When you think of the New York Knicks, you think of a high octane offense that likes to run an effective pick and roll in the halfcourt, and that is the reality.  After early struggles with the PNR, Raymond Felton and Amar’e Stoudemire have developed a nice chemistry and the PNR is back to being an effective tool for the Knicks.  Overall, the Knicks are one of the best when it comes to running the pick and roll, and they use that to their advantage.  According to Synergy, the Knicks run the pick and roll 17.1% of their possessions, while scoring .96 PPP (They are first in Roll Man PPP, 9th in Ball Handler PPP – according to Synergy).

So during their first match up against the Heat, they tried to go to their bread and butter, but it was far from successful.  The Knicks ran the pick and roll 15.5% of the time, but the Heat’s hard shows on defense held the Knicks to just 0.59 PPP on Pick and Roll plays.  The Heat defense also baited the Knicks into way too many ISO sets, they ran those plays 16.4% of the time, scoring just 4 points out of it (0.33 PPP) on 12.5% shooting.  Looking at these numbers, it was no surprise that the Heat ended up blowing out the Knicks.

So when the Knicks went up against the Heat the second time, they decided to switch some things around.  They still had trouble with the pick and roll (UPDATE: Gian Casimiro over at the Knicks’ blog Posting And Toasting does a great job breaking this down – definitely a must read), posting a low 0.50 PPP, with the only basket for the roll man came off of Stoudemire’s slipped screen/big dunk on LeBron (something the astute commenters here mentioned would work against the Heat):

The key is that the Knicks ran the pick and roll much less than the first game, only 11% of total possessions, understanding that they struggle with the Heat’s PNR defense.  They were also able to limit their ISO sets, running those just 7.8% of their possessions.  So what did the Knicks do with all of these extra possessions?  Well, they ran sets that resulted in Spot-Up opportunities.  According to Synergy, the Knicks run Spot-Ups 20% of the time on the season (for a PPP of 1.03), however against the Heat last night, they ran it 29.4% of their total possessions with success, posting a PPP of 1.13 on 44.4% shooting.

Why was this more successful?  Well, spot-ups indicate set offenses with players moving off of the basketball and a lot of passing rather than a lot of dribbling (which happens in PNR and ISO sets), forcing the defense to move around, and resulting in catch and shoot opportunities, and open looks:

Here, as Danilo Gallinari starts his dribble, Ronny Turiaf cuts through the lane to the block.  He gets the ball, a double occurs, and after he kicks it out to Gallinari, the skip pass to Toney Douglas opens up.  Player movement (Turiaf’s cut) and quick ball movement (Turiaf’s pass out of the double, the skip pass to Douglas) results in a wide open look.

Again, you have quick ball movement here as the ball gets passed to Fields in the corner.  Wilson Chandler flashes to the basketball, and after the catch he pump fakes, and attacks the lane for a dunk.

Finally here, the Knicks try to run their Felton-Stoudemire PNR, but Joel Anthony’s hard show throws everything off and nothing comes of it.  The Knicks reset and get the basketball to Stoudemire at the top of the key.  He passes to Douglas, who drives and kicks to a wide open Raymond Felton (who does a nice job of spotting up in the open area), who knocks down the three.

—

When people talk about the New York Knicks, they like to say that they run a wide open offense, and I don’t know how much credit Coach D’Antoni gets (you often hear that he lets his players play, rather than people talking about his Xs & Os ability).  However, D’Antoni tweaking the offense, steering it away from PNR and to Spot-Up sets shows that he knows what he is doing.  The Knicks didn’t win the game, but they were able to stay competitive (which is something they were unable to do their first game with the Heat) and prove to Miami that they are a legitimate threat against them.

Also, expect to see this happen when most teams go up against the Heat.  With the Heat now playing very strong PNR defense, teams will start to get away from it and try to find other holes in their defense.