I was reading through TrueHoop’s Monday Bullets, and I came across an article on Corey Brewer and his improved shot.  In it, David Thorpe talked about how Brewer improved his shot.  Some of it had to do with shot selection, but a lot of it he says, has to do with the lower half of his body:

And on the second part, the mechanical side, Corey was–and sometimes still does–he gets his head and shoulders far in front of his feet when he’s going to shoot, because he’s trying to stay low. But what happens is this: when you catch the ball and then try to stand up quickly, your head goes flying backward, and that’s kicking your legs out in front of you to counter balance your head or you’re going to fall on you back. So you kick your legs out–it’s an unconscious move–and therefore your balance is awful. Because you have poor balance, it’s very hard to have a great mechanic or stroke with your right arm, and it really threw his whole shot out of whack. So I actually talked a lot about–and I know the Wolves have worked him a ton–on just being more balanced and jumping straight up and landing straight down on two legs and not one leg. Not kicking his legs out in front of him, holding that form, and putting his hand to the rim and leading to all sorts of shooting cues that we worked on a lot this summer that we still talk a lot about literally every game day, almost.

This stuff looked familiar because the Nets had their own player struggling with his shot earlier in the year with Courtney Lee.  The problem was also in the lower half of his body, and over at NetsAreScorching, I took a look at it in depth:

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You might be wondering why I am posting about the WNBA, but with their draft quickly approaching, I was asked to cover the event this Thursday at my other site NetsAreScorching.com (focusing on some New Jersey related prospects) and here.  Here is a little primer.

The main theme of a conference call that involved WNBA coaches and GMs last week was depth.  This 2010 draft class doesn’t have a ton of superstar names, but it is deep and you could still be able to find yourself a quality player late in the draft.  Sparks’ coach Jennifer Gillom:

“I think the Draft this year is going to be very interesting.  There are a lot of great players out there to choose from, who will do well in the WNBA and have the potential to have long and outstanding careers.”

Here is Lynx’s coach Cheryl Reeve’s take on the depth:

“The 2010 Draft, I would say is very intriguing as far as the depth of the players. It’s not filled with great players, but I think it is filled with some very good players that could be helpful to a lot of rosters. It’s certainly a very competitive situation in our league right now to make a team, but I think these players are good enough to be able to provide competition.”

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I was actually going to do a post on this, but I was beaten to the punch by Kevin Arnovitz.  In a post for the Lakers blog Land O’Lakers, Arnovitz looks at what caused the Lakers’ fourth quarter meltdown.  In my opinion, Kevin Arnovitz is the best on the net when it comes to breaking down Xs and Os, so you should definitely head over there and watch (even if you aren’t a Spurs or Lakers fan).  I guarantee you will learn something new.

Yesterday against the Toronto Raptors, the Golden State Warriors decided to foul when they were up three points and turn the game into a foul shooting contest.  This doesn’t really happen in the NBA, but many experts/coaches feel like this is the correct decision.  My opinion on it is that it all depends on your team and who you are playing.  This is because when you are fouling, you extend the game, and that means more foul shots for your own team.  In this case, the Warriors are actually one of the best free throw shooting teams in the league (4th at 78%).  It also depends on how efficient the opposition is from the three point line, and in this case, Toronto is 4th in the league in three point shooting.

Add those two factors (that the Warriors are good at foul shooting and that the Raptors are good at 3 point shooting), and I think that the Warriors made the correct decision in fouling late.  I also think they did a good job of executing.  As we saw in the college ranks during the Xavier-Kansas State game, when you are fouling intentionally there is a chance that you foul when the opposing team takes a three, giving them three foul shots.  Let’s look at the the three fouls the Warriors take:

On this first play, the Raptors have no idea that the Warriors are going to foul.  Because of that, I would have liked to seen the Warriors wait a little bit before taking the first foul.  However, you don’t want to take any chances, and with Jarrett Jack moving away from the basket, there are worst times to take the foul.

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In the fourth quarter of the Cavs game against the Celtics, LeBron James was a runaway freight train.  He scored 20 points in said quarter, and he did it by attacking the basket.  When James decided to put his head down and get to the rim, he either got himself an easy basket or a foul call.  Conversely, nothing was dropping from the three point line as he was 0-7 from deep with his team down 2 with just about 10 seconds left.  That is what makes his decision for a pull up three on a 2 on 2 situation so confusing.

