Jesse Blanchard of 48 Minutes Of Hell took a very interesting look at the garbage time from the Spurs’ game against Houston on Friday. Blanchard’s reason for examining garbage time was because it was on of the few times Malik Hairston and Ian Mahinmi got extended run in a meaningful game. Here is an excerpt of the analysis:
Fans have been clamoring for an extended look at the Toros “Big Two” (their “Big Three” ended when the Spurs released Marcus Williams) for some time now, but did these performances merit an extended look?
Hairston is probably further along than Mahinmi in gaining a rotation spot, though one can still see why Popovich still hasn’t inserted him into the rotation. His team and pick and roll defense were exploited twice for backdoor cuts and once for a three-pointer.
Still, the Rockets isolated one of the league’s better scorers, Martin, on Hairston five times and came away with no points. Martin is considered an efficient scorer, even though his field goal percentage (9-24) can be terrible, because he can hit threes in bunches and gets to the free throw line.
Martin was 14-14 for the game from the line and the starting backcourt of Hill (6 fouls) and Bogans (four fouls in 14 minutes) each spent time on Martin contributing to that. Hairston, meanwhile, had Martin five times without fouling (no matter how hard Martin tried to draw one, or how bad he looked).
That is just a small part of such a fascinating post, so I highly recommend that you head over and read the full thing.
Also, this gives me a chance to let you guys know if you write/come across a Xs and Os post, don’t be afraid to send it over to me. Sebastian@nbaplaybook.com.
Despite the final score of the Nuggets-Warriors game (127-112), the game was actually pretty close. In fact, after a Stephon Curry to Ronny Turiaf pick and roll, the Warriors actually cut the lead to 8. This would be the closest they get though, because right after that play the Nuggets ran a beautiful lob (the Warriors poor defense helped here) to J.R. Smith effectively taking the wind out of the Warriors sails (This play was a catalyst for a 13-0 run):
As Chauncey brings up the basketball, Carmelo gets to one of his favorite spots on the court. As this happens, the two Nuggets bigs clear out to the other side. Carmelo Anthony is going to be setting a “screen” for J.R. Smith. I put the word screen in quotes, because Carmelo isn’t going to be headhunting or anything like that. He is just going to stand there, and Smith is going to run around him.
Read more…
In a span of two games in two days, we saw two different Lakers teams in the fourth quarter. Two nights ago against Memphis, the Lakers executed brilliantly late, coming back and ending up with the win. Last night against the Mavericks, the Lakers, failed to execute late. The Lakers lost. Maybe most surprising last night was Kobe Bryant failing to execute. Kobe made a key mistake late, and it may have cost the Lakers the game.
First we are going at the Lakers’ game Tuesday night:
After a Rudy Gay block on a Kobe Bryant lay-up attempt, the Lakers now have the ball on the side. Ron Artest is inbounding it and as soon as he gets it, Pau Gasol steps towards the ball and makes himself available.
Read more…
Part of what makes Kevin Durant’s stretch of 25 point games so incredible is that teams are keying on the guy and he is scoring. Some of it is just incredible talent (he has one of the smoothest strokes in the game), some of it is savvy and awareness (the way he gets to the line), and some of it is the playcalling. That is what we are going to talk about today.
In the fourth quarter of a really good game, the Thunder are coming out of a timeout under their own basket. Everyone in the building knows that the Thunder want to get the ball to Durant, and somehow they still get him an open lob-pass.
The play starts with the lane being real crowded. You have 3 guys in there already, and as a result there are 4 defenders in the paint. It looks like the Thunder are going to go away from the paint to a corner, away from the defenders.
Read more…
Every once in a while, we take a break out from breaking down possessions to look at some fundamentals. Late in the Clippers-Bobcats game last night, you had two very similar plays happen back-to-back. Both teams had their respective point guard attacking the basket with help coming over. The Clippers scored on their possession while the Bobcats didn’t. The reason? Baron Davis stayed under control while D.J. Augustin got caught in the air.
