How The Bobcats Let The Lakers Off The Hook
Yeah, the title was an excuse just to post that video. Anyway, after Nazr Mohammed’s bucket with 1:38 left cut the lead to 1, the Bobcats were looking to get a stop to get a chance to win the game:
Kobe was only 2-12 with 5 points this game, so the Lakers come down, and they look to go straight to the block with Pau before Kobe even gets a touch.
After the entry pass is made, Ron Artest cuts off of Gasol towards the baseline. A lot of teams do this, and the reason is that this is done is to prevent the double team. The most common double team comes from the entry pass, but if the person making the entry cuts, there is no time to get the double.
After Artest and the rest of the Lakers clear out, Gasol starts to make his move. Nazr Mohammed actually does a pretty good job of making him start his dribble from the mid-post, but unless the Bobcats send a double-team, it won’t matter because Gasol is strong enough just to back Mohammed down to a scoring area. So who is going to double? You can’t come over the top, because Flip can’t leave Kobe. The next best bet is Raymond Felton leaving Jordan Farmer and doubling him.
That doesn’t happen though, so Gasol is able to get himself to the block, and he finishes with a hook.
After this, Lamar Odom gets a tip in and Nazr Mohammed makes two foul shots. The Bobcats then force Kobe into a missed three point shot, so with 9 seconds left the Bobcats have the ball with a chance to tie the game.
This is a well designed play the Bobcats are going to try to run, but it is poorly executed in my opinion. You have Flip Murry come off a double screen.
After that Boris Diaw comes off of a Nazr Mohammed screen. The problem is that he goes a tad bit too early, and that starts to clog everything up right there. The final part of this play is Raymond Felton coming off another Nazr Mohammed screen.
Now Felton doesn’t curl this screen enough, and he kind of fades to the half court. This allows Jordan Farmar to recover and make up the space that the screen got Felton.
Steven Jackson pump fakes towards Felton, and now he seems to be in trouble. He kind of just focuses in on Felton, when he could have hit is release valve, Nazr Mohammed. He could have gotten the ball to him, and then went and got it. At that point, that is better than forcing the ball to someone else.
Instead, he holds onto the ball for another second. Now you have two guys (Raymond Felton and Nazr Mohammed) running to the basketball. When you have guys running to the ball on an inbounds situation, you are in trouble (especially when it is two guys). You have so many bodies in such a tight space, it is hard to complete the pass.
And that is exactly what happens here. Farmar gets his hands on the pass to Felton, and the ball bounces around and finally lands in Gasol’s hand. Game over.
Sebastien,
Good job, for the most part, analysing this sequence of events.
However, IMO, the fault here lies not with Boris Diaw leaving a tad too early but, rather, with Nazr Mohammed’s failure to hold his position at the FT Line long enough to set a proper screen for Raymond Felton coming off the baseline. By the looks of it, Nazr was too rushed in his attempts to get the ball himself, as the pressure release player, located at the top of the key. If he would have been more patient and exercized his proper responsibilities, i.e. 1. screen for Diaw, 2. screen for Felton, 3. Face the inbounder and present himself for the ball, 4. spin towards the basket, if Gasol attempts to deny the entry pass to him, then, 5. flash back toward the ball “late”, if the direct entry pass into the lane has been denied based on Gasol’s effective recovery; then, the Bobcats would not have turned the ball over in this situation and would most likely have, at least, been able to get a shot off with 9 secs left on the game clock.
In general, Nazr has been playing very well for Charlotte but, in this instance, he was the one who messed up the Bobcats’ chances to score from this sideline play.
Keep On Truck’n