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
Cleveland Cavaliers
Strengths
What the Cavs do well.
Weaknesses
Some problems the Cavs struggle with
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 twice before, 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.
I get on coach Mike Brown a lot, but against the Pistons last night Brown showed that he does know what he is doing when it comes to the offensive end. After the Pistons tied it at 91 with about 5 minutes left, the Cavs put on an offensive clinic.
Possession 1 – Off Ball Screen To Free Up Mo Williams
The thing that impresses me the most with Cleveland’s offense is the fact that they do so much stuff off the ball (it is the theme of all of these sets). It makes sense when you think about it, you know that the entire defense is going to be paying attention to LeBron. This means defenders aren’t really paying attention to their man (as much as you would like), which means if you come with a backscreen off the ball it will really surprise the defense.
Mo Williams brings up the ball as LeBron James positions himself at the left elbow. This is a spot on the court where once LeBron James makes the catch he can attack either side.
Usually when I talk about plays late in games, they end up resulting in a win or a tie. Last night against the Cavs, the Spurs missed a game tying three point shot, but we are still going to talk about it here. Why? It was one of the best late game play calls I have seen in a really long time.
The Spurs start this play by sending George Hill into the far corner, Manu Ginobili into the near corner, and Roger Mason off of a Tim Duncan screen right to the ball. It looks like the Spurs are trying to set up a quick hitter for Roger Mason off the inbounds, but Richard Jefferson inbounds it to Manu instead.
LeBron had a very solid game, as he finished with 33 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 assists (how crazy is that this is now referred to as a solid game for LeBron rather than a great game?). The big problem though was that 30 of LeBron’s points came in the first three quarters. LeBron only scored 3 points on 1-5 shooting (0-2 from three), and committed 2 turnovers.
Mike Brown is a little at fault for LeBron’s poor fourth quarter. Normally, coaches sit their starters towards the end of the third (with like 3 minutes left) and into the start of the fourth, usually getting them back in there with about 10 minutes left in the game. The reason they sit them towards the end of the third is because you can steal a few minutes rest for your guy at the quarter break. However, yesterday Mike Brown played the entire third quarter, and he then sat for the first 4 minutes in the fourth quarter, leaving him with only 8 minutes to work with.
LeBron actually entered the game with the Cavs leading by 2. So I guess you can say that Mike Brown was justified in sitting LeBron for that long, and in a certain sense, that is right. However, the longer LeBron sat, the longer it would take for LeBron to get into the flow of the game, and that is the issue here. You can’t have your best player in a funk, during the most important part of the game (the fourth quarter).
Remember that play at the end of the All-Star game where Stan Van Gundy tried to get LeBron James an open jumper at the top of the key? Of course you do. Well, as last night’s game went to it’s final possession, I was really interested to see how George Karl was going to defend it, since he was the coach of the Western Conference All-Star team, and last night was actually Karl’s second straight game where he had to defend LeBron late:
As the Cavs lined up, the play looked really familiar. As a matter of fact, the play started the same was as the one from this past Sunday.
I don’t like tooting my horn (that’s a lie), but when I said the Cavs like to run this play late, little did I know that they were going to run it during their next game…against the same coach. So back to last night:
