The title of this post isn’t a joke, as one would assume. The Knicks were up by 1 with the ball and about 20 seconds left, but they turned it over. The Hawks were now breaking down the court with the chance for a win. How did the Knicks stop them? Let’s look:
As Crawford brings it upcourt he uses a smooth behind the back move to put Toney Douglas on his hip, Crawford gets himself into the lane. Al Harrington (Al Horford’s man) steps up to greet him in the paint. Also arrowed is Wilson Chandler, the man who ends up making the block to save the game.
Usually when I talk about plays late in games, they end up resulting in a win or a tie. Last night against the Cavs, the Spurs missed a game tying three point shot, but we are still going to talk about it here. Why? It was one of the best late game play calls I have seen in a really long time.
The Spurs start this play by sending George Hill into the far corner, Manu Ginobili into the near corner, and Roger Mason off of a Tim Duncan screen right to the ball. It looks like the Spurs are trying to set up a quick hitter for Roger Mason off the inbounds, but Richard Jefferson inbounds it to Manu instead.
Against the Memphis Grizzlies, the New Jersey Nets erased a 21 point 1st half lead and actually had the game pretty close towards the end of the third quarter. The Nets ended up losing the game in part because of two mistakes I see NBA teams make a lot. The first is not using the foul to give, or using it way too early. The the is going for the steal in a situation where you need to foul. Now these might seem like small mistakes that just happen, but if you make them in critical situations, then they can cost you the game. Let’s use the Nets’ game as an example:
Now, the video starts when Devin Harris takes the foul to give with 6.9 seconds left in the third quarter. This is after he hit a jumper to cut the Grizzlies lead down to two points (After they were down 16 to start the half). The Grizzlies re-enter the ball, and end up scoring as time runs out. Yes, the foul is early, but the biggest problem here is where the foul takes place, right around half court. Mike Conley isn’t a threat out there, so if Devin Harris was to allow him to dribble it down to the three point line or deeper in, it could have taken another 2 to 3 seconds off the clock. The mistake ended up giving the Grizzlies a two point lead and taking away all the momentum from New Jersey. Memphis also scored the first basket of the fourth quarter, so you had a 2 point game quickly jump back up to a 6 point game because of the foul.
