Indiana Doesn’t Protect The Rim, Gives Up The Game Winner With 0.5 Left | NBA Playbook

Indiana Doesn’t Protect The Rim, Gives Up The Game Winner With 0.5 Left

Last month we saw a few different tip plays that lead many people (including myself) to say “why don’t teams just zone that final possession?  Then Jerry Sloan did do that and the issue kind of went away, because let’s face it, how many times is this situation going to come up?  Well in the Bucks-Pacers game last night, the situation did come up and it showed that not every agrees with the philosophy of protecting the rim by playing zone.

1

The Pacers decide to use Roy Hibbert to defend the inbounds pass.  Because of this, Jeff Foster is forced to cover Andrew Bogut.  As for what the Bucks did, Brandon Jennings sets a screen along the baseline allowing John Salmons to get to the ballside corner.  As this happens, Bogut sets a screen allowing Ersan Ilyasova to curl to the ball on the perimeter.

2

After Jennings sets his screen, he comes up and sets a backscreen for Bogut, and Bogut uses it on his way to the rim getting in position for the lob.

3

Now, Jeff Foster actually does a pretty good job defending the play.  He fights through the Jennings screen and is in position to mke a play on the basketball.

4

He’s just too small, and Bogut is able to simply reach over him and guide the basketball in the hoop before the buzzer sounds.  Here is the play in real time.

Again, this happened because the Pacers didn’t think it was important to protect the rim with their big man.  Jim O’Brien would much rather have him on the basketball trying to bother the pass.  Now, I agree with the philosophy of having a big man defending the inbounds pass when it is obvious that the inbounder is going to make a pass to a shooter on the outside.  There, a center’s length can bother the pass, cause the pass to be off the mark, and maybe force a miss.

But when it is painfully obvious that there is going to be a lob play (less than 1 second left), why do coaches insist on having their centers play 45 feet away from the rim?  Their reasoning is that they want to bother the pass, but do centers really have that much of an effect?  Andrew Bogut and Brandon Jennings both said they practice this play every day, and presumably the same guy is practicing the actual pass over and over, so is a center there really going to effect him?  I personally think that a center standing at the rim (remember, because the ball isn’t in play, defensive three seconds isn’t a factor) bothers the pass more than if he is covering the inbounder.

What is interesting to me is that we already saw one coach have successful by keeping a few extra defenders at the rim late, yet coaches still want to put their center on the inbounder.

09
Dec 2010
POSTED BY Sebastian Pruiti
POSTED IN 4th Quarters Coaching Strategy Defending The Rim Indiana Pacers Milwaukee Bucks
DISCUSSION 16 Comments
TAGS

  • Cordobes

    Delfino has been out with a concussion for a couple of weeks. That's Ersan Ilyasova there.

    Why is it painfully obvious that it's going to be a lob play? According to Bogut, their first option was a catch'n'shoot and only after it a tip-in. That's pretty much the norm.

    http://www.journaltimes.com/sp…

    “We've run that probably 100 times in practice just for these situations,” Bogut said. “Coach is big on late-game plays. If you can't get a catch-and-shoot, it's a tip play. It worked perfectly.”"

    I think your thesis is incorrect. The reason you see so many lob plays in this kind of situation is because they take away priority plays by pressuring the inbounder and defending m2m. I generally agree with your takes, but you're way off on this issue.

  • http://www.nbaplaybook.com Sebastian Pruiti

    I disagree 100%. If someone hits a catch and shoot with 0.5 seconds left, then God-bless them. I am not saying play zone in every single situation, but if you play zone with less than 1 second late, you are probably going to get the stop and the win/tie.

  • http://www.eightpointsnineseconds.com/2010/12/breaking-down-andrew-boguts-tip-in/ Breaking Down Andrew Bogut’s Tip-In

    [...] Pruiti did a quick breakdown of the Bogut tip-in last night over at NBA Playbook. Again, more than anything, I believe this was just a really, [...]

