Late in a tied game against the Toronto Raptors, the Miami Heat needed a stop and they got one.  It wasn’t because of an individual defensive effort though.  On this particular play, good team defense and proper rotation is what got them the stop (and eventually the win).

After bringing up the ball the length of the court, Jose Calderon swings it to Jarrett Jack on the wing.  After making the pass, Calderon cuts through the lane coming off of a soft backscreen set by Chris Bosh.

After Calderon gets by Bosh, he continues his cut.  Bosh then comes up and sets a screen for Jarrett Jack who uses the screen and takes the ball to the middle of the court.  Joel Anthony does a good job of hedging out on the screen, cutting off the dribble penetration.

Jack takes the ball from the top of the key and goes towards the left elbow due to Anthony’s defense.  Despite the terrific hedge, the Heat’s defense is all out of whack right now, as there are currently three defenders covering two players.  This leaves Dwyane Wade in a tough position as he has to defend two players at once.  He does the correct thing by staying in between both of them, cutting down the distance he has to go depending on who the pass is made to.

The pass gets made to the wing, and Wade closes out taking the first pass.  Carlos Arroyo sees that Wade covered the first pass and he quickly sprints to the corner, covering the second pass.

The pass to the corner gets made, and now look at the Heat’s defense.  They were able to scramble and now are back in a solid defensive position.  Calderon looking to get out of the corner drives baseline.  Because Dorell Wright is in proper position, he is able to help and cut off the baseline.

Calderon gets cut off by Dorell Wright, and because of it he lobs a pass up.

Wade actually over-rotates here, but because Wright forces Calderon into a lob pass, he is able to recover.

Wade closes out on the shot and forces the miss, but a stop doesn’t happen until the defensive team secures the rebound.  There is only one rebounding threat for the Raptors in the paint, and that is Chris Bosh.  He actually has really good position thus giving him a good chance at this rebound.

Joel Anthony realizes how good Bosh’s position is too.  Because of this, he doesn’t try to box out Bosh (Bosh would simply jump over him and get the rebound) so instead, Anthony face guards him.

Anthony’s facegaurding takes him out of the play, and it allows his teammates to get the rebound.  Here is the following play in real time.