I was watching parts of John Calipari's All-Access DVD with his 2011-12 Kentucky team and one of the coaching points that Calipari talks about and is often overlooked but is probably the most important regarding BLOB and SLOB plays is choosing who will be your inbounder. Here is a short clip from the video where Calipari talks about it (about 4min in),
A lot of times, we get lost in the scheme of OB plays, but I don't know how many times I've watched games where the wrong person was inbounding the ball on an OB play, and it ended up in a turnover going the other way for a basket (my own teams included). I think as a coach, you need to find out which specific players can inbound the ball reliably under pressure. I used to change the inbounder depending on what kind of play we ran, but now, I decide in advance the 2 or 3 players who are allowed to inbound the ball based on how reliable they are.
With so much going on with teaching and coaching at the moment, I haven't nearly had the time to watch as much college basketball as I used to. I was able to catch some games and highlights the other day and this ESPN segment with Doug Gottlieb breaking down Purdue's win over Penn State on a last second BLOB play.
Usually I don't disagree with most of what ESPN puts out there, because they usually have ex-coaches doing the breakdowns. But I think Gottlieb has it wrong here. With Penn State up by only 1-point, I'd rather have one defender down low crowning the basket, protecting the easy layup, rather than having him "up the line" as Gottlieb says to help on the switch who can then help on the shot. Even if Battle had gotten up to the FT-line where Gottlieb is pointing to below, he wouldn't have been in a position to defend the switch or challenge the shot anyways, and would've allowed the inbounder to get great position on the offensive boards,
To me, it was just a missed assignment. What the Penn State defender who got screened should have done was simply switched hard. That should have allowed the screened defender to jump out to challenge the shot or at worst, to force the player to put the ball on the ground and dribble into the help where Battle was in position to defend. Bottom line for me as a coach, if the offense elects to shoot a contested 20-footer, rather than a contested 2-footer, I'm OK with that, I'll take the numbers on that one anytime.
If you're looking for more great ideas for your SLOBs, BLOBs, jumpball stuff, check out Tom Izzo's new DVD on Dead Ball Situations. Coach Izzo is the head coach of the men's basketball team at Michigan State University.
What a weekend of college basketball. The number one seeds are set and everyone is starting to get at their brackets, its a great time to be a basketball fan. Like most of you I watched the Big East final yesterday between West Virginia and Georgetown on ESPN. What a great game, and a great finish. I had a chance today to look at that final inbounds play and it was interesting how Georgetown defended it. They made a critical switch which allowed Da’Sean Butler to catch it clean, beat a slower defender and get a decent shot off inside the lane.
Here is a little breakdown of it. First, off, WVU starts off with 3 players around the lane, almost in a FT lineup, with the 4th player at the weak-side corner. That 4th player, comes across the lane along the baseline scraping off of Butler at the bottom of the lane, To me, what's interesting is how Georgetown's inbounds defender decides to play. He appears to be in a help position without pressuring the inbounds. This proves to be a crucial error in my opinion.
What happens next is Butler comes up to the top of the key getting a half-screen from the top post. Butler's defender tries to go around instead of chasing, and bumps the defender off thus switching Monroe on to Butler, Again, notice where the inbounds defender is, supposed to be help-side defense I suppose but in my opinion, not really doing anything because he's not denying Butler the ball.
The ball gets inbounded cleanly into Butler, Monroe of Georgetown tries to closeout and Butler takes advantage of the slower defender to get by Monroe and get right into the lane for a little floater which goes in,
For Georgetown, I think what went wrong was the inbounds defender. Had they put the inbounder right up on the sideline, the pass to Butler would've had to been a lob or further away from the basket, allowing Monroe more time to close out. Secondly, I don't think they should've switched in the first place. If the original defender had chased, he would've had enough time to close out and keep Butler in front of him. I know that usually you tell your team to switch at the end of games, but when you know who the other team's go to player is, and you know who you want defending them, then I think you want to be M2M or at least a Box and 1, denying Butler the ball.
Anyways, we can deconstruct a play to death, but overall I though West Virginia did a great job in exploiting what the defense presented and was able to make the shot. If you are a big fan of West Virginia basketball, and Coach Bob Huggins, then take a look at Bob Huggins's DVD on his Cut and Fill Motion Offense.
The start of college basketball is upon us and it was great to take in a bunch of games. On friday night, I was able to watch a bunch of games and I took in the Baylor game against Norfolk State. It wasn't a particularly great game but I did catch this inbounds play that Baylor ran against the 2-3 zone.
I've been seeing this a lot recently, teams using a 2-3 zone on the inbounds. Generally, it does a good job in the paint as you don't have to worry about switching or how to deal with screens. But every zone has its drawbacks, and here, you see Baylor run a nice give and go play to the most dangerous player on the inbounds, the inbounder, for a nice 3-pointer:
In this screenshot, you can see Norfolk State in that zone. The forward who receives the pass and hands back to the inbounder is basically screening the low defender in the 2-3 zone. The high defender on the 2-3 is in no man's land, and basically watches the 3-pointer go in, because in the 2-3, the high defender is taught not to go below the free-throw line extended,
Here is the breakdown of the inbounds play again. Really, they just get the ball into the forward in the middle, O1, the inbounder bolts for the corner, O4 hands back the ball and screens the low defender on the 2-3, and its an open 3-pointer,
For more simple ways against zone defenses, take a look at Jerry Petitgoue's new DVD on Attacking Zone Defenses. I like Petitgoue's approach because he doesn't complicate the problem, he simplifies things and makes it easy to understand what he's trying to accomplish.
The NBA is where amazing happens, certainly that applied to Lebron James's amazing last second shot to win the game last night. For the Magic, it's just more proof that basketball can be a cruel game sometimes. In case you missed it, here it is,
I watched the post-game news conference and Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said right away that he made a mistake and it cost them the game. Here is some of the transcript of what he said:
I’d like to have that last one back from a coaching standpoint. I should have defended it differently. It’s crushing enough to lose as a coach, but when you feel like you’re the guy who could’ve made the difference, it hurts a lot more.
The Cavs were definitely looking for the lob as the initial play, but you can see in the clip, Hedo Turkoglu impedes Lebron going to the basket, and Lebron pops out to the top of the key instead.
Van Gundy talked about that if he could do it again he would've defended it differently. Hindsight is 20/20, but if it were me and I had a mulligan (since we're living in the hypothetical in blogger land), the single thing I would have done would to have Rashard Lewis or even Dwight Howard aggressively defending the inbound. As you can see in this screenshot, Lewis is basically in no-man's-land -- not really defending the inbounds and not really defending another player. As in the Denver-LA series, when Odom aggressively defended Carter, forcing Carter to lob it in the air. If Lewis had been on the shorter Williams, it would've forced Williams to lob it in the air, where Hedo would have had enough time to get to Lebron in time to either intercept the pass or at the very least get in his face to make the shot much harder.
The other option, would be to have Lewis completely off the ball and face-guarding Lebron. Hedo would take away the lob. But I don't like leaving the inbounder unguarded because it makes it easier to thread a pass.
Summary:
As I mentioned, basketball is a cruel game. Had the Magic held on to go up 2-0, heading back to Orlando, this series could've been almost a done deal. Now, the Cavs have the momentum with just that 1 shot, and the Magic are now back on their heels.
For more info on building winning programs, Morgan Wooten's 20/20 Hindsight DVD is a look back at some coaching tips from Coach Wooten's legendary career as one of the most successful high school basketball coaches ever at DeMatha Catholic. Head over to the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to discuss all of your hoops.
Basketball can be a cruel game sometimes. You can play a good game for 47 minutes and the one play, at the end of the game, can be the one that costs you the win. In Game 1 last night between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers, that play happened to the Nuggets last night with a bad turnover on an inbounds.
The situation: 30 seconds left in the game, Lakers up by 2, Nuggets one timeout left. The Lakers use the long armed Lamar Odom to defend the inbounds, the Nuggets use guard Anthony Carter to inbound the ball. Chauncey Billups is the intended receiver, but Carter has to lob it over Odom and Trevor Ariza steps into the lane and intercepts the pass, take a look how it went down,
There were a number of key problems with why the play ended up the way it did. I wouldn't say that there was one single factor, but they combined to create the situation,
- George Karl decided to have a shorter Carter inbound the ball, instead of a taller forward. - The inbounds play design did not take into account the need for a safety outlet with a better passing angle along the sideline. - The Nuggets had a timeout to use, and didn't use it.
