Even though it was a fantastic play, it just didn’t feel right leaving an empty possession as the sole quick hitter of the day. So when J.E. Skeets started talking about a play that the Jazz ran last night during today’s episode of The Basketball Jones podcast, I knew I had to check it out. After finding the play that Skeets was talking about, it was clear why he made a point to talk about it. This particular play is a good example of why it is important to have multiple options on a play:
The play starts off with Deron Williams entering the ball to Andrei Kirilenko on the wing. Once Kirilenko gets the basketball, Earl Watson goes across the paint to set a screen for Al Jefferson. The design makes it look like the Jazz are simply trying to get the ball to Al Jefferson in the post coming across the paint (we see just about every single NBA team run something like this). The Milwaukee defender, noticing this dives deep in the paint to try and keep Jefferson from getting across the lane.
So far, every Quick Hitter I have done has highlighted a play that leads to a made basket. That makes sense considering that usually when you run a great play, you are going to get two points out of it. However, there are situations where a team goes out and runs a terrific set only to miss the basket. That is what happened last night when the Hornets ran a great set to get David West a clean look at the rim to start the second half, only to have him miss the lay-up.
As Chris Paul brings the ball up, David West sets a down screen for Trevor Ariza who flashes to the top of the key. Paul gets to the wing and then makes a pass to Ariza.
In my opinion, the Utah Jazz run the most set plays in the NBA. They have a number of different playcalls that they can turn to in any situation. To me, it is what makes them so much fun to watch. The one problem with running a lot of set plays is that teams are going to be able to scout you and know what’s coming. This is when you rely on your players to improvise and make the defense pay for overplaying a particular set. We saw a perfect example of this last night:
The first part of the play is when Earl Watson enters the basketball to Andrei Kirilenko at the elbow and then cuts off of him towards the wing.
As this happens, the play is designed for Paul Millsap to cut along the baseline and use a double screen set off the ball on the weakside.
This isn’t really a breakdown, but as I was watching the Hornets-Thunder game last night and I saw an example of great individual defense on a possession where Trevor Ariza was covering Kevin Durant:
The New Orleans Hornets and Oklahoma City Thunder were involved in a very good back and forth game and with around 4:00 minutes left, the Hornets were up two points and had the basketball. This is when the Hornets decided to try and run one of their offensive staples, the pick and roll. I’ve looked at the Hornets’ pick and rolla few different times, and what makes it so tough is that Chris Paul is a threat to score on a jumper in addition to his passing ability. This forces defenders to make a decision when it comes to trying to stop it:
Chris Paul dribbles the ball out in the corner waiting for Emeka Okafor to come over from the weak side block to set a screen for Paul. As Okafor clears out, David West walks down his man, Kevin Durant, and fills Okafor’s spot on the weak side block.
The Indiana Pacers had themselves a nice lead last night against the Lakers. However, the Lakers being the Lakers, they started chipping away at the Pacers’ fourth quarter lead until they were only down one point with 34.1 seconds left after two Gasol free throws. The Pacers were coming out of their timeout, up by one point, and looking for a basket to extend their lead to three points.
What was interesting about the Pacers’ inbounds play is that they decided to take it in the backcourt rather than at halfcourt. As the ball gets rolled to halfcourt, it is obvious that they aren’t doing this to burn clock, but to give TJ Ford a nice head of steam as he attacks the basket. Ford picks up the ball right near the halfcourt line and sprints towards a James Posey screen.
The New York Knicks seemed at least a second late on most of their rotations and closeouts against the Atlanta Hawks yesterday afternoon. This was a major reason why the Knicks ended up losing the game by nine points. I think Jamal Crawford’s dagger that extended the Hawks’ lead to 15 points with about 4:30 left does a good job of showing what the Knicks did wrong the entire game:
Here, the Knicks were double teaming Joe Johnson as he tried to make a move in the post. Initially, this is a very good double team. The Knicks’ do a good job of trapping Johnson, not allowing him to turn an face the basket. The rest of the Knicks do a good job of zoning off the rest of the court, giving up the skip pass to Mo Evans. This is the correct pass to give up, because if Joe Johnson makes the cross-court pass, it allows the Knicks to recover easily.
As I mentioned in my post detailing the Lakers’ Triangle offense, there are a number of things that can be done off of it. Most of these things involve Kobe Bryant, but last night against the Utah Jazz the Lakers showed that they can run the Triangle and get a good look with Kobe on the bench.
Steve Blake pushed the basketball up, but since there was nothing there he pulled it back out. As the ball gets re-entered to him on the wing, Pau Gasol flashes to the mid-post to complete the Triangle.
In my post about Blake Griffin’s passing ability, I talked about his ability to avoid the charge when defenses rotated to him on the pick and roll. In the Pacers’ game against the Thunder, we saw Roy Hibbert do the same thing to beat the Thunder’s pick and roll rotations. When bigs realize that the end game of the PNR doesn’t have to be a shot attempt, it adds another layer to the PNR and it really makes it tough for the defenses to try and stop it.
As Danny Granger gets the dribble handoff, Roy Hibbert follows up and sets a screen for Granger. Nick Collison (the man covering Hibbert) quickly hedges the screen.
Kevin Durant is dangerous whenever he has the basketball, but in my opinion, he might be most dangerous when he has the basketball at the top of the key. The reason is because he has so many options, it is really difficult for the defense to stop. In addition to being able to drive the basketball in any direction, he has a number of different options in terms of passing the basketball when the defense loads up on him. We saw an example of how difficult this is to stop last night when the Thunder played the Pacers:
We pick up this play as Durant makes the catch at the top of the key. Brandon Rush is covering him with the other four Pacers in help position. Because Durant is at the top of the key, all 4 Pacers need to be alert and ready to help. If he was on either wing or in the corner, it would be a little different (1 or 2 defenders would be in help position).
