With the Bobcats down 5 points with about 2 minutes left, they really needed a stop to try and get back in the game.  You know that the Bobcats have good set plays that they run late (with Coach Larry Brown drawing them up), but unless they string together a few stops, it doesn’t matter.

After a dribble handoff from Jameer Nelson to J.J. Redick, Redick makes the catch and comes off of a screen set by Dwight Howard.  In this situation, the Bobcats are looking to have the big man hedge the screen to allow Redick’s defender (Larry Hughes) to get back to him.  Theo Ratliff is the man hedging, and his goal here is to cut off Redick’s dribble and not let him get around the outside of him.

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For these playoff previews we are going to take a look at each team individually, and then we are going to look at the match-up.

Orlando Magic

Strengths

What the Magic do well.

• Shoot threes
• Defend the paint
• Inside-out ball movement

Weaknesses

Some problems the Magic struggle with

• Can settle for outside jumpers and ignore their biggest strength, which is Dwight Howard.
• Dwight Howard’s foul troubles.
• Perimeter defense

Tendencies

Some things you are going to notice when watching the Magic play.

• Obviously the Magic love to shoot the 3 pointer, and that makes sense, because they are very good at it (set the record for most threes in a season during their final game).

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Going into tonight’s game with the Orlando Magic, the Atlanta Hawks were hoping to clinch a playoff spot with a win.  They were in good shape for most of the game, but they allowed Orlando to get back into it late.  After Vince Carter hit a fade away three with 9.9 seconds left, Atlanta had one more chance to win the game.

After Vince Carter’s three, the Magic drop everyone back on defense.  Maybe this is nit-picking, but I would have loved to see the Magic show a little bit of pressure.  Not necessarily press, but at least have one guy pressuring the ball.  If the Magic have Carter defending Joe Johnson the full length of the court, he might have been able to speed him up and force him into a mistake.  Instead, Johnson is able to walk the ball up the court and let things develop.

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What makes the Magic so dangerous late in games is that they have so many options.  You have Vince Carter, Dwight Howard, and Rashard Lewis for starters.  Late in overtime against the Heat, all three played a pretty important role in taking a 3 point lead and making it 6.

The Magic run Vince Carter off of a screen set by Dwight Howard.  Dwight is going to roll straight to the rim after setting the screen.

As Dwight starts his roll, Carter returns to the side he was on before he set the screen.  Michael Beasley ends up sinking in the middle, to help defend Dwight Howard on the roll.

As Vince Carter rises up to pass, Michael Beasley is actually bodied up with Howard, and Jermaine O’Neal is stuck in no man’s land at the top of the key.  That means that there is no defender near Rashard Lewis.

As Rashard Lewis rises up to shoot the three, you are left to wonder who made the mistake here.  Was Michael Beasley’s help designed, or did he do it on his own?  I tend to believe that he did it on his own because if this was schemed there would be at least some rotation to Lewis, but there is none.

As I said at the start of the post, this is what makes the Magic so dangerous.  You have a very, very, very good big man in Dwight Howard that teams need to pay attention to.  Then you have 4 guys who can knock down an outside shot, and that forces the defense to make a decision.  Who are they going to leave to double Dwight.  Here, they picked Rashard Lewis and ended up paying for it.

At halftime of the Celtics-Magic game, it looked like Boston was pulling away turning this game into a blowout.  The Celtics had just outscored the Magic by 10 points in the second quarter, and they went into halftime with an 11 point lead.  The Magic came out in the third quarter, and the game did turn into a blowout, just the other way around.  The Magic outscored the Celtics in the third 36 to 11.  Lets look at how they did it:

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There were two really good games with some nice execution late.  The first game that we are going to take a look at is the Lakers-Raptors game from yesterday.  The Lakers had the lead lake, but two plays for the Raptors that lead in fouls were able to help the Raptors get the win.

The Shooting Threat Of Bargnani

The great thing about being a great three point shooter is the way that the defense plays you.  Defenses need to close out hard because they respect the shot, and if you have an ability to attack the basket, this gives you a great advantage.  When you are a shooting threat from the center spot, it is even better, because you are usually matched up against guys who don’t really know how to close-out properly.

