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.
In Game 6, Kevin Garnett scored 22 points on over 50% shooting. You could shrug your shoulders and say that’s just a great player being great, but you’d be wrong. This one’s on Cavs coach Mike Brown. Mike Brown made an adjustment for Game 6 that resulted directly in Kevin Garnett going off. He took Antawn Jamison off of Kevin Garnett and put Shaquille O’Neal on him. In fairness to Coach Brown, Jamison was getting killed by Garnett on the inside and a switch had to be made. But why Shaq? My guess is that Mike Brown saw Jamison getting punished inside and thought, “Hey Shaq’s big. KG won’t score inside now!” almost forgetting that KG has an outside game.
Realizing the new mismatch, the Celtics went to KG early and he scored 6 of the first 12 Celtics points.
Something LeBron did a lot of during Game 5 was standing on the wing or in the corner, just looking uninterested. I was sitting there waiting for LeBron to make a cut off the basketball, get the ball going full speed, and slamming it home. After seeing the ball go in, LeBron would start making jumpers and the Cavs would come back and get the win. That never happened though, LeBron just continued to stand there.
Kelly Dwyer just put out a fantastic article on what LeBron needs to do in Game 6, what I want to look at is what the Cavs can do to get LeBron going. In my opinion, it’s all in the playcalling.
Pick and Roll As A Decoy
While watching game 5, I was so shocked that the Cavs didn’t call this play. I was waiting for it and waiting for it, but it never happened. That’s funny, because the Cavs seem to run this play once or twice a game and it seems to always work:
I am not going to look at LeBron’s poor game in detail, because let’s face it, a lot of writers/bloggerswho arebetter thanme havedone it already, with my personal favorite being Kevin Arnovitz’s look at it. What I was looking for when I rewatched last night’s game was whether or not there was anything wrong with LeBron’s outside shot. I noticed a couple things that looked a little different last night vs. when he has things clicking from the outside.
On The Catch
In my opinion, LeBron did two things you don’t normally see him do on the catch. He wasn’t stepping into/through the basketball, and he was bringing it down on the catch.
In the third quarter, the Cavs really tried to get LeBron going. They started setting off-ball screens for James and had him running off of them. Here, LeBron runs along the baseline, getting a screen from Antawn Jamison.
The Bulls were fighting for their playoff lives, and they were able to keep Game 5 close throughout the 4th quarter, but while the Bulls were working hard, it was really what the Cavs weren’t doing that kept the game close. For instance, up by 6 points LeBron James got the ball with Joakim Noah covering him on a switch:
With the Bulls trying fight of the Cavaliers, who were making a run late, Joakim Noah really made his presence felt on the defensive end. Two times in the final 4 minutes, Noah made a smart play on the defensive end getting a stop and helping the Bulls get out in transition.
On this first play, the Cavs try to run a double screen to free up the lane for LeBron James. The Bulls counter by having James’ defender, Luol Deng, go under the screen. To make going under the screen much easier, both Rose and Noah back up off their man to clear a lane for Deng to get through. This is a pretty good defensive strategy by Chicago as you would rather want James shooting a three than getting in the lane, and going under the screen does just that.
Throughout the playoffs, we are going to be looking at the teams that lost their last game and look at what they can do to try and get a win.
The Bulls really struggled on offense against the Cavs’ defense during Game 1. They only scored 83 points, and with 106 total possessions, that comes out to only .78 points per possession. However, there was one set that worked well for the Bulls, and it was the pick and roll. The Bulls ran the pick and roll 27 times, and they were able to score on it 14 times.
In Game 2, the Bulls need to use the pick and roll to make the Cavs pay for playing Shaq. On defense, the Bulls have nobody who can stop Shaq, and in Game 1 Shaq had 12 points on 5-9 shooting in just about 24 minutes. Now, on the other end of the court, the Bulls need to involve Shaq in the pick and roll. To do so, whoever Shaq is defending needs to set a screen for Derrick Rose. Every single time down the court when Shaq is in. Why? Well, because when the Bulls did it in Game 1, it was effective. This is because you are forcing Shaq to move, and at his age and game condition (he only just started playing again recently), that is going to be tough for him. This is the first time the Bulls ran the pick and roll with Shaq in:
For these playoff previews we are going to take a look at each team individually, and then we are going to look at the match-up.
The Chicago Bulls looked they were out of the playoffs a couple weeks ago, but after a few key Raptors broke their faces, the Bulls played their way into the final seed of the playoffs. Their reward? The Cleveland Cavaliers, who will be playing LeBron James
In the fourth quarter of the Cavs game against the Celtics, LeBron James was a runaway freight train. He scored 20 points in said quarter, and he did it by attacking the basket. When James decided to put his head down and get to the rim, he either got himself an easy basket or a foul call. Conversely, nothing was dropping from the three point line as he was 0-7 from deep with his team down 2 with just about 10 seconds left. That is what makes his decision for a pull up three on a 2 on 2 situation so confusing.
We have all seen LeBron’s heat check threes before, you know, the ones that as he pulls up everyone says “No! God no!” but then it goes in to a resounding “Yes!” but those usually come after a couple makes. LeBron was so successful attacking the rim in the fourth quarter, it was just plain silly:
This was 1 of 5 plays that LeBron had where he attacked and ended up with a dunk or a lay-up. Now, let’s look at that final play:
With the game tied at 95 with 28.7 seconds left, the Cavs were coming out of a timeout with the basketball. Now this is usually where the snarky comments bashing Mike Brown come (I am at fault of this from time to time). However, last night Mike Brown shut the haters up with an old standby:
I have taken a close look at this play twicebefore, so no need for the still images, but here is the video:
This play is fantastic, and for some reason it always works. What makes it so brilliant is that normally when a player is standing out by halfcourt, his defender sags into help position. Not when LeBron has the basketball. Here, LeBron’s defender is all up on him as the pick and roll action takes place. All eyes are on the pick and roll action except for LeBron’s defender, and this is what allows for the backscreen to set effectively. By the time the screen is set, it is too late and LeBron already has a full head of steam going towards the rim. He makes the catch and finishes, giving the Cavs the lead.
