A broken nose threatened to derail a match-up inside the Lakers-Pacers tilt that pitted two of the league’s better young post players against each other. Roy Hibbert was not only able to shake off an errant elbow and win his individual battle against Andrew Bynum, he also helped propel his team to a big road victory. He did so by putting an emphasis on one of the most basic things for a big man: post positioning.

One of fundamental aspects missing in today’s game is the ability for players (of any position) to work hard to get good spots on the floor (For post-up opportunities, that usually means getting at least one foot in the paint on a post catch). Contrary to popular opinion, this isn’t always derived from laziness. In fact, most times it’s because players are so used to be so much taller/stronger/more athletic than their competition, that they haven’t yet realized the value of getting prime real estate. Hibbert (and Bynum) are both exceptions that rule.In last night’s contest, Hibbert had a nice contrast of showing the good things that happen with great positioning versus the mistakes that can be made without it.

His first basket of the night was fundamentally perfect from an effort, execution and technique standpoint. About halfway through the second quarter, the Pacers run a quick set seemingly designed to get Paul George and David West engaged in a pick and pop in the middle of the floor. Hibbert starts off on the weakside of the floor as George begins to drive left off the screen.

Knowing that West is popping toward the foul line, Hibbert realize he has an opportunity to duck-in for a quick post up as George clears the hedge. His timing is perfect as he circles around Bynum (whose defensive effort is less than ideal), sits on his legs with both hands high inside the restricted arc. Hibbert receives the ball from George and finishes with a nice no-dribble, right hand jump hook (the ability to shoot so deep without having to use a dribble shows what great work he did to get positioning).
Here is the clip:

The following video has three possessions in which Hibbert again gets great position deep on the block or in the paint. Each catch has at least one foot in (or right near) the lane. Not coincidentally, all three attempts are makes.

As I mentioned before, Hibbert wasn’t flawless on the night. His two turnovers could both be attributed to poor location upon receiving the ball. On each catch that precedes a turnover, Hibbert is pushed more toward the 12-15 foot range than the 7-10 foot range we saw before. The first play you’ll see results in a travel, due to the awkward nature of Hibbert trying to get to one of his counters from so far out. The second is an errant pass possibly caused by Hibbert anticipating an angle out of his post up he wasn’t used to. Check it out:

With Danny Granger struggling to start the year (and not really being a go-to option to begin with), the Pacers could use Hibbert’s post presence to carry them through any offensive lulls. As long as he continues to work for deep post positioning, Hibbert will continue to factor heavily into Indiana’s offensive success.

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After a furious comeback by Chicago (where they brilliantly trapping Collison before he got to half court, forcing him to give up the basketball and create turnovers), the Bulls found themselves down just three points with 14.1 seconds left in the game.  Chicago was looking to run a play that was going to set up Korver off of a pindown, but a slip and some good defense blew everything up:

The play starts with the 4 Bulls on the court in a diamond formation with Derrick Rose at the bottom and Kyle Korver at the top.  As the ball goes to the trigger man, Derrick Rose sets a backscreen for Korver, who uses it then flashes to the opposite corner.

After setting the backscreen for Korver, Rose comes off of a screen of his own, getting one from Joakim Noah and using it to get to the corner.

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Late in their game against the Chicago Bulls, the Indiana Pacers had two possessions to either take the lead or tie the game.  On both plays, the Pacers were unable to get a good look off.  There were a couple of factors why, but during both plays, the Pacers were unable to get a solid screen set.  This both forced the Pacers to make incorrect decisions and allowed the Bulls defense to show how good they were:

This play with the score tied starts with Tyler Hansbrough setting a downscreen for Darren Collison.  Collison uses the downscreen to flash towards the basketball.  He gets it easily.

Once Collison gets the basketball, Roy Hibbert comes over and tries to set a ballscreen for Collison at the top of the key.

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With 33.4 seconds left and the basketball, the Chicago Bulls found themselves in a situation where they needed a go-ahead bucket.  In this situation, you can do one of two things, go quick to try and perserve the 2 for 1, or make sure you get the best possible shot.  The Bulls went with the latter, and were able to get the go ahead basket due to some poor help defense on the weakside by Indiana:

After using up some clock, the basketball finally gets into the hands of Derrick Rose and he dribbles it out at the top of the key.  As this happens, Carlos Boozers sets a downscreen for Joakim Noah, who comes off of the screen and sets a screen of his own.  That screen is a ball screen for Derrick Rose.

Rose shows as if he is going to use the screen, but he stays up high as if to see how the Pacers were going to defend the screen (maybe trying to see if he is going to trait/bait the Pacers into the switch).

