When Turkey played Lithuania yesterday, it was probably the best/closest game of the day.  With about three minutes left, Lithuania found themselves trailing Turkey by two points.  As Lithuania brought the basketball up, they got into their pick and roll clear out set.  A good close-out kept Lithuania from hitting the three point shot in the corner, but the lack of a box out on the original screener, Darius Songaila, lead to a key basket for Lithuania.

We pick up the play as the point guard sets up in the corner (after clearing through) and as Darius Songaila gets in position to set the screen.  The ball handlers comes off of the screen and Omer Asik steps up to prevent dribble penetration as the man defending the ball handler comes over the screen.

As you can see, the ball handler is driving baseline with Asik continuing to cover him.  You have a Turkish defender sliding over to defend Songaila as he rolls to the rim.

As the pass goes out to the corner and the shot goes up, Songaila shifts to the weakside, anticipating that if the shot misses, it will miss long.  The defender who was shifted over to him has to leave him and get in front of the Lithuanian on the wing who starts to crash the board.  That leaves Omer Asik as the man who needs to box out Songaila.  Yes, he just got finished defending the ball handler, but he needs to understand that his man (who is the center/power forward in this Lithuanian lineup) is going to be free and he will be competing for the rebound.  Instead of turning and getting his body into his man, Asik simply stands, turns around, and looks for the basketball.

Because he didn’t get his body into Songaila, Songaila is able to read the ball off the rim, jump up, grab it, and tip it in before Asik can get to him.  This was a huge basket for Lithuania who was able to take the lead shortly after and come away with the win.  If Turkey, especially Asik, boxes out here, they have the ball with a 2 point lead and a chance to extend it into a two possession game.  That doesn’t happen.  Here is the play in real time:

It’s hard to say if Asik’s mistake is due to lack of effort (maybe him saying, I just kept the PG from getting to the rim, I did my job), or if he just got lost (I’m leaning towards the latter), but the fact that he doesn’t get his body into Songaila is an absolute killer.  You force a miss, but give up an easy two.