When watching Summer League basketball, there are certain things that you need to look for when watching the games. Going into the Jazz game, I was focused on Gordon Hayward and his ability to work off of the basketball on both offense and defense. This is important for Hayward because he isn’t going to be a guy with the ball in his hands creating off of the dribble, the Jazz don’t need him for that. What I think Hayward will be doing with the Jazz is working off of screens, so if he already has a knack for that he will be ahead of the game:
On Offense
This might not look like anything, but it is pretty significant in my opinion. Here, you have Hayward understanding his responsibilities and act on them. Here, the Jazz point guard attacks the basket off of a cut leaving the backside open for a fastbreak. However, Hayward recognizes this and replaces Gaines, preventing the fastbreak.
After falling behind big early against the Lakers, the Jazz fought back a number of times. In the 4th quarter, the Jazz were able to cut the Lakers lead down to 10 with about six and a half minutes left, forcing the Lakers to take a timeout. Coming out of that timeout the Lakers used a bit of luck to get themselves the dagger.
After running through an offense with a ton of cuts and off the ball movement, the Lakers try to enter the ball to Pau Gasol in the mid post. However, C.J. Miles makes a great read and anticipates the pass, breaking on the basketball.
I am not using goat in the “greatest of all time” sense either. Kobe was almost the man who cost the Lakers the game last night. The Lakers were up by 3 with about 8 seconds to go. They took their foul to give, and Deron Williams made both free throws. Ron Artest then threw an errant pass (with the help of a hold), and the Jazz regained possession of the basketball.
As Deron gets the ball, the Lakers do a smart thing by creating a make-shift zone (the only one not zoning an area is Derek Fisher, who is covering Kyle Korver), cutting off all lanes to the basket for Deron. Since this play happened, I have read a couple times that Deron “settled” and could have attacked the basket. This shot shows you that is wrong, there is no lane for Williams, and there was no time for a drive and kick either.
The one thing you are guaranteed to hear when you listen to someone talk about the Jazz-Lakers series is the word “length.” Rightfully so, the Lakers have 3 seven-footers on their roster while the Jazz are playing most of the time with two undersized Power Forward’s on the court. This size disadvantage is really presenting the Jazz with some problems, most importantly, they are struggling to finish at the rim. Especially because Mehmet Okur isn’t there to pull a big away from the basket. This means that the Lakers’ big men are allowed to just sit in the lane against the Jazz. As Kevin Arnovitz tweeted last night, the Jazz missed 20 shots in the paint in the first half of Game 2. So what are the Jazz bigs doing wrong? What can the Jazz do when they get the ball in the paint? Let’s take a look:
Why They Got Blocked
Bringing The Ball Down
Big guys in the paint are taught not to bring the ball down when they make the catch the day they start playing basketball, that is how important it is. Usually though, you don’t want to bring it down because you don’t want the smaller players to be able to get their hands on the basketball. Another reason (which is why it is important in this context) is it allows for shot-blockers to gather and get in position to block the shot.
As the pass gets made to Boozer, look at how high he makes the catch. If he just takes it straight from there, he would be able to get the ball at the rim before any of the bigs can alter the shot.
Just last week over at NetsAreScorching, I praised Carlos Boozer for his play so far in the playoffs. Rightfully so, Boozer dominated Kenyon Martin and Nene (when he was playing) in the first round. However, in Game 1 (especially in the 4th quarter) Boozer really struggled with the length. Even worse, it seemed like the Lakers were attacking Boozer, forcing him to make decisions, and he seemed to make the wrong choice each time.
With about 1:30 left, the Lakers were up 1 point and the ball was in Kobe’s hands.
Here Kobe gets the ball on the elbow. Paul Millsap is in proper help position, but Lamar Odom is sent through the lane. This forces Millsap to stick with Odom, clearing the lane.
With the Jazz down by 1 and around 1:30 left it looked like the Jazz were turning to their bread and butter, the pick and roll. However, the play wasn’t designed to free up Deron Williams or hit the roll man Paul Millsap, it was run to free up Kyle Korver for three:
As the play gets going, there is actually some pretty poor floor spacing. However Korver fixes that by quickly popping out to the corner. As Korver pops out, Millsap sets a screen for Deron Williams.
Throughout the playoffs, we are going to be looking at the teams that lost their last game and look at what they can do to try and get a win.
Even though Carmelo Anthony went off for 42 points, the game didn’t get out of hand until the start of the 4th quarter. The Jazz went from being tied to being down 8 in a span of 4 minutes. Carmelo Anthony only had 2 points during that stretch. The rest came from J.R. Smith, and that is what the Jazz are going to have to focus on in Game 2, the outside shooters. Melo is going to get his no matter what, but if the Jazz can prevent the other guys from going off (which they were able to do for the first 3 quarters), they can give themselves a chance to win.
Here, Carmelo Anthony comes off of two screens to get the ball in his sweet spot. The elbow at the top of the key is a nice place to get the basketball because it is hard to get a double team there. Also, when the defense starts to focus its attention there, shooters can free up.
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.
Utah Jazz
Strengths
What the Jazz do well.
Pick and Roll
Offensive execution
Assist Rate (#1 in the NBA)
Rebounding
Getting to the line
Weaknesses
Some problems the Jazz struggle with
Getting their shots blocked
Free Throw Shooting
Tendencies
Some things you are going to notice when watching the Jazz play.
The Utah Jazz are really good running their halfcourt stuff. Especially the pick and roll. You have a tremendous passer/scorer in Deron and a terrific finisher in Carlos Boozer.
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.
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:
