A Defensive Lapse Costs Argentina The Game
After a foul shot from Luis Scola, Argentina was getting back on defense looking for a stop with 30 seconds left and the game tied. Based on past performances, you would think that Argentina would get the stop. However, this time Argentina made a few mistakes on this possession, and it eventually cost them the game.
The set starts earlier, but this is where it makes sense to start looking at it for our purpose. The matchup we are paying attention to here is Leonardo Gutierrez from Argentina against Dusko Savanovic from Serbia.
As the ballhandler works his way towards the lane Gutierrez drops off of Savanovic and gets into help position. As he should. Right now, he is in good defensive position.
However, once the ball gets deeper into the lane, Gutierrez starts making mistakes. The first one is that he turns his head away from the man and focuses on the basketball.
This allows Savanovic to float to the top of the key with Gutierrez not really knowing where he is. Now, Gutierrez has to be where he is, helping and defending in the paint. But when the pass is made, Gutierrez hesitates for a second before starting his close out. This is because he didn’t keep an eye on his man, so he didn’t know where he was.
That split second hesitation allows for Savanovic to catch the pass, gather, and knock down the big three that eventually lead to Serbia’s win. Here is the play live:
