FCB: On Their Way To Berlin (I – Punish Defense)

Barcelona won the series against TAU and they’ll be the fourth team in Berlin for the Euroleague’s Final Four.

Along the next days we’ll see some of the keys for Barça to beat TAU.

First, the way they punished TAU’s pick and roll defense. Having Juan Carlos Navarro and Jaka Lakovic on the court, the defense had by far much more problems than without them. They make helps become a big risk, and sometimes the defenders have the command of not helping at all.

Barcelona added Ilyasova to create a triangle almost impossible to stop. These are some examples of how they punished defensive helps and mistakes.

In the first images, we see how Barcelona runs a pick and roll situation (Andersen sets the ball screen, while Ilyasova pops) and TAU’s defense (McDonald makes the flash, Teletovic switches and gets Andersen, and Rakocevic is defending Navarro, and won’t make helps). Finally, Ilyasova receives and has an easy shot.

In the second half of the video, we find again a pick and roll situation, where Andersen rolls and Ilyasova (defended by Teletovic, who, again, takes the Danish player) pops. Lakovic is in the ball side corner; he receives and finds the Turkish player, who drives against McDonald’s recovery and Mickael’s rotation (Mickael was on help side, defending Grimau, that’s why that rotation took place).

Here it is…