This success was unexpected because the Heat are usually one of the best teams when defending agains Spot-Ups.  According to Synergy, the Heat are the 2nd best defensive team in Spot-Up situations, holding opponents to 0.907 PPP on 36.3% shooting.  So what happened against the Cavs, and what allowed them to have so much success against Miami?  It is pretty simple, the Heat closed out very poorly:

On this play, LeBron James is in help position (preparing to help on the roll man) as the Cavs run a pick and roll.  As Davis makes the pass to Alonzo Gee in the corner, James turns in the wrong direction, basically circling around before closing out.  By the time James gets out to the corner, it is too late and Gee knocks down the shot.

Here, Baron Davis attacks the rim and kicks the basketball out to J.J. Hickson in the corner along the baseline.  Chris Bosh actually does a good job of getting in position to close out on Hickson, but Bosh never gets his hands up.  Hickson gets off the easy shot and knocks it down.

This time, Hickson gets the basketball on the elbow after Ramon Sessions attacks the rim and then kicks the ball out to him when stopped.  Dwyane Wade starts to close out on Hickson, but he simply shows and then returns to his man.  Nobody else steps up to Hickson, and he is able to shoot the short jumper and knocks it down.

Here, we have another play off of the pick and roll.  Sessions gets the basketball and comes off of a Ryan Hollis screen.  Bosh is forced to step up and Sessions kicks the ball out to Luke Harangody.  Bosh committed a little too deep (especially considering there is help behind him), and he is unable to close out on Harangody in time.

In this clip, Ramon Sessions attacks the rim and as that happens, Daniel Gibson spots up behind Sessions.  Dwyane Wade gets caught ball watching, meaning he has no idea where Gibson is or where he is spotting up at.  So when the ball gets kicked out to Gibson, Wade needs to close out hard to try and cover ground.  Instead, he jogs with his hand up, not really bothering the shot.

This play is off of a BLOB (baseline out of bounds) set.  The Cavs quickly get the basketball in to J.J. Hickson.  Again, Bosh closes out and gets his body in position to challenge the shot, but he gets his hands up too late, not really bothering the shot.

This final shot again comes off of a pick and roll set.  Baron Davis comes off of the screen and attacks the rim, forcing help defenders to sink in on him.  James Jones ends up sinking in a little too far (especially considering LeBron James is right there to provide help at the rim), meaning he is unable to close out on Anthony Parker as he knocks down the big three.

You probably noticed that most of these wide open shots due to poor closeouts were from the first half.  The Heat tried to buckle down and play tough defense in the second half, but it was too late.  Not only were the Cavs able to knock down all of the early jumpers, allowing them to build a pretty big lead, but giving up these open shots and allowing the Cavs to see the ball go through the rim just gave the entire team confidence.  Whether you believe in the hot hand theory or not, it is easy to see that a player plays with more confidence as he hits more shots.  So if you give up open jumpers and they get knocked down (which is what happened during this game), the team making the shots plays with more confidence and they start taking, and making, tougher shots.  For example:

This is a great closeout (and a good example of what the Heat were doing on the offensive end in the 4th quarter), but Anthony Parker takes the shot anyway.  He has seen himself and his teammates knock down shots over the course of the game that Parker has the confidence to knock down this incredibly tough jumper.

What I think happened is the Heat started off the game taking things easy.  Not closing out hard and giving up shots.  Unfortunately for them, the Cavs were hitting their shots and by the time the Heat started playing tough defense, it was just too late and they were unable to comeback.

Three 1 – Slow Rotation

As the Pacers run their offense, Christian Eyenga is covering Danny Granger on the weakside.  Eyenga does what he is supposed to in terms of help for the most part, but once Mike Dunleavy Jr. gets the basketball on the wing, Eyenga starts to ball watch a little to much.  So when Dunleavy Jr. pump fakes to Roy Hibbert on the block, Eyenga bites a bit on that.  That split second delay is what gives Granger that space to take and make the three pointer.

Three 2 – Lost In Transition

On this three, the Cavs simply lose Mike Dunleavy Jr. in transition.  The biggest culprit is Anthony Parker.  As Darren Collison brings up the basketball, Parker starts backpedaling instead of sprinting back to the front of the rim.  By the time that Parker realizes his man responsibility is on the opposite side of the court, it is too late, and the Pacers get another three pointer.

Three 3 -

This final three was definitely the backbreaker for the Cavs, and it was the play most indicative of what’s wrong with the Cavs’ three point defense:

The play starts with the Pacers running a set with their two bigs setting screens at the elbow for Darren Collison.  Collison chooses to use Granger’s screen and starts to drive to the basket.

This play is a pick and pop with a pick and roll (with Hibbert setting that screen) attached to the tail end of it.  Granger makes the catch and uses the Hibbert screen to attack the rim.  This forces Jamison to correctly sink into the paint and provide help on the roll man.  Once Josh McRoberts sees Jamison sink into the paint, he cuts along the baseline.

McRoberts’ cut actually makes things a whole lot easier for the Cavs’ rotation.  Now, Sessions only has a short distance to cover to rotate to his new responsibility, McRoberts.  Sessions proper rotation means that Darren Collison is going to be wide open.

So that means that someone has to rotate over to him.  That man rotating needs to be J.J. Hickson, who was the hedge man on the pick and roll.  Instead, Hickson gets caught ball-watching, looking at what is going on in front of him.

Granger makes a good pass to Collison, and Hickson tries to get back to challenge the shot, but it is too late, and Collison knocks down the shot.  Here is the play in real time:

The biggest problem that I have seen with the Cavs’ three point defense is that they rarely finish off rotations. The final three pointer that the Pacers made last night was a perfect example of what the Cavs seem to do wrong every single time.

Play #3 (1 point)- John Kuester/Detroit Pistons

For the third place play, the Detroit Pistons ran a very quick hitting play that was designed to open up Ben Gordon.  The play worked, and it forced the defense’s hand, leading to an open basket.

The ball gets inbounded from Ben Gordon to Tayshaun Prince in the post.  Once Gordon inbounds the basketball, he gets a backscreen from a Piston big.  Gordon uses that backscreen to flare out to the high post.

D.J. Augustin gets caught up in the screen, leaving Gordon wide open.  This forces the defense to step up and close out hard on Gordon, who has been shooting very well this game.

With Tracy McGrady’s man stepping up to Gordon, McGrady spots up wide open in the corner, behind the three point line.

McGrady makes the catch and knocks down the open three pointer.  Here is the play in real time:

This is a very nice play drawn up from coach Kuester, and it is also a nice read from Ben Gordon.  Instead of forcing up the jumper, he hits the open man in the corner for the open three.

Play #2 (2 points)- Byron Scott/Cleveland Cavaliers

With the Cavs trailing by 10 points and the game threatening to get out of hand early, coach Byron Scott ran a nice play that took the ball from one side to the other, leading to an easy jumper.

The play starts with Manny Harris getting a downscreen that allows him to flash to the top of the key for the basketball.

Once Harris makes the catch, Alonzo Gee flashes to the wing, and then quickly cuts through to the opposite corner.

Once Gee clears, Harris passes it to his teammate on the wing.  As this happens, Anthony Parker starts walking down his man then quickly changes direction, uses a screen to get to the high post.

J.J. Hickson gets a very good screen on Parker’s man, creating a lot of room for Parker to work with.  The pass is on time and comes as soon as Parker comes off the screen.

The result is a wide open shot for Parker off the catch as Parker’s man tries to get back for the close-out, but it is too late.  Here is the play in real time:

This play is all about timing.  If Anthony Parker makes his cut too early and Manny Harris isn’t done with his cut yet, he isn’t going to be open.  Wait too long, and the defense will sniff out the play.  The timing is perfect here, and that is what leads to the open shot.

Play #1 (3 points)- Rick Adelman/Houston Rockets

With the Houston Rockets down 2 points with 15 seconds left in the 4th quarter, the Rockets needed a play coming to of the timeout to get a basket.

