Miami’s 4th Quarter Adjustment On Joakim Noah
So far this series, Joakim Noah has really given the Miami Heat’s pick and roll defense a lot of problems by using his passing ability to break down the help at the back end after the Bulls trap Derrick Rose coming off of ball screens. Over at Hoopspeak.com, Brett Koremenos (you should seriously check him out on Twitter, great follow) did a great job of breaking things down.
Once again, in game three, Noah’s passing ability started to pick apart the Heat’s defense yet again. This time, instead of just allowing it to continue, coach Erik Spoelstra and the Miami Heat made a defensive adjustment in the fourth quarter, changing how they played the pick and roll.
Before we get to the adjustment, let’s look at how Noah was able to pick apart the Heat’s defense here in game three:
On this play, Noah is the screener, setting a pick for Derrick Rose and then rolling/popping out to the foul line. As the ball goes to him, Dwyane Wade rotates over, stepping up top him, determined to take away his space.
With Wade rotating over as Chris Bosh recovers to Noah, Keith Bogans is left wide open. Noah does a good job of spotting the open man and hitting him.
Bogans makes the catch and gets the shot off before Dwyane Wade can get over and challenge the shot, resulting in a make. Here is the play in real time:
What makes Noah such a threat at the top of the key is that he has the ability to quickly survey the court and find the open man before the defense can rotate back to him. So in a situation where 3 Heat defenders are trying to cover 4 Bulls (as two defenders are dedicated to trapping Rose), Noah can just sit at the top of the key and pick out the open man and get the ball to him.
Even when Noah isn’t the screener, his passing ability gives the Heat problems when defending the pick and roll:
Here, the Bulls are running a play where Carlos Boozer sets the ball screen and Joakim Noah flashes to the high post as Derrick Rose gets trapped up top. Rose does a good job of making the correct pass as Dwyane Wade returns to his man. This leaves Bosh to defend a two on one situation, and he steps up a foot or two above the restricted area to meet Noah.
Because Bosh is meeting Noah, that gives him a lane to make a pass to Carlos Boozer, who is cutting to the rim.
Boozer makes the catch, and both Joel Anthony and Chris Bosh are unable to get to Boozer in time to keep him from dunking. Here is the play in real time:
Essentially, Bosh’s job here is to meet Noah as he drives the lane and force him to make another pass. Against most bigs, this could work, because a big making a drop down pass isn’t too common, however, Noah’s passing ability is so great that this is an easy pass for him.
With Noah picking apart the Heat’s defense, Coach Spoelstra made an adjustment in between the 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter, changing how they played the pick and roll. The change didn’t happen up top (where the Heat were still determined to trap Rose), but on the backside, forcing Noah to create with his own offense instead of allowing him to beat the defense with his passing.
Here, we see a situation where the Bulls are running the same play as the first play we looked at, with Noah setting the screen and quickly rolling to the foul line. The first thing to notice is Dwyane Wade, who instead of sagging into the paint, stays with his man in the corner, preventing the kick out pass.
Next, instead of stepping up, Chris Bosh sits in the paint, inside the restricted area, waiting for Noah to come to him.
As Noah attacks (with Udonis Haslem recovering), he has nowhere to pass the ball to as everyone one pass away is staying with their man. The only pass that the Heat are giving up is to the opposite corner, and they are betting LeBron James is quick enough to recover to that pass.
The result is Noah being forced to go up with the lay-up as Chris Bosh and Haslem contest the shot, forcing the miss. Here is the play in real time:
With this strategy, the Heat are now prepared for Noah, instead of scrambling around trying to react to his passing ability and recovering. If you notice, the first two dribbles that Noah takes aren’t too aggressive as he is waiting for someone to pick him up so he can dump the ball off. Once he realizes that nobody comes, he chooses to attack the rim, missing the shot.
This next play isn’t off of a pick and roll, but the situation does look familiar and it does a good job of illustrating Miami’s 4th quarter strategy.
With the Bulls working in transition, Joakim Noah flashes to the middle looking for the basketball. Once he gets it, the Heat are now in a similar situation as when they try to defend the Bulls’ PNR play of Boozer setting the screen and Noah flashing the middle.
The reason why the situations are similar is because the Heat are now in the same two one one situation that the Bulls’ pick and roll play creates. The big difference here is where Chris Bosh is positioned. Unlike earlier, where he was a foot or two above the restricted area, he is now sitting in the restricted area, and the fact that he is playing farther back allows him to play both the Boozer and Noah at the same time.
Again, Noah is unable to find a passing lane, and he is forced to take another contested shot. Here is the play in real time:
Once again, Noah doesn’t take an aggressive dribble towards the rim right after the catch. He takes another passive dribble, looking for someone to throw the pass to. It is only after he realizes he has no passing options does he make a move to the rim and try to score.
This was a tremendous adjustment by Erik Spoelstra and the Heat’s coaching staff, and one that may have won them the game. They understood that when Noah made the catch in the middle, he was looking exclusively to pass it, so taking it away not only confused him, but it caused him to hesitate. The Bulls’ only real successful offensive option seemed to be when they got the ball to Noah in the middle and letting him create. Once the Heat took that option away, the Bulls didn’t really have anything going.
It will be interesting to see if the Heat continue to use this defensive strategy (I assume they will, because this allows the Heat to trap Rose and not get hurt on the back end), and if after watching the game tape, Noah will be more prepared to look for his own offense in these situations.
