Late against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat decided to put the basketball in Dwyane Wade’s hands, letting him be the one who would create on the offensive end. One way the Heat seemed to let Wade create was making him the ball handler in pick and roll sets. Over the course of the final five minutes, the Heat ran the pick and roll with Wade as the ball handler four different times (these four possessions represented all of Wade’s 4th quarter PNR Ball Handler possessions).
Of those four possessions, maybe the most important one was the final possession of the four that took place with 1:00 left and the Heat leading by two points. On this play, Wade goes away from the LeBron James screen, catching the defense, especially his defender (Kobe Bryant) completely off guard. The question that needs to be asked is should they have been?
According to Synergy Sport Technology, Dwyane Wade goes away from the screen in pick and roll sets 25.4% of the time, which is 3rd most in the entire NBA (Behind Derrick Rose and Earl Boykins). Even more, out of the 3 pick and roll sets in the final 5 minutes (before the final one with one minute left), Wade went away from the screen 2 times, scoring both times:
The first time that Wade goes away from the screen, he seems to catch the defense off guard. Kobe starts to go over the screen and Gasol isn’t in the best position to help, allowing Wade to easily finish at the rim.
The second time that Wade goes away from the screen, the defense seems to have picked up on it. Bryant never attempts to go over the screen, playing him to go away from it from the start, and Gasol also seems to be in better help position. However, Wade remains patient and his ability allows him to get to the rim after a hesitation dribble, and he is able to finish.
So it seems that the defense is starting to anticipate Wade going away from the screen, however when Wade does it with a minute left, he seems to catch the Lakers off guard once again. One of the main reasons is the way that the Heat set up the screen on top of a few mental errors by the Lakers:
Instead of using Chris Bosh to set the screen for Wade (as they did the previous two possessions), the Heat use LeBron James to set the screen. They don’t just have James running to the top of the key, but they set up the pick and roll by running James off of an off ball screen set by Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
The reason why this is important is because now the man covering the screen (Ron Artest, James’ man) is in a trail position. It is going to be near impossible for Artest to get in good hedge/help position (think of where Gasol was in the second possession that Wade went away from the screen). Artest’s positioning is all due to the design of the Heat’s play, but the actions of Bryant and Gasol are the errors here. Despite knowing that Wade has gone away from screens 2 out of 3 times, he still goes into the screen as if he wants to fight over it. Gasol is out on the mid post on the weakside, defending Ilgauskas when he should be deeper in the paint, in position to help if Wade goes away from the screen.
The positioning of Artest and Gasol, in addition to the actions of Bryant creates a wide open lane for Wade and he uses his driving ability to get to the lane.
Gasol comes over, but it is far too late and Wade is able to finish the lay-up and turn the game into a two possession game. Here is the play in real time:
The first thing you notice when watching this play live is Kobe Bryant. At first it looks like Kobe is pushed or flops, but that isn’t what happens. What actually happens is Bryant anticipates Wade using the screen, overplays it, and then in an attempt to avoid a foul needs to dive out of the way of Wade, causing him to fall down:
This angle shows pretty clearly that Kobe is the one creating the contact as if he is anticipating Wade actually using the screen, and then when trying to recover he is forced to avoid Wade, taking him out of the play.
While I give credit for the Heat setting this play up (using an off ball screen to get Ron Artest trailing the pick and roll), I put more blame on the Lakers (especially Gasol and Bryant). They got abused by Wade two times in a row by Wade going away from the screen, so they should have been ready for it, anticipating it, and in position to defend it. Instead, Wade is able to get to the rim and clinch the game. In my opinion, the Lakers should have definitely been prepared for it.
