The Washington Wizards not only played the role of spoiler against the Milwaukee Bucks last night, but they also provided Playbook’s Play of the Night. Taking the ball out of bounds early in the fourth quarter, head coach Randy Wittmann drew up a gem that resulted in a wide open layup. The Wizards didn’t exactly need much help dicing up the Bucks defense, but some clever X’s and O’s never hurt. Let’s take a look.

The play starts with Shelvin Mack inbounding on the right sideline and with the rest of his teammates in a box formation (both blocks, both elbows). Nene starts off the play by coming to the ball off the right elbow. Mack hits him with a pass then cuts past him to receive a dribble hand-off.

Mack then continues his dribble toward the top of the key while forward James Singleton sprints up to set a ball screen.

While that is going on, Nene has begun to cut from his initial position toward the left block. In the process, he receives screens from both Maurice Evans and Cartier Martin. Both players are looking to headhunt (as opposed to screening an area) Nene’s defender Drew Gooden hoping to either force a switch for an iso post up or free Nene entirely for a shot at the rim. The timing on this play is important as Nene must time his cut with Shelvin Mack’s movement on the perimeter. If he moves too soon, Mack may not be in a position to deliver the ball.

The play works as scripted as Mack, despite dragging two defenders with him off the ball screen, finds Nene open with great position near the rim. (Note: On the backside of the play, James Singleton prepares to screen for Martin to come to the top as a second option in triangle or screen-the-screener action. However, Martin forgets this and simply floats to the top.)

Then end result is a wide open layup for Brazilian big man. Here is the play in real time:

There is perhaps no more pressure-filled, part-time role in basketball than that of the shooting specialist. They enter the game with a sole purpose; to soak nets with ridiculously wet jumpers. Defense, rebounding and perhaps even the ability to dribble are often overlooked if one of these players can change a game with his deadly accuracy from behind the arc. If the shots fail to fall however, this player often finds his minutes and value to his team spiraling downward.

With this type of existence, a shooting-specialist sounds about as desirable as being a kicker in the NFL. Despite all this, they dot rosters around the league in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some hail from the East (Steve Novak) and some from the West (Daequn Cook). Some are tall (Vlad Radmanovic). Some are short (Boobie Gibson). And some are gingers (Matt Bonner).

But no matter height, race, creed or hair color, the effectiveness this type of player is normally measured solely by raw percentages. However, when letting that type of empirical data rule the day, one can sometimes miss the many subtle impacts a shooting specialist can have despite their lack of a well-rounded game. Sometimes, even when not making shots at a blistering rate, these marksmen impact a game in ways that can’t be measured by the traditional box score.

Kyle Korver is one of these snipers. His particular set of shooting skills just so happens to include what is arguably the quickest release in the game today. The main component in that release is his ability to set his feet (and be balanced) at lightning speed. Twice in last night’s game against the Heat, he showed off this hair-trigger release with great results.

This combination of speed, shooting accuracy and off the ball movement causes an entire defense to account for Korver’s whereabouts at all times. This is when a shooting specialist becomes truly dangerous to an opponent as even a split second without focus can result in a quick three points. During that time, a player like Korver, averaging just a shade under 23 minutes per game, can find himself forcing three or more defenders to focus on his presence on any given play. A right normally received for superstars.

Korver, unlike a James, Anthony or Bryant, does most of his damage off the good ole’ NBA single-double screening action (where he can choose to go off a single screen on one side of the floor or a double on the other). The threat of a catch and shoot out of this action can not only create offense for Korver, but a create series of closeouts with a single well placed pass out of it.

Against Miami, Korver twice drew three defenders to himself out of this set, moved the ball and allowed a teammate to attack rotating defense. In both the following clips, he does exactly that only to find the ball coming back to him in the end. When that happens, well, he does what he does best; knocks down the shot. Take a look.

But sometimes that first pass leads directly to a great look for a teammate. In a set that may look somewhat familiar, Carlos Boozer sets a quick ball screen for Derek Rose then looks to free Korver with a pin-down late in the game. As Korver comes off the screen, Ronny Turiaf (Boozer’s defender) immediately jumps out to contest a possible shot. Korver delivers a deft hook pass over the top and Boozer drains a jumper over a late-rotating Chris Bosh.

However, the threat of a Korver shot attempt never had a bigger effect than during the Bulls final possession in regulation. Down three, out of a sideline out-of-bounds, Korver receives a dribble hand-off from Boozer only to find himself surrounded (once again) by three Heat defenders. With some quick and accurate ball movement, Korver and Boozer combine to find CJ Watson all alone on the opposite of the floor. Watson then uses a great shot-fake, dribble-adjustment against a Dwyane Wade closeout and ties the game. A game (spoiler alert) the Bulls eventually ended up winning in overtime.

Korver’s play last night helped his Chicago team take down Miami and all but lock up home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. While a player like Korver will never be the key to winning an entire series, his presence (especially during his more torrid stretches like last night) can certainly help the Bulls win a single game come playoff time. Yet Korver’s line (6-8, 17 points, 5-6 from 3), while impressive, fails to tell exactly how much his presence on the court for 19 minutes affected the game. Such is the life of a shooting specialist.

With Jason Kidd, Steve Nash and Andre Miller entering their twilight of their careers, the game is on the verge losing a trio of players that excel at the simplest notion; getting the ball to their teammates where they can be their best. It is not so much passing as it is the idea of distribution. Perhaps due to a changing game, it is an idea fewer and fewer in today’s game seem less capable of embracing.

To be an elite distributor one has to possess a certain amount of guile and moxie, traits that combine to produce a clever variety of ways to deliver the basketball into the hands of open teammates. Distributors, in a sense, find “angles of deployment”. Whether contorting their bodies, dribbling to new space or using crazy amounts of spin and pace, they find windows that allow for the ball to be delivered at exactly the right time.

At just 26 years old, Rajon Rondo already finds himself as a lonely master of this particular craft. Last night, he showcased just how devastating a black-belt in the art of distribution can be, especially when your teammates make long 2s at the same rate Dwight Howard converts dunks. Thanks in part to that torrid jump-shooting by his teammates, Rondo tallied 15 assists against a Heat defense that spent most of the contest overwhelmed and bewildered.

Quite of few of his dimes came due to Rondo working hard to find great angles of deployment. Part of what helps him do that so well is his tendency in transition to change sides of the floor with the dribble. This concept, which a mentor of mine termed, “changing boxes” (picture a court split into four equal quadrants) creates all sorts of subtle angles to find open teammates. Thanks to this great habit, Rondo is able to create an open shot for Greg Stiemsma on the break.

When Rondo gets the ball on the break and pushes it down the left side of the floor. He forces two Miami defenders to defend him.

Noticing Stiemsma coming down late as the trail post, Rondo pushes across the court. This is where he finds a clever way to distribute the pass. Due to the angle of his drive and the pace of the on-coming Stiemsma, Rondo delivers a flick-pass off the bounce with his right hand instead of stopping and pivoting around. It is a much quicker deliver that guarantees Stiemsma jumper will have no chance of being contested.

Here is a video of the play in real time:

That isn’t the only time during last night’s game where Rondo found a proper angle to feed Stiemsma for an open shot. Late in the third, a staggered screen for Ray Allen leaves the former Badger wide open in the short corner. Rondo, after using a pass fake, then whips an overhead pass to Stiemsma for the jumper.

While that pass looks pretty ordinary, it’s that Rondo delivered it overhead that made it work. Notice Dwyane Wade’s hands in the following picture. They are down near his waist but could quickly get up to deflect or even steal a pass delivered from chest level. But by delivering the ball with an overhead pass, Rondo insures it gets to his target unmolested.

The following two clips involve Rondo finding clever angles to deliver to Paul Pierce. In the first clip, Rondo attacks the paint after an offensive rebound. On his drive, Pierce relocates to the wing. Rondo does an excellent job of using his body to shield his defender while delivering an inside hand shovel-pass. The result is a wide-open Pierce 3.

For lower levels, coaches would most likely teach and drill a jump-stop to a reverse pivot to make that pass to Pierce. However, in the following picture you will see that the timing and speed of the game factor into Rondo’s decision. Wade, who had leaked out down the floor on the initial shot attempt, was coming back into the play. Had Rondo taken the more “fundamental” but slower approach, Pierce might have found his shot blocked or altered by Wade.

In the final video, Rondo makes an absolutely fantastic delivery in the post from the top of the key. Words don’t do this justice, so just take a look:

With a step and some sickening spin, Rondo makes a spectacular entry to Pierce on the block. The natural tendency for a player is to throw it to the wing there and let entry come from a better angle. However, take a look at where the shot clock is in the following picture.

With that little time left, a wing entry could be denied long enough to force Avery Bradley (the player on the wing) to most likely create a contested shot for himself with very little time to do so. But thanks to Rondo’s ability to seek out creative angles, the end result is a Pierce layup instead.

So while Nash, Kidd and Miller may be hanging it up soon, fear not for the demise of the distributor. Thanks to Rajon Rondo (and perhaps Ricky Rubio), this rare breed will avoid extinction.

….you usually find Steve Nash involved. No real post today. Just read this before you watch the video.

This is the set that can win Oklahoma City a championship.

For the past year, the Thunder have been criticized for their perceived inability to execute in the half-court, especially in the playoffs. But it appears Scott Brooks and his staff designed a play that fits their team’s personnel so perfectly it was almost impossible to defend.

The set usually begins with some false action that leads into a dribble flip (DF) between Kendrick Perkins and of the Thunders two primary ball handlers (Russell Westbrook and James Harden). Perkins then sprints out of the DF into either a rim run or a pin down with Kevin Durant moving off either action on the weakside. The strongside of the floor is usually spread opposite, giving Durant the option to tight curl into the paint and attack the rim.

That is the normal pattern of the play which, even without any wrinkles, poses enough problems for an opposing defense. But in the fourth quarter of last night’s game, the Thunder (perhaps by accident), introduced a new wrinkle that made it nearly indefensible.

Out of a dead ball walk-up, Westbrook passes ahead to Harden and shallow cuts across the key toward the opposite wing. Durant begins to position himself on the left block.

Harden swings the ball to the trailing Perkins who catches and immediately performs the dribble flip with Westbrook.

Here is where the new “wrinkle” comes in. As Perkins goes to pin down for Durant, Ibaka, instead of spacing the floor as a spot up option, begins to move toward Westbrook as if to set a ball screen. With the threat of a ball screen, Haslem must come up with Ibaka in order to be in a position to hedge should Westbrook choose to use it.

Due to Durant’s effectiveness as a catch and shoot player, the defender guarding the screener must be very active in help. Here, Chris Bosh shows well above the screen (which Perkins immediately slips) in order to make things difficult on Durant. Normally, there would be a low defender to rotate over to Perkins in order to prevent a lay-up, but Ibaka’s move toward the top has pulled everyone near or above the free throw line extended making a rotation extremely difficult.

The result of the play is a wide open dunk by Perkins with nary a Miami player in sight.

Here is the play in real time:

This type of outcome screams “blown rotation”, when in all reality, it’s not. Any help defender who might rotate over to help out on the pin down action would free up something equally destructive

James dropping leaves Westbrook free in the middle of the court to do as he pleases. A rotation from Wade (hidden behind Ibaka in the fourth picture) is not only impossibly difficult, but has the side effect of leaving Harden alone on the wing. Haslem, as mentioned before, is the closest rotation, but leaving Ibaka opens up three dicey propositions: Ibaka can

- sprint from the elbow to the right side of the rim for an uncontested lob
- screen away for Harden on the wing with no big to protect Wade
- screen on the ball for Westbrook without a big to slow the explosive point guard down as he turns the corner

Perhaps the simplest way to defend this play is for Bosh to stay flat with the screener, instead of hedging so aggressively out on Durant so no rotation is necessary. If that’s the choice, than the result is letting Durant tight curl for a shot or rim attack 10-12 times per game while his defender (Shane Battier in this case) trails helplessly behind. Oh, and if Durant’s defender decides to shoot the gap instead of trail, he’ll be met with a fade cut and a barrage of wide open corner 3’s.

Just when it seems all hope is lost for a defense, it’s important to remember that any offense with Kendrick Perkins will still have a weakpoint. On a set like this, the ball should be funneled to him, just not in the manner which leads to Perkins getting easy shots at the rim.

One way teams could try to slow this maneuver down is by switching the pin down between Durant and Perkins. Durant’s defender could jam Perkins while the big guarding Perk would switch out hard on Durant, looking to deny him the ball. The hope would be that the Thunder, if unable to get the ball to Durant, would either be forced to run secondary action or feed the ball into Perkins on the block. Given the aforementioned scenarios above, Perkins in the post against a wing defender seems like pretty palatable.

The danger would be Durant getting the ball against the switched out big. Whichever player ends up isolated on Durant, should pressure the ball (looking to deny a 3-point attempt) and force Durant baseline in hopes a swift rotation forces him to settle for a mid-range pull up. Not ideal, but something an opponent could consistently concede and still stay in the game. (The Heat, with Bosh, Ronny Turiaf, Joel Anthony and Haslem are probably better equipped to handle this strategy better than most teams.)

The play won’t work every time. Durant will occasionally get bumped off his curl by his primary defender, or another Thunder player won’t make the right read. But this set is just more proof that the Thunder no longer are searching for the best way to incorporate their outstanding talents into a cohesive whole on the offensive end.

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Part of the drawback to Steve Nash’s passing brilliance has always been his penchant for the occasional high-turnover game. It seems odd to think that a player of his ilk would be associated with a higher turnover rate than say, Tony Allen, but it’s true. The explanation for this actually lies in what should be considered his greatest strength; his unparalleled court-vision. Nash first locates, then works incredibly hard to get to and/or find narrow windows to deliver the ball to open teammates.

Whether he is twisting in the air or wrapping the ball around the hip of an oncoming defender, Nash, is one of the most imaginative passers in the history of the game. It is this type of creativity ultimately leads to him attempt insanely brilliant passes that mere mortals would never even see available to them. Last night in their comeback win, the Heat managed to use this trait against him.

For most of the night, Nash found passing lanes either closing quickly or hard to find. One could guess that head coach Erik Spoelstra had reminded his players to constantly be active with their hands up in passing lanes, which for Nash, is any opening he can squeeze the ball through. Heat defenders guarding the pick and rolls especially, were more active with their hands than most teams have been with Nash all year. One play in particular foreshadowed what was to be a rather rough night for the two-time MVP.

Early in the first quarter, Nash and Gortat engage in a middle ball screen that allows Nash to drive left along the lane. An undisciplined, non-Spoelstra prepared defense would normally collapse around Nash’s penetration and Gortat’s dive toward the rim. On a play like this, Nash normally will be able to find a shooter filling behind the action. Against the Heat, however, he found a turnover.

Individual credit must be given to Mario Chalmers for his on-ball work as well. Chalmers has developed as one of the most devastating on-ball defenders in the league. Nash found Chalmers quick and active hands a nuisance for much of the night.

So there you have it. To frustrate Steve Nash you need to combine a detailed and disciplined defensive coach with a team full of athletic players who just so happen to be among the top on-ball defenders at their position. Why didn’t anyone think of this before?

In their first game of a back to back against the Eastern Conference elite, Orlando had a rather forgettable evening. Dwight Howard, fresh of his opt-in drama, showed up but the rest of his supporting failed to do the same. The Magic only surrendered 91 points to the Heat last night (not bad against the team currently ranked 2nd in offensive efficiency) but one set in particular gave them a bit of trouble.

Throughout the course of the game, Miami went to a 5-out middle pick and roll set. The basic premise of the play is a two-man game in the middle of the floor with the screener rolling hard to the rim surrounded by three shooters. Ironically, it is an action that has been a trademark during the Stan Van Gundy-Dwight Howard era.

On Sunday, however, the Magic had some difficulty defending it. Miami got into the play in two different ways. Primarily, they’d run a flex cut and then have the post sprint into the pick and roll with either James or Wade. The floor is then spread with two players spacing the weakside, one in the strongside corner and the defense forced to decide who to leave uncovered.

Late in the first quarter, we see the more prevalent “false action”. Chalmers passes to James at the top while Dexter Pittman sets the flex screen for sharpshooter James Jones near the right block. As soon as Jones cuts over the top of him, Pittman moves to screen for James at the top of the key. Jones circles all the way up to the left wing while Udonis Haslem spots up in the left short corner. Here is the play.

The result of the play, as you saw, is a made jumper by Haslem. It comes from Orlando’s decision to jam the rolling Pittman with Haslem’s defender, Glen Davis. James makes a nice read on the rotation and zips a pass over the top for the open look.
The next two clips, James creates offense for himself. With Howard involved in pick and roll, Orlando simply zones up the paint, daring any ball handler to either attack Howard or settle for a contested two. Here is one from the late first quarter that starts with the same false action and ends with James taking a rhythm dribble into a long 2-pt jumpshot.

In the next video, there is different action before the pick and roll. This time, it’s called as an end of quarter play and rookie Norris Cole simply screens down for the screener (Joel Anthony) before spacing to the weakside of the play. James, due to time restrictions, is forced into a tough mid-range jumper that finds the glass before it finds the net. Not aesthetically pleasing the least, but still effective.

In the final clip, the Heat, looking to deliver the knockout punch, go back to the same flex-cut, false-action to help set-up a Bosh-James pick and roll. This time James delivers a clever pocket pass to the rolling Bosh who slips by a sloppy Magic rotation on the back end for an “And 1”.

Half-court execution is the type of thing Miami needs to continue to improve as this season wears on. Being able to execute sets like this when the game slows down is the real key for the Heat to become the odds-on favorite to win it all. By giving Orlando a dose of their own medicine last night, Miami took a step forward in their quest.

John Bennett goes back to Saturday night and explores the factors behind L.A.’s comeback win.