As the ball goes to the triggerman, Aaron Brooks comes off of a screen from Luis Scola, using it to get the ball at the top of the key.

Once Shane Battier inbounds the basketball to Brooks, Battier walks his man down and then quickly flashes to the elbow, looking for the pass.

Battier gets the pass from Brooks, who flashes to the opposite side after making the pass.  As this happens, Kevin Martin comes over and cuts off of Luis Scola, who is posting up on the block.

The key to this play is that Scola isn’t setting a screen, Martin is just simply cutting off of him.  This is important, because Scola is always a threat, meaning that his man can’t leave him like he would if he was hedging off of a screen.  That is what opens up the lane, allowing Battier to hit Martin with the pass.

Martin makes the catch (an incredibly tough catch) and finishes at the rim while getting fouled.  Here is the play in real time:

You can see that Paul Millsap doesn’t want to leave Scola because he is still a threat to make a catch in the post.  That little aspect (Scola staying posted instead of setting a screen) is what makes this play.

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Updated Standings (Previous)

1. Doc Rivers – 5 points (1st)
2. Erik Spoelstra – 4 points (2nd)
3. Rick Adelman - 3 points (NR)
4. Frank Vogel – 3 points (3rd)
5. George Karl – 2 points (4th)
6. Phil Jackson – 2 points (5th)
7. Byron Scott – 2 points (NR)
8. Gregg Popovich – 1 point (6th)
9. John Kuester – 1 point (NR)
10. Keith Smart – 1 point (7th)

Last night saw our first game winning timeout set, and that was enough for coach Adelman to get the win.  Byron Scott and John Kuester (my sleeper for a top three finish if he is in Detroit the rest of the season) round out the top three.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are a very bad team, there is no real question about that. When trying to figure out why they are so bad, you have to look at the defensive end, where they have a Defensive Rating of 108.6 points allowed per 100 possessions. More specifically, you have to look at their ability to defend the three point line. So far this season, the Cavaliers have allowed opponents to shoot 42.2 percent from the three-point line, ranking them dead last in three-point defense. In fact, according to SI.com’s Zach Lowe, that would be the worst mark in NBA history.

There is no real individual at fault here. Instead, this is all due to bad team defense. Where Cleveland seems to get beat the most for threes is in spot-up situations, as opponents have have made 207 threes (the Cavs have given up 348 three-pointers so far this season) out of this situation. Another indication of the Cavaliers’ poor help defense is their opponent assist numbers. 61.9 percent of opponents’ baskets are assisted (third-worst in the NBA).

As always, head on over and check it out!

As Mo Williams picks up his dribble, the floor is balanced.  What I mean by floor balance is that the offense has at least one player (usually a guard) out near the top of the key behind the three point to prevent a fast break in the case of a miss or a turnover.

As the ball gets swung out to Daniel Gibson, the Cavs are still maintaining their floor balance with both guards out on the perimeter.

The ball eventually gets back to Mo Williams, and Williams decides to drive along the sideline.  To maintain proper floor balance, Daniel Gibson needs to rotate out to the top of the key.

Instead as the ball gets kicked to the corner and the shot is taken, Gibson decides to crash the board.

With Mo Williams attacking the rim and Gibson crashing the offensive glass, the Cavs now have four players along the baseline with Anderson Varejao the only player out near the foul line.  Even then, Varejao isn’t the one with who is responsible for getting back on defense, so there is absolutely no floor balance.

The ball bounces over the head of Gibson and straight into the hands of LeBron James.  With Dwyane Wade running the floor, the Miami Heat now have an instant 2 on 1 fast break with the lone defender being Anderson Varejao.

James throws a great pass to Wade who finishes with a monster jam while getting suplexed into the stands.  Here is the play in real time:

What astonishes me is the Heat have basically come out and said that if they get stops, they are going to be running out in transition and yet teams still aren’t really making maintaing proper floor balance a priority. If this continues, you are going to be seeing the Heat player faster and faster while scoring more and more.

