Looking to solidify their front court defensively, the Oklahoma City Thunder acquired Kendrick Perkins at this season’s trade deadline. Perkins’ arrival turned the Thunder’s frontcourt into one of the most formidable defensive units in the NBA (probably behind the Lakers). Perkins is definitely one of the best one-on-one post defenders in the NBA (if you are unsure about this statement, go watch him against Dwight Howard), but what makes his arrival so important for the Thunder’s defense isn’t his one-on-one defense, it is the fact that his presence on the court allows Serge Ibaka to really flourish on the defensive end. With Perkins defending opposing centers, Ibaka is now allowed to use his athletic ability and become a menacing threat on the weakside, blocking shots. We saw a perfect example of this last night during the Thunder’s win against the Nuggets:
Here, Nene gets the basketball in the post and tries to make his move against Kendrick Perkins. Perkins is so physical and so tough to get by that it takes him a little bit longer to make his move. This allows Ibaka the time to come over and time Nene’s shot attempt well enough to get the big block. In addition to forcing post players into taking a longer time (this is because Perkins is beating up his man), it seems that most post players’ focus is to make a move to beat Perkins and they are so focused on that, they aren’t really thinking about Ibaka coming over for the block.
Trailing the Chicago Bulls by two points, the Phoenix Suns were forced to foul Kyle Korver with 13.1 seconds left. Korver opened the door for the Suns by missing his first of two foul shots. However, when the Suns got the basketball back down by three points, they didn’t get a three point shot off:
What makes it even worse is that the Suns, specifically Steve Nash, weren’t even looking for a three point shot. Nash gets the basketball and crosses halfcourt with 10 seconds left. He gets a screen from Channing Frye, forcing the Bulls to switch Joakim Noah onto him. To me, it looks like Nash saw the mismatch and wanted to go for the quick two. However, that two didn’t come quickly, or at all, as Nash makes his decision to penetrate with six seconds left. Even if he scores here, there isn’t enough time to foul, get the ball back, and get a clean look. Nash needed to look to use the mismatch to his advantage, get Noah going back on his heels, and then using that space to hit a three (something that we have seen Nash do plenty of times).
After some confusing officiating late in the Clippers-Grizzlies game, the fate of a one point game would be determined by the result of a jump ball at mid-court with 5.7 seconds left. Usually during jump ball, players are jockeying for position, trying to create pockets for the big to tap the basketball to (we have looked at this situation in the past).
However, with a one point lead, Vinny Del Negro made sure that there was going to be no jockeying on this jump ball. Instead of having his players occupy the standard positions on the jump ball, Del Negro put the remaining four players behind Chris Kaman, as if he wanted to protect the rim:
This is an interesting decision to say the least. I understand the logic (Del Negro wanted to prevent a fast break/set play off of the tip), but I am not sure this was actually necessary. Maybe it would be if the Grizzlies had no timeouts and needed to get a quick basket, but they had one, and they would probably be using it right after the tip. So what Del Negro is basically doing is giving Marc Gasol a wide open player to tap the basketball to. Unfortunately for the Grizzlies, Gasol whiffed on the tap and the Clippers were able to gain possession. Here is the play in real time:
After a bucket by the Washington Wizards with about 40 seconds left, the Detroit Pistons found themselves in a situation where they were looking to take a lead with the game tied. However, after a drive and kick jumper, they went from being tied to being down 2 points in four seconds flat, thanks to a John Wall fast break dunk. Wall was able to get out on the break due to a poor decision by Austin Daye.
We pick up the Pistons’ possession as Tracy McGrady dribbles the ball at the top with 10 seconds left on the shot clock. McGrady attacks the rim, and when this happens Will Bynum slides to the corner. This leaves Austin Daye as the man responsible for getting back on defense. Initially, he makes the right play by sliding towards the top of the key, replacing McGrady.
