With Brandon Roy missing for the Blazers and Vince Carter returning, this game looked like it was going to be a blowout…and it was…just not the way you would expect it.  With the Blazers missing Roy, they didn’t have that go-to guy who you can give the ball to and watch him work.  It showed in the stats, the Blazers only attempted 10 foul shots (hitting on 9 of them), and they were outscored in the paint 44-32.  So how did they win?

What The Blazers Did Right?

Shooting The Three

Without Roy, the Blazers needed to find a way to make up the points he would have provided if he played.  They did this a the three point line.  The Blazers shot 52% from three, hitting on 11 of 21 threes.

For all of the stuff that Andre Miller gets, he is still an affective player with his back to the basket.  His opponents know this as well, because they have their eyes on him.  This allows for Juwan Howard to find a soft spot in the defense, and he cuts to it.

Miller hits Howard with the pass.  The combination of the post up with the pass to the middle sucks every Magic into the paint.  Howard is a veteran and he recognized that the Magic all were sunk in before he even made the catch.  This allowed him to turn and pass just as he made the catch, hitting a wide open Rudy Fernandez.

Rudy Fernandez makes the catch, and takes a wide open three.  The Magic defender is able to get his hand up, but he is too far out to bother the shot, and Fernandez knocks down the three.

Execution

Also, without Brandon Roy, the Blazers had to find a way to get the ball into the paint.  Once the ball gets into the paint, it leads to either made baskets or open shots on the outside.  Since the Blazers couldn’t just give the ball to Roy and let him attack the basket, they had to execute everything perfectly so they can get into the paint.

As Andre Miller brings up the basketball, Steve Blake sets a downscreen for LaMarcus Aldridge.

Aldridge comes off the scree and sets a screen of his own for Miller.  So what was the point of the initial screen?  Probably to take Dwight’s attention away from helping on the screen for Andre Miller.  Look where Howard is positioned.  He is in no type of position to help on on the screen at all.  He is too high on Aldridge, so when Miller comes off on the screen, he wouldn’t be able to hedge effectively.

With Howard not being able to hedge properly and with Jameer Nelson forced to stay with Steve Blake on the outside (Blake was 4-6 from three this game), this gives Andre Miller a wide open lane to drive the basketball.

He gets to the rim and finishes strong.

What The Magic Did Wrong?

Turnovers

The Magic turned the ball over way too much against Portland, and not only that, but these turnovers lead to points for the Blazers.  Throughout this whole post, we talked about Portland “making up” Roy’s points, and this is another way they did that, points off the Magic’s turnovers.  The Magic turned the ball over 12 times, and these 12 turnovers lead to 22 points for the Blazers.

Here the Magic are out and running towards the end of the first quarter.  It is a 5 on 3 fast break, and Portland’s defender (I believe it’s Jeff Pendergraph) is in a real tough spot.  He needs to make a decision to either stop J.J. Redick, or drop back and defend the lead man on the break.

It’s a tough decision, but J.J. Redick made it much easier for him.  Redick stops his dribble a few feet outside the three point line.  This doesn’t work because it allows Pendergraph to drop off and defend the cutter (the trailing Blazer is able to close out on Redick if he decides to shoot).  Redick should have forced the action and at least dribbled it to the elbow.  This would have forced Pendergraph to make a decision, and if he came out, he could have hit the lead Magic for the lay-up.  If Pendergraph dropped off, Redick had a easy shot inside the paint.

Instead, Redick tried to make the pass, and it is deflected by the Blazers’ defender.

This turnover leads to a dunk by the Blazers giving them momentum going into the second quarter.

There were a ton of great plays from this game (LeBron’s three off the missed free throw, LeBron’s 30 foot fade away three, Kyle Korver’s over the basket shot, and finally Sundiata Gaines’ three pointer for the win), but there wasn’t really anything to “breakdown” so to speak.  So today, I am just going to talk about a few things in bullet form.

• The first thing that I noticed (and liked) was the Jazz fouling so early.  After a Ronnie Price 3 cut the lead to 3, the Jazz fouled with 28 seconds left.  The TNT guys didn’t like it, but I love that decision.  You have to think, LeBron was in full LeBron mode, hitting shots that he has no business making.  So what is the point in letting the Cavs run down the clock and having him knock down a shot as the shot clock runs down?  That would have meant they were down by 5 with 4 seconds left.  No way could they have won the game then.  Fouling extends the game, and if the Cavs miss free-throws (which they did), the Jazz could find themselves with a chance to win or tie, and that is exactly what happened.
• During the final 28 seconds, LeBron was the one inbounding the ball.  Why?  He is the team’s best player and a pretty big target.  He would give the inbounder a nice option, plus, I would rather live with LeBron missing free throws than with Anthony Parker missing them.

And just because this was so awesome it gave me goosebumps:

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.

I know the Breakdowns have been “on break” for a while, but I am bringing them back today.  We are going to look at some stuff from the Spurs-Thunder game.  These two plays are very interesting, because they are basically the same play, with Kevin Durant being denied the ball.  In the second play though (the one from overtime), there is a chance for Durant to get the ball.  Is it Durant’s fault or Westbrook’s fault?  Let’s look…

Game Tying Shot:

Since there is 10 seconds left, the Thunder run a play to get Russell Westbrook the ball.  I don’t believe this means it was designed for him to get the final shot, there is enough time to run a play for Durant, but the way the Spurs defended Durant changed all that.

As Westbrook corrals the inbounds pass, Bogans is denying Durant fully.  The Spurs plan here is to not allow Durant to touch the ball, and whatever happens happens..

The deny gives Westbrook a lane to attack and he takes it.

Jeff Green sets an awesome screen for Westbrook, as he attacks the lane given to him by the deny.

Richard Jefferson is a little late with the switch, so Westbrook pulls up and hits the shot.  Bogans is still denying Durant, so that just shows you they were willing to let anyone else tie the game except for Durant.

Overtime Miss Attempt:

Here is the play from overtime.  It is similar up to a certain point, but then, Westbrook had a chance to get Durant the ball.

Here Durant is open for a brief second.  Sefolosha chooses not to give it to Durant that for away from the basket, so he gives the ball to Westbrook, who shows himself to Sefolosha and gets open.

This is where things get all Deja-Vu like.  Bogans is once again denying Durant all the way to half-court.  This deny opens up a lane for Westbrook to drive through.  Westbrook takes it.

The difference is Bogans actually comes off his deny to help cover Westbrook.  Durant is open, but he needs to make himself available to Westbrook.  Why would Westbrook pass him the ball when he is 40+ feet away.  As Bogans turns his head, Durant needs to cut backdoor and get himself in better shooting position.

Durant finally gets to the three point line, but it is too late (Westbrook is already pulling up) so Westbrook takes the shot and misses it.  Should Westbrook have looked for Durant?  Yes, but Durant was so far from the basket, he wasn’t really an option there.  I think the Spurs did a good job of denying Durant, and having him start the play at halfcourt.

I was actually working on a post about DeJuan Blair’s 20 and 20 game last night against the Thunder, but then I clicked over to Truehoop and saw Kevin Arnovitz’s great breakdown of it.

He basically talks about what I was going to talk about…and it’s in video.  So go over there and check it out.  He does it a lot better than I could have done (a ringing endorsement for the site huh?).

Every morning I will take an in-depth look at a game that happened the previous night.  The game that I pick is the one that I think was the best and most interesting one of the night/weekend.

Note:  I know everything is a little late today, sorry about that guys…

When you think the Suns, you think fastbreak points and three pointers.  However, against the Pacers, the Suns were outrun (Pacers +4 in fastbreak points) and outshot (Pacers +15 from three).

What The Pacers Did Right?

Hit The Threes

The Pacers were able to outscore the Suns by 15 points from the three point line.  A lot of it had to do with players smartly moving without the ball.  Finding open spots in the defense, and then when they got open shots, they knocked them down.

