It’s funny, after doing yesterday’s post about lob plays with 1 second or less on the clock, I thought we would have to wait a few weeks to see a situation like that again.  We didn’t even have to wait 24 hours.  With 0.4 seconds left in overtime, the Heat trailed the Utah Jazz by two points.

The Heat’s play to try and set up the lob for LeBron James involved a lot of the same principles we saw in the plays from yesterday.  As the play starts, it looks like the Jazz are going to stick with the man to man defense that has burned other teams in the past:

The Utah Jazz seem to playing man to man, with Francisco Elson covering the inbound pass.  The Heat start off by sending Dwyane Wade from the block to the three point line to clear the rim (step 1 in setting up a lob late).

Read more…

Against the Heat, the Utah Jazz were down by two points with 3.4 seconds left in the game.  Even though they were able to get themselves a clean look at the rim, Paul Millsap didn’t give up on the play, and that combined with a nice bounce, is what allowed him to get the offensive rebound and put it back before the buzzer sounded.

Even though it was a great effort for Millsap, Udonis Haslem’s lack of a box-out is at least partially responsible for the game going into overtime:

As C.J. Miles flashes to the corner, Paul Millsap actually pops out towards the three point line.  Despite coming off open, the ball gets passed to Miles in the corner.

Read more…