Not only did the Nets avoid infamy last night, but they might have also provided the rest of the Western Conference with a blueprint on how to stop Tim Duncan.  Duncan really struggled last night, scoring only 13 points on 15 shots in 31 minutes and in my opinion it was because of how the Nets defended him.  With Ginobili and Parker out, the Nets were determined to let the rest of the Spurs roster beat them, and they brought a double team just about every time Tim Duncan touched the basketball.

Step 1:  Bringing The Double

When you double team a post player, there you have three options when sending the double.  You can either go on the catch, on the first dribble, or on the first attack dribble.  The Nets decided to bring the double team right on the catch against the Spurs (their strategy most of the season has been to come on the first attack dribble), refusing to allow Tim Duncan to even dribble without two defenders on him:

After Matt Bonner makes the entry pass, he is going to go to the high post to set a screen for George Hill (or at least I think that is the play design here).  The double team will be coming from Yi, the man defending Bonner.

As Bonner gets to the high post, Yi sees his opportunity to make the double team.  He is going to leave Bonner and double hard on Duncan before he even puts the ball on the floor.

Step 2:  The Double

The next step of the double team is the actual double.  The man coming for the double team needs to be quick and get a hard double team on the man with the ball.  If you take too long to get there, it is easy to pass out of it and if you don’t get a hard enough double team, a player of Tim Duncan’s quality can get right past it.

Here, Yi gets there in time and gets right into Tim Duncan’s body.  The double team is so good that it actually forces Duncan to take a dribble backwards.

Duncan picks up his dribble and he is now looking to pass out of the double team.  The Spurs tried to counter the Nets doubles by sending a cutter through the paint, which is why Devin Harris sunk to the middle.  Look at where Duncan first made the catch to where he is now.  The Nets did a great job of pushing him backwards and not letting him attack with the basketball.

Step 3:  The Rotations

This is the most important step of the double team.  If you don’t rotate out of the double team correctly, it allows for an easy jump shot or lay-up.

Dunance makes the pass out of the double off of his back foot.  This might seem like a little thing, but because he is passing off his back foot, he can’t really get a ton of zip on the pass.  This allows more time for rotations.  With the ball in the air, the closest man to Matt Bonner (the man receiving the ball), Terrence Williams, leaves his man to defend the pass.

Bonner now swings it to the man Terrence Williams left, Malik Hairston.  To prevent him from getting an open jump shot, Courtney Lee leaves his man (Richard Jefferson) to defend Hairston.  Devin Harris then leaves his area to pick up Lee’s man.

The final piece of the puzzle in this rotation out of the double team is Yi, the man who started it all.  He can’t find the man who he is supposed to pick up (George Hill), because he is on the baseline.  Yi does the smart thing though, he just runs to the middle of the paint to try and stop any dribble penetration.

The penetration happens, and Yi is right there to provide the help, forcing a pass.

The ball gets kicked out to George Hill on the corner, and Brook Lopez is matched up with him.  This is a mismatch for the Spurs, but the Nets have a man on a man, and that is what is important.

Lopez does a nice job of forcing Hill into a tough jumper with the shot clock running out.  Here is the play in real time:

Now I know that Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker weren’t playing, but I think doubling Duncan like this is the key to stopping the Spurs in the playoffs.  If you can turn Duncan into a passer and make him uncomfortable like the Nets did (forcing him to dribble backwards instead of attacking), you have a good chance of preventing Duncan from going off and beating the Spurs.