ball to Kleber since he’s the only player in the correct spot, but how exactly is he supposed to make this pass with Miller and Hollis-Jefferson draped all over him? His best bet is to try to split them, and even that’s not a great option. He tries to make the pass over the top, but the length discrepancy means that Brunson can’t do that without Miller getting the easy deflection.

Diamond Presses are vulnerable up the sidelines, so Dallas began to attack there. But Brunson’s size disadvantage cost them another possession. Brunson patiently navigates the trap on this play, but the collective size of Davis and Hollis-Jefferson force him into an errant pass. Curry catches it, but he’s falling out of bounds, so he desperately whips a cross-court pass that Miller deflects.

Miller then gets the ball to Davis, who hits a leaning 3, and all of a sudden, the Raptors are down just 13 points with 8:45 left and momentum on their side.

Turnovers are great, but they aren’t the only value that full court presses can provide for a defense. This style of play often speeds opponents up and gets them out of what they want to do on offense, even if they advance the ball up the court without turning it over.

Brunson’s inbounds pass up the vulnerable sidelines helps to break this press, but now Dallas has to get into their offense while players other than their point guard handle the ball. Tim Hardaway, Jr. uses a ball screen by Kristaps Porzingis and then shoots an ill-advised 20-footer with 12 seconds left on the shot clock over Boucher’s excellent contest.

Nurse called off the Diamond Press after this play. Rick Carlisle added a fourth player into the backcourt (Dorian Finney-Smith) on consecutive presses, which allowed Dallas to station a player on each sideline and have an outlet in the middle of the court as well. Toronto reverted to a switching man-to-man defense on most half-court situations throughout the fourth quarter along with some zone, and they stuck with that for the remainder of the game.

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But the damage was already done. Toronto completed one of the great comebacks in NBA history on the strength of Kyle Lowry’s offensive brilliance while Nurse took Carlisle to (high) school.

(Top photo of Rondae Hollis-Jefferson defending Jalen Brunson: Mark Blinch / NBAE via Getty Images)