The first possession with the small-ball lineup results in an illegal defense call on the Spurs Tim Duncan (that led to a made free throw from Gay). While that call isn’t sexy and can be made versus any offensive units, this one is a product of the perimeter-orientated Memphis lineup.

Richard Jefferson’s overaggressive hedge on Grizzlies guard Mike Conley ballscreen drive forces Duncan into a help defense position close to Rudy’s pop near the pinch post. By getting caught loitering in the paint too far away from his man, Dante Cunningham, for three seconds, Duncan gives Memphis a chance at an easy point from the line. Here’s the action leading to the call:

Following the whistle, Memphis coach Lionel Hollins makes the wise choice to go right back to the same action (which happens less than you’d think). Conley does an excellent job of stretching the defense on the hedge off the ballscreen and forces a long closeout to Gay, who pops behind the arc after setting the screen and calmly drains a three off Conley’s kickout. One possession, four points. Not too shabby. Here’s the play:

The next possession down, Gay ballscreens for Conley, this time in the middle of the floor. Conley again does a good job of stretching out the hedge defender allowing Gay to have an uncontested catch. Gay does his part by catching and quickly driving to engage Quincy Pondexter’s defender (Matt Bonner). Pondexter misses the three off Rudy’s kickout, but it is a great look:

The following trip down, Conley and Gay again play a two-man game on the wing. Conley’s speedy attack toward the baseline forces his defender (TJ Ford) to switch onto Gay. Rudy sets up near a good operating area (the pinch post) and Conley wisely feeds him the ball and spaces away. Ford, having to smother the much taller Gay in order to contest a shot, opens himself up to a blow-by and the result is a vicious dunk from Rudy:

The next offensive possession starts the same way, but this time the Spurs choose to hedge and recover quickly to Gay. Gay misses an opportunity to roll to the basket or even dive to more prime real estate (like the left block). In the end, his pinch post attack results in a nice freeze-fake, hook finish in the paint, (a shot Rudy has used and drilled frequently). Despite not making an optimal read initially, Rudy still creates good offense. Here’s the clip:

For those keeping score at home, the Grizzlies now have six points (all from Rudy) in four possessions since they went small with Gay at the four. Those offensive possessions obviously don’t include the two trips that resulted in no points, but produced good looks and, perhaps most importantly, no turnovers.

The next time down, Rudy and Mike move their screening action back to the middle of the floor. The play gets to be a little helter-skelter but results in a Randolph tip in. While Gay isn’t directly involved in the action, his presence allows the opportunity.

Watch closely during the next video as Conley’s jumper goes up. Tony Parker, due to Duncan’s contest of Conley’s shot, is left trying to block out Zach Randolph. James Anderson notices this situation and moves to double-team Randolph in order to keep him off the glass. Anderson is forced to make this rotation because Rudy smartly fills behind Randolph’s roll to the rim, pulling his defender (Jefferson) with him. Because Anderson slides across the rim to box out, Quincy Pondexter has room on the weakside to sneak in and tap the rebound toward Randolph, who he lays it back in for the basket:

The final possession before the Grizzlies go back to their traditional lineup involves yet another middle pick and roll. Because of a quick transition from defense to offense, Duncan is left guarding Gay. As Rudy screens for Conley, Duncan shows quickly. It is here that Rudy shows that this floor combination still has a few kinks to work out.

Instead of popping toward the left wing, Gay tries to cut down toward the block. This is probably a sub-optimal read given that Rudy’s main advantage over Duncan, quickness, doesn’t have nearly the same effect 12 feet from the basket as it does from 25. Conley swings the ball to Sam Young on the right wing as Rudy maneuvers to isolate against Duncan near the block. Young, not knowing for great decision-making, jacks a long two instead of patiently waiting for Rudy to free himself to operate. Here’s the play:

All in all, that fourth quarter stretch produced eight points in six possessions (1.3 average). Doesn’t seem like much until you factor in that if the Grizzlies averaged that for their (roughly) 97 possessions last night, they would have hung 126 points on San Antonio. Obviously, that is a ridiculously small sample size, but there’s no denying the Memphis playing small with Rudy Gay at the four has some serious upside. If the Grizzlies can add a potent offensive attack to their turnover-producing defense, they could find themselves in the top half of the Western Conference very quickly.

