After scoring just four points in the first half, J.J. Barea went off in the fourth quarter scoring eight points in the 9 minutes that he played in that quarter.  Barea was able to score (and be effective) by getting in the lane and creating havoc.

The way that the Mavericks got Barea into the paint was by giving him a screen and running pick and pops at the top of the key.  Maybe the most important aspect of the pick and pop was the screener, Dirk Nowitzki.  The Lakers were so worried about leaving Nowitzki open, it messed with their pick and roll defense:

Here, J.J. Barea gets the basketball and Dirk Nowitzki comes over and sets a screen for Barea at the top of the key.  As Barea uses the screen, Lamar Odom (the man defending Dirk Nowitzki) hedges as Derek Fisher (the man defending the screener) tries to fight over the screen.

However, because Lamar Odom is so worried about Nowitzki either rolling to the rim or popping out to the opposite elbow, he doesn’t hedge normally.  Instead, he quickly jumps out to try and cut Barea off, but then returns to Nowitzki.

The problem with that is Odom basically turns into a second screener that Fisher needs to get over, getting in his way and giving Barea the space to get into the lane.

Both Fisher and Odom are now stuck at the top of the key with Nowitzki as the three remaining Laker defenders try to stop four Dallas Mavericks.  Nobody steps to Barea until it’s too late and he is able to knock down the runner.  Here is the play in real time:

On this play, you can see that Lamar Odom is so concerned about staying with Dirk Nowitzki that he doesn’t commit to hedging, instead opting to show quickly and trying to return to his man.  The problem is that Fisher is trying to get over the screen, and Odom’s quick hedge means he will be in Fisher’s path.

This is an even worse example.  Here, Lamar Odom once again hedges out quickly, too worried to leave Nowitzki.  The result is Steve Blake being forced to split Nowitzki and Odom in an attempt to fight through the screen.  By the time he does get through the screen, Andrew Bynum is forced to step up on Barea, allowing him to dump the ball off to Brendan Haywood, who finishes easily with the dunk.

What we had in game two was another quick point guard shredding the Lakers’ pick and roll defense.  Unlike Chris Paul however, the Lakers were more concerned with the roll man than with the man coming off of the screen, and that is what resulted in the open lanes for Barea.

This didn’t look to be an adjustment from the Lakers’ coaching staff (because the man covering Barea was still fighting over the top of screens instead of going under), so it is safe to assume that Odom was doing this on his own.  In his press conference, Phil Jackson said as much, mentioning that the Lakers’ pick and roll defense was off and that he wants his team to play the Mavericks’ pick and pop using their standard pick and roll defense.

It is going to be interesting to see how the Mavericks counter when the Lakers’ are playing the correct defense.  Will that mean Dirk Nowitzki gets a few more looks?  It’s a possibility.