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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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.

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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:

Every morning (or late-afternoon), I am going to breakdown the some key possessions from the previous night’s games.  Good possessions/bad possessions you can find them all here.

It was a slowish night in the NBA last night (just 4 games), but there was some good action.  I got two plays I wanted to look at this morning.  Chris Paul’s steal to clinch the game, and Juwan Howard’s dunk.

Chris Paul’s Steal

Chris Paul’s steal was great, don’t get me wrong, but the Jazz did play a part in this.  The way they ran the court, allowed for Chris Paul to be in position to make the steal.

The first thing that you notice is that even though this is a 3 on 1 fast break, the Jazz are too bunched together.  All three Jazz players are on the same side, and this allows Chris Paul to cheat over, knowing that the ball is going to end up on his right side, because that is where all the players are.  In a perfect world, you would hope that Deron Williams would be able to dribble the ball to his right a bit so he can force Paul into a tough spot.

The second mistake is where Deron Williams commits to make the pass from.  That’s like 35 feet away from the basket.  I can understand why he wasn’t really able to dribble out to his right (he is unsure who is behind him), but at least make Chris Paul make a decision.  Dribble at him until he stops you, and when he does, then make a pass.  If he doesn’t stop you, go in for the lay-up.  Here Chris Paul is still in the middle of the court, and that makes it easier (still a great display of athleticism to make the steal) to make the play on the ball.

Juwan Howard’s Dunk

This play starts with a pick and roll, and Chris Kamen is trying to hedge the screen (help, and then quickly return to his man).

Roy does a good job of forcing the action though, and this prevents Kamen from getting back to his man, and forcing him to cover Roy.

Roy gets to the baseline.  Notice how all 5 Clippers are just kind of staring at him.  This allows is what allows Juwan Howard to sneak in the middle unguarded.

Howard flashes to the middle and gets the ball.  Kamen does a decent job of recovering, but since nobody is in front of him, it allows him to load up and go up for the jam…