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The reason that the Grizzlies are able to stop the Thunder’s pick and pop here is because Allen has absolutely no interest in hedging on Russell Westbrook coming off of the screen.  This allows him to stay attached to Durant’s body and prevent the pass from going to him.

However, when they ran it with Shane Battier covering him, they had some success due to Battier’s tendency to hedge on Westbrook coming off of the screen:

For whatever reason, Battier decides to hedge and this allows Durant to get off of his defender’s body and cut to the rim where he gets the pass and the dunk.

So when the Thunder were in the fourth quarter against the Grizzlies, and it looked like Memphis might make a run/comeback, the Thunder went to this play.  Only when Shane Battier was defending Kevin Durant.  What happened?  Battier hedged, and Durant was able to get himself open:

On both of these plays, Shane Battier hedges and Kevin Durant is able to get open.  The biggest problem that I have with hedging in this situation is that now Durant no longer has a defender attached to him or his body.  The second clip is a perfect example of this.  Durant doesn’t get open on a quick roll after this screen, but because Battier is no longer attached to Durant, he is able to cut to the rim easily, allowing him to hit the open spot, make the catch, and get the dunk.

I have been on Brooks all series because of his offensive playcalling, but this was a great decision by Scott Brooks to not only call this play, but to call it when his team is going up against the correct personel (in this case with Battier defending Durant).  He noticed that Battier had a tendency to hedge in previous games and exploited it in a game seven.

As the ball goes to Battier, the trigger man, Sefolosha is playing off of him a little bit.  This allows Battier to have a clear passing lane to Darrell Arthur who flashes to the wing, looking for the basketball.

After making the inbounds pass to Arthur, Battier quickly cuts off of him, getting the ball back from Arthur.  This essentially sets up a screen situation with Arthur setting the screen after handing off the basketball.

With Battier coming off of what is essentially a screen, Serge Ibaka steps up and shows in an effort to keep Battier out of the lane.  As this happens, the Grizzlies are running a quick screen and dive action for O.J. Mayo on the weakside.  Once Battier comes clear of Arthur, he makes the pass to Mayo cutting to the rim.

This is where the miscommunication takes place between Sefolosha and Ibaka.  Sefolosha assumes that Ibaka was switching, so he sticks with Arthur as he dives to rim.  Meanwhile, Ibaka thought he was simply hedging, and he returns to the paint to protect against Mayo’s drive to the rim.

With nobody defending Battier, Mayo is able to spot the open man and kick the ball out to him as he stands behind the three point line in position to catch and shoot.

Mayo makes the pass and Battier gets the shot off before Sefolosha can get an effective close out on him and lets him hit the shot.  Here is the play in real time:

While this is just one play, it was an important on in my opinion, because it completely killed Oklahoma City’s momentum.  From 6:55 to 1:02 in the 2nd the Thunder went on a 17-5 run, getting their lead well into double figures.  As a team who is trailing, your goal at this point is to get the lead down to 10, a manageable number.  That happened, and the Grizzlies came out and started the second half with an 11-2 run.  Just like that, it is a one point game, and it seemed that Memphis was able to take control from there.

As Mike Conley brings the basketball down the court, Marc Gasol sets a pindown screen for Shane Battier.  Battier uses the screen and flashes to the pinch post, where he receives the basketball.

After setting the initial screen, Gasol continues to walk to the block where he sets another screen, this time for O.J. Mayo.  Mayo comes off of the screen with his defender Thabo Sefolosha trailing him.

The reason why Sefolosha is trailing him is because he doesn’t want him to get an open look, however it opens up the curl.  This is where the big defending the screener comes into play, Sefolosha is expecting him to hedge off of Gasol and protect the middle if he does curl the screen.  However, because Gasol turns and posts after setting his screen, Perkins sticks with Gasol instead of sinking into the middle because he wants to keep Gasol from getting strong post position.

