Playing Against Helps

A quick detail from last game between F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid, to show how a team can read the defense and adapt to get advantages. 

FCB know how Real will play ball screen defense, helping/bumping from the opposite side against the screener's roll, we saw it here some time ago, and they are using some moves to punish that kind of defense.

One of the sets they use often is the double high screen, in which, as we can see in the video, both bigs are rolling to the basket, so if the opposite side big's defender helps against the roll or the penetration, there will be a good option to receive the pass inside, or, very important, an advantage for the offensive rebound.

If the last defender helps inside, they will punish this help with the pass to the wide open shooter.

Let's take a look:

SF Advantage. South America 2012

I'm watching the South American Championship these days. There are very good teams and very good players and coaches.

Here I bring a nice situation Argentina started playing against Venezuela to get an advantage for their small forward Marcos Mata (he'll be well known soon) who is much bigger and stronger than his defender Jose Vargas.

Argentina place their "4" at the corner (Leo Gutierrez, a hell of a shooter) and are supposed to look for their "3" inside. You can even hear how they tell Vargas to fight against Mata's posting up from the Venezuela's bench.

Instead, in the first play, Mata will surprise the defenders by faking the hand off pass but driving hard towards the basket. As we said, Leo Gutierrez is right in the corner so his defender can't take the risk of a long help.

In the next offense, they run the same situation, but this time they do look for Mata inside. He gives the hand off pass, and then they run a pick and roll situation. As we can see, their "5" (Leiva) clears out the low post so Mata can go to work against Vargas. Right spacing, and Mata scores again.

Euroleague F4: PAO - Ball Screen

Once the Euroleague season is over, as usual, everybody seems to forget about the "loosers". The new reigning champions, Olympiakos, focus all the attention and that's all...

I want to point out, once again, how well PAO play the ball screen situations, and I'd like to show you their amazing performance during the semifinal's first quarter.

Different solutions, adapting to the defensive options, and above average level of success when running ball screens. The spacing, the defense reading, the decision making... the passing skills...

Fourteen times they run a ball screen situation in their offense during the first quarter, scoring 20 points, plus getting 3 free throws, while turning the ball over twice. These are crazy numbers that show the greens' astounding performance during that period of the game.

Take a look at the video, there's not much more to say...

On The Road To Lithuania: Poland

Some details from Spain’s first rival, Poland.

First, this play they’ll use to make our big men defend far from the basket. They run this isolation ball screen to avoid helps and to create a good advantage for the ball handler (off the screen but also before it’s set) and for the screener (they'll want to pop)

Take a look at the video:

And one of their players, #10 Szymon Szewczyk, who plays in Italy. He’s really dangerous shooting from mid range and also from beyond the three point line. He can step outside and hit the three easily. He could create some problems to our bigs in different situations.

Here he is:

On The Road To Lithuania: Pick And Roll - Triangle (Italy)

I'm watching many games from the National Teams that will be in Lithuania's Eurobasket.

One of them is Italy, and this is one of the teams I like more, due to their organization and the way they're coached.

I've seen an interesting pick and roll situation, and I want to share it with you.

The offense read the defense really well, and they find the way to put the ball inside for the screener (who actually doesn't set a screen at all) when he cuts toward the rim. The screener's defender is ready to flash, the corner's defender is ready to collapse the paint, and help side's defenders are far away. So the offense manage to create a triangle and to punish defensive recovery.

Let's take a look.

LEB Gold: Axarquía

To begin with a series of posts in which I’ll bring you some details of the LEB Gold league and its teams, I’ve chosen Axarquia, Unicaja’s “farm team”. They place there some of their best prospects and make them grow in a really hard competition, against very good Spanish and foreign players.

Young players as Carlos Cobos (a PG about whom you’ll hear in the near future) Jhornan Zamora, Alvaro Martínez, Pablo Almazán, Cesar Lima, Angel García and some not so young but still developing players as Nedzad Sinanovic, who’s been waiting his moment to reach the ACB team (and once he’s reached there, he’ll probably stay)

They played this situation quite often. Beginning with a hand off, they set an off ball screen near the free throw line and from that point, they read the defense.

