With the Lakers in Sacramento last night to play the Kings, Tyreke Evans put up 25 points, 9 assists, and 11 rebounds.  Despite the near triple-double, I think the Lakers did a very good job defending Evans (most of the time).  The Lakers used Ron Artest (and Kobe a little) on Tyreke Evans, and he seemed to struggle a bit with them covering him.  Here is the breakdown:

• With Ron Artest (and Kobe) Covering Evans – 17 points (on 5-12 shooting – 6 of 9 from the FT line), 6 assists, and 8 rebounds in 38:14.
• With others (Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown) Covering Evans – 8 points (on 2-3 shooting – 4 of 5 from the FT line), 3 assists, and 3 rebounds in 4:08.

The numbers show the difference (17 points on 12 shots vs. 8 points on 3), but I think what really shows the difference is looking at the highlights.

With Ron Artest On Him

With Ron Artest covering Evans, you had a big body that wasn’t going to let Evans bully him into the paint.  The result was a lot of dribbling on the outside:

Once Evans crosses half court, he takes 7 dribbles without going inside the three point line and then passes it to Spencer Hawes.  Now Hawes hits the three, but I think the Lakers would rather have Hawes shooting threes than Evans getting inside and creating havoc.  In fact, this was how the Lakers played Evans all night as they were determined to let the other players beat him:

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I get on coach Mike Brown a lot, but against the Pistons last night Brown showed that he does know what he is doing when it comes to the offensive end.  After the Pistons tied it at 91 with about 5 minutes left, the Cavs put on an offensive clinic.

Possession 1 – Off Ball Screen To Free Up Mo Williams

The thing that impresses me the most with Cleveland’s offense is the fact that they do so much stuff off the ball (it is the theme of all of these sets).  It makes sense when you think about it, you know that the entire defense is going to be paying attention to LeBron.  This means defenders aren’t really paying attention to their man (as much as you would like), which means if you come with a backscreen off the ball it will really surprise the defense.

Mo Williams brings up the ball as LeBron James positions himself at the left elbow.  This is a spot on the court where once LeBron James makes the catch he can attack either side.

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