Late game lob plays and the defense of them is something that I have focused on here from time to time, and last night we got to see another lob play late.  This time, it was from the Boston Celtics, who trailed the Dallas Mavericks by 2 points with 2.5 seconds left in the game.  With that much time left, the Mavericks had to match-up and play man to man defense (if they played zone/protected the middle, they would have given up an outside shot), playing into the Celtics hands, allowing them to run a very nice play.  However, a bad pass ruined everything the Celtics set up:

The Celtics decide to use Rajon Rondo as the trigger man for this play.  As soon as he gets the ball, Kevin Garnett pops out as Paul Pierce goes from one elbow to another.

In what may be the only mistake the Mavericks make when defending this play, Tyson Chandler bites hard on Garnett’s cut to the top of the key, so when Garnett cuts backdoor, Chandler is out of position.  To make things worse, Ray Allen is setting a backscreen for Garnett.

Jason Kidd, who was covering Allen, hedges slightly, but he can’t hedge too far, because he’s covering Ray Allen.  Kidd is forced to return to his man, even though Chandler isn’t through the screen yet.

This means that Garnett is wide open at the rim looking for the lob.  With Jason Terry covering the inbounder, it should be a pretty easy pass for Rondo.

However, Rondo sends it long, effectively ruining a great play ran by Doc Rivers.  Here is the play in real time:

Great play by Doc Rivers here.  My favorite part is using Ray Allen as the screener.  This prevents any type of switch or hedge, because who in their right mind would leave Ray Allen?  It works out exactly the way the Celtics want it, but Rajon Rondo is unable to make the pass, which is a freak occurrence considering how well he has been playing this year.