After a broken play where Oklahoma City scored to put the Thunder up 1 with 5.0 seconds left, the Utah Jazz needed a basket coming out of a timeout, and Jerry Sloan sure didn’t disappoint. What happened afterwords (I am not even getting into it) shouldn’t take away from that:
The Jazz are set up in your standard box set coming out of a timeout. Usually, you will have your point guard come up from the low post off of a screen on the elbow. Instead, Carlos Boozer simply turns around, pins his man (Jeff Green) on his back, and makes the catch.
When the Bucks and the Grizzlies went into overtime, it was apparent that one player needed to step up if they wanted to get their team a win. That player ended up being Andrew Bogut, and it didn’t come from scoring the basketball.
With the Bucks up by 1, the Grizzlies set up and ran a very nice play. Mike Conley brought the basketball down and came off of a Marc Gasol screen. As this was happening Rudy Gay, who started in the corner, comes back to the middle of the floor to receive a dribble hand-off from Conley.
After the Wizards hit a three pointer to send the game into overtime, I thought that the Wizards were going to be able to use that momentum to steal the game from the Bobcats. However, the exact opposite happened as the Bobcats outscored the Wizards 13-4 in the final 5 minute period.
The key seemed to be the Bobcats willingness to attack the basket. The Bobcats seemed determined to get themselves inside the paint every possession of overtime. Each time, it resulted in one of two things; a trip to the foul line or an easy basket:
Possession 1 – Gerald Wallace Gets To The Line Using A Screen
On this play, the Bobcats set up what looks to be an ISO set for Gerald Wallace. At the last moment, Tyson Chandler comes up and sets a screen for Wallace. Wallace uses the screen and gets all the way to the rim, where he is fouled.
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.