Right after they gave it away, Kobe scored a couple of FTs, the Nuggets ran another inbounds play, this time to Chauncey Billups in the corner who hit a big 3-pointer. Now, they did need a 3-pointer in the original inbounds, but they had a forward inbound the ball this time and the passing angle to the corner along the sideline is much better because Odom cannot cross the plane and therefore the pass is unobstructed,
Unrelated to this play, but I also like how the Lakers fouled the Nuggets in the last 5 seconds, to prevent them from shooting a game-tying 3-pointer. Jeff Van Gundy of ESPN was saying how Phil Jackson doesn't like to foul when up by 3, but changed his philosophy this time. It's about playing the percentages, go with the play that gives you the best chance to win.
Summary:
The Nuggets played as good a game as they could have on the road and still came away with the loss. On the plus side, they've proven to be tough enough to win on the road, and with a little better execution, they can beat the Lakers in Los Angeles. As for the Lakers, they didn't play their best, but Kobe was there when the team needed him, making all the clutch free-throws at the end of the game.
I took in the ESPN game of the week, Davidson against Duke tonight. Great atmosphere at Cameron Indoor. Still on my list of things to do in my bucket list, Cameron Indoor Duke versus UNC. But as for tonight's game, Duke did a solid job doubling and crowding Stephen Curry most of the night (and Curry still ended up with 29). The Wildcats had one last gasp in the last 5 minutes to close within 10 but couldn't get any closer.
I picked this play for a couple of reasons. First off, I think any baseline inbounds that includes a screen and basket cut is great because for whatever reason, defenses usually breakdown against that action on the inbounds. But also defensively, it begs the question on the positioning of the inbounds defender. Watch Davidson's box BLOB and then read further afterwards,
Box BLOB Screen and Cut:
First the play. Your basic box set. Curry inbounds (O2), O3 cuts to the opposite corner. O4 sets a screen across the lane for O1, O5 goes up to make it a stagger screen for O1. Notice how X1 and X4 get caught trailing O1, O4 does a simple basket cut after the screen and as mentioned, X1 and X4 get caught trailing O1. X3 has 1 foot in the lane in ball-you-man but his help is late. Notice also that should X3 closeout in time, O4 can skip it to O3 who was wide open for a jumper,
Defending BLOBS, Wearing the Crown:
I've heard of this concept before and it came up the other day when I was talking with a coaching friend about how they defend inbounds. The idea is that in defending BLOBs, the inbound defender should "wear the crown." That is to say, they should be right underneath (or very close to) the basket so as to act almost like a goaltender. This would be counter to the traditional M2M defense which is to crowd the inbounder and make it difficult for them to throw the ball in, I'm a traditionalist, so I've never tried "wearing the crown" but I think this idea has merit. It's safer in that you prevent the uncontested layup. But at the same time, leaving the inbounder open can also leave you vulnerable for the pass back to the inbounder to the corner. Pros and cons either way.
Summary:
In the video clip you can hear Mark Jackson and Mike Tirico argue whether Stephen Curry is NBA ready. Tirico mentions Curry's turnovers, but I think that some people over-estimate numbers. Remember, everything about Davidson's offense runs through Curry, so naturally he will have higher turnover numbers. I agree with Mark, Curry is ready to be a starter in the NBA as a rookie next year. He reminds me of a skinnier version of Deron Williams.
Watched some recorded stuff and this one caught my eye. It was the game between the Phoenix Suns and the Orlando Magic the other night. Game was back and forth most of the way, both teams playing through injuries (Suns without Shaq, Magic without Howard).
