In the aftermath of the Hawks-Magic game three, a lot of the talk will be about Jamal Crawford’s crazy isolation banked three pointer to put game away.  However, the possession before that gave the Hawks the lead is the play that should be talked about.  It wasn’t an intricate play, just a simple pick and pop, but the spacing on the floor lead to a wide to a wide open shot for Al Horford, one he knocked down:

With Jamal Crawford bringing the basketball up, it looks like the Hawks are going to run a simple isolation set with Crawford on the left side of the court and the rest of the players on the right side.

However, with sixteen seconds left on the shot clock, the Hawks bring over another player to the area.  That player is Al Horford, who rubs off of Josh Smith and heads towards Crawford’s direction.

Horford is getting involved because he is setting a screen for Jamal Crawford.  Crawford uses the screen to get the basketball to the middle of the floor.  As you look at this, notice where Dwight Howard is on the court.  Crawford’s such a scoring threat that Howard is hedging way out.

The reason why Howard is willing to hedge out is because Hedo Turkoglu is in the paint ready to defend on any roll.  The problem is that Horford isn’t rolling to the lane, he is popping out to the wing. Turkoglu is forced to stay in the middle because he doesn’t want to leave his man (Josh Smith) open in the paint.  This is where Atlanta’s spacing looks really good.  With no Hawk on the weakside, there are no defenders in the area where Horford is popping to.

Turkoglu can’t leave Smith until J.J. Redick gets to him, and by the time it happens it is too late.  Turkoglu can’t get there in time and Horford is able to rise and fire, knocking down the wide open jumper.  Here is the play in real time:

This isn’t rocket science, but it is still nice to see the Hawks know where they want to ball to go and clear that area out, making it almost impossible for the defense to get over.  Another smart decision is using Jamal Crawford as the ball handler.  He gets a little shot happy, but his offensive ability forces the defense’s hand.  Here, Howard is forced to hedge out on Crawford and it frees up Horford for the pop into an area where there is no defender.