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:

There are some differences.  First, there aren’t 10 All-Stars on the court (there are 3/2 on the Nuggets), obviously.  This lead George Karl to do a few different things.  First, Karl has decided to put someone on the inbounder this time.  Why?  Well, in my opinion, with 1.9 seconds left a perfect pass is more valuable than when there is 7.7 seconds left (how much time was left in the All-Star game).  If Carmelo, the defender on the inbounder can force Anthony Parker in making a bad pass, the game is over (because if someone has to reach and catch an errant pass, the game is over before a shot can be attempted).  The second difference is who is covering LeBron.  At this point Kenyon Martin is covering LeBron while Arron Afflalo is covering Anderson Varejao.  This tells you that George Karl is anticipating a screen and that he is going to be switching it.

Mike Brown to his (dis) credit does something different than what Stan Van Gundy did.  He sends Boobie Gibson over the top of the three point line instead of down the baseline.  This doesn’t really make sense, because cutting this way doesn’t make him a threat at all in my opinion.  You also have Mo Williams in the corner.  We will get back to him.

LeBron pretends to set a screen for Mo Williams, even going as far as pretending to call him down the baseline.  Williams starts a cut, but for whatever reason, he doesn’t complete it and fades back into the corner.

After LeBron’s fake screen, he comes up the middle using a screen from Varejao.  However, the Nuggets switch it.  Why did Karl play this differently?  Well, in the All-Star game, you had Dwight Howard setting the screen for LeBron.  If you switch that, it leaves an opening for a lob pass to Dwight.  Karl comfortably switched last night, because they were not scared of a lob to Varejao.

Afflalo executes the switch on his end perfectly.  He gets right in the middle of the foul line, between the basketball and his man (LeBron).  This is going to force LeBron to venture way outside the three point line to catch the basketball.

LeBron finally gets around Afflalo, and now he is running away from the basket to make himself available.  Anthony Parker is holding onto the basketball because it is obvious that LeBron is the only option here.  For some absurd reason, Mike Brown sends his two best shooters away from the ball and put them in no position to make the catch.  The release valve on this play is Anderson Varejao running to the corner…really?  At the very least, you could have had Mo Williams sprint across the baseline into the corner.  At least the Nuggets would have to pay attention to him.

With Carmelo defending the inbound pass, LeBron has to go out even farther to get into Anthony Parker’s line of sight.  LeBron makes the catch 40-45 feet away from the basket.  LeBron then slips as he makes the catch, struggles to keep his balance and then takes two dribbles.

After those two dribbles, LeBron takes a long-three with a hand in his face.  He is about 30-35 feet away from the basket at this point.  Here it is in real time (and again in slow motion):