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It sounds weird to say considering that Derrick Rose scored 36 points, but the Indiana Pacers did a decent job on him defensively in Game 2.  They forced him to score his 36 points on 25 (11-25/44% shooting overall) shots and they held him to just 6 assists (and forcing him into 6 turnovers).  As I mentioned on Twitter before the game, I was expecting Paul George to be on Rose (or at least thought he should be on him.  George did an ok job on Rose in Game 1 and his length had a chance to bother Rose on the offensive end.  The Pacers did decide to go with George on Rose for most of the game:

One of the reasons why Paul George on Derrick Rose works to the Pacers’ advantage is George’s length.  This allowed George to sit back and get in position to defend the drive but still contest the jump shot:

Here, George helps on the penetration and then the ball is kicked out to Derrick Rose.  Instead of closing out hard on Rose to try and take away the shot and then having Rose blow by him, George is able to sit back a little further and still get a good contest on the three point shot.

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With 1:15 left in the game and the Indiana Pacers trailing by two points, they really needed to get a stop.  Instead of trusting their rookie Paul George, who was defending Rose for most of the game (doing a very good job, more on that later), the Pacers wanted to send a double team.  While the double team got there on time, a combination of the Bulls being prepared for it (and acting accordingly) and the Pacers not finishing their rotation back off of the double left Kyle Korver wide open for the three point shot:

Seeing the ways that the Bulls lined up, you can see that they are expecting a double team (or at least want to prevent it).  The players one pass away from Rose are good shooters, making it impossible for the Pacers to double from those spots, and they have their two bigs on the opposite side of the court.  Eventually, the Pacers send Tyler Hansbrough to Rose to try and double him.

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At the end of each day, I am just going to put a recap thread up where you can find all of the day’s posts to make it a bit easier.

Here is what we looked at for the upcoming Bulls-Pacers series:

• Offensive Breakdown
• Defensive Breakdown
• X-factors: Luol Deng-Mike Dunleavy Jr.

Check in tomorrow when we are going to be finishing off the Eastern Conference, looking at both the Celtics-Knicks series and the Heat-Sixers series.

For the purposes of this post, this is going to be the one player from each team that you may not think of that can play a big part in the series and help win it for their team.

Chicago Bulls – Luol Deng

Why Is He Important?

Luol Deng is probably the Bulls’ third best option on the offensive end, but if Chicago is able to get him going, their offense is really tough to stop.  This is because you now have Rose penetrating to the hole, Boozer on the block, and Deng spotting up/cutting without the basketball.  Also, when Deng is hitting his jumpers, he makes it much harder for the defense to help on Rose’s drives or double on Boozer’s post moves.

How Can The Bulls Get The Most Out Of Him?

By using him correctly.  This means keeping him away from Isolation opportunities.  Deng gets isolated in just about 20% of his possessions, and in my opinion that is just way too much, considering how ineffective he is.  Deng is in the bottom quarter of the league in terms of PPP and he is shooting just 34%.  This is due in large part to his slow dribble-drives to the rim:

Here, Deng gets McRoberts switched on him, yet he is able to get by him and get a clean look at the rim.  Deng’s drive is slowed in large part due to his high dribble, and you can really see how it hampers him in this clip.

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Chicago Bulls – The Numbers*

• Defensive Efficiency: 97.4 (1st)
• Opp. TS%: 50.9% (1th)
• Opp. Assist Rate: 18.21 (2nd)
• Opp. Turnover Rate: 13.64 (11th)
• Defensive Rebound Rate: 76.10 (2nd)
• Block Rate: 6.1 (3rd)
• Opp. Free Throw Rate: 29.7 (11th)
• Opp. Three Point Rate: 19.7 (27th)

Chicago Bulls – Strengths

Pick And Roll Defense

The Chicago Bulls are one of the best teams in the league when it comes to stopping the pick and roll, both the ball handler coming off of screens and the roll man.  According to Synergy, the Bulls are top 5 in both pick and roll defensive categories.  What it all comes down to is the Bulls ability to “swarm” the basketball and force misses/turnovers (the following was pulled from my Bulls’ PNR defense post over at SBNation):

Here, you have Jerryd Bayless coming off of a screen set, taking the basketball to the middle of the court.  Taj Gibson steps up and meets Bayless as Derrick Rose goes over the screen.

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Chicago Bulls – The Numbers*

• Pace: 92.9 (21st)
• Offensive Efficiency: 105.4 (12th)
• True Shooting Percentage: 53.9% (15th)
• Assist Rate: 20.93 (9th)
• Turnover Rate: 13.37 (16th)
• Offensive Rebound Rate: 29.62 (3rd)
• Free Throw Rate: 30.6 (9th)
• Three Point Rate: 21.3 (18th)

Chicago Bulls – Strengths

Ball Handlers Coming Off Of Screens

When Bulls’ ball handlers come off screens looking to score, they put up a PPP of 0.845 (good for 8th in the NBA) on 41.5% shooting.  Obviously, a large part of these possessions go to Derrick Rose, who has gotten 71.1% of the Bulls’ 2149 pick and roll ball handler possessions.

Part of the reason why Rose has been so successful this offseason in the pick and roll is his new and more effective jump shot off the dribble.  This has forced defense to go under ballscreens set for Rose less this season (Last season, defenses went under these screens 26.9%.  This season, that number has dropped to 17.8%).  Defenses are now forced to go over screens more and that creates lanes for Rose.  This is because if they go under the screen, Rose has the confidence to pull up and knock down a jumper:

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