With Brandon Roy missing for the Blazers and Vince Carter returning, this game looked like it was going to be a blowout…and it was…just not the way you would expect it.  With the Blazers missing Roy, they didn’t have that go-to guy who you can give the ball to and watch him work.  It showed in the stats, the Blazers only attempted 10 foul shots (hitting on 9 of them), and they were outscored in the paint 44-32.  So how did they win?

What The Blazers Did Right?

Shooting The Three

Without Roy, the Blazers needed to find a way to make up the points he would have provided if he played.  They did this a the three point line.  The Blazers shot 52% from three, hitting on 11 of 21 threes.

For all of the stuff that Andre Miller gets, he is still an affective player with his back to the basket.  His opponents know this as well, because they have their eyes on him.  This allows for Juwan Howard to find a soft spot in the defense, and he cuts to it.

Miller hits Howard with the pass.  The combination of the post up with the pass to the middle sucks every Magic into the paint.  Howard is a veteran and he recognized that the Magic all were sunk in before he even made the catch.  This allowed him to turn and pass just as he made the catch, hitting a wide open Rudy Fernandez.

Rudy Fernandez makes the catch, and takes a wide open three.  The Magic defender is able to get his hand up, but he is too far out to bother the shot, and Fernandez knocks down the three.

Execution

Also, without Brandon Roy, the Blazers had to find a way to get the ball into the paint.  Once the ball gets into the paint, it leads to either made baskets or open shots on the outside.  Since the Blazers couldn’t just give the ball to Roy and let him attack the basket, they had to execute everything perfectly so they can get into the paint.

As Andre Miller brings up the basketball, Steve Blake sets a downscreen for LaMarcus Aldridge.

Aldridge comes off the scree and sets a screen of his own for Miller.  So what was the point of the initial screen?  Probably to take Dwight’s attention away from helping on the screen for Andre Miller.  Look where Howard is positioned.  He is in no type of position to help on on the screen at all.  He is too high on Aldridge, so when Miller comes off on the screen, he wouldn’t be able to hedge effectively.

With Howard not being able to hedge properly and with Jameer Nelson forced to stay with Steve Blake on the outside (Blake was 4-6 from three this game), this gives Andre Miller a wide open lane to drive the basketball.

He gets to the rim and finishes strong.

What The Magic Did Wrong?

Turnovers

The Magic turned the ball over way too much against Portland, and not only that, but these turnovers lead to points for the Blazers.  Throughout this whole post, we talked about Portland “making up” Roy’s points, and this is another way they did that, points off the Magic’s turnovers.  The Magic turned the ball over 12 times, and these 12 turnovers lead to 22 points for the Blazers.

Here the Magic are out and running towards the end of the first quarter.  It is a 5 on 3 fast break, and Portland’s defender (I believe it’s Jeff Pendergraph) is in a real tough spot.  He needs to make a decision to either stop J.J. Redick, or drop back and defend the lead man on the break.

It’s a tough decision, but J.J. Redick made it much easier for him.  Redick stops his dribble a few feet outside the three point line.  This doesn’t work because it allows Pendergraph to drop off and defend the cutter (the trailing Blazer is able to close out on Redick if he decides to shoot).  Redick should have forced the action and at least dribbled it to the elbow.  This would have forced Pendergraph to make a decision, and if he came out, he could have hit the lead Magic for the lay-up.  If Pendergraph dropped off, Redick had a easy shot inside the paint.

Instead, Redick tried to make the pass, and it is deflected by the Blazers’ defender.

This turnover leads to a dunk by the Blazers giving them momentum going into the second quarter.

There were a ton of great plays from this game (LeBron’s three off the missed free throw, LeBron’s 30 foot fade away three, Kyle Korver’s over the basket shot, and finally Sundiata Gaines’ three pointer for the win), but there wasn’t really anything to “breakdown” so to speak.  So today, I am just going to talk about a few things in bullet form.

• The first thing that I noticed (and liked) was the Jazz fouling so early.  After a Ronnie Price 3 cut the lead to 3, the Jazz fouled with 28 seconds left.  The TNT guys didn’t like it, but I love that decision.  You have to think, LeBron was in full LeBron mode, hitting shots that he has no business making.  So what is the point in letting the Cavs run down the clock and having him knock down a shot as the shot clock runs down?  That would have meant they were down by 5 with 4 seconds left.  No way could they have won the game then.  Fouling extends the game, and if the Cavs miss free-throws (which they did), the Jazz could find themselves with a chance to win or tie, and that is exactly what happened.
• During the final 28 seconds, LeBron was the one inbounding the ball.  Why?  He is the team’s best player and a pretty big target.  He would give the inbounder a nice option, plus, I would rather live with LeBron missing free throws than with Anthony Parker missing them.

And just because this was so awesome it gave me goosebumps:

Every morning I will take an in-depth look at a game that happened the previous night.  The game that I pick is the one that I think was the best and most interesting one of the night/weekend.

Note:  I know everything is a little late today, sorry about that guys…

When you think the Suns, you think fastbreak points and three pointers.  However, against the Pacers, the Suns were outrun (Pacers +4 in fastbreak points) and outshot (Pacers +15 from three).

What The Pacers Did Right?

Hit The Threes

The Pacers were able to outscore the Suns by 15 points from the three point line.  A lot of it had to do with players smartly moving without the ball.  Finding open spots in the defense, and then when they got open shots, they knocked them down.

Earl Watson penetrates to the basket, and as this happens Jared Dudley turns his head to focus on the help.  Mike Dunleavy sees this and he floats to an open spot, making himself available for the pass.

As Watson makes the pass, Dudley turns to find Mike Dunleavy, but he isn’t where he was when Dudley first turned his head.  So Dudley has to find him before he closes out.

This split second to find him keeps Dudley from closes out on time, and that allows Mike Dunleavy to knock down the three point shot.

What The Suns Did Wrong?

They Didn’t Run

The Suns really struggled getting good looks in the open court last night.  Part of this was the Pacers, they shot well enough that it limited the Suns’ defensive rebound opportunities.  Also, the Pacers took really quick shots.  Even though they didn’t make most of them, the quick shots allowed for the Pacers to get back, leaving no room for the Suns to run:

The first thing to notice here is the shot clock, the Pacers pull this three pointer with only 3 seconds coming off the shot clock.

Grant Hill grabs the rebound, he turns and fires the ball ahead to Jason Richardson, usually this would lead to an open lay-up.  But because the Pacers took such a quick shot…

Four of them are already back on defense.  So instead of a wide-open lay-up, this turns into a 1 on 4 fast break.

Jason Richardson gets to the basket, and attempts a double-clutch lay-up.  He misses, and the Pacers get the rebound.

Here is another example:

The Pacers slowed it down a bit here.  They take a shot after running 5 seconds off the clock.  Notice how 3 other Pacers are behind the three point line, and as the shot goes up, they don’t crash the boards, they just drop back.

The Suns get the rebound and quickly put it into Steve Nash’s hands.

He brings it up and explores his options, but there is nothing there because the Pacers are all back on defense.  He kicks it out to Frye who misses a contested three pointer.  The Pacers did a terrific job at getting back on defense and forcing the Suns to score in the half court.  This is part of the reason they didn’t hit too many threes as well.  A lot of the Suns’ three pointers come in transition, because their transition options were limited, so were their three point shots.

Every morning I will take an in-depth look at a game that happened the previous night.  The game that I pick is the one that I think was the best and most interesting one of the night/weekend.

I started watching this game in the middle of the second quarter, and I hunkered down expecting an awesome game, and it was…for three quarters.  The Kings were actually winning this game by 2 points after 3 quarters, but a 33-10 fourth quarter ended the game with the Magic pulling away.

We are going to focus exclusively on the fourth quarter here for obvious reasons.

What The Kings Did Wrong?

Way too many threes.

Both teams weren’t that good from the three point line last night.  They both shot an identical 8-27 from deep, but the key here is when the threes were missed.  The Magic knew it was an off night for them, and they only attempted 4 three-pointers (making 1).  The Kings on the other hand, shot 7 of them (making none):

Sergio Rodriguez comes off of a Jason Thomas screen, and explores his options.  Ryan Anderson shows, but it is a soft hedge, and Rodriguez is able to get around it.  So you think that the Kings got something going.

However, instead of rolling and making himself available (the lane is wide open), he fades and just hangs around the elbow.  The roll would have forced J.J. Redick to make a decision as well, and that could have opened up Beno Udrih.  So why didn’t Thompson roll?  Well, I think it has to do with that big guy wearing #12 for the Magic standing in the middle.

Because there are no options, Rodriguez is forced to dump it inside on the baseline.  Brockman isn’t going to be able to do anything with Dwight Howard covering him (and that far away from the basket), so it is kind of a wasted touch right there.

Brockman kicks it back out to Rodriguez who now has no options besides creating something on his own.