Here Pau Gasol is in help position as the pick and roll between Chris Bosh and Hedo goes on.  Hedo then makes the pass to Bargnani.

As Bargnani makes the catch, he doesn’t even need to pump fake, because Pau Gasol is already closing out on him real hard.  Bargnani rips the ball through and has Pau on his hip.  This gives him a lane right to the basket.

The help actually comes on time, but Bargnani is able to avoid it, take the ball under the basket, and hit the reverse lay-up while getting fouled.

The Play To Get Hedo Fouled

Here, the Raptors run a pick and roll late with the goal to isolate Pau Gasol on Hedo (because, as we talked about in the past, most teams switch any screens in the final moments of the game).

The pick gets set and the switch is made.  Hedo explores the right side, but there is nothing there, and he crosses over and goes back to the middle.

Hedo uses another screen from Bosh.  Here, the Raptors actually gave the Lakers a chance to switch back.  Pau and Ron Artest choose not to though.

Because they don’t switch the screen, Hedo is able to use is athletic advantage on Pau to get him on his hip.  He does just that and starts his drive to the basket.

Hedo gets into the lane and as he attempts a lay-up, he is fouled.  He knocks down the two foul shots and the Raptors come away with the win.

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The next game that we arre going to look at is the Magic-Bobcats game from Saturday.  This was another good game (until it got into overtime), but instead of good execution, it was a defensive breakdown that almost cost the Magic the game

Outside Opening Inside

Before we get to the late game play, I just wanted to show what makes Orlando so dangerous.

As the clock winds down to end the quarter, Marcin Gortat sets a screen for Vince Carter.  Look how the court is spread out.  The Magic have 4 legitimate outside threats with the one center.  A great way to stretch the court out.

After he sets his screen Gortat dives to the basket.  This serves two purposes, the first is that it may suck a defender in and allow for an open shot.  The second purpose is that if/when the Magic shoot a three, Gortat diving to the basket makes himself available for an offensive rebound.

As Carter swings the ball to Jameer Nelson, there is a problem.  Stephen Jackson has to decide to go defend Rashard Lewis (who is wide open right now) or stay on Gortat.

Jackson chooses to go out on Lewis, leaving Gortat open.  Nelson makes a great look-away pass to get it to Gortat down low.

Gortat makes the catch in the paint with the defense on his back.  He is able to finish strong with the dunk.

The Defensive Breakdown

Now we get to the defensive breakdown.  This to me looks like a lack of communication either in the huddle or on the court (Maybe both).

This is a nice play run by the Bobcats.  Boris Diaw is going to quickly make himself available, and after the pass is made, Stephen Jackson is going to come off a backscreen set by Raymond Felton.

After Felton sets the screen, he is going to come and get a handoff from Diaw.  For the Magic, this is where the breakdown happens.  You can see Nelson pointing (and most likely yelling) to Vince Carter.  Nelson wants Carter to switch and cover Felton as he covers Nelson.

However, Vince Carter doesn’t here him (or chooses to ignore him), so now the Magic have two defenders on one, and Boris Diaw (it ends up being Diaw because the handoff turns into a screen, and that gets switched by Dwight Howard)  is going to be open.  In this hectic-ness, Carter and Nelson need to figure out who is going to go out on Diaw.  Instead of just one defender going out on Diaw, both do.

This leaves Stephen Jackson wide open under the basket.  Jackson is actually open for a really long time here, but Felton can’t see him, because Dwight does a good job of getting big and closing the court down.  He doesn’t allow for Felton to see how open Jackson is.

As Felton uses his speed to turn the corner, he is able to finally see Stephen Jackson who is still wide open.  Jackson shouldn’t still be this wide open, but again Vince Carter and Jameer Nelson can’t figure out who is going to run to Jackson.  Nelson, decides he is going to stay with Diaw, and this forces Carter to try and cover a longer distance to get to Jackson.

He is unable to do so, and Felton makes the pass to Jackson, and he is able to finish right at the basket, tying the game, and sending it into overtime.

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.

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.

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.