While Kevin Durant had a tremendous game in the finals of the FIBA World Championships scoring 28 points on 10 for 17 shooting (58.8%), the rest of Team USA really seemed to struggle, chipping in just 53 points while going 20 for 51 from the field.  While the rest of Team USA had problems creating for themselves and knocking down tough shots, they were able to take advantage of some really good looks, and it was all due to the attention that the Turkish team showed Kevin Durant.

Whether it was man to man, zone defense, or in transition Turkey really used most of their effort on the defensive end to try and stop Durant.  Eventually, this strategy allowed the rest of Team USA to get some open looks, and they were able to finish.

Against Man To Man Defense

Turkey really struggled when playing their man to man defense against the United States during the finals.  The problem was that when playing man to man defense, you have a full team effort.  Players need to sink off their man, help, stop penetration, and then recover.  However, Turkey was really reluctant to help off of Durant, and this lead to a number of open/easy looks.

No Help From Turkey

In the above clip, you see Team USA run a simple pick and roll at the top of the key with Kevin Durant out on the wing.  Ersan Ilyasova is the defender covering Durant.  He should be the help man Derrick Rose attacks the basket, but he is hesitant to get too far away from Durant, and he meekly reaches at the basketball as Rose blows by him.

This is where Ilyasova is positioned and he should be positioned a little bit more in the middle of the lane.  Normally in help defense the goal is to cut off penetration, force the pass to the outside, and then recover.  However, with Durant on the outside, Turkey really was afraid of wandering too far off of Durant.

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Kevin Durant’s 38 points on Saturday during the semifinals of the FIBA World Championships has gotten a lot of attention (and rightfully so), however it was another individual performance that helped Team USA get to the finals against Turkey.  That performance was Andre Iguodala on the defensive end.  Iguodala’s main responsibility was to cover Linas Kleiza, Lithuania’s leading scorer.  In the seven games before the semi-finals Kleiza was averaging 19.14 points and 7.4 rebounds while shooting 54.6% from the field (60.8% on 2s and 34.7% on 3s).  Iguodala was able to hold Kleiza to just 4 points (on 1/11 shooting – 0/4 from 3) and 5 rebounds.

Iguodala has a combination of speed and strength that Kleiza probably hasn’t seen during this tournament.  Iguodala was able to use these skills (especially his quick hands) to really bother Kleiza, especially in the post.

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Against Angola, Team USA scored 121 points nearly doubling up their opponent.  There were a lot fast break opportunities and a lot of dunks, but that isn’t what impressed me about their performance.  What did was the ball movement and patient that Team USA showed in the half-court.  This is something that Team USA hasn’t been doing throughout the tournament, so it leads me to think that Team USA is finally starting to “get it” on the offensive end.  That’s a good thing, considering the road to the World Championship gets much tougher from here on out.  A perfect example of Team USA’s newfound offensive efficiency is this possession late in the 2nd quarter.

Derrick Rose 3

Watch this possession and you will see all the things that work against the zone combined into one play.  You have a screen against the top of the zone, a nice drive and kick, quick passes around the perimeter (forcing the zone to rotate), and an open three point shot.  12 seconds come off the clock as Derrick Rose knocks down the three.  So how is this play different than some of the stuff Team USA did earlier (and struggled)?  The passing.  In  previous games, you would see one pass and a shot (and the offense staying on one side of the court).  On this possession, you see five passes going from side to side, using the whole court.  This forces the defense to rotate and opens up a ton of lanes and shooting opportunities.

Here is another solid possession from Team USA, this one coming against man to man defense:

Chauncey Billups 3

Previous problems Team USA had was a lack of movement, with everyone waiting for the man with the basketball to make a move and do it all on their own.  On the above possession, you see a lot of off the ball movement, a pick and roll, and a pump fake that sucks the defense in.  The result is a wide open three pointer.  Those are the kind of shots Billups can knock down.

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Down by two with three seconds left, Brazil had starting point guard Marcelo Huertas heading to the line with a chance to tie the game.  Huertas, a 66.7% free throw shooter in the tournament (4-6), missed the first one.  With so little time left, there was no way Brazil could make the second foul shot and still have a chance to win.  This means that Brazil needed to miss on purpose and secure the rebound to get one final shot at the basket.  That is exactly what they were able to pull off.