So Rodriguez pulls up from 3.  Another result of taking a shot that isn’t in the flow of the offense is that your teammates don’t know you are shooting, so they aren’t in good position for the offensive rebound.  Look at Beno Udrih by the way, he didn’t move throughout that whole set.  Here is another example.  On the surface, this looks like a good shot, but the when you take into consideration the context, you start to think otherwise:

The Kings forced the Magic into a turnover, and they try to break.  The Magic defense is back though, so the Kings are forced to slow things down.

Udrih attacks towards the basket and kicks it out to Tyreke Evans.

Who makes the catch and pulls up.  It was an open three, which is why some people would think this is a good shot, but let’s look at the context.  The Kings are down 10 here, and he has J.J. Redick covering him.  If Evans were to throw Redick a pump fake here and attack the basket, you could get something out of this.  Either a lay-up, or draw a foul on Dwight Howard.  Instead, Evans takes a three early in the shot-clock, even though this is a shot you can get whenever.  So what does a good offense look like?  Well the Kings had some stretches where they played well and had a nice flowing offense:

What The Magic Did Right?

They took it inside.

It’s weird, I would totally expect it to be the opposite.  Me talking about the Magic shooting the three ball way too much late, and the Kings taking it inside late.  The Magic though, did a great job getting into the paint, and getting to the line (8-9 in the 4th):

The Magic discovered early on that the Kings didn’t really have anyone who could keep up with Dwight.  This is a set play for Dwight, and it is interesting, because they don’t really run set stuff for Dwight late because of his poor foul shooting.  They must felt that he was shooting it well enough or that the mismatch was too great.  So much so that Stan Van Gundy was compelled to run sets for Dwight.

Williams gives it to J.J. Redick (this is smart because the defender can’t sag off and double down on Dwight because of his shooting threat), who quickly dumps it into Dwight.

Look at how far out Dwight makes the catch.  If it was any other back to the basket center in the league, nothing would come of this, but Dwight is so strong and athletic…

…that all it takes is one dribble and a spin move (plus a shoulder to the stomach of his defender) to give himself enough room…

…for an open lay-up.

Every morning I will take an in-depth look at a game that happened the previous night.  The game that I pick is the one that I think was the best and most interesting one of the night/weekend.

The Bulls have been struggling a ton this year, but for one night, everything clicked.  The Pistons helped them though.  The Pistons shot only 41.3% (33-80 from the field), including only 18.2% from 3 (2-11).  Meanwhile Chicago shot 57.1% (48-84).  The High shooting percentage was due in large part to the points in the paint the Bulls got, as well as the fact the Bulls got a ton of fast break points.

What The Bulls Did Right?

Getting Points In The Paint

Here, the Bulls run a pick and roll involving Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose.  Derrick Rose is going to come off of it,  not hard as if he was going to attack the basket, but he curves it off, giving himself an angle to make a pass on the roll.

The Pistons try to hedge out of this screen, but they don’t do a good job of it.  If the defender hedging is going to come out this far, he needs to turn the point guard around.  Here, Rose is able to get around the defender, and now the Pistons are in a tough spot.

The Piston covering Tyrus Thomas is in the toughest spot.  He sees Noah rolling uncontested (due to the poor hedge), but if he leaves to help out on Noah, he doesn’t know if anyone has his back, rotating over to cover Thomas.  Rose gave himself a good enough angle to make either pass.  A big key.

The defender chooses to stay with Thomas, and Derrick Rose threads the needle with a pass to Joakim Noah, leading to a big time dunk.

Getting Out On The Break

Coming off of a screen, Rip Hamilton gets trapped on the sideline when Joakim Noah hedges out hard on the screen (this is how you do it by the way, completely knocking the ball handler off of his path).

Noah’s active hands knocks the ball loose, and he quickly gains possession.

As Noah dribbles to gain possession, the Bulls now have a 4 on 2 fast break, with no Detroit Pistons past their own foul line.  In fact, one Piston seems to be walking back on defense as the Bulls take the ball on the break.

Noah gets the ball to a guard’s hand (Hinrich), and in this camera angle, there are no Pistons getting back on defense.

Hinrich passes it to Rose as the rest of the Pistons chug along, at least pretending to hustle.

Rose makes the 4th pass of the fast break (which was allowed to happen since they had 5 seconds of a 4 on 2 fast break), and Deng finishes with the lay-up.

What The Pistons Did Wrong?

Poor Offense/Shot Selection

After bringing the ball up, Rodney Stuckey swings the ball to Rip Hamilton.  Take note of the shot clock up top.  There is 19 seconds left on it.

Hamilton, after surveying the situation for a second or two, swings the ball to Jonas Jerebko, who is out on the wing, beyond the three point line.