To play a 1 on 1 using the space “3” leaves when cutting:

To look for the shooting guard’s “come back” if he can’t receive a lob pass to finish with an easy lay up in case the defender gets stucked on the screen. “2” can catch and shot or he can play the pick and roll:

And they can also make it a little bit longer, making the wings play it all the way until the end, with “3” getting the ball and playing the ball screen (maybe they didn’t find a pass earlier, or maybe they wanted to let the shotclock run)

Also, they had the inside pass in case the low post defender was relaxed (not very often as he is in ball side, mostly defending three quarters in front of “5”) Having Sinanovic there helped anyway, and created a focus to make it easier for the wings to play on help side.

Let's watch it:

P&R spacing: VCU

It seems like years since we watched the NCAA Final Four, and everyone talks about UConn and Butler. At least in my country, not many coaches or fans appear to notice how well Virginia Commonwealth U. played during the March Madness...

I'd like to show you something I liked watching their games. It's their pick and roll game, and how they find the wide open guy, how they move the ball, how they have the right spacing on the floor.

In the video we see two P&R situations and how they manage to beat Butler's defensive rotations (there were many more, but these two will be fine to let you see them)

They run the ball screen, start moving the ball, and more important, they start moving without the ball. At the end, they manage to create a 2x1 situation and the defender must decide which player to defend. Then they give an extra pass and find the easy shot. As we can see in the first play, the ballhandler gives the pass to the wing, while the screener rolls and the other big pops. On the opposite side, another player fills the corner. Butler start their rotations but they arrive late and can't contest that shot from the corner.

Again in the second clip, they move the defense, and make one guy hesitate with a 2x1 situation, not allowing Butler to bother the shooter in the corner. Good spacing, sharing the ball and hitting the three.

Take a look...

PAO: On Their Way To Berlin

I've already talked about Panathinaikos pick and roll situations but I just can't stop admiring them.

Today, two days until Euroleague's F4, I bring some more of PAO's ball screens.

Simple situations, easy solutions and many different ways to score. It won't take long to watch them score with the screener, off a high - low situation, after a reversed ball, and finally with the screened player.

How can you stop them? How can you decide how to play defense, when they have so many options to score?

Great basketball team, we will see if they can add another title to their coach's curriculum.

FCB: On Their Way To Berlin (II - Offensive Rebound Against Ball Screen Defense)

It may appear to be a secondary weapon, and when coaching young players, not many people focus on offensive rebound, but it’s one of the keys to achieve a successful offense.

Barcelona has one player really important if we talk about offensive rebound. Ersan Ilyasova, who plays beyond the arc most of the time, goes for, and grabs, very important rebounds, giving his team points and second options to score.

As we can see in the video, and in the following diagrams, Barcelona runs a hand off situation followed by a pick and roll:

As defense’s reaction is to flash and rotate from help side, one defender ends up with two offensive players on weak side. Then, Ilyasova goes hard for the rebound and scores.

A good way to punish defensive rotations…

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…

Panathinaikos: Pick And Roll

It’s often said that the main “two on two” situation is the pick and roll. Maybe in the past, but now a pick and roll is an offensive situation that requires at least three, four or even five players playing together.

It’s not that I say it, but top level teams that are running these kind of offensive patterns and using more than two players on them.

Above all them, Panathinaikos (Coach: Zeljko Obradovic) is the best. During the last years they have been the Top European team playing the best pick and roll situations. Their game is based on spacing and they use the ball screen very often and with very good results.

As we can see in the video, they play against the defensive help coming from weak side. If you can watch any of their games, pay attention because they look for the same pass all the time. When the screener’s defender flash against the player with the ball, the weak side defender has the command of helping inside in case the screener receives. The defenders are ready to jump and sometimes there is a big risk if the player with the ball tries to give the pass to the screener when he rolls. That’s the reason of sometimes forgetting that pass and instead give a skip pass for the open player on weak side.

Once he receives, he can shoot, pass, or drive, but the defense will be somehow out of balance and they will go one step behind. Watch in the video how, even if they don’t score, they have very good advantage situations.