One Thing They Did Well

Using Off Ball Screens

The Cleveland Cavs were incredibly efficient on offense, and a lot of it had to do with LeBron James.  The Cavs were most effective were when they were using off the ball screens.  According to Synergy, the Cavs were 2nd in the NBA in terms of PPP when working off of screens while shooting 43.2% from three.

The main reason why the Cavs were so effective in this area was LeBron James, even though he wasn’t the one doing a bulk of the scoring off of screens.  However, he was the one setting everything up.  In the above clip, every defender has their eyes focused on LeBron, this allows for the screener to get into position, getting a solid one set for Anthony Parker.

In this clip, LeBron has the ball, and the defense responds accordingly.  Mo Williams’ man sinks way off of him, actually setting himself up to be screen.  LeBron hits Williams for the wide open three.

It doesn’t always need to be LeBron setting everything up though.  Here, Anthony Parker runs off of a double screen, gets a good pass, and knocks it down.

The player who really seemed to benefit from the Cavs’ ability to set good screens was Mo Williams.  Williams posted a 1.09 PPP when coming off of screens while shooting 44.2% from three (Good enough to rank him 9th in the NBA in these situations).

One Thing They Did Poorly

Defending The Post

On the defensive end, there wasn’t much that the Cavs did poorly.  They finished 8th in the NBA when it came to opponents’ PPP.  However, the one area where they really struggled was when they tried to defend the post.  They were 16th in the NBA when it came to defending the post.  The two main reasons that lead to their struggles was that they allowed centers to get strong post position too easily and they struggled when trying to double the post.

Here, after setting a screen, Emeka Okafor runs directly to the middle of the paint and seals his man.  All that is left for him to do is make the catch and hit the turn around shot.

In addition to letting opposing centers set up shop wherever they wanted, the Cavs really struggled with double teams.  In the above clip, they let Andrea Bargnani make the catch and take four dribbles in the post before hitting a hook shot.  Now, four dribbles is a ton, and with how high Bargnani was taking them, someone probably should have come down and doubled.

Even when the Cavs do double, it never seems to be on time.  Here, Hibbert makes the catch, and Antawn Jamisontries to double down.  He’s late with it though and ends up fouling Hibbert.

That was a big problem for the Cavs.  They fouled way too much in the post.  They fouled their opponent on 11.6% of their 693 possessions in the post, including 27 And 1s.  Most of them took place in the manner of the above clip.

Can They Maintain/Improve?

Just like in the Bulls’ preview, it is hard to tell whether or not the Cavs can maintain what they do well or improve what they don’t do well.  Not only do they have a new coach, but LeBron isn’t there anymore either.  It’s only natural to expect their off the ball proficiency to dip, because LeBron commanded so much attention, that screeners were able to set strong screens on defenders.  Without LeBron there, the screens are going to be harder to set.  As for the defense, it is really hard to tell what coach Byron Scott’s strategy is going to be until we see it in action.

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.

Gilstrap receives the pass and quickly hands it back to Jackson.  This handoff bascially become a screen, as Jackson comes off of Gilstrap after getting the basketball.

This forces the Bulls’ defenders to switch (because as we know, defenses like to switch every screen late) and this results in a big man covering a guard.

Jackson uses his speed advantage to get around his new defender with ease.  Jackson does the smart thing here by attacking the basket, he doesn’t hang around the perimeter or settle for the mid range jumper.  He dribbles right at the help defender, forcing him to make a choice, either stay with his man (Pooh Jeter) or stop the basketball.

The help defender chooses to help on the penetration, allowing Pooh Jeter to spot up wide open behind the three point line in the corner.

Jackson does a great job of finding Jeter wide open and he is able to rise up and attempt the jumper before the defense can close out on him.  Here is the play in real time:

Realizing the new mismatch, the Celtics went to KG early and he scored 6 of the first 12 Celtics points.

On these first two possessions, you see that Shaq’s lack of footspeed is what hurts him here.  Shaq wants to stay up close to defend the shot, but he also has to worry about the drive.  KG has always been able to knock down that little step back, and when he uses it here, Shaq isn’t able to bother KG’s shot because he isn’t quick enough.