On the opposite side of the court, you have Nick Collison who should be getting in help position as well.  Collison (who is actually very good at reading the play and getting in position to take charges) is worried about sticking with Zach Randolph, who is walking down to the block, in case the ball gets reversed.

Collison is so focused on Randolph and Perkins is so focused on Gasol that neither of them are in position to make a play when May catches Battier’s pass.

Mayo is able to make the catch, rise up, and finish with the dunk as Sefolosha tries to recover.  Here is the play in real time:

Yes, this is definitely an error by the Thunder’s bigs (Perkins and Collison), but these bigs are forced into this error because they are so worried about their respective man posting up.  A great job by Memphis using the post up game to set up a nice curl for O.J. Mayo.

Coach Scott Brooks kept Perkins in the game for the final eight minutes in the fourth quarter, where he posted a +/- of -5 during that stretch (according to the fantastic PopcornMachine.net).  While Perkins’ free throw shooting is poor, that isn’t even the reason why Perkins shouldn’t be in.  Kendrick Perkins shouldn’t be in the during the fourth quarter of close games because of the fact that he isn’t a threat on the offensive end.  This allows whoever is covering him (in this case Marc Gasol) to basically ignore him and play off of him.  In this particular case, Gasol was able to shade towards Kevin Durant and keep the ball out of his hands.  There were three specific plays that come to mind when looking at Perkins and how Marc Gasol is able to play off of him:

This play starts with Russell Westbrook bringing up the basketball along the sideline.  As that happens, Durant gets a cross screen set for him by Nick Collison.  Durant jab steps one direction and then comes back towards the screen, using it very well.

Durant (who has a ton of trouble using screens) does a good job of getting his defender, Shane Battier, off of his body.  In fact, he actually causes Battier to bump into one of his own teammates.  After using the Collison screen Durant comes off of a pindown set by Kendrick Perkins.

Because Gasol doesn’t have to worry about Perkins slipping the screen, he is able to shoot out and show on Durant as Shane Battier runs to Durant as well.  This forces Durant to step back a few feet behind the three point line, obviously farther out than he wanted to go.

Durant makes the catch 30 feet away from the rim and he now has to shoot over two defenders, with one of them being the Grizzlies center.  Here is the play in real time:

Notice how once Gasol hedges out on Durant that nobody rotates over to Perkins because he isn’t a offensive threat at all.  If Durant wants to make the pass to Perkins, fine by Memphis.

The next play we are going to look at is a play where the Thunder are actually looking to set up Durant on the block with a smaller defender on him.  Again, because Marc Gasol is covering Kendrick Perkins, he is able to blow the play up.

The play starts with Westbrook bringing the basketball down the court as James Harden and Kevin Durant set up on the ball side block.  Harden cuts off of Durant and heads to the top of the key, trying to clear out the post area for Durant.  However, notice where Marc Gasol is starting on this possession.  Before the Thunder even start to look to get Durant the basketball, Gasol is already 15 feet off of Perkins.  As Durant posts up, Gasol heads to the other side of the block.

Durant has Battier pined and is looking for the lob pass over his head, but because Marc Gasol is shadowing Durant, playing behind him, he is able to prevent the lob pass from coming.

The result is Westbrook being forced to give up on the post attempt and send the ball to the other side of the court, and eventually Westbrook takes a three off of the dribble.  Here is the play in real time:

Notice how Kendrick Perkins is wide open at the rim and how that doesn’t even force Gasol to return to him.  Perkins is so limited offensively that he isn’t even a threat standing open under the rim.

Finally, we are going to look at another solid set run by the Thunder, but because Perkins is the screener, it allows Marc Gasol to blow everything up:

Again, you have Russell Westbrook bringing the basketball down the sideline to start the play off.  As this happens, Kendrick Perkins is setting a screen off of the basketball for Kevin Durant who uses the screen to flash to the basketball.

However, the initial screen is just a decoy as Kevin Durant takes advantage of Battier trying to beat him to the spot by reversing direction and coming off of another screen by Perkins, this time going away from the basketball.  Because Perkins is the one setting the screen, Marc Gasol is again allowed to hedge off of Perkins so he can shade Kevin Durant and get in the passing lane.

