After a ton of blowouts during the early portion of the Las Vegas Summer League, we are now getting our close games.  In addition to the Wizards-Hornets game and the Cavs-Bulls game last night, we saw an overtime between the Wizards and the Knicks today.  With just under ten seconds left, Tony Douglas was at the free throw line looking to expand the Knicks’ one point lead.  Douglas ended up missed both of him, but he was still able to come away the hero:

Instead of pouting after the miss, Tony Douglas got back on defense and got himself in position to take the offensive foul.  Was it a bit of a flop here?  Sure, but credit to Douglas for reading Cartier Martin’s move and jumping into position to take the charge.  Also, once Martin’s arm swings out when the contact is made, it’s foul no matter what.

Now, Sam Cassell was livid after the play, and it wasn’t with the officiating.  According to the announcers calling the game, Cassell was giving it to Lester Hudson for not getting the ball and bringing it up.  I get the logic, Martin isn’t a point guard while Hudson is.  Hudson probably would have been more comfortable bringing the ball up late (Martin looked a little tentative then picked up the offensive foul).  However, the way the situation transpired, Martin was the only option for the Wizards.

Sure, Hudson could have came down and me the ball, but he still would have been double teamed.  Good work by the Knicks here, they identified the primary ball handler and made sure they didn’t let him catch the basketball.  This is what allowed for Tony Douglas to take the offensive foul.

The Wizards’ buzzer beater against the Hornets wasn’t the only game winning shot of the night.  In the other gym, Pooh Jeter and the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to get a game winner of their own.  Unlike the Wizards’ winner, the Cavs were able to get their best shooter a wide open look for a game-winning three:

When the ball gets tossed to the trigger man, Pooh Jeter comes down and set a brush screen for Marquis Gilstrap.  Gilstrap come out can receives the basketball from the inbounder Aaron Jackson.  After the quick screen, Jeter floats out towards the corner.

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When the regular season starts, not many people are going to remember the buzzer beater that took place during the Wizards’ game against the Hornets, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from it.  Lester Hudson’s game winning shot showed how important a second option can be when running set plays late in games.  Off the top of my head, I can think of a number of sideline out of bounds plays that fail because their is only one option for the man inbounding the ball, and the result is usually a turnover or a bad shot.  Here, with the first option taken away, the Wizards’ simply moved on to option #2 and ended up winning the game:

This play is initially run to either get Cartier Martin an open shot on the curl off of a Javale McGee brush screen (he doesn’t really get set for the screen, they just rub off of each other) or to hit McGee on a backdoor lob.

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