Earl Watson penetrates to the basket, and as this happens Jared Dudley turns his head to focus on the help.  Mike Dunleavy sees this and he floats to an open spot, making himself available for the pass.

As Watson makes the pass, Dudley turns to find Mike Dunleavy, but he isn’t where he was when Dudley first turned his head.  So Dudley has to find him before he closes out.

This split second to find him keeps Dudley from closes out on time, and that allows Mike Dunleavy to knock down the three point shot.

What The Suns Did Wrong?

They Didn’t Run

The Suns really struggled getting good looks in the open court last night.  Part of this was the Pacers, they shot well enough that it limited the Suns’ defensive rebound opportunities.  Also, the Pacers took really quick shots.  Even though they didn’t make most of them, the quick shots allowed for the Pacers to get back, leaving no room for the Suns to run:

The first thing to notice here is the shot clock, the Pacers pull this three pointer with only 3 seconds coming off the shot clock.

Grant Hill grabs the rebound, he turns and fires the ball ahead to Jason Richardson, usually this would lead to an open lay-up.  But because the Pacers took such a quick shot…

Four of them are already back on defense.  So instead of a wide-open lay-up, this turns into a 1 on 4 fast break.

Jason Richardson gets to the basket, and attempts a double-clutch lay-up.  He misses, and the Pacers get the rebound.

Here is another example:

The Pacers slowed it down a bit here.  They take a shot after running 5 seconds off the clock.  Notice how 3 other Pacers are behind the three point line, and as the shot goes up, they don’t crash the boards, they just drop back.

The Suns get the rebound and quickly put it into Steve Nash’s hands.

He brings it up and explores his options, but there is nothing there because the Pacers are all back on defense.  He kicks it out to Frye who misses a contested three pointer.  The Pacers did a terrific job at getting back on defense and forcing the Suns to score in the half court.  This is part of the reason they didn’t hit too many threes as well.  A lot of the Suns’ three pointers come in transition, because their transition options were limited, so were their three point shots.

Every day we are going to look at an individual performance and examine just what happened.  Was it just a spectacular performance?  Was it poor defense?  Was it brilliant playcalling?  Find out here.

Against the Rockets, Stephen Jackson really went to work.  He scored 43 points on only 22 shots.  The key to Jackson’s efficiency last night (and for most of the year – as a matter of fact) is cutting down the three point attempts while attacking the lane.

Smart Three Point Shots

Jackson was 3-5 from three.  He was so good from deep because he was taking smart shots.  Shots that he got when he was open:

After bringing the ball up, Jackson swings it to the Bobcats big man to get the offense started.  After the post, Jackson does a nice job of floating to the open area.

As the play gets swung around to D.J. Augustine, there is a backscreen set in the lane by two Bobcats.

The backscreen action draws Jackson’s defender, Trevor Ariza, into the middle of the lane.  Stephen Jackson spots up and D.J. Augustine makes the pass.

Jackson makes the catch and steps into a wide open three pointer.  Trevor Ariza doesn’t even get his hands up here, and Jackson knocks it down.

Getting In The Lane

Jackson also did a fantastic job scoring in the paint.  Jackson was 9-12 inside of 10 feet, most of it was his willingness to attack the basket, but some of it was great play design by the Bobcats’ coaching staff.

The Bobcats run a stack play off of an inbounds here.  The play is designed to be a quick-hitter, getting the ball to Stephen Jackson in the paint for an easy bucket.  He starts at the back of the stack formation and swings around the front, uses the stack of guys as a screen.

As Jackson swings around, you can see Luis Scola trying to help.  His ability to help is limited because his man, Boris Diaw, is poping out.  Scola needs to go out on Diaw because he has proven to be a capable shooter.

As Scola steps up, the lane is now clear for a lob pass to be thrown.

Jackson makes the catch, throws a pump-fake, and then finishes the lay-up.