Again, Russell Westbrook is forced to give up on the initial play that Brooks drew up and now the offense again broke down to one-on-one play.

Here, Westbrook tries to penetrate and hits Harden for the drive and kick three that he misses.  Here is the play in real time:

Scott Brooks again does a decent job of getting the Thunder to run a decent set.  You have Battier trying to beat Durant to the spot off of the initial screen and that sets him up for the second screen going away from the basketball.  This is the type of action (along with the first two plays) that many people have begging Brooks to run.  However, because he has the wrong personel out there, the Thunder make these plays easy for the Grizzlies to defend.

I understand wanting to have Perkins out there for his defense and rebounding, but at some point you need to have someone who can make a shot (and more importantly a free throw), so you can keep the defense honest.  With Perkins setting screens, you are basically allowing the Grizzlies to put 2 guys on Kevin Durant and not be at a disadvantage.  This makes things so difficult for Kevin Durant to get his hands on the basketball, let alone score.

While some of the opportunities were simply the Thunder being a better team, a good chunk of the chances were due to poor transition defense from the Grizzlies:

Mistake 1:  Everyone Stops The Basketball

This break opportunity starts with Russell Westbrook getting the basketball and pushing it up the floor.  Westbrook’s speed creates a four on three fast break chance.

Westbrook puts the basketball in his left hand and starts to attack the paint.  Once that happens, the two Grizzlies’ defenders who got back step up to him.

With both defenders stepping up to Westbrook, Durant was wide open in the corner for the kick out pass.  Durant makes the catch, pulls up, and knocks down the jumper.  Here is the play in real time:

To me, this mistake is simply a breakdown in communication in transition.  You need only one defender to step up and try to defend the basketball with another playing the outside.  However, nobody talks and both defenders step up to Westbrook, giving up the open jumper.

Mistake 2:  Trying To Stop The Ball Too Early

Here, Kevin Durant gets the rebound and pushes the basketball up.  Sam Young, who is responsible for Durant on this play is running backwards trying to get in position instead of turning around and sprinting back to his spot.

This allows Durant to eat up the space and get by Young, giving him the opportunity to take the basketball to the rim and finish with the dunk.  We know that Durant has the tendency to settle for the jumper in transition, so if you get back, you can contest a jumper.  Instead, Young gives him the lane and lets him get another two points in transition.

Mistake 3:  Poor Floor Balance

On this play, we start with Greivis Vasquez penetrating in the middle of the lane.  As that happens, Shane Battier spots up in the corner.  However, with all five Grizzlies’ players below the free throw line, Battier needs to get back and be ready to stop and transition opportunity.

As Vasquez passes the basketball off, you still have all five Grizzlies below the free throw line.

As the Thunder secure the basketball, James Harden starts to leak out.  Battier tries to get back, but he is coming from the corner instead of being up top, and he has a lot of ground to make up.

Battier is able to get back, but because he had to cover so much ground he is unable to effectively contest the shot, allowing Harden to finish.  Here is the play in real time:

When you are on offense, you need to maintain floor balance and keep someone back on defense.  Instead of getting back, Battier decides to spot up in the corner, essentially giving the Thunder an easy transition opportunity.

Mistake 4 & 5:  Not Hustling Back

In addition to the poor floor balance, the Memphis Grizzlies simply didn’t hustle back or work to stop the basketball in transition.

On the first play, the Grizzlies have two defenders sprinting back, trying to stop the two Thunder players in transition.  If you notice towards half court, there are two Grizzlies’ defenders walking back, and that allows the basketball to get to Kevin Durant as he trails the play and finishes with the dunk.

On the second clip, both Tony Allen and Zach Randolph stop when they anticipate a whistle.  The whistle never comes, and Kevin Durant is able to stand under the basket and wait for the pass to come to him.

Mistake 6 & 7:  Poor Floor Balance

On the final two plays were are going to look at, more walking from the Grizzlies defense leads to poor floor balance, which leads to more transition opportunities for the Thunder.