Another reason why this match-up doesn’t work is because the Celtics like to use KG as a screener.  That means Shaq is forced to defend the pick and roll.  That is something Shaq is really bad at doing, in fact, he might be the worst in the NBA when it comes to defending the pick and roll.  Mike Brown intentionally put Shaq in a position where he was going to defend more pick and rolls than usual.

Here, Shaq needs to come all the way out to prevent Ray Allen from going baseline. He isn’t quick enough to just hedge, so when Allen kicks it back to KG, he needs to scramble all the way back.  He doesn’t get there in time, and KG is able to knock down the jumper.

So what is the correct match-up?  Well in my opinion it is Anderson Varejao on Garnett.  Varejao isn’t afraid to bang on the inside, but he is also quick enough to stay with KG and challenge shots on the outside.  It takes Coach Brown a few tries (he started with Shaq, went to Jamison, then back to Shaq, then Varejao), but he finally gets Varejao on Garnett in the third quarter, but by then it is too late.

What I mean by that is KG got so many open jumpers and easy looks (and he knocked them down) he was able to get himself in the zone.  You always hear players say once they see the ball go in once, they are good to go.  I tend to believe that is true, and KG got to see the ball go in a ton early, and that gives him the confidence to take (and make) this tough jumper on Varejao.

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:

The way LeBron was just standing around during Game 5, this play would have worked and probably would have gotten LeBron going with a big dunk (especially when they needed a run in the third quarter).  What was Mike Brown doing not calling this play?  I have no idea.

Pick And Roll With LeBron as the screener

The Cavs don’t do this a ton (according to Synergy he was the roll man 1.1% – or 25 times – of the time he was on the offensive end), but it is something that can work and get LeBron going.  In fact, according to Synergy it produces 1.04 points per possession (this is better than his numbers working out of ISO sets).

It is really hard to defend this because your natural reaction is to hedge and worry about the guy coming off of the screen, but here you want to make sure the roll man (LeBron) doesn’t get free.  It isn’t natural for the defense, and they can get mixed up.

After a few pick and rolls with LeBron being the screen man, he then can slip the screen as the defense is waiting for the pick to be set.

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.

As he curls around the screen, LeBron James makes the catch up high like a good shooter is supposed to. Now look where Jamison is setting his screen. Everything is designed for LeBron to make the catch, take step through the basketball while keeping it high, and pull up off of the catch. That doesn’t happen though.

LeBron stays stationary, and as a result he brings the basketball down before bringing it back up again to shoot it. So why is bringing the basketball down such a big deal? It breaks the rhythm of a shooter. Normally James (along with most shooters) makes the catch, keeps it at the level he makes the catch, and pulls up. Bringing it down and back up again is a wasted motion that throws the timing of the shot off.

LeBron not stepping through the basketball is what causes him to bring it down, and bringing it down is what causes him to miss the jumper. Here it is in real time:

Off The Dribble

Where LeBron really struggled though is shooting off the dribble. I don’t know what it was, but every time he seemed to rise up off the bounce, he was off balance, and that caused a ton of problems.

Here, LeBron is bringing the basketball up when he decides to pull up for a jumper. He comes to a stop and starts to rise up, but notice how far in front his feet are. This causes his butt to be too far out and nothing is on balance as he takes off.

With nothing on balance, LeBron’s whole body starts to lean. LeBron kicks his feet out, it is something he always does, so ignore that, it isn’t a problem. Up top though, his back isn’t straight.

As he lands, his back still isn’t straight. He misses this shot and I really think the fact that he wasn’t on balance through the take-off, the release, or the landing is the reason why. Here it is in real time. Notice he kind of hesitates right before picking up his dribble, as if he doesn’t know whether or not to take one extra dribble:

So what does an on-balance LeBron look like?

Ignore the quality, that is LeBron even though you can’t really tell. Notice as he rises up here his feet are under him and his butt isn’t hanging out.

When he is in the air, he still is kicking his legs out, but that is normal. What you want to notice is how straight his back is. It’s no coincidence that he made this shot off the dribble.