Jonas Jerebko tries to enter the ball into the post, but Deng is playing off of him, effectively cutting off any lanes to get the entry post in there.

Jerebko then swings the ball back out to Rip Hamilton.

Rip Hamilton points to Ben Wallace, calling for a screen.

He gets it and tries to use it, but the Bulls defend it perfectly (again), because of that, Rip Hamilton is forced to dribble the ball back towards the right wing.

He then swings the ball to Jonas Jerebko who takes an ill-advised three pointer.  Jerebko has played pretty well this year, but he isn’t a three point shooter.  He is shooting 25.5% from 3 on the year including a big fat 0% over the last 5 games.  So why did he take the shot then?  Well, the Pistons basically spent 12 seconds passing the ball around the perimeter.  The ball did not spend one second/bounce inside the three point line, so when Jonas Jerebko got a open look, he must have thought “well, nothing is really going on, so I might as well shoot it.”

This is sad.  I remember the Pistons offense of the last decade where they would run Rip Hamilton off a ton of screens, and get him open mid-range jumpers at will.  What happened to that?  They are now resorting to just swinging the ball around and seeing what happens.

Every morning I will take an in-depth look at a game that happened the previous night.  The game that I pick is the one that I think was the best and most interesting one of the night/weekend.

If you look at the numbers, it looks like the Suns had this one all wrapped up.  They shot better from the field, better from 3, and they attempted the same number of foul shots that the Heat did (this is key, some games the Heat get to the line a ridiculous amount).  The key of the game was the number of shots taken.  The Heat took 10 more shots than the Suns.  The reason?  Steals and Turnovers.

What the Heat Did Right?

They got steals

The Heat were able to get 10 steals against the Suns Friday night.  These steals were key, not only because they prevented the Suns from getting an attempt at the basket (remember the Suns were shooting well this game), but because it lead to fast break opportunities for the Heat.  In this video, here are two steals that directly lead to points for the Heat (you could consider this 4 to 5 point swings because the Suns don’t get a shot – where if they would make it they could score 2 or 3 points -  and the Heat score):

They scored in the paint

The Heat also outscored the Suns in the paint (36-30).  A lot of it was the ball movement opening up things inside:

Beasley is going to set a screen for Rafer Alston.  Instead of straight rolling, Beasley is going to half-pop towards the sideline.

Rafer Alston does a very smart thing here.  He gets the ball out of his hands quickly, before Channing Frye can get back after hedging.

Beasley makes the catch as Frye is still trying to recover on Beasley.  Now here is where the Suns broke down on defense.  There are 3 Suns there who can rotate over on Beasley.  All of them are flat-footed though, so none of them can get over in time.

Stoudemire gets there, but is late, and Beasley finishes with the lay-up.

What The Suns Did Wrong?

They were too careless with the ball

Along with the 10 steals the Heat had, the Suns turned it over 7 more times.  In all, the 17 turnovers lead to 23 points for the Heat.  Also, these turnovers limited the opportunities the Suns had at the basket, which is the reason for the 10 fewer shots they had (and it probably cost them the game):

A lot of turnovers that don’t come from steals are from offensive fouls.  Some calls are iffy, but this one was obvious, and just a lack of focus from Channing Frye.  Here, he is setting a screen for Barbosa.

Frye initiates the screen, and Beasley comes out to meet Barbosa.

Beasley shows and then repositions himself behind the screen.  Frye stays initiated with the screen, it is actually a good screen until…

…Frye decides to swing an elbow into Mario Chalmers.  The thing that must bother the Suns’ coaching staff is that it was a very good screen and Barbosa is on his way to the basket.  This was a good chance at points, and it vanished.  The kicker?  The Heat drilled a 3 the next possession.

Alright, I am going to experiment with another recap style.  Here, I will be breaking down one game in depth (the best game in my opinion), one game a morning.

The game I wanted to take a deep look at was the Magic-Raptors game.  I thought it was interesting that the Raptors beat the Magic at their game.  They hit 9 out of 20 threes, and looked real good on offense.  They also played some defense (which is enough for them), holding the Magic to just 29% shooting from deep.

What The Raptors Did Right

Good Looks At The Basket

The Raptors got a ton of good looks, and a lot of it had to do with them forcing the ball up the court.  Also, they got the ball into the middle of the floor, forcing the Magic defender’s to react, and putting them in tough positions:

Jarrett Jack really pushed the tempo all night.  Here, he gets to the middle and forces the Magic to collapse on him.  4 Magic defenders clog the middle, and Matt Barnes is the 4th.  He sinks in a little too deep, and gives a lackluster effort at the basketball, reaching in with his left hand.

