The Washington Wizards not only played the role of spoiler against the Milwaukee Bucks last night, but they also provided Playbook’s Play of the Night. Taking the ball out of bounds early in the fourth quarter, head coach Randy Wittmann drew up a gem that resulted in a wide open layup. The Wizards didn’t exactly need much help dicing up the Bucks defense, but some clever X’s and O’s never hurt. Let’s take a look.

The play starts with Shelvin Mack inbounding on the right sideline and with the rest of his teammates in a box formation (both blocks, both elbows). Nene starts off the play by coming to the ball off the right elbow. Mack hits him with a pass then cuts past him to receive a dribble hand-off.

Mack then continues his dribble toward the top of the key while forward James Singleton sprints up to set a ball screen.

While that is going on, Nene has begun to cut from his initial position toward the left block. In the process, he receives screens from both Maurice Evans and Cartier Martin. Both players are looking to headhunt (as opposed to screening an area) Nene’s defender Drew Gooden hoping to either force a switch for an iso post up or free Nene entirely for a shot at the rim. The timing on this play is important as Nene must time his cut with Shelvin Mack’s movement on the perimeter. If he moves too soon, Mack may not be in a position to deliver the ball.

The play works as scripted as Mack, despite dragging two defenders with him off the ball screen, finds Nene open with great position near the rim. (Note: On the backside of the play, James Singleton prepares to screen for Martin to come to the top as a second option in triangle or screen-the-screener action. However, Martin forgets this and simply floats to the top.)

Then end result is a wide open layup for Brazilian big man. Here is the play in real time:

Part of what makes Kevin Durant’s stretch of 25 point games so incredible is that teams are keying on the guy and he is scoring.  Some of it is just incredible talent (he has one of the smoothest strokes in the game), some of it is savvy and awareness (the way he gets to the line), and some of it is the playcalling.  That is what we are going to talk about today.

In the fourth quarter of a really good game, the Thunder are coming out of a timeout under their own basket.  Everyone in the building knows that the Thunder want to get the ball to Durant, and somehow they still get him an open lob-pass.

The play starts with the lane being real crowded.  You have 3 guys in there already, and as a result there are 4 defenders in the paint. It looks like the Thunder are going to go away from the paint to a corner, away from the defenders.

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