After a furious comeback (and back to back threes from both teams), the Dallas Mavericks found themselves tied with the ball for the final possession (with just a 0.5 second differential on the shot clock), looking to get the basketball to Dirk Nowitzki and get a game winner.  The Mavericks did just that, putting the ball in Nowitzki’s hands, and some smart positioning by Dallas and some hesitation by Miami allowed Dirk to get all the way to the rim, allowing him to finish and put the game away.

As the ball goes to Shawn Marion, the trigger man, Tyson Chandler sets a down screen for Jason Kidd, who flashes to the top of the key and gets the ball from Marion.

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LeBron James’ dunk with 2:47 left in the game pretty much sealed the game as it took the Heat’s lead from 7 points and stretched it out to 10 points (after the foul shot).  While it looked like just your average isolation set late in the game, showing yet another example of a coach choosing the easy way out over a set play, looking at Miami’s previous two possessions shows you how the Heat and their coaching staff were able to set up Dallas’ defense for the dunk:

The two times down the court, the Miami Heat ran the same action twice in a row, with LeBron James bringing up the basketball, handing it off (or at least trying to) to Dwyane Wade and then letting Wade work off of a pick and roll.  The Heat were actually looking to run the same action, but with the defense anticipating it, James was able to attack the rim:

As LeBron James crosses half court, he starts to take the basketball to Dwyane Wade, who is cutting towards James looking for the dribble handoff.  Which is exactly what they ran two possessions in a row now.

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After an incredible comeback, the Chicago Bulls found themselves trailing the Heat by three points after two Chris Bosh free throws.  With no timeouts left, the Bulls had to take the ball the length of the court in 16.8 seconds and get a clean look at a three point shot.  However, they were unable to even get a shot to the rim, with Derrick Rose getting blocked by LeBron James:

In my opinion, it looked like the Bulls were trying to run Korver off of three screens away from the basketball, but he started a little too early, and it ended up being just a simple pindown from Taj Gibson.  Gibson whiffs on the screen (in part because Korver does a poor job using it) and this forces Korver to make the catch with his back to the basket then taking a dribble away from the basket.  He gets caught picking up his dribble, is forced to give it to Rose, who gets a screen, but with Haslem hedging and James recovering, the shot gets blocked.  Even though Korver ran the play wrong (starting early and not using the staggered screen that was being set for him), I just think Korver had too much area to cover with his run (we have seen this be a problem in the past), and it would have allowed Miller to recover either way.

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With 1:14 left in game five and the ball on the side coming out of a timeout, the Oklahoma City Thunder trailed the Dallas Mavericks by one point.  Unlike most possessions, the Thunder came out and tried to run an offense, however, it failed because of an issue that has been haunting Oklahoma City all series (and playoffs) long.  No backside action/movement.

After James Harden inbounds the basketball to Russell Westbrook, Westbrook hands it off to Harden on the wing and then clears out to the weakside corner.

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One of the biggest criticisms that I have for Thunder head coach Scott Brooks, is that he doesn’t really run any sets late.  There have been far too many examples of the Thunder relying on Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook ability to create for themselves when they need a basket in the final seconds, and that is part of the reason why they struggle in late game situations.  We saw a perfect example of this with 38.6 seconds left and the Thunder holding a two point lead:

Here, Kevin Durant gets a pindown screen, but this screen isn’t designed to put him in a catch and shoot situation.  Instead, this pindown screen is designed to get Durant the ball on the wing and let him work out of an isolation situation.  The result is Kevin Durant starting too early, skipping a pass to Thabo Sefolosha, who misses the three.

While in my opinion, this was a poor coaching decision by Brooks (letting Durant work isolation instead of running a set), the next Thunder possession (where they had the ball with 6.4 seconds left and the game tied) Scott Brooks actually tried to run a set for Kevin Durant.

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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.

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After having success with the Derrick Rose/Kyle Korver pick and pop in game one, it was surprising to see the Bulls shy away from that action in game two, especially considering their offensive struggles in game two.

Chicago did try to run a similar action with 1:30 in the fourth quarter trailing by seven points, but they added another twist, and this time it really hurt the offense.  Perhaps overthinking it, the Bulls ended up making the pick and pop easier instead of harder to defend by adding a few unnecessary actions:

The set starts with Kyle Korver setting a screen for Derrick Rose on the wing as he brings the basketball down the court.  The first noticeable difference is that the Bulls are running this pick and roll early instead of sending Korver from the block.

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The Kevin Durant/Russell Westbrook pick and pop with Durant coming off of a screen away from the basketball is a play that the Oklahoma City Thunder ran against the Memphis Grizzlies in the past with mixed success.  When they ran it against Tony Allen, the Thunder struggled to score:

The reason that the Grizzlies are able to stop the Thunder’s pick and pop here is because Allen has absolutely no interest in hedging on Russell Westbrook coming off of the screen.  This allows him to stay attached to Durant’s body and prevent the pass from going to him.

However, when they ran it with Shane Battier covering him, they had some success due to Battier’s tendency to hedge on Westbrook coming off of the screen:

For whatever reason, Battier decides to hedge and this allows Durant to get off of his defender’s body and cut to the rim where he gets the pass and the dunk.

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With 5:30 left in the fourth quarter in game one against the Miami Heat, the Chicago Bulls were looking to extend their twelve point lead and put the game away.  To do so, the Bulls went to a play/set that they just don’t run often, a Derrick Rose/Kyle Korver pick and pop.

So why would Tom Thibodeau run a play in the fourth quarter of the Eastern Conference Finals when he hasn’t ran it all postseason and ran it just three times (0.5% of Korver’s total possessions) during the regular season?  Because he saw a situation where he could exploit the Heat’s defensive strategy:

As Derrick Rose brings the basketball up, Mario Chalmers is playing off of him standing around the three point.  As soon as Rose crosses halfcourt, Korver runs up and sets a screen on Chalmers.

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In game six against the Memphis Grizzlies, the fourth quarter was a real struggle for the Thunder as they only scored 15 points on 31% shooting.  While there is going to be a camp that blames Russell Westbrook and a camp that blames Kevin Durant (in my opinion, they both played an equal role in the quarter), there was one Thunder player on the court that made things difficult for them to score and that player is Kendrick Perkins.

Coach Scott Brooks kept Perkins in the game for the final eight minutes in the fourth quarter, where he posted a +/- of -5 during that stretch (according to the fantastic PopcornMachine.net).  While Perkins’ free throw shooting is poor, that isn’t even the reason why Perkins shouldn’t be in.  Kendrick Perkins shouldn’t be in the during the fourth quarter of close games because of the fact that he isn’t a threat on the offensive end.  This allows whoever is covering him (in this case Marc Gasol) to basically ignore him and play off of him.  In this particular case, Gasol was able to shade towards Kevin Durant and keep the ball out of his hands.  There were three specific plays that come to mind when looking at Perkins and how Marc Gasol is able to play off of him:

This play starts with Russell Westbrook bringing up the basketball along the sideline.  As that happens, Durant gets a cross screen set for him by Nick Collison.  Durant jab steps one direction and then comes back towards the screen, using it very well.

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