The game came down to the last few sequences with both teams trading baskets. Hedo Turkoglu hit a big shot, and then the Suns had the ball with 9 seconds left down by 1 point. They ran this nifty backscreen that caught the Magic on the switch and resulted in an open layup, and the game winner,
Sideline Inbounds Backpick:
Nothing too wild, but a nice play nonetheless. They run a stack on the ball side elbow for the SLOB. O5 (Stoudamire) pops out to receive the pass, and O1 (Nash) clears out to receive the inbounds as well. The pass is intended to go to O5, because he's tall and you want to inbounds the ball safely without it getting stolen so that's where O3 (Hill) goes first, Then O1 goes to set a backpick for O3. O3 rubs off the screen and cuts to the basket. O5 finds him for the easy layup. X4 tries to help but is late, The reason why this play works is because X1 (Nelson) and X3 (Turkoglu) get mixed up defensively. Nelson thinks Turkoglu is going to fight thru the screen, while Turkoglus assumes Nelson will switch. My guess is that Coach Stan Van Gundy wanted the switch so Nelson got mixed up. Also, it could just be that Nelson got caught watching the ball instead of focusing on his defensive responsibilities,
Summary:
When you are in those timeouts at end of games. Make sure you know your defensive assignments. Anticipate what the other team will do, and make sure your players know what they're suppose to do. I think this play worked more because of the defensive breakdown more than anything special the Suns did. It was a smart play, but it was just not well defended.
All of the talk in the East is about the Celtics and Cavs. The Magic are a good team, and with Howard they are dominant. I wouldn't count the Magic out come June. As for the Suns, I think they are improving defensively. I watched a lot of good help defense and rotations, forcing penetration to help, etc... I think they still need to improve 1v1 on the perimeter though. I've read a lot about how poor their offense has been so far, but I disagree, I think they're still very offensively efficient. Jason Richardson will give them more chances on the fast break because of his athleticism, so I like that move. I think the Suns still make the playoffs, and if they're defense holds up, they could still be dangerous in the playoffs.
From earlier last week, watching the finals of the NIT tipoff with ranked teams Oklahoma and Purdue going at it. It was a great game, had the feel of a NCAA tournament game for sure, went into OT. In the OT, I thought Oklahoma was just a little more calm and didn't make the big mistakes Purdue made.
On this play, Oklahoma is up by 3 already with less than 10 seconds left to play. Everyone knows that Purdue is going to foul, but in this sideline out of bounds, I like the element of surprise and aggressiveness. Don't just settle for the easy safe play, try for the aggressive play first, then if it's not there, go to the backcourt. The Sooners actually should've got an And1 but they miss the easy layup,
SLOB vs Fullcourt Man Press:
I like that element of surprise. That's what timeouts are for. See what the defense is doing, then scheme to adjust. In this play, the defense is in a full-front, fullcourt man press. Purdue is assuming Oklahoma will just throw it into the backcourt and wait for the foul. Instead, they send 2 to the frontcourt, and 2 stay in the backcourt for the safety. Purdue gets caught a little and hence the easy fast break,
Summary:
I like Oklahoma's head coach Jeff Capel. He's so passionate about the game, you watch him and he's always teaching, always coaching. I think he is also a coach that likes to think outside of the box, don't always go with the conventional, throw something out there for a loop. I think it's sometimes easy to always take the safe way, but to take a chance requires some courage.
For more great interesting SLOB and special situation information, take a look at Hubie Brown's DVD on special situations. Coach Brown is just a brilliant basketball mind and guaranteed you will learn something from his wisdom. To discuss this and many more of your favorite basketball topics, head over to the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to talk with other coaches from around the world.
Went through some recorded games from yesterday's busy schedule of college basketball games and I saw this interesting baseline out of bounds play by Boston College at the end of their game against St. Louis. The game was already out of reach for BC, but I like this BLOB play because I think you can get a decent look underneath the basket against any form of M2M defense. Take a look,
It's a real simple play. BC uses a 3-1 set. The middle and high player come and set a stagger screen that closes in the middle allowing only the wing player to come over the top and in between. The defense is in a M2M full switch because it is at the end of the game. The wing defender decides to switch, but due to a communication breakdown, his man is allowed to go through the screens and the far side defender is still trailing his defender. The middle defender decides to switch on the cutting wing but is late on the play,
Summary:
I once read an article that said the sign of a well coached team is one that scores on inbounds plays. I don't think I'd put all my stock into whether a team is well-coached entirely on BLOB or SLOB execution, but I do think they are an important "special teams" x-factor to the game, especially at the lower levels where the defense is sometimes suspect, to pick up some easy points.
For some great special teams info from a great charismatic coach, take a look at Bruce Pearl's DVD on OB nuggets. Tennessee puts so much importance on special teams that it is famous for defending BLOBs and forcing 5 second violations. Be sure to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to discuss this and more of your favorite basketball topics.
