After a ton of blowouts during the early portion of the Las Vegas Summer League, we are now getting our close games. In addition to the Wizards-Hornets game and the Cavs-Bulls game last night, we saw an overtime between the Wizards and the Knicks today. With just under ten seconds left, Tony Douglas was at the free throw line looking to expand the Knicks’ one point lead. Douglas ended up missed both of him, but he was still able to come away the hero:
Instead of pouting after the miss, Tony Douglas got back on defense and got himself in position to take the offensive foul. Was it a bit of a flop here? Sure, but credit to Douglas for reading Cartier Martin’s move and jumping into position to take the charge. Also, once Martin’s arm swings out when the contact is made, it’s foul no matter what.
Now, Sam Cassell was livid after the play, and it wasn’t with the officiating. According to the announcers calling the game, Cassell was giving it to Lester Hudson for not getting the ball and bringing it up. I get the logic, Martin isn’t a point guard while Hudson is. Hudson probably would have been more comfortable bringing the ball up late (Martin looked a little tentative then picked up the offensive foul). However, the way the situation transpired, Martin was the only option for the Wizards.
Sure, Hudson could have came down and me the ball, but he still would have been double teamed. Good work by the Knicks here, they identified the primary ball handler and made sure they didn’t let him catch the basketball. This is what allowed for Tony Douglas to take the offensive foul.
The Wizards’ buzzer beater against the Hornets wasn’t the only game winning shot of the night. In the other gym, Pooh Jeter and the Cleveland Cavaliers were able to get a game winner of their own. Unlike the Wizards’ winner, the Cavs were able to get their best shooter a wide open look for a game-winning three:
When the ball gets tossed to the trigger man, Pooh Jeter comes down and set a brush screen for Marquis Gilstrap. Gilstrap come out can receives the basketball from the inbounder Aaron Jackson. After the quick screen, Jeter floats out towards the corner.
When the regular season starts, not many people are going to remember the buzzer beater that took place during the Wizards’ game against the Hornets, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from it. Lester Hudson’s game winning shot showed how important a second option can be when running set plays late in games. Off the top of my head, I can think of a number of sideline out of bounds plays that fail because their is only one option for the man inbounding the ball, and the result is usually a turnover or a bad shot. Here, with the first option taken away, the Wizards’ simply moved on to option #2 and ended up winning the game:
This play is initially run to either get Cartier Martin an open shot on the curl off of a Javale McGee brush screen (he doesn’t really get set for the screen, they just rub off of each other) or to hit McGee on a backdoor lob.
Two games in a row, the Milwaukee Bucks’ Summer League team faced similar late game defensive situations. With under a second left, the Bucks’ opponent had the ball on a sideline out of bounds play, and on both occasions the Bucks allowed their opponent to score a game-winning/game-tying bucket (This doesn’t count the basket that Rodrigue Beaubois hit from an ISO set with .7 seconds left to win the Bucks-Mavs game in overtime). Both times, it was due to a defensive blunder, and both times it cost them the game:
Bucks vs. Mavs
With 0.3 seconds left, the Bucks were holding onto a 2 point lead. Here, there is just enough time for a catch and shoot, but more than likely the opposing team would be running a play right at the rim:
As the ball gets to the trigger man, J.R. Giddens gets a staggered double screen set for him from the two Dallas Mavericks’ bigs. These screens are set so Giddens can curl around the screens and get freed up by at least one of the screens.
There haven’t been too many close games in the Orlando Summer League, so when we get one, it is interesting to see how the rookies react. Sure, they have been in late game situations before during their prep/college career, but they never had to face this type of situation during their short stint as pros. Paul George found himself in a close late game situation yesteday, and he stepped up big time…On both ends of the court:
We have the Celtics point guard dribbling out the shot clock before he sets up the offense. With a 12 second differential between the shot clock and the game clock, the Pacers decide to defend straight up and not foul.
Much like Lakers approached defending Rajon Rondo in game six, the Celtics took whoever was covering Ron Artest (in most cases it was Paul Pierce) and had them float on the defensive end of the court. Unlike Rajon Rondo in game six, Ron Artest was able to make the Boston Celtics pay for this defensive strategy. Eleven of Ron Artest’s twenty points came directly from Boston Celtic double teams. Here is a look at these plays:
Play 1 (Two Points)
Above is a play from a sideline out of bounds set. Immediately after Ron Artest inbounds the basketball and floats to the corner, Paul Pierce leaves him to float in the middle of the court. Rajon Rondo, unsure of what to make of the situation decides to pick up Artest. As the shot goes up, Artest uses his size advantage on Rondo to grab the rebound and put it right back in the basket.
For almost the entire second half, the Lakers were chipping away at the Celtics’ lead. Any time they would get close, the Celtics would create a little breathing room for themselves. That is exactly what happened after the Lakers tied the game at 61. The Celtics used three Ray Allen free throws to create a three point lead with about six and a half minutes left. That is when Derek Fisher hit another huge three pointer in a NBA Finals game.
An interesting little wrinkle with this play is Lamar Odom bringing the ball up. This is important for two reasons. When Pau gets the ball in the post, it is hard for Big Baby (the man covering Odom) to double off of him. It allows allows for Derek Fisher to float off of the basketball.
After Ray Allen hit a three pointer with about 52 seconds left, the Celtics found themselves down three points needing to get a stop to keep it a one possession game. They got their stop as Kobe chucked up a deep three pointer, but they were unable to secure the defensive rebound, and that was your ballgame:
After Ray Allen hits his three, things get a little hectic as Pau Gasol gets set to inbound the basketball. All ten players are in the Lakers’ backcourt, and this leads to some confusions about matchups. Initially you have Rasheed Wallace and Kevin Garnett just kind of hanging around not responsible for any Laker yet.
Rajon Rondo’s offensive rebound late in the fourth quarter with the Celtics up by ten points was a pretty big play. Instead of getting a defensive rebound and having the chance to cut the lead down into single digits, the Lakers were facing a 12 point lead with the Boston crowd going nuts. While this was a great individual effort by Rondo, the Lakers (more specifically Lamar Odom) are responsible for this play:
The Boston Celtics get the ball in Paul Pierce’s hands so he can initiate the offense. Once he gets the ball, the Celtics run a pick and pop with Ray Allen as the screener.
The Celtics found themselves in a pretty interesting situation up five points with around 40 seconds left. Taking the ball out of bounds, they had four seconds to advance the ball from the backcourt (where they were inbounding it) past the halfcourt line in four seconds. The Celtics could have advanced the ball with another timeout, but because they only had one left, Doc Rivers decided to draw up a play for the Celtics to quickly advance the basketball. As Trey Kerby so accurately described it, it was basically the NBA version of the “The Annexation of Puerto Rico.” However, the Lakers made a few mistakes that aided to the play:
As Kevin Garnett gets the ball to inbound it, Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce switch places. They don’t set a screen, they just switch. It looks like the first option was Rondo curling towards the basketball (trying to get it to him in a dead sprint so he can just run it across half court) and Paul Pierce was the second option curling out towards the halfcourt line.
