With last night’s game tied at 98 with 12 seconds left, the Boston Celtics had the basketball ready to inbound it on the side. Instead of running a set play, the Celtics decided to get the ball into Paul Pierce’s hands and let him work out of an ISO set. It worked out well for the Celtics, but I feel like the Heat made a few key errors that helped the Celtics out. Here is the video in real time, count the mistakes:
How many mistakes did you guys count? By my count, I had three. Let’s go over them:
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.
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.
For most of the first two games Thabo Sefolosha was the one responsible for covering Kobe Bryant. While Kobe got his, Sefolosha did a very good job of making him work for his points. However, in the final quarter of Game 2, Thunder coach Scott Brooks decided to match-up Jeff Green with Kobe Bryant, while he left Thabo on the bench (he sat the entire 4th quarter).
I understand why Coach Brooks made this decision (he wanted Jeff Green out there to be an offensive threat), but he has to understand that Green was even struggling on that end (2-11 for 12 points). With Green struggling, you can say that he and Sefolosha are even on that end, so with Thabo being the better defender he should have been in. Also, Thabo has been covering Kobe for 7 quarters, so he is familiar with his game and how he works. Jeff Green on the other hand, hasn’t been covering Bryant and it is hard for him to get the timing down. A perfect example of this is the following two plays:
The Spurs were ahead of the Mavs for the entire game last night, but there were a few times where it looked like the Mavericks were going to get over the hump and take the lead. At one point in the 4th quarter, the Mavs were able to cut the lead down to 5 points after a Jason Terry three pointer. The Spurs answered with a heavy dose of Tim Duncan, and with an 8 point lead, the Spurs close the door on any chance of a Maverick comeback:
Manu Ginobili knocked down a pretty open three point shot to give the Spurs an 11 point lead with under 2 minutes left. How was he so wide open?
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:
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.
During the regular season, the Miami Heat were one of the best teams at limiting turnovers. Their turnover rate (the percentage of their possessions that ended in turnovers) was 9th in the league with a rate of 12.77. However, against the Celtics, the Heat committed 19 turnovers. Against a tame like Boston, that is way too much.
The biggest culprit in my opinion was Michael Beasley. Beasley committed 5 turnovers during the game, and while Wade committed 7 himself, you can ignore those because he is the only option on the Heat. That means more attention on him, and with more attention comes more turnovers. Anyway, back to Beasley, while the Celtics are a good team, they didn’t really force any of these turnovers. A lot of them were ones that could have been prevented:
Here, Beasley gets the ball on an ISO set, and there is no real options for him. However, Beasley tries to force the issue and penetrate through a gap that isn’t there. He compounds the over-penetration by leaving his feet before he knows what he is going to do with the basketball. Caught in air, he tries to kick the ball out. However, Rondo is able to get his hand on the pass and make the steal.
