Sorry, Mike, for failing to include you in my initial response, above.

Sebastian and Santiago,

If you see where Diaw catches the ball ...

i. When Felton comes up the middle to use Wallace's screen,

if Thornton tries to "Lock & Trail" on Felton's hip, then Diaw is going to pass the ball to Felton's outstretched Left Hand as he executes a simple Raptor [curl] Cut, heading toward the Right FT Line Extended,

ii. At which point, Felton is going to catch the entry pass from Diaw, execute a Reverse Pivot on his outside foot [i.e. the Left one in this case] and, then, "Sweep" past the trailing Thorton ... for an uncontested Right hand layup,

since Augustin has already vacated the Right side of the floor and David West has no intention of separating from Gerald Wallace.

IMO, this simple "Raptor Cut" action is actually OPTION 1 on the Sideline Out-of-bounds play which Coach Brown drew up on the sideline.

[Note: All good defense in the NBA is predicated upon taking Option 1 away from the Offense and forcing them to go with Option 2, 3, 4, etc..]

If ...

A. Felton catches and shoots a 3 ... because Thornton is still closing out on him, then, it's an option which the Hornets will live with, since Felton is not a high percentage 3PT shooter;

B. Felton catches and attacks middle with his dribble ... because Thornton has taken away the sideline with the angle of his close-out, then this, too, is an option which the Hornets will live, since it forces the offense back towards the original strong side of the floor where they already have their 4 other defenders located and are in a great position to force a series of extra passes within a confined area of the court while disallowing ball reversal [i.e. which dramatically increases their percentage chance of being able to get a stop on this play, provided that they can effectively defend the against the 1st pass back to this side of the floor and prevent the immediate "catch & shoot" ... which is precisely what they fail to do properly, in this instance, because of their failure to execute their Switch properly vs Augustin/Jackson/Diaw.

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re: the merits of switching vs all screens and picks with this much time left on the game clock and the prospects of dealing with mismatches in the low post

As Del Harris outlined correctly years ago in his terrific book [manual?] on the basics of how to play first-class defense in the NBA ...

Good teams are never afraid of dealing with "little on big" defensive situations in the low post ... in 1-off scenarios!

Q1. How come, you ask?

A1. Because basketball, at the NBA level, is essentially a 5-on-5 game ... not a 1-on-1 ... and there are 4 other defenders on the court for a specific reason, who can be effectively used to assist the "little" [i.e. who isusually a pretty darn good athlete to begin with in the NBA] to either get out of this sticky situation completely, or to at least minimize the potential damage, with a variety of designated defensive manoeuvres, e.g. "double-teams" on the ball-handler, "cover downs" on the posting "bigger" player, or fronts with weak side helpers, etc., which are all designed to force extras passes from the offense, to disrupt what they are trying to accomplish in the first place.

If Collison and Posey would have excuted their Switch assignments correctly, in the first place, then, IMO, Thornton would have begun to "squeeze" Felton, on the perimeter, as his passing options were systematically taken away and the game/clock was ticking down.

In the NBA ... because the players are so good and physically talented, in the first place ... it's a matter of using the right defensive "tactic" [as opposed to a "strategy"], not to try and STOP a play altogether, but to limit what the offense's options actually are and to make them do something different than what they originally planned to do.

@khandor

I'm gonna have to agree with Mark. I find it hard to pin the fault on Posey and Collison. If they switched, you most likely have Collison vs Stephen Jackson on the block with 15 seconds left. Way too much time to switch every screen when you're only up one. It didn't work out since Collison didn't recover and got screened off by Diaw but it wouldn't have taken long for Jackson to score, draw a foul, or pass to an open man out of a double team from the post in this situation.

I also don't think Thornton pressuring Felton would've done anything. Felton's a starting NBA PG and Augustine was wide open. If you pressure him too much, he'll drive and force the defense to collapse (CHA had 5 shooters on the floor counting Diaw). Remember there were about 18 seconds on the clock, NO couldn't play this like a last second shot situation.

@khandor
if your gonna do ANYTHING on that play you push him to the sideline where he has very little space to work with including a less risky weakside rotation

@khandor

Thornton also never got near Felton to make the pass tougher. He applied no ball pressure at all to make it tougher on Felton to make a good pass.

Also, what Brown did was set his players in such a way that any switch would have provided a ton of mismatches. Jackson vs. Collison in the post, Diaw vs. Collison in the post or Augustin vs. Songalia on the perimeter. If they switch every screen, NO would have had Collison on Jackson on one block, Diaw vs. Posey on another block and Augustin vs. Songalia on the perimeter with the ball in his hands.

It's nothing more than a standard flex action. A simple yet genius play call by Larry Brown and executed perfectly by the 'Cats.

@khandor
If he stays on Felton's hip and denies him the basketball, he could blow the play up completely...also, by going that way, he completely gave up the middle of the court, and if Felton was looking to penetrate he could have and caused a ton of problems.

Also going the way he did, he actually gets drilled by Wallace, and if Felton wanted to shoot it, he had a wide open three. Staying attached to his hip allows him to disrupt things.

Sebastian,

1. What would make you think/say that Marcus Thornton "actually went the wrong" when getting around the screen which Gerald Wallace set?

e.g. by going the direction which he did, what Thornton accomplished was being able to cut Felton off from attacking the original weak side of the floor ... which had been momentarily cleared out by Augustin's cut] ... with [a] his dribble, or for [b] a 2-man game with Stephen Jackson [after coming off Augustin's back screen].

Although this sequence failed to work out the way New Orleans wanted, it wasn't because Thornton went the wrong way around this screen.

i.e. The Hornets chances for success were actually INCREASED by Thorton going in the direction he chose to go rather than the other way around.

2. The chief REASON New Orleans failed to defend this action properly was due to the lack of execution/communication on the part of James Posey and Darren Collison, who failed to "Switch" correctly on the original strong side back screen that was set for Stephen Jackson. [i.e. standard fare for end of game situations like this]

If Collison calls the Switch properly, bumps and denies Jackson's cut, and then Posey reacts properly to that call, by re-positioning properly to defend against Augustin, then, Felton would have had a much more difficulty time [a] making his initial pass to Augustin [defended by Posey, coming out toward the 3PT-line], or [b] working 1-v-1 against Thornton, or [c] working his 2-man game in conjunction with Stephen Jackson [being denied/fronted by Collison as he cuts toward the Righ Block].

[Note: The other option which New Orleans could have exercised, as well, was having Songaila "Switch-out" to Augustin, with Collison then having to deny Diaw an easy entry pass from Felton in a pinch-post situation in the Left mid-post position.]

Overall, the Hornets did a poor job defending this specific action by the Bobcats.

3. Larry Brown, however ... as per usual ... did a good job setting up this classic "screen-the-screener" set play.