On both of these plays, you have a player who is supposed to rotate to get back on defense (Mike Conley in the first clip/O.J. Mayo in the second) walking to their spot instead of hustling back.  This hurts them when the Thunder gain possession of the basketball and get out on the break, taking advantage of nobody back on defense.

—

Now, the Grizzlies probably still wouldn’t win the game, but if you cut out the 14 points above, the game would be much more competitive.  I don’t know if this was tired legs or just poor execution, but if the Grizzlies want to win game six, they are going to need to eliminate these type of plays.

In the fourth quarter and in overtime, Kevin Durant didn’t get a shot off in about nine minutes or so, and despite Russell Westbrook being the point guard, this isn’t on him.  It is on Kevin Durant, who seems to struggle more and more when it comes to moving off of the basketball late.  We saw plenty of examples of this in game four.

Lack Of Movement

Something that should be extrememly concerning for Thunder fans is that Kevin Durant is starting to watch Russell Westbrook more and more.  Instead of moving off of the basketball, Durant is getting flat-footed behind the three point line, even when his man turns his head/leaves him to help on the basketball:

On these three plays, Kevin Durant takes a total of zero steps when moving off of the basketball.  Despite the Thunder scoring on two of these plays, this isn’t good for Oklahoma City, because Durant is developing a bad habit of standing behind the three point line and watching.  The most interesting aspect of this is that Durant’s man leaves him (or at least turns his head) on all three plays.  Durant needs to make the defense pay for this and cut right off of his man’s back.  Instead, he stands and watches.

Here is another play, and after setting a pretty bad screen, Durant stands at the top of the key as the ball continues to get moved from side to side on the court.  One of the reasons just standing there isn’t a good thing for Durant is that he makes it easy on the defense.  Look at Shane Battier here.  He can easily watch both Kevin Durant and the basketball, without the fear of Durant cutting off of his back.  If Durant doesn’t move, Battier doesn’t have to move either.

This is the same type of thing we criticize players like Josh Smith for doing time after time after time, so it is interesting to see Durant get a free pass as his point guard gets crushed for not passing it to him.

Now, people looking to defend Durant and criticize are going to say that Durant was disinterested because he knew Westbrook was taking the shot/he wasn’t going to get the basketball.  That should be even more troubling, especially considering that it isn’t true.  The rare times that Durant did cut into an open space, his teammates got him the ball, and the Thunder had success:

Here, the Thunder get the basketball on the offensive rebound and they run a pick and roll with Durant standing in the corner.  His defender, Sam Young gets caught watching the pick and roll action and Kevin Durant cuts backdoor.  Durant gets the basketball going towards the rim and he is able to finish with the dunk.

On this play, Durant runs the pick and pop with Russell Westbrook, and instead of simply popping on the play, Durant rolls to the rim on the weakside as Westbrook attacks the rim.  Westbrook finds Durant and he is able to draw the foul and go to the line.

Struggles Off Of Screens

This is something that I have been talking about for quite some time and every time I bring it up I feel like I am committing overkill, but if we are going to continue to question Russell Westbrook’s decision making, we should question Durant’s ability to use screens:

When a scorer effectively uses a screen, it is usually because they are a threat to go either way off of the screen, and they use that threat to help set up the screen by faking one way and going the other.  Kevin Durant usually does a pretty poor job of setting up his screens.  On both of these plays, Durant shows his hand too early, and Shane Battier reads which direction Durant is going and beats him through the screen.  This negates the effectiveness of the pick and pop and blows up the entire play.

If Durant uses the screen better in this situation, Battier would be trailing the play, and there is a pretty good chance Durant gets free on the pick and pop.

Here is another way that Durant does a poor job of setting up his screens, he usually goes through them too quick, not allowing his teammate (in this case Kendrick Perkins) set the screen.  Here, Durant gets up on Perkins before he can set the screen, in fact, he is standing shoulder to shoulder before Perkins can even turn around.  It isn’t an effective screen, and despite getting the basketball, Durant isn’t in a position to score.

Playcalling

In addition to Durant and his ability to move off of the basketball and work off of screens, the playcalling has to be called into question here.  Far too often, there aren’t sets called, and the offense breaks down into watching Russell Westbrook dribble and try to create.  Yes Durant needs to cut off of the ball more, but if Scott Brooks sees that Durant isn’t moving on his own, why not run plays designed to get Durant on the move.

