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.
After the Mavericks cut the Spurs’ lead to 5 in the fourth quarter, the Spurs answered by going to their best player Tim Duncan. The Mavs tried to single cover him with Brendan Haywood, but it didn’t work and Duncan was able to work him.
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.
The Celtics pretty much blew the Miami Heat out of the water in Game 2, so there were a lot of things I could have picked for this. I decided to go with the most obvious one, the Heat and their need to stop Ray Allen from shooting that corner three point shot. How important is that shot, well, let’s take a look at Allen’s shot chart from Game 2 (via J.E. Skeets’ twitter):
With the Bulls trying fight of the Cavaliers, who were making a run late, Joakim Noah really made his presence felt on the defensive end. Two times in the final 4 minutes, Noah made a smart play on the defensive end getting a stop and helping the Bulls get out in transition.
On this first play, the Cavs try to run a double screen to free up the lane for LeBron James. The Bulls counter by having James’ defender, Luol Deng, go under the screen. To make going under the screen much easier, both Rose and Noah back up off their man to clear a lane for Deng to get through. This is a pretty good defensive strategy by Chicago as you would rather want James shooting a three than getting in the lane, and going under the screen does just that.