12 teams, only 3 get to go to Beijing. The FIBA Olympic qualifying tournament kicked off today from Athens. There weren't any major upsets in day one action. I caught the first half of the Greece game against Lebanon before it got out of hand. Greece is just far better talent wise than Lebanon is and it was evident from the opening tip.
I really like this one BLOB play that Greece ran to start off the game. It's one of those screen the screener plays. If you scout your opponents and notice that they don't make a habit of switching screens, especially on BLOBs, this is the perfect play to run. Take a look,
Box Set BLOB:
It starts out in a high box set. O2 is the player that will eventually get to shoot the ball, so make sure you put a good shooter there, doesn't have to be your shooting guard as that might tip off the play. The bottom players set screens for the high players. They both v-cut to setup the screens, O1 going to the ball and O4 going away from the ball,
This is the beauty of the screen the screener once the other players have cleared. O5 goes across the lane to set a screen for O2 who just finished setting a screen for O4. O2 comes off the screen by O5 and gets the inbounds pass from O3. The defense doesn't start out switching and by the time they realize what's going on, the switch comes way too late, so that is why they get caught and O2 gets the open look.
My only pet peeve about the execution of this play is that the Greece shooter did not check his footwork. If he was 6 inches further back, it would've been a 3-pointer. Whenever we run shooting drills, we position a pylon about 6 inches from the 3-point line so that players get into the habit of shooting 1-2 feet away from the line.
Summary:
I'm a little disappointed that the Slovenia vs Canada game is so early, 3am here on the west coast, oh well, it's 1pm Greece time. Anyways, that's going to be the best game of the action tomorrow. I've got my fingers crossed for Canada...
For a brand new video from a great coach, check out Bob McKillop's new DVD on Winning Special Situations including BLOB and SLOB. Coach McKillop is the head coach of Davidson College whom we all remember for their memorable run in this past year's NCAA Tournament. Don't forget to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to talk about this and your favorite basketball topics.
Throughout the season, I've started to see more and more teams use a zone to defend the under the basket inbounds (BLOB) play. On the one hand, I think the zone is good at protecting the basket, but at the same time, it leaves you extremely vulnerable if the other team knows you are running a zone and can take advantage of it.
I saw this play from a book that I read, it appears on the surface that it would work very well against the zone. Depending on how the zone is defending (either packed in or spread to defend), it is flexible to take advantage of either situation.
Zone BLOB:
The set formation is a 2-2, with O1 inbounding and your best shooters setup at each corner. Your forwards are setup at each elbow of the lane. Against, the packed in zone (diag 1), you should be able to get an open 3-pointer with a pass to O2 or O3 along the baseline. Against a team that wants to spread out and defend the extremes (diag 2), your forwards O4 and O5 do an X-cut, guaranteed to throw off the zone defense for a quick score under the basket. In fact, you can and should run the X-cut anyways, against any zone that hasn't prepared for it, should be a guaranteed bucket.
Your safety in this situation is O2. If O2 is being completely overplayed, O2 should be able to cut to towards the inbounder to receive the pass before a 5-second count.
Summary:
I'd venture to guess that most teams that zone up the inbounds are probably packed in zones, looking to protect the basket. So the O2 and O3 3-pointers are probably the most likely plays out of this set. The X-cut is a nice surprise option for teams that haven't scouted you.
I was only able to catch the second half of the game tonight between the Pistons and the Celtics but it was a great half that I watched. The Pistons had some rust in Game 1 but they were able to shake off that rust tonight, especially defensively. I thought the Celtics played well too, but they had a couple of defensive lapses that hurt them, especially in crunch time.
It's one of the things you hear all the time from coaches when talking to their players late in games. They say, "We gotta get a stop, we have to stop them right now, so lets get it done!!". Well, when the Celtics needed a stop, they didn't get it. Here is a great play by the Pistons on the inbounds, it really froze the Celtics defense and resulted in an easy layup for Billups,
Double Stagger Curl:
This BLOB is just a fantastic play. Jeff Van Gundy of ESPN did a great job at the end of the score explaining the nuances of the play. But before we go to that, here is the play in more detail,
As you can see, because O2 (Rip Hamilton) comes off his screen to the 3 point line. This is important because it forces Kevin Garnett to make a decision. Should he switch to cover Chauncey curling off the double stagger? Or switch to cover Rip on the 3-point line? And he has to make the decision in a split second. My philosophy would've been to protect the paint first, so obviously KG made the wrong decision if we use that philosophy. But you could make the case that leaving Rip (who was the leading scorer for the Pistons in the game) open for the 3-pointer would've been wrong.
