19 | April | 2011 | NBA Playbook

The Pacers’ Defense On Derrick Rose

It sounds weird to say considering that Derrick Rose scored 36 points, but the Indiana Pacers did a decent job on him defensively in Game 2.  They forced him to score his 36 points on 25 (11-25/44% shooting overall) shots and they held him to just 6 assists (and forcing him into 6 turnovers).  As I mentioned on Twitter before the game, I was expecting Paul George to be on Rose (or at least thought he should be on him.  George did an ok job on Rose in Game 1 and his length had a chance to bother Rose on the offensive end.  The Pacers did decide to go with George on Rose for most of the game:

One of the reasons why Paul George on Derrick Rose works to the Pacers’ advantage is George’s length.  This allowed George to sit back and get in position to defend the drive but still contest the jump shot:

Here, George helps on the penetration and then the ball is kicked out to Derrick Rose.  Instead of closing out hard on Rose to try and take away the shot and then having Rose blow by him, George is able to sit back a little further and still get a good contest on the three point shot.

Read more…

What Happened On That Pacers’ Double Team?

With 1:15 left in the game and the Indiana Pacers trailing by two points, they really needed to get a stop.  Instead of trusting their rookie Paul George, who was defending Rose for most of the game (doing a very good job, more on that later), the Pacers wanted to send a double team.  While the double team got there on time, a combination of the Bulls being prepared for it (and acting accordingly) and the Pacers not finishing their rotation back off of the double left Kyle Korver wide open for the three point shot:

Double1

Seeing the ways that the Bulls lined up, you can see that they are expecting a double team (or at least want to prevent it).  The players one pass away from Rose are good shooters, making it impossible for the Pacers to double from those spots, and they have their two bigs on the opposite side of the court.  Eventually, the Pacers send Tyler Hansbrough to Rose to try and double him.

Read more…