In addition, how many times have you seen Russell Westbrook dribbling the ball at the top of the key as he waits for Durant to try and work off of a pindown screen as the only option.  With Durant as the only option, the defense is able to load up on him and keep the basketball out of his hands.

Ray Allen does a great job working off of screens, but one of the reasons he is able to get open is because Doc Rivers runs a lot of misdirection style plays where Allen gets screens off of the ball on the weakside.  This is the type of stuff that should work with Durant as well.  In fact, in overtime, Brooks ran one of these plays, and it worked:

Here, we have a pick and roll at the top of the key, Westbrook uses the screen and attacks the towards Durant’s side.  As this happens, Harden sneaks behind Durant’s man and sets a backscreen.  Durant works off of the backscreen and Westbrook gets him the basketball, putting him a position to score.

Another way Brooks can make sure Durant gets the basketball is to not rely on his “offense” to get the ball to him.  Instead of allowing the defense to get set and trying to get the ball to Durant late in the clock, Brooks started to get the ball to Durant early in the clock.

On these plays, Durant gets the basketball up top and he is allowed to work.  More creative playcalling from Brooks is important if the Thunder want Durant to have success late in games against the Grizzlies.

—

This wasn’t designed to be a blast piece on Kevin Durant.  He’s a great player and a great scorer, but the perception that Russell Westbrook is always at fault when he has these stretches where he doesn’t get shots off is just plain wrong.  Westbrook does make poor decisions, yes, but at times it is not his fault (especially in game four).  He is forced to try and create when Durant doesn’t cut off of the basketball or use a screen correctly (or if a play isn’t called or well designed).

When Durant did cut or Scott Brooks did run a play designed for Durant, Westbrook was willing and able to get him the basketball.  Russell Westbrook does have a tendency to try and be “the man” from time to time, but the amount of times it does actually happen is far less than the perception.  In the plays above, how many times did Westbrook ignore Durant?  Bad shots?  Some, but Durant wasn’t open on any of these and Westbrook was forced into these poor decisions.  If Durant wants to have success late in the postseason against tough defenses he has to be more willing to work off of the basketball and he needs his coach to design better plays.

Scott Brooks:

Scott Brooks playcalling should definitely be called into question here, because throughout the final minutes of the game, the Thunder were just standing around, running simple pindown screens for Kevin Durant, or running the same play over and over.  Too often, the result was Russell Westbrook with the basketball as the shot clock was winding down, forcing him to attempt to make a play.  I think the most egregious error made by Brooks came at the start of the collapse, coming off of the heels of a great play:

This is a fantastic play called by Brooks and executed well by Westbrook and Durant.  Durant gets a screen from Nick Collison and comes off of it to set a screen for Westbrook.  With Battier trailing, he is forced to try and hedge, and that frees up a lane for Durant to roll into.

After a timeout and a three by Memphis, the Thunder had the basketball looking to once again go up by double digits.  Instead, they ran the same play and the result was a turnover:

Because there was a timeout right before this possession, running the same play isn’t a smart move by Brooks.  This is because Memphis was in their huddle talking about how to stop this play (Durant’s man didn’t hedge and Westbrook’s man went under the screen).  With their initial read now stifled, Westbrook and Durant are left to try and create on their own, and they end up turning the ball over.

In addition to running the same play over and over, Brooks’ offense was (and always seems to be) too simple.  Meaning there is rarely any backside/weakside action.  So when Durant/Westbrook are running their pick and pop/roll offense and are in the same area, the defense is allowed to load up on them big time:

On this play, the Thunder are running their pick and pop play on one side with Ibaka, Collison, and Harden just standing there.  None of these three players are a threat, and this allows the Grizzlies to use two defenders to cover them as Zach Randolph comes over and stands at the foul line.  With Westbrook unable to attack, he is forced to take a contested jumper.

Any type of weakside action, be it a screen off of the ball or even a flash/cut, would relieve the pressure on Westbrook/Durant, but that doesn’t happen.

