Every morning (or late-afternoon), I am going to breakdown the some key possessions from the previous night’s games. Good possessions/bad possessions you can find them all here.

Just one possession here today, you can probably guess which one it is…yup…the final play that Boston ran in Miami. Dwyane Wade did his usual Dwyane Wade thing and scored 4 points in5.5 seconds, giving the Heat a 2 point lead with .6 seconds left.

The Celtics ran an awesome play here, there is no question about it. However, the Heat made it easier for them to run the play. Paul Pierce is the man inbounding the basketball here. He is 6′7″. Quienten Richardson is covering him, he is 6′6″. You know that with .6 seconds left, this is going to be a lob play, so why not put a big man on him? If you aren’t comfortable with O’Neal going on him (you want him in the paint to defend the lob), take a reserve big man (Joel Anthony) and throw him out there. There isn’t enough time for Pierce to get the ball back, so you don’t have to worry about the mismatch. That would have made the pass harder to make. Plus look where Richardson is standing, he is a few feet off of him, as if to cut off the sideline pass, he should be up closer to him.

As the play starts to develop, Ray Allen (a decoy) runs to the three point line, since there is enough time to catch and shoot, you have to follow him out there.

Rondo comes off of a Big Baby screen, with his defender trailing him, expecting help from Jermaine O’Neal. Also, Udonis Haslem is a bit at fault here too. Brain Scalabrine is standing about 35-40 feet from the basket (the same spot he was standing at as the play started). Leave him out there. He should be closer to the paint to help on any cut to the basket.

The final part of the play is Big Baby releasing to the sideline. Jermaine O’Neal, probably remembering that shot he made against Orlando in the playoffs, follows him out there. You have no Heat defenders in the lane. Remember there is .6 seconds left, and the best chance the Celtics have to score is the lob…and there are no Heat defenders in the lane. Part of this is great playcalling (all of the player movements from the Celtics is what caused the empty lane), but the Heat should have recognized the situation and got at least one player in the paint. Brain Scalabrine is still in the same spot.

The lob pass gets made, and there is nobody there to defend it. Rondo makes the catch and finishes it, sending the game to overtime, where the Celtics win. Again, don’t let my critique of the Heat’s defense take away from the fact that this is an awesome…awesome…play.

Alright, I am going to experiment with another recap style.  Here, I will be breaking down one game in depth (the best game in my opinion), one game a morning.

The game I wanted to take a deep look at was the Magic-Raptors game.  I thought it was interesting that the Raptors beat the Magic at their game.  They hit 9 out of 20 threes, and looked real good on offense.  They also played some defense (which is enough for them), holding the Magic to just 29% shooting from deep.

What The Raptors Did Right

Good Looks At The Basket

The Raptors got a ton of good looks, and a lot of it had to do with them forcing the ball up the court.  Also, they got the ball into the middle of the floor, forcing the Magic defender’s to react, and putting them in tough positions:

Jarrett Jack really pushed the tempo all night.  Here, he gets to the middle and forces the Magic to collapse on him.  4 Magic defenders clog the middle, and Matt Barnes is the 4th.  He sinks in a little too deep, and gives a lackluster effort at the basketball, reaching in with his left hand.

Jack does a good job of hitting the open man (Antoine Wright), and Wright makes the catch ready to shoot.  There is no defender near him, and that allows him to step into the pass, make the catch, and pull up for the shot,

He gets the shot up before Barnes can effect it, and he knocks it down.

What The Magic Did Wrong

Poor Defense/Rotations

This was a common theme throughout the game.  The Magic got their rotations mixed up a couple times, and even after they recovered the effort wasn’t really there to stop the Raptors.

Here, Chris Bosh fumbles the basketball, and as he recovers Vince Carter comes over with the double team.  A lot of teams have a rule where you double team on the first dribble.  From what I know, teams like to double on the first meaningful dribble (one that attacks the basket).  Bosh is bobbling the ball backwards, and he dribbles it to recover.  There is no double team required here.

Carter’s double team forces the Magic to rotate back, and their is some confusion on the rotation.  Either Carter needs to rotate back to Jarrett Jack himself, or Jameer Nelson needs to slide up to Jack as Carter rotates to DeRozen.  Here, Nelson stays put expecting Carter to return to Jack.  It would work, except Carter starts to rotate towards DeRozen.  So the Magic have two guys going towards a man a pass away, while nobody goes to pick up the man with the ball.

Jack makes the catch and starts to drive.  Now if Carter or Nelson cut off Jack’s drive, they could probably force a pass and try to recover.  Nobody goes to pick up Jack though.  They both seem to be worried that Jack is going to make a pass to DeRozen…Vince Carter is pointing at him though.

Jarrett Jack gets into the paint and still nobody picks him up.

Vince Carter finally starts to to defend, but it is too late, and Jack is able to finish with the lay-up.

Dwight Howard’s Turnovers

Dwight Howard turned the ball over 9 times.  A lot of them were self-inflicted:

Dwight gets the ball in the post, but he isn’t really in great position (he is too high up and too far away from the basket).

He still tries to feel for is defender, and after a quick dribble, he kicks it out.

The idea is for Dwight Howard to get a repost.  However after making the pass, he doesn’t really establish better position (it’s not like he is going up against a big guy in Bargnani – he should be able to bully him).  Nelson gives the ball back to Dwight too quickly, and doesn’t give him enough time to establish better position.

Howard starts to drive middle, but because he is in the midpost instead of the lowpost it is easier for the help to come…

…so Dwight tries to spin baseline.  He is too far away from the basket though, and he needs to take a few more dribbles.  The ball gets knocked away from him, and it bounces off his leg and out of bounds.