After Jarrett Jack’s big bucket, extending the game to four points, the Lakers found themselves trailing by four points with 9.3 seconds left in the game. The Lakers needed a quick basket (either a two or a three), something that didn’t burn a lot of clock, allowing them to foul and regain possession. Using Kobe Bryant as a decoy, the Los Angeles Lakers were able to get a wide open dunk for Pau Gasol in just 1.1 seconds:
The play starts with the trigger man getting the basketball, and when he does, Kobe Bryant curls around screens set by both bigs (Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol) at the top of the key.
With 34 seconds left and the basketball, the New Orleans Hornets were coming out of a timeout with a two point lead on the side. Looking to both waste time and clinch the game, the Hornets were looking to create a mismatch for Chris Paul. Once Paul got that mismatch, he was able to force the defense to help, opening up the lane for a well-timed cut:
After taking 10 seconds to get Paul the basketball (they were clearly allowing some time to burn off the clock), he was faced with Derek Fisher defending him.
Trailing the Atlanta Hawks by three points, the Orlando Magic had the basketball on the side and were looking to tie the game coming out of their timeout. Stan Van Gundy decided to run a set for Hedo Turkoglu, but he was unable to get off a comfortable look:
The set starts with Hedo Turkoglu coming off of two screens set (one at each elbow) as soon as the ball goes to the trigger man, as if he is flashing to the basketball.
After setting his screen for Turkoglu, Dwight Howard comes over and sets a pindown screen for Gilbert Arenas. Arenas comes off of the screen and gets the ball at the top of the key.
In game three, the Atlanta Hawks utilized the pick and pop with one side of the court cleared out to get Al Horford a wide open jumper to clinch the game. In case you didn’t see the play, here it is:
The whole design of the play was to clear out the left side of the court, run the pick and pop with Jamal Crawford as the ball handler, force Orlando to hedge, and hit Horford popping out in an area where nobody can rotate over.
After a three by Lou Williams gave the Philadelphia 76ers a two point lead, the Miami Heat had the basketball on the side with 8.1 seconds left. In this situation, the Heat ran what basically was an isolation set for LeBron James. The problem was the way the play was drawn up, it lead to poor spacing that allowed the Sixers to crowd the paint and eventually get the block:
The play starts with the Miami Heat basically in a line formation with LeBron James in the front of the line. As the ball goes to the trigger man, LeBron curls off of three Heat players (including Dwyane Wade) to get the basketball at the top of the key.
In game four of the Miami Heat-Philadelphia 76ers series, the Sixers jumped out to a huge lead only to see the Heat make a big comeback in the second quarter. Part of the reason why the Heat were able to make the comeback is because they were having a lot of success trapping the ball handler coming off of pick and roll sets.
Here, the Sixers are running a pick and pop, with Thaddeus Young setting the screen for Jrue Holiday. As Holiday comes off of the screen, Mario Chalmers (his defender) and Joel Anthony trap Holiday hard. As this is happening, Andre Iguodala heads to the corner.
With Iguodala heading towards the corner, Dwyane Wade is able to zone off and play Thaddues Young and look to steal that pass.