We are going to first look at Baron’s play that happens with under a minute left and the Clippers up 2:
After dribbling the shot-clock down until there was 10 seconds left, Baron Davis starts to attack the basket. Baron’s defender (Raymond Felton) is playing far too close to him, and this allows Baron to get around him.
Read more…
LeBron had a very solid game, as he finished with 33 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists (how crazy is that this is now referred to as a solid game for LeBron rather than a great game?). The big problem though was that 30 of LeBron’s points came in the first three quarters. LeBron only scored 3 points on 1-5 shooting (0-2 from three), and committed 2 turnovers.
Mike Brown is a little at fault for LeBron’s poor fourth quarter. Normally, coaches sit their starters towards the end of the third (with like 3 minutes left) and into the start of the fourth, usually getting them back in there with about 10 minutes left in the game. The reason they sit them towards the end of the third is because you can steal a few minutes rest for your guy at the quarter break. However, yesterday Mike Brown played the entire third quarter, and he then sat for the first 4 minutes in the fourth quarter, leaving him with only 8 minutes to work with.
LeBron actually entered the game with the Cavs leading by 2. So I guess you can say that Mike Brown was justified in sitting LeBron for that long, and in a certain sense, that is right. However, the longer LeBron sat, the longer it would take for LeBron to get into the flow of the game, and that is the issue here. You can’t have your best player in a funk, during the most important part of the game (the fourth quarter).
Read more…
Remember that play at the end of the All-Star game where Stan Van Gundy tried to get LeBron James an open jumper at the top of the key? Of course you do. Well, as last night’s game went to it’s final possession, I was really interested to see how George Karl was going to defend it, since he was the coach of the Western Conference All-Star team, and last night was actually Karl’s second straight game where he had to defend LeBron late:
As the Cavs lined up, the play looked really familiar. As a matter of fact, the play started the same was as the one from this past Sunday.
I don’t like tooting my horn (that’s a lie), but when I said the Cavs like to run this play late, little did I know that they were going to run it during their next game…against the same coach. So back to last night:
Read more…
After Chris Bosh’s jumper extending the Raptors’ lead to 5 with 0:37 left, I thought that the Grizzlies were out of it. However, they way they played the final 37 seconds was very smart, and that is what allowed them to comeback, get the game into overtime, and win the game in OT. Let’s look at the three elements that allowed them to tie the game in the final 37 seconds.
The Quick Three
The Grizzlies come out of a timeout down by 5. Now they have two options they can either go for the 2 or go for the 3. The key though is that they need to get a shot at the rim quickly (we will get to that in a minute). Mayo sets the downscreen for Zach Randolph in attempt to free him up at the top of the key.
Read more…
The Lakers have now played 4 games without Kobe Bryant, and last night’s game was the first close one out of those 4. The Warriors tied the game at 89 with 4:37 left. The Lakers then went out on a 7 point run, effectively putting the Warriors out of reach. After Ron Artest made a foul shot, the Lakers went inside to Pau Gasol. In fact, he went on to score the next 6 points. The Warriors really had no answer (they tried using Ronny Turiaf) to defend Gasol, so the Lakers went to him time and time again:
Lamar Odom pulls down a rebound and brings it up court. This is a pretty common sight if you are a Lakers’ fan. Odom is a terrific rebounder, but he also has the ball handling ability to bring the ball up the court as well.
Read more…
With the All-Star game tied, the Eastern All-Stars had the ball on the side and Stan Van Gundy drew up a play. The play was designed to get LeBron the ball and let him work out of an ISO set. To the disappointment of the East (and to the 108,000 in attendance) the play was well defended and LeBron wasn’t able to get his buzzer beater attempt off:
The play is designed for LeBron to come up the middle and off of a Dwight Howard screen. As this happens, Dywane Wade and Paul Pierce switch. The purpose of this is to prevent their defenders from helping on LeBron’s drive after he makes the catch.
Read more…