Kevin Durant

Durant didn’t get many touches in the final 7 minutes or so of the fourth quarter, and when he did get the ball, he was taking long jumpers.  While it wasn’t always his fault, Durant didn’t really help things late in the fourth quarter.  Both his ability to use screens and his shot selection hurt the Thunder late:

Something I have written/tweeted a lot about is Kevin Durant’s lack of strength and how it hurts him late in games (when the defense is tighter/whistles are swallowed) when trying to use screens.  Here is yet another example.  Tony Allen gets into Durant’s body, so when the screen comes he is able to fit between the screener and Durant.  This allows him to stay attached to Durant and keep him from making the catch initially and puts him in a good position to defend the pick and pop.  Eventually, Durant gets the basketball and is forced to take a tough step-back jumper.

In addition to letting himself get pushed around a little too much, Durant has a tendency not to cut sharply off of screens.  Normally this doesn’t hurt him because his size allows him to shoot over defenders, but when he is trying to curl off for a three, he is making it harder on himself:

Here, the Brooks calls a great play and Russell Westbrook does a good job to execute it.  The play is a ball screen for Westbrook set by Durant, Westbrook kicks it to the wing, then returns to the other side to set an off ball screen for Durant.  Instead of curling hard off the screen and making the catch going to the basketball, Durant fades away, catching the ball 3-5 feet away from the basket.  So now, instead of his spot-up being right at the line, it is a few feet away.  This makes it a tougher shot, and is one of the reasons he misses.

In addition to his screen usage, Durant had some interesting shot selection plays late in the game, settling for threes instead of attacking the lane:

Here, Durant actually does a great job setting up the screen and using his hands to get Tony Allen off of his body before he uses the screen (it was also a great call to have Sefolosha “rub” off of Allen, getting him off of Durant).  Allen is no longer attached to Durant, and this allows an effective screen to be set.  When Durant makes the catch, he has Marc Gasol and Tony Allen running at him.  Instead of throwing a pump fake and driving by the defenders, Durant settles for the three and misses.

Russell Westbrook

When looking at who’s fault this collapse was (on the offensive end, at least), Westbrook gets most of the blame in my opinion (20% Brooks, 20% Durant, 60% Westbrook).  Even though it wasn’t Westbrook’s fault every time he took a shot out of isolation situations, he did settle far too many times.

On this play, Durant comes over to set the screen as Westbrook brings the basketball down along the sideline.  Instead of quickly using the screen, Westbrook takes a few extra dribbles, allowing the defense to get set.  When Westbrook decides to use the screen, he doesn’t even come close to even pretending to want to use it.  This allows the defense to stay in front of him, and essentially stops everything.  Now Westbrook is forced to create on his own, and he fails.

This might have been the most frustrating possession in terms of watching Westbrook play yesterday.  Here, Serge Ibaka wants to set a screen for Westbrook with Durant on the side Westbrook would come off of the screen.  With Westbrook coming off the screen and Durant on the wing, that would put all kinds of pressure on the defense.  Instead, Westbrook waives Ibaka off and then waives Durant off before going one-on-one and missing.

Here, Durant comes off of the handoff, tries to probe in the lane, but gets the basketball knocked away from him from behind.  Westbrook has been a little loose with the basketball when the defense goes for that “wrap-around” steal attempt.  Westbrook needs to be better when it comes to understanding where the defenders are and better protect the basketball.

Grizzlies’ Defense

In addition to all of the blame that has been passed around, the Memphis Grizzlies and their defense deserve a lot of credit.  They played great, and maybe their best possession came when the Thunder tried to work Durant off of the basketball:

Here, the Thunder are trying to run a staggered ball screen and turn it into a staggered pindown for Durant.  The Memphis Grizzlies are ready for it though.  Marc Gasol drops into the paint, in case Durant wants to cut backdoor, allowing Tony Allen to overplay Durant and not let him use the screen until after working extremely hard.  This deny blows everything up as the Grizzlies close out and defend fantastically.  The end result is Thabo Sefolosha just throwing the ball at the rim to try and avoid a 24 second violation.

