Links and articles to the game and "the play"

With the exception of a pair of short-lived spurts of San Antonio Spurs separation late in the first and fourth quarters, nearly the entire Friday night contest between the Spurs and Portland Trail Blazers was played within a two-possession scoring differential. True to form, after a pair of Manu Ginobili(notes) triples and a Tony Parker(notes) layup gave the Spurs a six-point lead with 1:21 left in regulation, Andre Miller(notes) keyed a 6-0 Blazers run (aided by a critical late Spurs turnover) to knot the game at 96 with just one tick left on the clock.

After 47 minutes and 59 seconds of nip-and-tuck basketball, the game came down to one last Portland possession. Miller triggered the inbounds pass, and here's what happened:

The conversation's cut off in the clip above — you can catch a longer version of the play elsewhere, thanks to the fine folks at The Hoop Scene — but Blazers color analyst Mike Rice pretty much called the play that Portland coach Nate McMillan would draw up, saying he liked "a back-pick and an alley-oop to a big guy" off the inbounds. As always, Sebastian Pruiti's got the blow-by-blow breakdown of the final play over at NBA Playbook, where he credits McMillan's call but also chides Spurs coach Gregg Popovich for leaving the lane totally unprotected against a back-door lob.

Lost in the shuffle a bit? The pitch-perfect pass from Miller, which Friday night hero Nicolas Batum(notes) (who also drained two free throws to tie the game with 0.9 seconds left, setting up the game-winning possession) called "the easiest lay up I had to make" in a postgame tweet. Miller delivered the ball on a silver platter, and Batum dropped it in before the dawning of the red light.

With the win, Portland (42-31) holds serve over the New Orleans Hornets, who also won Friday night, maintaining a half-game lead for the sixth seed out West. On the short end of the stick, the Spurs (57-15) lose a game in the standings to the Los Angeles Lakers, who won their sixth straight game Friday night. San Antonio's lead in the race for the conference's top seed is now five games with 10 games remaining in the season.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ba...atum-8217-s-alley-oop-beats-the?urn=nba-wp533

 

Poor Defensive Strategy Leads To Blazers’ Game Winning Lob

After seeing the Spurs botch a final play of their own with 0.9 seconds left (the ball ended up being thrown out of bounds without being touched), the Portland Trailblazers had the basketball on the side with the game tied, looking to take the lead. While the Blazers were able to use a decent play to get the game winning tip, it is my opinion that the flawed defensive strategy of the Spurs and the execution of that strategy was more responsible for the basket than the actual play.



As the basketball goes to the trigger man, the Blazers have a lot of things going on. Wesley Matthews flashes to the basketball near the halfcourt line as LaMarcus Aldridge flashes to the corner behind the three point line. The main action however is Brandon Roy coming off of a screen set by Nicolas Batum.



The Spurs’ strategy was to play straight man while switching any screens. One of the results of this strategy is Tiago Splitter chasing Aldridge out to the three point line. This opens the lane for Nicolas Batum and his path to the rim. Before the screen can get set, Batum slips the screen and heads straight towards the rim on the weakside. Batum showing the screen forces the Spurs to initiate the switch, with Tony Parker picking up Batum and Manu Ginobili picking up Roy.



Parker is a tad bit late on the switch, and this creates a window for Andre Miller to make the pass into. Also notice that the lane is clear because Splitter is out standing in the corner with Aldridge.



Parker actually does a pretty good job of recovering on the play, but the height difference is too great and Batum is able to get the basketball, tip it in the direction of the basket, and win the game for the Blazers. Here is the play in real time:

[video=youtube;Sc654tSlAeg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc654tSlAeg[/video]

Before we start talking about this play and comparing it to some others, it is important to note that this situation had 0.9 seconds left compared to the 0.5, 0.4, or 0.3 seconds in the situations we have looked at in the past. This is important because in this situation (with 0.9 seconds left), the catch and shoot is more of a threat than if there was 0.5 seconds or less left.

With that being said, I am not too sure with coach Gregg Popovich’s strategy here.

However, that final screenshot tells us that Tony Parker did in fact get an effective switch. The real problem was that there was nobody protecting the paint, and the Blazers were able to take advantage of the height advantage to get the lob. In my opinion, the Spurs should have kept Splitter in the paint, ready to help on any backdoor cut that would occur. Yes, this leaves Aldridge open in the corner, but a rushed three in the corner (yes, 0.9 seconds is enough time to catch and shoot, but it is still going to be a rushed shot) is probably a lower percentage shot than a lob. Plus, we have seen teams get stops when using the zone to protect the rim time after time. There is something to it.

I am normally not a fan of backdoor lobs without screens being set because they tend to only work when the defense is playing straight man to man (which is exactly what happens here), but if you are going to run a lob like this, running it off a slipped screen is the right way to do it (the Knicks showed us the wrong way). You do have to give the Blazers credit for catching the Spurs off guard with their play, but I think if defended properly, we would have seen overtime in Portland.

http://nbaplaybook.com/2011/03/26/poor-defensive-strategy-leads-to-blazers-game-winning-lob/

I kind of posted most of the article and pictures so make sure you click on the link so they get the hits and maybe explore their site a little. It's pretty good.

 

Batum on twitter:

That was the easiest lay up I had to make...nice passe Dre

Mills tweets:

Danananana... BATMAN!!! @nicolas88batum GREAT pass by Cool Man Dre. #morethanteammates

 

Truehoop:

Finally, Nicolas Batum tipped in an alley-oop as time expired to lead the Portland Trail Blazers over the San Antonio Spurs in the Rose City. That was the 16th game-winning buzzer-beater this season and the first by Portland since November 6, 2008 when Brandon Roy had one against the Rockets in overtime. The Spurs fell to 1-2 without Tim Duncan this season.


http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/26785/big-three-heat-up-as-miami-keeps-rolling

 

The Portland Tribune is calling it 'Miracle on Drexler Drive' and brings up another famous Blazer game beating lob.



Every 30 years or so, the Trail Blazers convert a lob pass for the ages.

On Dec. 30, 1980, it was Kermit Washington hoisting it to Billy Ray Bates, who deposited it in the basket for a 109-108 victory over Philadelphia that longtime Blazer fans crow about to this day.

On March 25, 2011, it was Andre Miller’s perfectly placed toss to Nicolas Batum, who dropped the ball through the hoop as time expired in Portland’s 98-96 victory over San Antonio.

“Twelve years in the league, and that’s the craziest last minute of a game that I’ve been a part of,” said Dean Cooper, the Blazers’ player development director. “All the things that happened? It was unbelievable.”

The Blazers scored four points inside the game’s final second to win by two. That doesn’t happen very often.

Call in the Miracle on Drexler Drive.

http://portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=130112120641064400

 

There is a thread with it somewhere in here. I'll go look for it and bump it for you.

 

Four Bigs Plays In 32 Seconds

Nate McMillan talks all the time about big plays, and how the teams that run the NBA know how to come through in the clutch with those plays. The Portland Trail Blazers haven't always been one of those team you can count on to come up with the big play, but on Friday night against the Spurs, they squeezed a month's worth of big plays into the final 30 seconds to get a much needed victory.

The following is a retelling of those four plays -- a steal by Andre Miller, a steal by Wesley Matthews, two free throws by Nicolas Batum and Miller's lob to Batum to win the game -- by the players and coaches to made and drew up those plays.

32 seconds to play. Andre Miller pokes the ball away from Tony Parker:

Andre Miller: “I was just trying to take a risk. I saw he was kind of close to the sideline, like ‘why not?’ you know?. We’re down four points, they’re just going to drag the game out and win the game. So close, I knew he couldn’t crossover to the sideline, so I set on it perfect.”

7 seconds to play. Wesley Matthews pressures Manu Ginobili to turn the ball over:

Wesley Matthews: "When i didn't see a screen coming, didn't hear a screen coming, I figured it was me and him one on one. Watched a lot of tape. Student of the game. I know what he likes to go to. He's got a complete package, an arsenal, but every time i see him hit a game-winner it's a left to right crossover to a stepback going right. So as soon as I saw the ball go out, I wanted to rush him."

0.9 seconds to play. Nicolas Batum is fouled by Matt Bonner, sending him to the line for two game-tying free throws:

Andre Miller: “I haven’t seen him in that position too many times, but those two free throws were big. That was a lot of pressure."

Nicolas Batum: "No pressure. I know I got to do it. I'm not going to make it down. I just go to line and for me the arena was empty. I was alone. Nobody was here. I just took my two free throws like I was in practice."

0.9 seconds left to play. Steve Novak throws the ball out on bounds on an inbounds pass:

Greg Popovich: "We were basically trying to do something similar to what they did. Obviously we didn’t execute it as well.”

Nate McMillan: "I thought that was a big play where they threw the ball out of bounds and our guys didn’t touch it to give us that last possession.”

Greg Popovich: “Yeah, we wanted to throw it straight out of bounds without anybody touching it. It’s not his fault. Everything doesn’t work all the time. He was looking for Manu.”

0.9 seconds to play. Andre Miller lobs an inbounds pass to Nicolas Batum, who redirects the ball into the basket to give the Trail Blazers the 98-96 victory:

Nate McMillan: "We work on special situations as much as we can, I wouldn’t say every day, but we walk through them. That’s just a last second shot play that we’ve had. One of my scouts gave it to me – Larry. Perfect timing for it. It was executed perfect. I thought Miller threw the right pass and put it right in front of the rim and all Nic had to do was catch it and put it in the hole. So, well-executed play.”

Nate McMillan: “In situations like that, you know that teams are going to switch and basically, you switch. Brandon was a decoy in that situation. Nic goes to the rim, just put it at the rim. You hope that they do switch and I think Parker or Ginobili, one of those guys were underneath Nic, but Andre threw a perfect pass to execute that.”

Greg Popovich: “We knew they were going to go to the rim. We were switching it, and did a poor job switching it. They did a great job executing.”

Manu Ginobili: "“We were supposed to switch, and we didn’t. I don’t know, I didn’t see it. We were supposed to switch and something happened.”

Tony Parker: “We said that we were going to switch everything, and there was never really a pick. It was just a great play from Portland.”

Wesley Matthews: "They were covering us tightly. I think they were playing us for a 3, for a jumpshot. It was designed perfectly. Everybody cut hard, Nic was able to get a slip, Dre threw a perfect pass and Nic put it in."

Andre Miller: “That (assist to Batum) is number one. That’s number one right there for me. That team is the best team in the league, that type of situation losing by six points, being able to make plays against a championship team, championship guards that play high level basketball all the time. To be able to come back and win that game like that, it’s one of the best ones in my book.”

Nicolas Batum: "We make a play for Wes and B.Roy to screen and they can't focus on me, so I just have to dive for the screen. I was alone. Dre made a perfect pass and I just put the ball inside and we win the game."

Nicolas Batum: "I tried to dunk it but was too far, just have to push it. The ball just turn around. I was scared to miss it a little bit. The ref say "Good" so I feel great."

http://blogs.trailblazers.com/Broad...188/EntryID/2017/BroadcasterID/4/Default.aspx

 

Thanks Trip!

 

When it comes to snorting can there ever be too many?