As Huertas gets the basketball, it is obvious that Team USA is concerned with Leandro Barbosa at the top of the key.  Billups is fronting him so he can’t use his speed to grab a long rebound.  Despite this, the key matchup (and where Team USA should have really focused their attention) is actually on the far side block where Team USA only has one man to try and secure the rebound.

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Yesterday, Team USA faced their first real threat as they faced off against Brazil in a game that should end up deciding who wins their group.  They also seemed to struggle for the first time, especially on the offensive end.  Brazil shot the ball so well (in the first half at least) that it kept Team USA from getting out on the break and turning this game into a track meet.  This meant that Team USA had to have success in the halfcourt, and that didn’t really happen.  Let’s look at why they struggled.  Two things really hurt Team USA, turnovers and bad shots.

No Movement

Team USA turned the ball over 22 times yesterday against Brazil.  That really can’t happen against a team that is going to be able to make you pay for those mistakes (for the most part Brazil did in fact make Team USA pay).  Some of those turnovers were questionable (those traveling calls in particular), but a lot of them were self inflicted, due to stagnant offense with everyone really standing around and watching the player with the ball do their own thing:

Click To View Clip

In this clip Derrick Rose brings the ball up with nobody really doing much off of the basketball.  Sure, you have those cross screens at the back but neither Andre Iguodala or Chauncey Billups work all that hard to get open as they are basically jogging through the motions.  With neither wing open, Rose is forced to try and get the ball to the middle when the turnover happens.

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Going into the FIBA World Championships, I thought if Kevin Love could find a way to get some minutes, he could make a positive impact for Team USA because he seems to be your prototypical International-style big man.  Love crashes the boards hard, passes well, and is a legitimate threat from the outside.  He hasn’t been playing a ton (only 13 minutes in each of the two games), but he has made his presence felt.

Rebounding

Kevin Love is a very good rebounder in the NBA, and we shouldn’t be surprised that this skill carried over to the FIBA Worlds, but at this pace?  Love has grabbed 21 rebounds in his 26 minutes of play, which comes out to an insane 31.5 rebounds per 40 minutes (h/t J.E. Skeets via John Schuhmann). How is Love able to grab so many rebounds? By simply outworking and outsmarting his opponents:

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Here, when the shot goes up, Love simply outworks his man to get past the boxout and get himself in good position for the offensive rebound.

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Up by one with 16.9 seconds left, Team USA needed to get one final stop to secure their win against Spain.  With Spain inbounding from the sideline at halfcourt, Team USA decided to use a zone against Spain.  It is no surprise that Jim Boeheim, Syracuse’s head coach, was involved in that decisions (from Chris Sheridan):

“In the timeout, Jim Boeheim said ‘Let’s go orange.’ We call it ‘Orange’ out of respect for Jim. He said he doesn’t have any buildings named after him in Syracuse, so we named the zone after him. And I agreed with him, but it was his suggestion,” Krzyzewski said.

Now, this was a bold call because if it doesn’t work, Coach K finds him subject to some criticism (yes, I realize this is just a friendly, but the criticism will still be there).  However, because it was smartly run and caught Spain off-guard, the zone worked well:

Team USA ran zone one possession, so it is safe to say that Spain wasn’t really expecting it.  More importantly, Team USA did a very good job of disguising their zone.  They opened up showing man to man as the ball was getting ready to be inbounded.  You have Odom covering Marc Gasol, and the 4 other members on Team USA on the perimeter as if they were waiting to match up in a man to man defense.

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Derrick Rose had an impressive 4th quarter against Spain in Team USA’s final tuneup against Spain, scoring 10 of his 24 points in the fourth, with one play in particular standing out, his lay-up over Marc Gasol with the game tied at 82.  While it appeared that Ricky Rubio was responsible for the bad defense on this possession, it was actually what Rubio couldn’t control that allowed for Rose to get to the rim.

Bad PNR Defense

This possession started with Derrick Rose dribbling the ball up and had Lamar Odom come from the low block to set a screen for Rose.  Odom originally sets up the screen on Rose’s right.

With the screen taking place, Marc Gasol (Odom’s defender) shows really hard:

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