Sure, the Thunder lost their collective minds during the end of this game, but you can’t forget about the Grizzlies, they deserve some credit as well.

On post of these post ups from Game one, Serge Ibaka is in fact covering Randolph, but notice how easily Randolph is able to get his shot off.  It’s simply turn, face, and then shoot.  This is because of the space that Ibaka giving Randolph as soon as he makes the catch on the block.

So what did Oklahoma City do differently in game two?  They pressed up on Randolph, taking away that easy face up shot:

Here, Randolph makes the catch on the block and instead of playing off of him, Ibaka gets in his body.  So when Randolph does face up, he can’t take that shot right away.  Randolph is forced to jab step a couple times to try and create space to get his shoot off.  He eventually does, but look how much harder it is.  Randolph is no longer looking comfortable on the turn with Ibaka right on him, and this shot is a much tougher one because it is coming off of a jab step.

Another reason why you want Randolph to put the basketball on the floor and drive to the rim is because it allows help defense to come over.  On the play above, Randolph makes the catch on the post and again Ibaka is getting his body into him.  Randolph is able to take advantage by attacking the rim, but Kendrick Perkins comes with the help and bothers the shot as Ibaka recovers.

One of the reasons why it was so puzzling that Ibaka was playing off of Randolph in game one was because he has the athletic ability to recover when Randolph tries to drive the lane.  This was on display during game two.

Zach Randolph struggled on the block the whole game, scoring just 8 points on 10 post up possessions in game two (0.80 PPP).  Seeing Randolph struggle when forced to put the ball on the floor, expect to see Ibaka, Collison, and Perkins press up on Randolph every time he gets the ball on the block here on out.  You are going to shut Randolph out by doing this (he was actually able to draw a couple fouls when getting to the rim), but I think this is more of an effective way to stop the hot shooting Randolph right now.

The reason why the Grizzlies were attacking Perkins is because he isn’t the quickest big man around, and Memphis was hoping getting Perkins moving around would result in open shots, and they were right:

This play early in the first quarter shows you exactly why the Grizzlies were looking to involve Kendrick Perkins in pick and roll defense, and that is because they were looking to exploit his poor foot speed.  Here, Perkins is hedging, looking to keep Mike Conley out of the lane, which he does.  However, this leaves Marc Gasol open, and Perkins is unable to range over and challenge the shot.

After that first play, Perkins starts becoming concerned with getting back to Gasol.  Here, Conley comes off of the screen and Perkins shows.  However, it’s only a half show as he wants to get back to Gasol.  He leaves before Russell Westbrook can get close to Conley, freeing him up for the jump shot that he makes.

In my opinion, what really hurt Perkins was the pick and pop ability of both Grizzle bigs.  Whenever Perkins would commit to hedging on the ball handler, the man setting the screen (in this case Zach Randolph) would simply pop out.  The result was too much distance between the man popping and Perkins, and he just wasn’t quick enough to get back in time and successfully challenge the shot.

We’ve seen this play before, and it is not coincidence that it was run with the man Perkins was defending as the screener.  Again, Perkins gets himself caught helping and found himself in a position where he was unable to get back to his man, freeing up Gasol and forcing his teammate to pick up the foul.

The brilliance of using Perkins man as the screener is because it negated just about everything the Grizzlies wanted to do on the defensive end concerning screen and rolls.  If it was Ibaka in all of these hedging situations, he is probably athletic enough to stop some of these plays.  This final pick and roll is another great example.  The Thunder are trailing late in the fourth quarter here, so they are looking to trap Conley as soon as he comes off of the screen.  However, because Gasol (who Perkins was defending) was the man setting the screen, Perkins is the one forced to execute the trap.  He takes too long (and actually starts to hedge too early), allowing Gasol to get free on the slip.

The Grizzlies definitely saw something on tape concerning Ibaka when defending pick and rolls, and they came out and put him in that position time after time.  The Boston Celtics’ help defense was good enough to hide these deficiencies (like Perkins’ slow feet), but I don’t know if the Thunder’s defense is.  Look for the Thunder to try and adjust, but this could be a problem all series for Perkins and Oklahoma City.