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http://nba.si.com/2013/05/23/miami-heat-endgame-execution-game-1-indiana-pacers/?utm_source=feedly
Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals concluded with a sequence befitting its 53 minutes of give-and-take basketball, through which the most electric talents on both teams made dramatic, game-altering plays. In a loose ball scramble with just seconds remaining in overtime, Paul George rose to fire a three-pointer that could potentially win the game, only to draw a foul on the scrambling Dwyane Wade instead. George stepped to the line and iced three straight free throws, each hitting its mark perfectly without so much as an extra glance off the rim. But out of a timeout with 2.2 seconds remaining, LeBron James eclipsed that dramatic turn with an outstanding individual play of his own an unexpected drive when the world expected him to fade. Endgame sequences in so rushed a time frame almost always end with a contested jumper, but James saw George in a position of vulnerability, and made a push to the rim with abandon. That decision created an opportunity for the best finisher in basketball to lay the ball in just as the clock expired, securing a 103-102 win and icing the Pacers best chance to steal a game in Miami.
Noticeably absent from the scene was Indiana center Roy Hibbert the towering shot-blocker whom Pacers coach Frank Vogel had removed from the game just moments earlier. Despite being given a chance to make offense/defense substitutions, Vogel opted to pull his defensive anchor from the lineup out of concern for for how he might be exploited by a Miami lineup loaded with perimeter shooters. More than anything, he seemed to understand the challenge that guarding the Heat in endgame situations brings; Indiana wasnt merely dealing with James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Shane Battier and Ray Allen as individual catch-and-shoot options, after all, but as progressive contingencies in a more complex arrangement of screens and cuts from one of the brightest play-callers in the business. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra has proven himself capable of creating open looks for his team with clipboard ingenuity in just these occasions, and whatever set the Heat ran was sure to challenge the Pacers mobility and focus.
Thats the dilemma they present when they have Chris Bosh at the five spot, Vogel said. We put a switching lineup in with the intent to switch and keep everything in front of us.
And that the Pacers did. Spoelstras play design wasnt intended to free up James for a layup, but merely to create opportunities for several different potential options. The first of those options was Bosh, who would have had a chance to roll to the basket for a lob after receiving a soft up-screen from Ray Allen, were it not for Sam Youngs switch:
The next trigger was for Allen (hidden behind LeBron in this screenshot), who immediately curled from his screen toward the corner. But that option was denied by David West (guarding Battier on the sideline) and trailed closely by Tyler Hansbrough:
The final trigger was intended for James, who would be in a position to make some kind of play after the dust and screens had settled. Battier found him in a perfect spot, and James seized an opportunity to attack against Georges off-balanced defense.
Shane definitely gave me a great pass, James said. I peeked over my left shoulder Paul George was a little bit out of place, so I just took off.
The result was a best-case scenario for the Heat, and a tidal wave of criticism mounting to crash on Vogel. Considering the outcome of the play, it is both easy and accurate to blame Vogel from omitting a player capable of challenging James at the rim, particularly when Young and Hansbrough were the only alternatives Indiana could muster. Yet the factors in play are far more complicated than they might seem on first glance, as the Pacers were forced to defend the best player in the world operating in near optimal spacing. Vogel could have technically parked Hibbert under the rim, but to do so would almost certainly have left Bosh a knockdown shooter from mid-range wide open with a chance to win the game. For those with short memories who might advocate such a strategy, I offer the following:
The context was undeniably different in the case of Boshs game-winner against the Spurs, but the more general point stands. Additionally, if the Pacers had Hibbert in the game, they surely would not have been switching every action and thus may have lost track of Allen on his curl to the corner or even ceded a look to Bosh at the top of the floor. Either outcome would have created a lesser look than the one James found at the rim, but a quality opportunity for a potential game-winner nonetheless. Beyond that, Hibberts absence is functionally secondary to Georges mistake on the perimeter, by which James was able to charge the basket rather than settle for a jumper. If George had recovered to James with slightly better balance, this is a very different possession and potentially a very different result. As it stands, Georges misplay came at an incredible price, though its cost seems obscured by the simpler, more resonant blame assigned to Vogel.
The immediate criticism of Vogels substitution isnt without its merits. Virtually any outcome would have been better for Indiana than the one that transpired, and dropping Hibbert into the middle of the paint would seem the most straightforward way to change the course of Miamis execution. But theres a marked difference between a mistake and a mistake that truly matters, and though we may be convinced that Vogel is guilty of the former theres still far too much doubt to condemn him of the latter. Hibbert would have been more helpful in this instance than Young or Hansbrough, perhaps, but the odds are still too great that Hibbert would be pulled away from the rim or scrambled into a switch rather than lying in wait as James stormed toward the basket. Its easy to mentally substitute Hibberts colossal form for Youngs ineffective help near the rim, but keep in mind that in the way the Pacers defended this sequence, Hibbert would have had to begin the play guarding Allen to wind up in that very spot. The potential was there for Hibbert to change the course of this particular possession, but the process of assessing his hypothetical impact is riddled with complications.
For that, we can all thank Spoelstra and Pat Riley, the thoughtful architects behind Miamis floor-spreading ideals. When James is surrounded by shooters, the Heats impeccable spacing induces an uncommon perplexity. It makes opponents think when they should rely on instinct, and makes them second-guess when they should lean on their own sense of established order. Miami is so quick and so flexible as to inspire temporary doubt in even the most confident coaches, and create a complete breakdown at the core of an elite defense. Its an arrangement so trying as to force compromise in a team that was otherwise concrete in its collective identity so exacting, even, that one cant entirely blame Vogel for his moment of panic.
Vogel messed up, to be frank, but this is who the Heat are and what theyve come to do. They may be a team defined by their talent, but Miamis championship contention is built in idiosyncrasy above all else. Put another way: LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, with all of their altruistic playmaking, create. Yet when functioning in the kind of electric, transformational lineup that invalidated one of the NBAs best defenders? They destroy. ----
bshelly
"You (Fisher) could get fired, Les Snead could get fired, Kevin Demoff could get fired, but I will always be Eric Dickerson.” (c) The God
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