Getting To The Line

The third and final part to Stephen Jackson’s efficient night was the fact that he got to the foul line.  Jackson got to the line 11 times, hitting on 10 of them.  The reason he got to the line so many times was that he showed a willingness to attack the basket.

Here, the Bobcats starts the possession by getting the ball to Stephen Jackson on the wing.  He has a very good defender in Shane Battier covering him.

So the Bobcats run a screen for him on the wing.  Scola comes out to hedge, but he comes out too soft (because he wants to keep Jackson from going baseline), giving a big lane for Jackson to get through in the middle.

Jackson splits the trap, and he could have settled for a jumper right here.  He doesn’t though.

He takes another dribble and goes in for a lay-up even though Chuck Hayes is there defending.  Jackson gives up the body, draws the contact, and gets himself to the foul line.

Every morning I will take an in-depth look at a game that happened the previous night.  The game that I pick is the one that I think was the best and most interesting one of the night/weekend.

I started watching this game in the middle of the second quarter, and I hunkered down expecting an awesome game, and it was…for three quarters.  The Kings were actually winning this game by 2 points after 3 quarters, but a 33-10 fourth quarter ended the game with the Magic pulling away.

We are going to focus exclusively on the fourth quarter here for obvious reasons.

What The Kings Did Wrong?

Way too many threes.

Both teams weren’t that good from the three point line last night.  They both shot an identical 8-27 from deep, but the key here is when the threes were missed.  The Magic knew it was an off night for them, and they only attempted 4 three-pointers (making 1).  The Kings on the other hand, shot 7 of them (making none):

Sergio Rodriguez comes off of a Jason Thomas screen, and explores his options.  Ryan Anderson shows, but it is a soft hedge, and Rodriguez is able to get around it.  So you think that the Kings got something going.

However, instead of rolling and making himself available (the lane is wide open), he fades and just hangs around the elbow.  The roll would have forced J.J. Redick to make a decision as well, and that could have opened up Beno Udrih.  So why didn’t Thompson roll?  Well, I think it has to do with that big guy wearing #12 for the Magic standing in the middle.

Because there are no options, Rodriguez is forced to dump it inside on the baseline.  Brockman isn’t going to be able to do anything with Dwight Howard covering him (and that far away from the basket), so it is kind of a wasted touch right there.

Brockman kicks it back out to Rodriguez who now has no options besides creating something on his own.

So Rodriguez pulls up from 3.  Another result of taking a shot that isn’t in the flow of the offense is that your teammates don’t know you are shooting, so they aren’t in good position for the offensive rebound.  Look at Beno Udrih by the way, he didn’t move throughout that whole set.  Here is another example.  On the surface, this looks like a good shot, but the when you take into consideration the context, you start to think otherwise:

The Kings forced the Magic into a turnover, and they try to break.  The Magic defense is back though, so the Kings are forced to slow things down.

Udrih attacks towards the basket and kicks it out to Tyreke Evans.

Who makes the catch and pulls up.  It was an open three, which is why some people would think this is a good shot, but let’s look at the context.  The Kings are down 10 here, and he has J.J. Redick covering him.  If Evans were to throw Redick a pump fake here and attack the basket, you could get something out of this.  Either a lay-up, or draw a foul on Dwight Howard.  Instead, Evans takes a three early in the shot-clock, even though this is a shot you can get whenever.  So what does a good offense look like?  Well the Kings had some stretches where they played well and had a nice flowing offense:

What The Magic Did Right?

They took it inside.

It’s weird, I would totally expect it to be the opposite.  Me talking about the Magic shooting the three ball way too much late, and the Kings taking it inside late.  The Magic though, did a great job getting into the paint, and getting to the line (8-9 in the 4th):

The Magic discovered early on that the Kings didn’t really have anyone who could keep up with Dwight.  This is a set play for Dwight, and it is interesting, because they don’t really run set stuff for Dwight late because of his poor foul shooting.  They must felt that he was shooting it well enough or that the mismatch was too great.  So much so that Stan Van Gundy was compelled to run sets for Dwight.