  • Cordobes

    Delfino has been out with a concussion for a couple of weeks. That’s Ersan Ilyasova there.

    Why is it painfully obvious that it’s going to be a lob play? According to Bogut, their first option was a catch’n'shoot and only after it a tip-in. That’s pretty much the norm.

    http://www.journaltimes.com/sports/article_0e168c22-0357-11e0-a0db-001cc4c002e0.html

    “We’ve run that probably 100 times in practice just for these situations,” Bogut said. “Coach is big on late-game plays. If you can’t get a catch-and-shoot, it’s a tip play. It worked perfectly.”"

    I think your thesis is incorrect. The reason you see so many lob plays in this kind of situation is because they take away priority plays by pressuring the inbounder and defending m2m. I generally agree with your takes, but you’re way off on this issue.

  • http://www.nbaplaybook.com Sebastian Pruiti

    I disagree 100%. If someone hits a catch and shoot with 0.5 seconds left, then God-bless them. I am not saying play zone in every single situation, but if you play zone with less than 1 second late, you are probably going to get the stop and the win/tie.

  • Cordobes

    I fully understand your point – play zone with 1 second or less left to avoid the lob/tip-in play. We'll have to agree to disagree because from my perspective you underestimate the failure rate of this kind of play versus a catch'n'shoot with no pressure on the inbounds pass. I like the idea of a catch'n'shoot (as long as there are 0.5 seconds or more in the clock) if my inbounder can see the floor clearly and make the pass exactly as he wants to. This play the Bucks executed there isn't easy at all. That's why their priority was to get a catch and shoot.

    I wish there was a simple and easy way to watch every play made with 0.5 to 1 second on the clock in the last 5 years or so. I figure it'd already be a decent sample. Or maybe not, the sub-sample of plays where

    A zone with a man putting pressure on the inbounder + other taking the rim away… I don't think that works, a smart inbounder will get a good look to the open man. It's easier to execute than this sort of lob+tip-in play with a man troubling the inbounder + other man guarding the finisher.

  • professor

    I'm with Sebastian on this one, it seems to me that a catch and shoot is much harder to pull off than a lob with this much time left, no time left to aim or get the proper stance…especially with a tall dude like Bogut who seems like an obvious lob target.

  • Cordobes

    I fully understand your point – play zone with 1 second or less left to avoid the lob/tip-in play. We’ll have to agree to disagree because from my perspective you underestimate the failure rate of this kind of play versus a catch’n'shoot with no pressure on the inbounds pass. I like the idea of a catch’n'shoot (as long as there are 0.5 seconds or more in the clock) if my inbounder can see the floor clearly and make the pass exactly as he wants to. This play the Bucks executed there isn’t easy at all. That’s why their priority was to get a catch and shoot.

    I wish there was a simple and easy way to watch every play made with 0.5 to 1 second on the clock in the last 5 years or so. I figure it’d already be a decent sample. Or maybe not, the sub-sample of plays where

    A zone with a man putting pressure on the inbounder + other taking the rim away… I don’t think that works, a smart inbounder will get a good look to the open man. It’s easier to execute than this sort of lob+tip-in play with a man troubling the inbounder + other man guarding the finisher.

  • professor

    I’m with Sebastian on this one, it seems to me that a catch and shoot is much harder to pull off than a lob with this much time left, no time left to aim or get the proper stance…especially with a tall dude like Bogut who seems like an obvious lob target.

  • http://thenullhypodermic.blogspot.com Brian Tung

    I'm with Sebastian on this, too, especially with just 0.5 seconds on the clock. With a second or so, it might go the other way. Just for kicks, I looked at a couple of quick catch-and-shoots on-line, and a typical shooter takes about 0.7 seconds from catch to release in a quick but unrushed sequence. Maybe Ray Allen gets it off faster, and Marcus Camby not as fast, but you get the idea.

    It might be easier to execute a catch-and-shoot than a lob at the rim, but that's only half the story. A properly executed catch-and-shoot likely doesn't score as often as a properly executed lob at the rim.

