In their series against the Dallas Mavericks, the Portland Trailblazers got absolutely destroyed by Dallas’ pick and roll. Case in point, according to Synergy Sports Technology, Dirk Nowitzki had the highest points per possession of any roll man with at least 10 possessions. Nowitzki 1.32 points per possession when he was the roll man on screens, shooting 68.8%. Now, normally Nowitzki hurt Portland when he was popping (something he did 77% this series), but in game six, he hurt Portland by rolling to the rim after his man hedged out on him:
On this play, Jason Terry gets the basketball and Dirk Nowitzki comes over and sets a ballscreen for him. Earlier in the series (and this game even), the Blazers were switching this screen and struggling to stop it. So here, the Blazers are going to try and hedge the screen. LaMarcus Aldridge takes a big step out as Nicolas Batum (the man defending Terry) works over the screen.
After a call to reverse a backcourt violation (which was the correct decision), the Oklahoma City Thunder were up by one point on the Denver Nuggets with just 5 seconds left on the shot clock. Eventually, Kevin Durant was able to hit an open pull up jumper that put the Thunder up three points. Durant was able to get open because of a poor decision made by the Nuggets:
As the ball goes to the trigger man, you have Russell Westbrook standing in the backcourt along the sideline, with Kevin Durant standing right at midcourt. Westbrook sprints right in front of James Harden’s face, and as that happens, Durant flashes to the backcourt. Wilson Chandler, the man covering Durant, is trying to deny him the full length of the court, so he stays with him.
With Chandler denying Durant, Durant now has the freedom to cut backdoor, which is exactly what he does, leaving Chandler behind.
After all of the great plays in the final seconds of the fourth quarter, there was still basketball to be played. In overtime, the Spurs found themselves up by two points with 39.3 seconds left. Needing a stop, the Spurs were able to do something that they couldn’t do all series up until then, keep the ball out of Zach Randolph’s hands:
The play starts with Mike Conley cutting off of Zach Randolph to make himself available for the inbounds pass from Shane Battier.
When the Memphis Grizzlies tanked to get the San Antonio Spurs, it was safe to say that I didn’t really agree with the opinion. In fact, I predicted that the Spurs would run away with the series in a sweep. The biggest reason why I thought that there was going to be sweep was because I thought that the Spurs offensive system of getting the ball to the middle and kicking it out would cause problems for the Grizzlies’ defense.
At this point, it is safe to say that I was wrong. I don’t know if it was my overestimating of the Spurs’ offense or underestimating of the Grizzlies’ defense, but I obviously didn’t think that the Grizzlies could contain the Spurs. After seeing four games in this series, I think it has become obvious that the Grizzlies are really good at defending passing lanes, taking away what the Spurs want to do, get the ball in the corner and knock down the three point shot.
Game four was more of the same for the Grizzlies:
This camera angle gives us a perfect view of the Grizzlies and their defensive strategy against the Spurs. Here, Parker goes away from the screen and attacks the rim. Most defenses would collapse, giving up an open three to Matt Bonner. Instead of doing that, Zach Randolph stays in the passing lane, taking away the pass to the corner as Mike Conley and Marc Gasol defend Parker at the rim. The Grizzlies are funneling everything back to the middle of the court, where they can rotate and challenge the jumper.
After proper floor spacing lead to their go-ahead basket, the Atlanta Hawks needed to stop the Orlando Magic coming out of a timeout. The Magic looked to run their bread and butter play, putting it in the hands of their playmaker Hedo Turkoglu. The Hawks were able to stop the Magic by communicating and rotating properly:
After getting the ball to Turkoglu, Dwight Howard comes over to set a screen. It’s a very good screen and Joe Johnson ends up getting caught in it, forcing Al Horford (Howard’s man) to switch onto Turkoglu. There is a lot of action taking place up top, but the man to watch here is Josh Smith, who has help responsibility.
Going into their series against the Orlano Magic, a lot was made of Jason Collins and his ability to stop Dwight Howard one-on-one. That didn’t happen in game 1, as Dwight Howard scored 46 points on 23 shot attempts (16-23 from the field 14-22 from the FT line). Despite the big numbers, this is exactly what the Hawks wanted as they were determined not to allow kick-out passes from the post. The Hawks were so determined to prevent these kick-outs to outside shooters, that on 22 post up opportunities for Howard, the Hawks only committed an extra defender twice according to Synergy Sports Technology. This didn’t mean that the Hawks didn’t have guys digging down on Dwight, but they would only do so partially and when it looked like Dwight was committed to his post move:
Here, Dwight Howard makes the catch on the block, and there is no help initially as the Hawks stick with their men on the outside. However, once Howard commits to his post move, you see Hawks’ defenders digging in. These defenders are digging in only after you see Howard commit to his move because that means he can’t kick the basketball out to a three point shooter. Sure, this means the defender digging in probably won’t get their hands on the ball, but they are willing to live with that. In this case, the result is a make, but that doesn’t matter since the only goal is to prevent a kick out pass.
Looking to solidify their front court defensively, the Oklahoma City Thunder acquired Kendrick Perkins at this season’s trade deadline. Perkins’ arrival turned the Thunder’s frontcourt into one of the most formidable defensive units in the NBA (probably behind the Lakers). Perkins is definitely one of the best one-on-one post defenders in the NBA (if you are unsure about this statement, go watch him against Dwight Howard), but what makes his arrival so important for the Thunder’s defense isn’t his one-on-one defense, it is the fact that his presence on the court allows Serge Ibaka to really flourish on the defensive end. With Perkins defending opposing centers, Ibaka is now allowed to use his athletic ability and become a menacing threat on the weakside, blocking shots. We saw a perfect example of this last night during the Thunder’s win against the Nuggets:
Here, Nene gets the basketball in the post and tries to make his move against Kendrick Perkins. Perkins is so physical and so tough to get by that it takes him a little bit longer to make his move. This allows Ibaka the time to come over and time Nene’s shot attempt well enough to get the big block. In addition to forcing post players into taking a longer time (this is because Perkins is beating up his man), it seems that most post players’ focus is to make a move to beat Perkins and they are so focused on that, they aren’t really thinking about Ibaka coming over for the block.
Down by eight points with about nine minutes left, the San Antonio Spurs were looking to put together a few stops so their offense could get them back in the game. One way was trying to trap Rajon Rondo in the backcourt, forcing the basketball out of his hands. However, a poor angle taken by one of the men trapping Rondo lead to a fast break coming out of a timeout:
This starts with Glen Davis entering the basketball to Rajon Rondo along the opposite baseline. As soon as Rondo gets the basketball, both Manu Ginobili and Tiago Splitter head towards Rondo, trying to trap him.
Last night, the Cleveland Cavaliers shocked the world and beat the LeBron James and the Miami Heat. They were able to win by having success knocking down jumpers in Spot-Up situations. According to Synergy, the Cavs scored 39 points out of 25 spot-up situations (1.56 PPP) on 69.6% shooting, including 70% (7-10) shooting from three.
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.
Late in their game against the San Antonio Spurs, the Nuggets got a rebound and pushed the ball in transition. The result was the Spurs’ were forced into a few mismatches, the main one being George Hill trying to defend Al Harrington. The Nuggets quickly recognize this and go to Harrington in the post, forcing a double team. The resulting play is a perfect example of how you beat a double team by simply making the pass to the open man:
Al Harrington immediately notices that George Hill is covering him and he tries to take advantage by backing him down with his dribble. It doesn’t work too well, and Harrington kicks it out, looking for the repost.
As the Nuggets look to repost Harrington, the rest of the San Antonio Spurs are now back on defense and they can help Hill out by sending the double team.