Williams gives it to J.J. Redick (this is smart because the defender can’t sag off and double down on Dwight because of his shooting threat), who quickly dumps it into Dwight.

Look at how far out Dwight makes the catch.  If it was any other back to the basket center in the league, nothing would come of this, but Dwight is so strong and athletic…

…that all it takes is one dribble and a spin move (plus a shoulder to the stomach of his defender) to give himself enough room…

…for an open lay-up.

Every morning I will take an in-depth look at a game that happened the previous night.  The game that I pick is the one that I think was the best and most interesting one of the night/weekend.

The Bulls have been struggling a ton this year, but for one night, everything clicked.  The Pistons helped them though.  The Pistons shot only 41.3% (33-80 from the field), including only 18.2% from 3 (2-11).  Meanwhile Chicago shot 57.1% (48-84).  The High shooting percentage was due in large part to the points in the paint the Bulls got, as well as the fact the Bulls got a ton of fast break points.

What The Bulls Did Right?

Getting Points In The Paint

Here, the Bulls run a pick and roll involving Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose.  Derrick Rose is going to come off of it,  not hard as if he was going to attack the basket, but he curves it off, giving himself an angle to make a pass on the roll.

The Pistons try to hedge out of this screen, but they don’t do a good job of it.  If the defender hedging is going to come out this far, he needs to turn the point guard around.  Here, Rose is able to get around the defender, and now the Pistons are in a tough spot.

The Piston covering Tyrus Thomas is in the toughest spot.  He sees Noah rolling uncontested (due to the poor hedge), but if he leaves to help out on Noah, he doesn’t know if anyone has his back, rotating over to cover Thomas.  Rose gave himself a good enough angle to make either pass.  A big key.

The defender chooses to stay with Thomas, and Derrick Rose threads the needle with a pass to Joakim Noah, leading to a big time dunk.

Getting Out On The Break

Coming off of a screen, Rip Hamilton gets trapped on the sideline when Joakim Noah hedges out hard on the screen (this is how you do it by the way, completely knocking the ball handler off of his path).

Noah’s active hands knocks the ball loose, and he quickly gains possession.

As Noah dribbles to gain possession, the Bulls now have a 4 on 2 fast break, with no Detroit Pistons past their own foul line.  In fact, one Piston seems to be walking back on defense as the Bulls take the ball on the break.

Noah gets the ball to a guard’s hand (Hinrich), and in this camera angle, there are no Pistons getting back on defense.

Hinrich passes it to Rose as the rest of the Pistons chug along, at least pretending to hustle.

Rose makes the 4th pass of the fast break (which was allowed to happen since they had 5 seconds of a 4 on 2 fast break), and Deng finishes with the lay-up.

What The Pistons Did Wrong?

Poor Offense/Shot Selection

After bringing the ball up, Rodney Stuckey swings the ball to Rip Hamilton.  Take note of the shot clock up top.  There is 19 seconds left on it.

Hamilton, after surveying the situation for a second or two, swings the ball to Jonas Jerebko, who is out on the wing, beyond the three point line.

Jonas Jerebko tries to enter the ball into the post, but Deng is playing off of him, effectively cutting off any lanes to get the entry post in there.

Jerebko then swings the ball back out to Rip Hamilton.

Rip Hamilton points to Ben Wallace, calling for a screen.

He gets it and tries to use it, but the Bulls defend it perfectly (again), because of that, Rip Hamilton is forced to dribble the ball back towards the right wing.

He then swings the ball to Jonas Jerebko who takes an ill-advised three pointer.  Jerebko has played pretty well this year, but he isn’t a three point shooter.  He is shooting 25.5% from 3 on the year including a big fat 0% over the last 5 games.  So why did he take the shot then?  Well, the Pistons basically spent 12 seconds passing the ball around the perimeter.  The ball did not spend one second/bounce inside the three point line, so when Jonas Jerebko got a open look, he must have thought “well, nothing is really going on, so I might as well shoot it.”

This is sad.  I remember the Pistons offense of the last decade where they would run Rip Hamilton off a ton of screens, and get him open mid-range jumpers at will.  What happened to that?  They are now resorting to just swinging the ball around and seeing what happens.

Every day we are going to look at an individual performance and examine just what happened.  Was it just a spectacular performance?  Was it poor defense?  Was it brilliant playcalling?  Find out here.

Rajon Rondo’s Triple Double

Today we are going to look at Rondo’s triple double from Sunday afternoon.

The Points

As per usual, Rondo was able to get most of his points (and his shots in the paint).  He was 1-1 from 3 (he banked that one in), and was 1-2 on long jumpers.  This is where the Raptors’ defense failed.  You want Rondo to shoot from the outside.  He is a better shooter this year than previous years, but you would still rather him taking jumpers instead of getting in the lane for most of his shots:

Here Paul Pierce gets the ball, and as this happens, Rondo starts to sneak around the defense, cutting backdoor almost unseen.

Pierce gets a screen as Rondo continues his cut.  Paul Pierce is such a threat with the basketball that everyone on the Raptors have to focus on him.

Pierce finds Rondo down low, and this is where the Celtics want to get him the ball.

This is because Rondo is a very good finisher down low, and the more baskets he gets down there, the better he plays.

The Assists

Another way Rondo benefits from having quality teammates around him is in terms of assists.  He has quality scorers all around him.  That isn’t to take anything away from Rondo’s passing ability though:

Here, Rondo gets a kick-out and he starts to attack the basket.  Here is where the Raptors defense makes a mistake.  Rondo does a hesitation dribble, faking a shot.  If Rondo wants to shoot it from here, let him.  There is no need to challenge the shot, and when Bargnani does, it gives Rondo an opening to attack the basket.

Rondo gets Bargnani on his hip, and he gets into the lane.  This is where he creates the most problems for his opponents.  Teams need to rotate to help him out and that leaves openings for his teammates.

As Rondo rises up, Turkoglu is on the wrong side of Rasheed Wallace.  Rondo notices this…

…and he floats a nice easy pass for Wallace.  Wallace makes the catch and finishes at the basket.

The Rebounds

This is the facet of Rondo’s game that most impresses me.  He isn’t a big PG (like Mark Jackson, Baron Davis, or Jason Kidd) that you equate with getting rebounds, but somehow he is always getting a ton of them:

Here, Rondo drives to the basket, forcing Chris Bosh to help out.

As Bosh helps out, Rondo kicks it out to Rasheed Wallace, who attempts a three pointer.  Another reason that Rondo gets a lot of rebounds is that he usually isn’t the man responsible to drop back on defense.  This is because most of his scoring plays and passes have him end up in the lane, so everyone there are other Celtics responsible to get back on defense.

Because PGs aren’t really used to boxing out, there is no real technique here, and Rondo is allowed to stand untouched as the ball approaches the rim.

The ball comes off the rim and bounces right to Rondo.  A little lucky?  Sure, but if there is someone boxing him out, that rebound doesn’t go to him.

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.

After getting blown out in two straight games, the Nets found themselves in a close battle against the New Orleans Hornets Friday night.  The Nets made a big-time comeback to take a 1 point lead with about 11 seconds left.  The Hornets had the ball, let’s see what happened from there:

After getting the ball inbounds (which they failed at doing their last possession), the Hornets quickly go into a pick and roll.  David West comes up and sets the screen, and Chris Paul uses it.

Late in games, teams usually switch every screen.  The Hornets know this, so the purpose of the screen was to get the switch.  Chris Paul takes a dribble or two to isolate the mismatch.

He then attacks.  He quickly gets Jarvis Hayes on his hip, and he has a lane to the basket.  You would like it if Devin Harris was closer to the middle of the lane, but that is the beauty of how the Hornets set this up.  They put Peja (a knockdown shooter that you need to stay with) on the side Chris Paul was going to drive to.  This means that Devin can’t help.

Paul finishes the lay-up, and gets fouled, clinching the win for the Hornets.