Summary:
All the talk now has shifted to the "can the Celtics win on the road" chatter. The bigger question for me is, can the Celtics find some more offense?? Despite their problems tonight defensively, they can't win this series if they score in the 70s and 80s. Detroit is too good and too deep to be be kept below 80.
To me, either all of the big 3 have to really dominate, with a 30+ game. Or guys like Rondo or Posey are going to have to come up big. Somewhere, somehow, the Celtics have to find more scoring.
Game 7 always comes with all the hype of the winner takes all, close or hit the bricks cliches. In the end, the Celtics were really the far superior team over the Hawks, especially defensively and that much was painfully obvious today in their big win.
Though, the Hawks didn't do the Celtics any favors by taking a bunch of quick jumpers with plenty of ticks left on the shot clock. Here, ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy breaks down a couple of defensive sequences from the blowout, I especially like the idea of trapping the inbounds with the shot clock winding down,
Trapping the Inbounds Pass:
I don't have exact numbers, but I read somewhere that something like 80% of BLOB passes go to the corner (though I bet it's much lower than that in HS as most teams try to go for the quick hitter underneath the basket).
In this particular situation, it's important to know time and situation. With the shot clock down to 2 seconds, it makes perfect sense to try and trap the first pass knowing that the player has to chuck it up,
Summary:
I know a commenter earlier posted about why it was so different playing at home and on the road. I think the difference is exasperated during the playoffs because during the regular season, teams play in front of half-filled stadiums with another significant percentage receiving tickets complimentary from a friend that has season tickets. So when the playoffs come, the arena is full of hardcore loud fans and the players actually feel the pressure of "the must win".
Now that the Celtics have advanced, their task does not get any easier whatsoever. As we can see from the clip, the Celtics play good help defense and they can stop penetration, but against Lebron James, they'll need better 1v1 defense as the Cavs can really keep you honest with those shooters whom I don't think you can really leave open to help on LBJ. The other option is to tilt the floor on defense with 2 defenders covering Lebron and the other 3 in a triangle zone. In any case, it's going to be a fascinating series to watch.
For a new video that just came out last month, check out Bob Huggins' DVD on M2M drills. Coach Huggins' Bearcats teams were always known for their incredible defensive intensity. Don't forget to check out the X's and O's Basketball Forum to talk hoops with other coaches.
It was one of those crazy finishes that reminds us all why we all love this game so much. First a great 3-pointer by Deron Williams to tie the game with 5 seconds to go. Then the Mavs come right back down the court and Dirk Nowitzki hits the game winning 3-pointer with 1 second left.
As I coach, you just love these situations, as players, you thrive on them. First, it was just a great flex-downscreen play by Utah and a late switch that allowed Williams just enough separation to get a good shot off. Then, the Mavs, without timeouts, push the ball up the court to beat the defense, and find their best player on the wing for the open jumper. Unbelievable, watch for yourself,
I want to break down the inbounds 3-pointer by the Jazz first, then show the Mavs on the break.
Inbounds Flex 3-pointer:
I've always believed that the best plays that to get great 3-point shots are off of flex-downscreens. The play is simple and works as designed. What happens is that Devan George is supposed to switch from Boozer to Williams on the downscreen. He does this but he's late. That's the beauty of the flex, it just takes a lapse of 1 or 2 seconds to gain separation. Now, credit George for closing out fast, which forces Williams to take a tougher shot (and banks it),
Fast Break 3-pointer:
The inability of the Mavs to get back into transition defense was inexcusable. You can see Jazz coach Jerry Sloan in the background screaming to cover the wings. What really makes this work is Eddie Jones who pushes the ball and forces Korver to cover both himself and Dirk. When Korver commits to Jones, the pass goes to Dirk for the wing 3-pointer,
In hindsight, with 2 timeouts remaining, the Jazz could've called timeout when they tied the game with 5 seconds left to setup their defense. That might've made the difference, but then again 5 seconds is still plenty of time to score from the end line, also consider that the Mavs only had to score a 2-pointer for the win.