Jack does a good job of hitting the open man (Antoine Wright), and Wright makes the catch ready to shoot.  There is no defender near him, and that allows him to step into the pass, make the catch, and pull up for the shot,

He gets the shot up before Barnes can effect it, and he knocks it down.

What The Magic Did Wrong

Poor Defense/Rotations

This was a common theme throughout the game.  The Magic got their rotations mixed up a couple times, and even after they recovered the effort wasn’t really there to stop the Raptors.

Here, Chris Bosh fumbles the basketball, and as he recovers Vince Carter comes over with the double team.  A lot of teams have a rule where you double team on the first dribble.  From what I know, teams like to double on the first meaningful dribble (one that attacks the basket).  Bosh is bobbling the ball backwards, and he dribbles it to recover.  There is no double team required here.

Carter’s double team forces the Magic to rotate back, and their is some confusion on the rotation.  Either Carter needs to rotate back to Jarrett Jack himself, or Jameer Nelson needs to slide up to Jack as Carter rotates to DeRozen.  Here, Nelson stays put expecting Carter to return to Jack.  It would work, except Carter starts to rotate towards DeRozen.  So the Magic have two guys going towards a man a pass away, while nobody goes to pick up the man with the ball.

Jack makes the catch and starts to drive.  Now if Carter or Nelson cut off Jack’s drive, they could probably force a pass and try to recover.  Nobody goes to pick up Jack though.  They both seem to be worried that Jack is going to make a pass to DeRozen…Vince Carter is pointing at him though.

Jarrett Jack gets into the paint and still nobody picks him up.

Vince Carter finally starts to to defend, but it is too late, and Jack is able to finish with the lay-up.

Dwight Howard’s Turnovers

Dwight Howard turned the ball over 9 times.  A lot of them were self-inflicted:

Dwight gets the ball in the post, but he isn’t really in great position (he is too high up and too far away from the basket).

He still tries to feel for is defender, and after a quick dribble, he kicks it out.

The idea is for Dwight Howard to get a repost.  However after making the pass, he doesn’t really establish better position (it’s not like he is going up against a big guy in Bargnani – he should be able to bully him).  Nelson gives the ball back to Dwight too quickly, and doesn’t give him enough time to establish better position.

Howard starts to drive middle, but because he is in the midpost instead of the lowpost it is easier for the help to come…

…so Dwight tries to spin baseline.  He is too far away from the basket though, and he needs to take a few more dribbles.  The ball gets knocked away from him, and it bounces off his leg and out of bounds.

Every morning, I am going to be taking a look at the some of the more interesting games that took place the night before.  The name isn’t original at all, but the content is:

Milwaukee Bucks 98 – New Jersey Nets 76

If I have to watch the Nets every time they play (and I do), you are going to have to read about them.  I have been pretty positive through the Nets’ first 34 games (they are 3-31), but I think it was safe to say that last night’s game was the most embarrassing performance of them all.

I don’t know if it was because they were coming off a solid performance against the Cavs, or if it was because they started so well (8-0 run to start the game), but it was just real tough to watch.  Nobody on the Nets had a good a real good game except for Yi, who put up 22 points (but only 2 rebounds).

After the 8-0 run, Scott Skiles pulled both Andrew Bogut and Luc Mbah a Moute.  The strategy worked, as the Bucks’ bench outscored the Nets’ bench 34-7 in the first half, and Bogut played like a man possessed in the second half, finishing with 22 points on 9-12 shooting.

Turning Point – Skiles’ benching.  After pulling Bogut and Mbah a Moute, the Bucks’ closed the first quarter on a 22-8 run and it sparked a big performance from Andrew Bogut.

Phoenix Suns 113 – Sacramento Kings 109

This game was just an awesome one to watch.  There were at least 3 separate different runs, where you thought one team was out of it, they clawed back.

Casspi didn’t play that well in the first half, but he turned it on in the second, hitting some 3s and attacking the basket aggressively.  In the end though, the Suns’ experience was too much for the young Kings.  A young Kings team that saw its two rookies (Casspi and Evans) put up 51 of their 109 points.

Turning Point: Nash’s Dagger.  It was one of the few times that the Suns held the ball, but up 2 Nash dribbled out the clock and then calmly drilled a jumper, putting the Suns’ up four and effectively ending the game.

I am experiementing with different types of morning recap posts, so be patient with me.  Stay tuned for some possession breakdowns later today…