We have all seen LeBron’s heat check threes before, you know, the ones that as he pulls up everyone says “No!  God no!” but then it goes in to a resounding “Yes!” but those usually come after a couple makes.  LeBron was so successful attacking the rim in the fourth quarter, it was just plain silly:

This was 1 of 5 plays that LeBron had where he attacked and ended up with a dunk or a lay-up.  Now, let’s look at that final play:

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Sorry about no post today, but I couldn’t get my hands on any quality video.  I will make it up to you with some extra stuff Monday, but for now head over to The No-Look Pass, where I participated in their podcast (which is called the Chronicles Of Crotty).  Some real good stuff over there:

Click Here!

With the ballgame tied at 90 with 17.5 seconds left, the Memphis Grizzlies had possession of the ball coming out of a timeout they called.  When teams come out of a timeout, you usually see there best stuff because the head coach has a chance to draw up a play custom-fit to the situation.  The coaches can’t do anything about players forgetting plays though, and that is exactly what happened last night to the Grizzlies:

As the ball goes to the trigger man, Zach Randolph sets a downscreen for Mike Conley.  This is designed to get him the ball on the top of the key so they can execute their play.

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With the game tied at 95 with 28.7 seconds left, the Cavs were coming out of a timeout with the basketball.  Now this is usually where the snarky comments bashing Mike Brown come (I am at fault of this from time to time).  However, last night Mike Brown shut the haters up with an old standby:

I have taken a close look at this play twice before, so no need for the still images, but here is the video:

This play is fantastic, and for some reason it always works.  What makes it so brilliant is that normally when a player is standing out by halfcourt, his defender sags into help position.  Not when LeBron has the basketball.  Here, LeBron’s defender is all up on him as the pick and roll action takes place.  All eyes are on the pick and roll action except for LeBron’s defender, and this is what allows for the backscreen to set effectively.  By the time the screen is set, it is too late and LeBron already has a full head of steam going towards the rim.  He makes the catch and finishes, giving the Cavs the lead.

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After getting a stop, the Thunder had a 1 point lead with 2:15 seconds left.  The Thunder were trying to hold onto the lead, and to do so, they needed a basket.  Fortunately, Scott Brooks had a play ready to go.  One that used Kevin Durant as a decoy, and while coming out of timeouts late seem to cause problems for the Thunder, this situation did not:

As Westbrook brings up the ball, Kevin Durant runs along the baseline and stops in the middle of the paint as Russell Westbrook takes the ball from the wing to the center of the floor.

As Westbrook gets to the center of the floor, he turns and returns to where he started coming off of a Jeff Green downscreen.

After Durant comes off Green’s screen, Nenad Krstic sets a second screen for Durant, freeing him up and letting him get to the middle of the paint.

As Durant comes off of the second screen, he dives right through the middle of the paint towards the opposite block.  This sucks in the two Boston defenders on the weakside.  As all of this action is taking place, the ball gets swung from Russell Westbrook to Thabo Sefolosha on the wing.

With all of this attention on Kevin Durant, Nenad Krstic sneaks behind Kevin Garnett undetected and sets himself up for a screen.

After a pump-fake by Sefolosha to draw the defense in a little more, he throws a skip pass to Jeff Green.  Green makes the catch and gets a wide open three that he makes.  Here it is in real time:

Notice how Krstic doesn’t even have to get a solid screen on Garnett.  He just needs to get in his way, and that is what he does, giving Jeff Green more than enough time to rise up and knock down a three.  After a three point play from Ray Allen cutting the lead down to 1 once more, the Thunder needed yet another basket.  Scott Brooks figured since the play they just ran worked so well the first time, why not do it again?  You tend to see this once in a while during games.  If a play works and works well (as the first play did), coaches tend to go right back to it.  The “run it until they can stop it” philosophy, and that is exactly what happens here:

If you watch the second play closely, you can see that Kevin Garnett (Jeff Green’s man) is aware that the Thunder are running the same play.  However, the threat of Kevin Durant is so great that he needs to stay in the middle of the paint for a split second longer than he wanted to.  This split second is enough time for Krstic to get his body in front of Garnett, freeing up Green for another open three that he knocks down.  The Thunder were able to once again extend their lead to 4 points, and this time, they didn’t look back.