Throughout the playoffs, we are going to be looking at the teams that lost their last game and look at what they can do to try and get a win.
Dirk was phenomenal in game 1 against the Spurs, and while 12-14 from the field isn’t going to happen again, I think the Spurs need to change up some things when covering Dirk. The biggest adjustment I would make is I would have the Spurs front Dirk when he is on the post. When Dirk makes the catch on the post with the defender behind him, he is so tall and so good at that little fade away jumper that it is almost guaranteed that he will get a good look when he makes the catch there.
Throughout the playoffs, we are going to be looking at the teams that lost their last game and look at what they can do to try and get a win.
Dwight Howard had 9 blocks in Game 1 against the Bobcats. 9! That is 9 shots at the rim (easy shots since they are in close) that Dwight altered. Part of it is because Dwight is a fantastic defender (he was announced as the DPOY yesterday), but part of it was the fact that he was able to sit in the lane and just wait for the Bobcats to attack the basket. If the Bobcats want to get some easy looks in close, they are going to need to force Dwight to move around on the defensive end.
Throughout the playoffs, we are going to be looking at the teams that lost their last game and look at what they can do to try and get a win.
Here, the man that Dwight is covering hangs around the elbow not moving. This allows Dwight to leave his man with no fear, because he knows where Nazr Mohammed is going to be. If Mohammed moves around a bit, Dwight is going to have to focus his attention to that (because if he doesn’t Mohammed will get himself a basket) and he might not be able to challenge shots.
Also, if Mohammed does a better job of spacing the floor and Dwight still tries to block the shot, the Bobcats can pass it out to the big man for an open look. If you make Dwight cover more distance to try and challenge shots, you can make him pay for it.
After a Kobe jumper, the Thunder were down two points with two minutes left in the 4th quarter. Now Scott Brooks’ late game playcalling has been a source of much discussion around these parts, so I was real interested to see what Brooks would do in the playoffs needing a bucket.
This is what Brooks came up with:
Look familiar? Well, if you have been reading this blog for a little while, it should:
The play that the Thunder ran against the Lakers is the same play that Brooks used against the Celtics to get Jeff Green back-to-back threes. Now, I don’t mind Brooks’ call here. This play has worked very well for the Thunder in the past against one of the best defensive teams in the NBA (the Celtics), why wouldn’t it work against the Lakers. What I was really impressed with though was how the Lakers defended it, and that is what we are going to look at:
