Over at the Point Forward (seriously, a must read NBA-blog), Zach Lowe looked at how poor floor balance from the Golden State Warriors allowed the Miami Heat to get out in the open court and run the floor. Well, tonight the Cavs were playing the Heat, and again poor floor balance was responsible for a Miami Heat fast break:
As Mo Williams picks up his dribble, the floor is balanced. What I mean by floor balance is that the offense has at least one player (usually a guard) out near the top of the key behind the three point to prevent a fast break in the case of a miss or a turnover.
If you did not know that Kevin Seraphin was a rookie, after you saw the mistake he made down the stretch of the Wizards’ game against the Lakers, it had to be obvious. Seraphin does a fantastic job showing on the screen and getting back to the rim to get his hands on the basketball. However, after that he allows Derek Fisher to get his hands on the basketball, knocking it loose:
The reason why Fisher was able to get his hands on the ball was because Seraphin brought it back down to an area where Fisher could reach it. The overhead angle really shows Seraphin’s mistake:
With the Detroit Pistons trailing the Dallas Mavericks by two points with one minute left last night, they needed to force a miss and secure the rebound to give themselves a chance. The Pistons were able to force a miss on two separate occasions, but couldn’t get themselves a defensive rebound on either, allowing the the Mavericks to run about 43 seconds off of the clock, effectively ending the game.
1st Offensive Rebound
As Jason Kidd brings the basketball up, Tyson Chandler sets a cross screen, allowing for Dirk to flash up to the elbow.
After a dribble handoff to Jason Terry, Dirk steps up to set a screen to run the pick and pop. As this is taking place, Jason Kidd clears out to the opposite side to give Dirk the room to pop. Jason Maxiell is in the middle of the paint, defending Tyson Chandler.
With the Bulls down by five points, they decide to foul Tony Parker with 50 seconds left. Despite Tony Parker hitting the first foul shot, it was still a two possession game, and with slightly less than a minute left there was still plenty of time for a comeback. Tony Parker missed the second foul shot, but the Bulls allowed Richard Jefferson to grab the offensive rebound, effectively clinching the game (the Bulls had to foul again after a Spurs’ timeout, Richard Jefferson hit both FTs, and it was now an 8 point game with 46 seconds left).
Even though Jefferson was the one who grabbed the rebound, the man to blame for the Bulls was somebody you wouldn’t really expect, Joakim Noah:
Against the Heat, the Utah Jazz were down by two points with 3.4 seconds left in the game. Even though they were able to get themselves a clean look at the rim, Paul Millsap didn’t give up on the play, and that combined with a nice bounce, is what allowed him to get the offensive rebound and put it back before the buzzer sounded.
Even though it was a great effort for Millsap, Udonis Haslem’s lack of a box-out is at least partially responsible for the game going into overtime:
As C.J. Miles flashes to the corner, Paul Millsap actually pops out towards the three point line. Despite coming off open, the ball gets passed to Miles in the corner.
Whenever a point guard can grab a rebound, he puts his team at an advantage. When a point guard grabs a rebound on the defensive end, he is able to start a fast break on his own since the ball is already in the points hands (no outlet passes are needed). When a point grabs an offensive rebound, he has one of two options, pull it out and restart the offense, or attack, taking advantage of the defense being out of position.
In my research, it was interesting to notice that there are two different types of point guards that succeed when it comes to rebounding the basketball, depending on whether or not it is an offensive or defensive rebound.
Defensive Rebounding/Bigger Point Guards
The point guards who dominate the defensive boards are the usual suspects. The PGs who you tend to think of when you think about point guards who can rebound (because if you are like me, you think about this a ton). Guys like Jason Kidd, Tyreke Evans, and Deron Williams who know how to use their size to their advantage when crashing the boards (All these guys grab over 10% of their respective team’s defensive rebounds).
Jason Kidd is thought of to be the best rebounding point guard in the league, and the numbers back that line of thinking up. Part of the reason is that he is such a smart player, he knows how to read the ball off the rim and position his body to get there.
Here, Kidd reads that the foul shot for Tony Parker is going to end up short, so he rushes in to cut off Parker. The ball bounces right to Kidd and he starts up court.
Rajon Rondo’s offensive rebound late in the fourth quarter with the Celtics up by ten points was a pretty big play. Instead of getting a defensive rebound and having the chance to cut the lead down into single digits, the Lakers were facing a 12 point lead with the Boston crowd going nuts. While this was a great individual effort by Rondo, the Lakers (more specifically Lamar Odom) are responsible for this play:
The Boston Celtics get the ball in Paul Pierce’s hands so he can initiate the offense. Once he gets the ball, the Celtics run a pick and pop with Ray Allen as the screener.
