If you have watched a game that Doug Collins has called over the past couple of years, you know that he is in favor of fouling up three. Any close game that required a coach to decide whether or not to foul up three, Collins would let the world know that he would take the foul in a similar situation.
Well, coach Collins finally got his chance last night against the Wizards, and he didn’t go back on his word. However, fouling up three may have cost his team the game:
Now, this is all about preference and it is pretty obvious that I am not in favor of fouling up three. I personally think there is a lot that could go wrong when you foul up three, and that you are extending the game when there is no real reason to.
If you are a good outside shooter playing in the NBA, you are going to garner attention from opposing defenses. So much so that it may be hard get yourself free for an open look on your own. Your a good shooter though, and your team wants you to shoot the ball, so that is why they send screeners your way.
You can’t just run off the screen. You have to set them up, run off of them correctly, and come off the screen in a way that you can make your catch and get the shot off quickly. There are three guys in the NBA right now who do this really well, and they are J.J. Redick, Kyle Korver, and Ray Allen. We are going to use their video clips to see how to properly set up screens and use them to get open looks.
The Set Up
Defenders know that if they are covering a good shooter, they are going to have to deal with off the ball screens. They are looking for these screens, and if they see them early it is very easy to get around them. That is why the offensive player using the screen needs to set up his defender. There are a few different ways that you can do this.
Walk Defender Down
This is something that Kyle Korver does very well. What he likes to do is walk his defender to the block (lulling him to sleep and putting him in a position that makes the screen easy. Korver quickly changes speeds, and cuts off the screen into a open area for the shot.
With three of the top ten players in the NBA, the Miami Heat might end up seeing a lot of zone defense this year. This seems logical because teams have trouble defending guys like LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh when they were the lone All-Stars on their team, and now they are playing together. Few teams (if any) have three high quality individual defenders good enough to stop these guys one on one, so the zone is the next best option. So how will the 2-3 zone work against a team like the Heat next year?
Since the Heat haven’t played any games yet, I figured we could look at Team USA’s performance in the 2008 Olympics. Now I know that the two players that are going to be playing with James, Wade, and Bosh on the Heat won’t be Olympic quality, I know that the teams playing against them are better than Australia, Greece, and Argentina, and I know that the Heat’s coaching staff won’t have two Hall of Fame college coaches to help break down the zone for NBA guys. However, this is the closest we can get to seeing how a high-quality team operates against a zone defense, and what I took away from watching Team USA’s Olympic performance is that the zone will work against the Heat, but only in stretches.
Why It Will Work
When the zone worked against Team USA in the Olympics, it was because it got them to stand around and just pass the ball around the perimeter. Here, Team USA is just going through the motions on offense, making pass after pass after pass, just allowing for the Spanish zone to rotate and stay in front of their man. There are no penetrating or attacking dribbles, and that is exactly what Spain wants. They want to see the ball being passed around like this rather than having a LeBron James or a Dwyane Wade taking their man to the basket and either finishing or kicking it out to an open teammate.
Suns’ coach Alvin Gentry made a name for himself these playoffs for having a tremendous amount of trust in his bench. Guys like Channing Frye, Goran Dragić, and Jared Dudley each probably won a game themselves at some point during the Suns’ playoff run.
Coach Gentry had a great feel for when to keep his bench in, and when to put his his starters back in, but in Game 6 against the Lakers, he made two poor decisions regarding his rotation that probably cost his team the game. Riding Dragić, the Suns were able to cut the Lakers’ lead to 5 points with just about 6 minutes left. The 6 minute mark in the 4th quarter is usually when Gentry puts Nash and the rest of his starters back in, but in Game 6, he decided to ride the hot hand. Coming out of a timeout with 5:35 left in the game, Gentry had the perfect opportunity to go back with his starters, but he didn’t. Here were the Suns’ next two possessions on the offensive end:
Nobody is really talking about this play, mainly because on the next possessions the Suns came down and hit the game tying three, but I thought it was an interesting move that should be looked at. For just about the entire game, the Lakers were switching all screen and rolls, basically inviting Steve Nash to become aggressive on defense. Nash obliged by putting up 29 points on 20 shots. Towards the end of the game the Suns weren’t even running the screen and roll, they were just setting the screen up high to get the switch and let Nash work against a mismatch:
As you can see, the Lakers don’t initially switch the screen, so the Suns just run it again. The second time, Gasol ends up on Nash who knocks down a step back jumper.
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:
With about 5 minutes left, the Bulls and the Bucks were locked in a defensive battle where every basket was important. Easy baskets were very hard to come by for the most part, but Chicago ended up giving the Bucks a lay-up. The Bucks took advantage and kept the lead for the rest of the game.
As the Bulls start their possession, they run a side pick and roll involving Luol Deng and Derrick Rose.
Yesterday against the Toronto Raptors, the Golden State Warriors decided to foul when they were up three points and turn the game into a foul shooting contest. This doesn’t really happen in the NBA, but many experts/coaches feel like this is the correct decision. My opinion on it is that it all depends on your team and who you are playing. This is because when you are fouling, you extend the game, and that means more foul shots for your own team. In this case, the Warriors are actually one of the best free throw shooting teams in the league (4th at 78%). It also depends on how efficient the opposition is from the three point line, and in this case, Toronto is 4th in the league in three point shooting.
Add those two factors (that the Warriors are good at foul shooting and that the Raptors are good at 3 point shooting), and I think that the Warriors made the correct decision in fouling late. I also think they did a good job of executing. As we saw in the college ranks during the Xavier-Kansas State game, when you are fouling intentionally there is a chance that you foul when the opposing team takes a three, giving them three foul shots. Let’s look at the the three fouls the Warriors take:
On this first play, the Raptors have no idea that the Warriors are going to foul. Because of that, I would have liked to seen the Warriors wait a little bit before taking the first foul. However, you don’t want to take any chances, and with Jarrett Jack moving away from the basket, there are worst times to take the foul.
One big factor in Pacer demise against a 3-man Heat team? Tyler Hansbrough. Three terrible first half shots & two huge second half travels 15 hours ago
James and Battier came over to remind Wade that Battier wide open from the corner is a better option than Anthony finish at the rim. 15 hours ago