Summary:
I flipped back and forth between the Warriors and Nuggets and Mavs and Jazz, both were incredible to watch. With the playoffs at stake, you can really feel the games meaning something now, the intensity turned up a notch. I read Kelly Dwyer's article about why the NBA is better than college. I'm one of those he writes about that prefers college, or even high school for that matter over the NBA. The reason is because you could make the case that the first 60 games of the NBA regular season are irrelevant, merely exhibition. It's not an elitist thing, it's just a simple fact that you don't see the effort in Nov to Feb as you see in Apr. In college, every game means so much more.
I continued to be amazed by the New Orleans Hornets terrific season so far. Portland had their run early on and faded, Houston was the golden child for February/March, and now the 76ers are the new team to jump on the bandwagon. But from the very start of the season, the Hornets have persisted.
It should be no real surprise though, they have outstanding point-guard play at both ends (if not Lebron, CP4 is my MVP), a great shooter in Stojakovic, and solid finishing forwards. To top it off, they play a solid switching M2M defense and have a very smart head coach in Byron Scott.
One of the signs of a well coached team is how well the players execute SLOB and BLOB plays. And in fact, if they score off of them. In the game tonight against the Pacers, the Hornets scored on 2 such plays in the first half and here they are,
Double Stagger SLOB:
The double-stagger screen is a great way to get your shooter open for a SLOB or BLOB play when you have very little time left on the shot clock. It's interesting that Stojakovic chose to pump-fake, then shoot as opposed to catch and shoot. Perhaps, he was trying to draw a 4-point play,
Screen the Screener BLOB:
In this play, it's just a simple screen the screener. First Pargo sets a pick for Ely, then Pargo gets a screen from West and comes to the ball where he catches and shoots. The switch comes late allowing Pargo to get the shot off,
Summary:
It's hard to know how the Hornets will do in the playoffs next month. On the one hand, they've had this incredible season, but on the other hand, they're really young and inexperienced. Though if you look at how Utah played last year, their relative inexperience didn't hold them back at all. Depending on the matchups they get, if they're lucky, I could easily see them going all the way to June.
For some great special teams info from a great charismatic coach, take a look at Bruce Pearl's DVD on OB nuggets. Though he talks more about executing BLOB, it's a good insight into the mind of a great X's and O's coach. Be sure to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to discuss this and more of your favorite basketball topics.
If I had more hours in the day, the top of my list would be to watch more women's college basketball. The main reason is because girls just execute better than the boys. Boys tend to freelance, deviate from the play, and do things their own way. Girls generally listen better and do what is asked of them.
This is a nice box inbounds play that Nebraska ran against Oklahoma St. in the second half of their game. One of the advantages of scouting is knowing how your opponent defends inbounds plays. If they use a 2-3 zone, you can get an easy score almost every time by sending 2 cutters into the lane going opposite ways. As someone on the X's and O's forum mentioned, it's a score every time. Here is what it looked live,
Box Inbounds vs 2-3 zone:
They start out in a box set. Your 2 forwards start out at the elbows, your guards are on the low blocks. O1 and O3 split out wide to the corners. They are the safeties and should be open should none of the forwards cutting are open. O5 cuts first from the opposite elbow coming across the lane to the ball. This will draw X5 to that side. O4 now cuts from the opposite elbow down across to the open side of the low block. Since X5 is covering O5, X3 is zoned in between O1 and the lane. O4 should be wide open on the basket cut for the layup.
I'm a big Bruce Pearl fan and he has a great DVD you'll probably want to check out, Bruce Pearl's DVD on OB nuggets. Though he talks more about executing BLOB, it's a good insight into the mind of a great X's and O's coach. Be sure to check out the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to discuss this and more of your favorite basketball topics.
I'm not a big fan of leaving the inbounder un-defended on the BLOB play. I wrote earlier how Kansas used the inbounder give and go play against Iowa St. who decided to face-guard the paint.
Tonight, the Pittsburgh Panthers saw WVU attempting to double DeJuan Blair while the ball was in the air. The double came from the inbounder and Blair immediately tip passed the ball to Keith Benjamin for the easy putback. Here is how it looked live,
I really don't understand the play. DeJaun Blair was not even having a great game up to that point, just 7 points on 3-for-13 shooting. If you really feel the need to double, I would've brought help from the weak-side and force the skip pass, or even from the wing and rotate down. Leaving the inbounder is just too dangerous in my opinion. As you can see in the above screen shot, DeJaun Blair is actually already pinched in, and the inbounder's defender is not really doing anything. The better play probably would've been to defend the inbound, leave the pinch on DeJaun, rotate to cover #23 Sam Young who is their best scorer and leave the freshman Gilbert Brown open for the long inbound.
There were some other big mistakes by Bob Huggins team today. WVU really should've won the game, but their inexperience was what hurt them the most down the stretch. Missing free throws, and not staying with shooters. I've talked about earlier about what is good help and what is bad help, the Mountaineers demonstrated bad help on the game-winning shot by Pitt. But those are the signs of a young team still feeling out their new head coach. WVU will be fine in the long run.
I watched the Kansas game against Iowa St today, my second Kansas game of the season. I think Kansas is probably the most complete team in college basketball right now. The way they play half-court defense, it's completely impenetrable. While watching the game, this play came up and I thought it was a good opportunity to show how you can use what the defense gives you to your advantage.
As you scout opposing teams, if you see that on occasion the defense will face-guarding you on an under the basket inbounds, you should audible for the pass back to the inbounder. This is precisely one of the reasons why I don't like to face-guard the BLOB, and prefer to guard the inbounder the traditional way. Take a look how Kansas took advantage,
Screen the Screener BLOB:
The inbounds play really isn't very complicated, it's just a screen the screener inbounds. It's what happens right after the inbound that makes this work, O2 sets the pick for O4, if O4 is open, O3 can hit him for the layup underneath. O5 then sets the pick for O2 to curl around to the corner to receive the inbounds from O3. Note, X3 is face-guarding and has his back to the inbounder, X2 and X3 both go to check O2. O3 is now completely wide open because of the face-guard and slips right underneath the basket. O2 finds him for the easy lay in.
Summary:
Always be prepared to change up what you are doing to match the other team. Basketball is all about adjustments and taking advantage of opportunities. For every defense, there is a way to take advantage. That is part of what I like about being a tactitian, finding the holes in the defense and taking advantage.
One of the ways you can tell if your offense is efficient is by looking at how many combined assists your team accumulates. It's no coincedence that the 2 top FG% teams in the NBA are also the 2 top teams in assists. When you get a lot of assists it means that the ball is moving and players are cutting to the basket or moving to open space. I watched the Utah Jazz today play the Los Angeles Clippers and in just 1 quarter of play, the Jazz had almost as many assists as the Clippers would get the entire game. Here are just a few clips of some great plays of the Jazz in the first quarter,
Most people think that assists has to do mostly with passing, and that would be only partially correct. The most important part of being a good passing team, is moving without the ball and getting open. That is most easily accomplished by cutting to the basket. The Utah Jazz are very "Princeton" like in that they use a lot of backdoor, give and go, and basket cuts, probably more than any other NBA team that I've seen.
Backdoor SLOB Inbounds:
No real secret to this play. They start out in a stack with Ronnie Brewer coming out to what looks like to receive the entry pass. Ronnie Brewer fakes like he will receive the easy safe pass from Andrei Kirilenko. Deron Williams is the safety and pops out to the top of the key in case the backdoor is defended. Brewer does a v-cut, but it's more just a quick change of direction. He looks like he's going toward the ball slowly, then cuts hard to the hoop. The defender is late and Kirilenko throws a perfect pass to Brewer for the score.
Summary:
There are alot of coaches that I talk to that say they want their teams to "play the right way". Meaning cuts to the basket, give and go's, backdoor, screen the screener, they claim to want to play "good offense". But I hardly see them practice the right way. Good fundamental basketball like give and go's, backdoor and basket cuts is less about X's and O's, running set plays, and more about teaching the basic concepts of cutting and practicing that over and over.
For more great interesting SLOB and special situation information, take a look at Hubie Brown's DVD on special situations. Coach Brown is just a brilliant basketball mind and guaranteed you will learn something from his wisdom. To discuss this and many more of your favorite basketball topics, head over to the X's and O's of Basketball Forum to talk with other coaches from around the world.