  • http://thenullhypodermic.blogspot.com Brian Tung

    I’m with Sebastian on this, too, especially with just 0.5 seconds on the clock. With a second or so, it might go the other way. Just for kicks, I looked at a couple of quick catch-and-shoots on-line, and a typical shooter takes about 0.7 seconds from catch to release in a quick but unrushed sequence. Maybe Ray Allen gets it off faster, and Marcus Camby not as fast, but you get the idea.

    It might be easier to execute a catch-and-shoot than a lob at the rim, but that’s only half the story. A properly executed catch-and-shoot likely doesn’t score as often as a properly executed lob at the rim.

  • Vinnie R.

    Sebastian, do you think there is some kinda of “Coaching Stigma” about going Zone in tight spots in games like that? I know Jerry Sloan is a very-defensive oriented coach which is why he would go Zone in a spots like that.

  • Vinnie R.

    Sebastian, do you think there is some kinda of “Coaching Stigma” about going Zone in tight spots in games like that? I know Jerry Sloan is a very-defensive oriented coach which is why he would go Zone in a spots like that.

  • http://khandorssportsblog.com/wordpress Khandor

    Sebastian,

    In this instance, the biggest mistake which Jim O'Brien made that allowed the Bucks to score a FG on this sequence was subbing Jeff Foster into the game at the 0.5 second mark, as a replacement for James Posey, after Foster had not been used for the entire 4th quarter. Instead of making that sub, if O'Brien wanted to use Roy Hibbert to defend the inbound passer [which is a good decision in this situation] then he should have used Solomon Jones to defend against Andrew Bogut, since Jones is a much better athlete and a superior defensive player compared to Foster. Conversely, if O'Brien wanted to use a veteran player to cover Bogut with only 0.5 seconds on the clock, then, he simply should have left Posey on the floor to do that specific job, since he would have had more than enough agility to evade any back screen which was set on him by Brandon Jennings and the vertical jump required to prevent Bogut from getting this relatively easy tip-in at the rim. Cheers. For further details on this play, please feel free to visit my blog. :-)

  • http://khandorssportsblog.com/wordpress Khandor

    Sebastian,

    In this instance, the biggest mistake which Jim O’Brien made that allowed the Bucks to score a FG on this sequence was subbing Jeff Foster into the game at the 0.5 second mark, as a replacement for James Posey, after Foster had not been used for the entire 4th quarter. Instead of making that sub, if O’Brien wanted to use Roy Hibbert to defend the inbound passer [which is a good decision in this situation] then he should have used Solomon Jones to defend against Andrew Bogut, since Jones is a much better athlete and a superior defensive player compared to Foster. Conversely, if O’Brien wanted to use a veteran player to cover Bogut with only 0.5 seconds on the clock, then, he simply should have left Posey on the floor to do that specific job, since he would have had more than enough agility to evade any back screen which was set on him by Brandon Jennings and the vertical jump required to prevent Bogut from getting this relatively easy tip-in at the rim. Cheers. For further details on this play, please feel free to visit my blog. :-)

  • http://khandorssportsblog.com/wordpress Khandor

    Sebastian,

    In this instance, the biggest mistake which Jim O'Brien made that allowed the Bucks to score a FG on this sequence was subbing Jeff Foster into the game at the 0.5 second mark, as a replacement for James Posey, after Foster had not been used for the entire 4th quarter. Instead of making that sub, if O'Brien wanted to use Roy Hibbert to defend the inbound passer [which is a good decision in this situation] then he should have used Solomon Jones to defend against Andrew Bogut, since Jones is a much better athlete and a superior defensive player compared to Foster. Conversely, if O'Brien wanted to use a veteran player to cover Bogut with only 0.5 seconds on the clock, then, he simply should have left Posey on the floor to do that specific job, since he would have had more than enough agility to evade any back screen which was set on him by Brandon Jennings and the vertical jump required to prevent Bogut from getting this relatively easy tip-in at the rim. Cheers. For further details on this play, please feel free to visit my blog. :-)