Bulls 1-4 Flat PNR to Mid-Range Jumper Play

Halloween all of a sudden becomes a big deal again once you're back in schools teaching. From late last week, I was browsing through some game footage of the Chicago Bulls home win over the San Antonio Spurs and a few things caught my eye. Primarily, I was impressed with how much more refined the Bulls seemed on offense, they ran this play below and even Flex continuity a number of times, I was pleasantly surprised. They have more purpose and with a full year under Derrick Rose's belt, he looks even more confident running the offense from the point.

From the third quarter, the Bulls ran this play 5 or 6 times and got some nice production out of it. I've clipped just the first 2 times when Tyrus Thomas was able to hit the mid-range jumper, plus the TNT replay with Doug Collins commentary on the slow motion, take a look:



1-4 Flat to Mid-Range Jumper

Really just a simple 1-4 flat with a high PNR to start. Derrick Rose, O1, starts the play up top. Joachim Noah, O5, comes to set the pick, the defense tries to hedge, but Rose still gets by both the hedge, Noah rolls after the pick,

As Rose turns the corner, Tyrus Thomas, O4, moves off the block to the weakside elbow. X4, Tim Duncan, is forced to stay in the lane for help position since Rose would otherwise have an open lane after beating all to the lane. X1 is in a trail position, Noah is rolling to the basket with X5 following,

As the lane gets clogged up, Rose kicks it out to an open Thomas for the mid-range jumper,


Now as you can hear Doug Collins say in the commentary, if X3 comes to close out early, then it's an easy pass to the corner for the 3-pointer. The Spurs did readjust later in the game, by having X1 go underneath the screen allowing him more time and room to catch Rose after the hedge, allowing Duncan to hedge a little better between help position and his check.

If you're looking for a comprehensive video on more PNR options, check out Fran Fraschilla's 2 DVD set on the Encyclopedia of the Pick and Roll Offense. The 2 DVD's show just about every scenario you could want to know about executing PNRs in the half court.