Quick Hitter: Miami Uses Plenty Of Player Movement To Disguise A Simple Pick & Roll | NBA Playbook

Quick Hitter: Miami Uses Plenty Of Player Movement To Disguise A Simple Pick & Roll

With the game tied and about 20 seconds left in the first half, the Miami Heat called a timeout looking to get a basket and take a two point lead into the locker room at the half.  Coming out of the timeout, the Heat ran a simple pick and roll with Chris Bosh setting a screen for LeBron James.  However, what made it so effective was all of the player movement that took place before the screen, effectively disguising the pick and roll, allowing James to come off the screen and get to the rim easily:

The play starts with LeBron James dribbling the basketball at the top near half court.  Once everyone gets in position, James Jones sprints from one corner to the other (where Dwyane Wade is standing out of the picture).  Once Jones clears through, Mike Bibby heads from his spot and sets a pindown screen for Chris Bosh.

Dwyane Wade comes off of what I believe is a screen set by James Jones (we can’t know for sure because it takes place out of the picture) and heads towards the opposite wing.  Bosh comes off of the pindown screen and heads towards the top of the key to set the pick for James.

Instead of setting a screen on James’ right side, he wraps around and sets the screen for James on his left side.  Now because of all the action and the pindown screen for Bosh, his defender, Omer Asik, is out of position.

With James using the Bosh screen, Asik now needs to basically sprint to his spot to try and keep James from penetrating off of the screen.

Asik is shooting out so hard that he over runs on the hedge, allowing James to split the middle.  So instead of forcing James to Taj Gibson (who is in proper help defense), he is now allowing James to get in the paint from the top, where there is no help.

With no help, James is able to get to the front of the rim uncontested and finish to give the Heat a two point lead.  Here is the play in real time:

Far too many times, you see teams settle for isolation or simple pick and roll in situations like these.  You understand why teams want to do that (keeps the ball in the hands of the best player), but it also allows the defense to load up on the penetration.  What coach Erik Spoelstra did here is a nice little way to keep the ball in James’ hands, run a simple pick and roll, but prevent the defense from loading up because of all the player movement.  Great set coming out of a timeout.

19
May 2011
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POSTED IN 2010-2011 Playoffs Chicago Bulls Eastern Conference Finals: Chicago vs. Miami Miami Heat Quick Hitter
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  • Dwadewade23

    As usual, another great analysis from you.. After Game 1 I had the urge to seek a detailed playbook just like what I see in 2K games to see what really went wrong with the Heat’s defense oriented game and what could’ve been the better options for these scrappy Bulls. Then I saw your posts, and it answered most of my queries. But, can you please explain why Dampier/Big-Z won’t be viable options against the Bulls? Seeing Magloire & Howard on the floor already embodies rust and slow.. So why don’t Coach Spo try his other big men?

  • Dwadewade23

    As usual, another great analysis from you.. After Game 1 I had the urge to seek a detailed playbook just like what I see in 2K games to see what really went wrong with the Heat's defense oriented game and what could've been the better options for these scrappy Bulls. Then I saw your posts, and it answered most of my queries. But, can you please explain why Dampier/Big-Z won't be viable options against the Bulls? Seeing Magloire & Howard on the floor already embodies rust and slow.. So why don't Coach Spo try his other big men?

  • Tppalex68

     I’m with you. I really thought Spo was going to bring back Z. He’s super tall and he’s really good with those volleyball tip-ins. But I’m sure he didn’t activate him because he’s just way too slow. He can’t run with Noah and Asik. Same for Dampier. At least Z will hang around near the 3pt line and bring the Bulls’ bigs out of the paint. I still think they should at least activate Z in emergency situations like last night when you’re scraping your bench looking to throw anyone in there. I would activate him and deactivate Eddie House. He’s never going to play.

  • Tppalex68

    I'm with you. I really thought Spo was going to bring back Z. He's super tall and he's really good with those volleyball tip-ins. But I'm sure he didn't activate him because he's just way too slow. He can't run with Noah and Asik. Same for Dampier. At least Z will hang around near the 3pt line and bring the Bulls' bigs out of the paint. I still think they should at least activate Z in emergency situations like last night when you're scraping your bench looking to throw anyone in there. I would activate him and deactivate Eddie House. He's never going to play.

  • http://hoopspeak.com/2011/05/miamis-pick-and-role-adjustments-yielding-easy-points/ Miami’s pick-and-role adjustments yielding easy points « HoopSpeak.com

    [...] twist on this play, something that Sebastian Pruiti has discussed, is James sets up to screen coming from the right side but at the last second turns and sets a back [...]

  • http://harrytran.com/akronhammer/?p=251 AkronHammer.info » Blog Archive » Miami’s pick-and-role adjustments yielding easy points

    [...] twist on this play, something that Sebastian Pruiti has discussed, is James sets up to screen coming from the right side but at the last second turns and sets a back [...]