Archive for the ‘ACB’ Category
In Non-Moving Pictures: How Real Almost Threw Away the Copa (But Didn’t)
After Felipe Reyes hit a pair of free throws with 1.11 left on the clock in the Copa del Rey final in Malaga yesterday evening it seemed like Real had the game sewn up with a 75-68 lead. But an 8-0 Barcelona run over the next minute put Real behind and set up Sergio Llull’s game winning long two from the right corner.
Real’s defence had been superb over the weekend, but it was a number of key lapses in the final minute that almost cost them the game, with their normally air tight help defence being found wanting by Barcelona, before Barcelona’s own defensive mistakes allowed Llull to get open in the final seconds.
Play Number One: Llull gets Lost (Three Times), and Oleson Drains a Three
The logical first play to look at is Brad Oleson’s three, coming after Joey Dorsey pulled down a huge offensive rebound. On the play leading up to this we saw a Marcelinho Huertas layup knocked out of the rim by Rudy Fernandez. It seemed as if Barca were shaping to send Huertas left around a Dorsey screen, potentially setting up another of his floaters. But as Dorsey came to set the screen both Sergio Llull and Felipe Reyes were found out of position, allowing Huertas to drive right uncontested to the rim, only for Fernandez to knock the ball out. Real’s disorganisation on that play led to Dorsey’s offensive rebound, as Reyes had stuck close to Dorsey, anticipating having to hedge out to stop Huertas’ floater, he was recovering very late, as both Reyes and Llull turned towards Huertas heading to the rim the both crashed in on him. Leaving Dorsey unchecked to step into the paint and pull down the offensive rebound. With Reyes’ being the help defender, Llull, having already been beaten should have had the responsibility of putting a body on Dorsey.
La Copa 2014 Live Blog
Tweaking of Pick and Roll setup pays dividends for Pascual, Barça
In Thursday’s 111-108 win over Real Madrid, FC Barcelona Regal rode the high pick and roll 44 times to create plenty of open looks from close- and long range. They did so in about the same volume in yesterday’s Copa del Rey semifinal (if you adjust for ten minutes extra time), but Xavi Pascual changed a small but important detail in his pick and roll set up to give Caja Laboral new problems to solve.
I specifically addressed the role of the “4″ in defensive rotations during the Barcelona versus Real Madrid matchup yesterday, but the semi final gave us an additional variation of the high pick and roll, arguably the most important play in modern basketball, to analyse.
The basic setup is still the execution of a pick and roll up in central position, with three players stretching the floor. Three is an odd number of players that have to be placed on two sides of the floor. This creates a double side and a single side.
El Clásico frame-by-frame
A frame-by-frame review of yesterday’s El Clásico reveals the key strategies by both defenses in their attempt to limit two of the best offenses in European basketball.
If a game ever lived up to the hype, this was the one.
In what goes down as an instant Copa del Rey classic, FC Barcelona Regal edged Real Madrid 111-108 (boxscore, video recap, shot chart) in a double-overtime thriller in Vitoria-Gasteiz on Thursday evening.
Barça are first in defensive rating in both the Euroleague and the ACB, while Real Madrid are second and sixth, respectively (the Euroleague rating is adjusted for strength of schedule), but neither of the two had been able to get stops in their first ACB encounter past December. Barça won 96-89 in a high scoring affair in Palau Blaugrana, going 12 for 21 from beyond the arc, despite Erazem Lorbek’s one for five.
#CopaACB
The #CopaACB campaign is rolling for another year. The ACB folks are flooding social media with photos, videos, statistics, previews and quotes from Vitoria-Gasteiz, where the ACB’s flagship, the Copa del Rey, has landed in 2013.
Attempts by other European leagues to build a cup tournament of comparable popularity and magnitude by copying the event’s format have been rather unsuccessful. And you are unlikely to succeed in the future – social media offensive or not – unless you field a team of eight participants that can take on a Euroleague Top16 group.
Unlike any other league in Europe, ACB players do not see a significant performance drop-off in Euroleague games over a multiyear period. It is likely that the average Spanish Euroleague team’s ACB schedule is not significantly easier than their Euroleague schedule. And why should it? Even relegation-zone ACB clubs have long been outbidding teams from the lower- and mid-Euroleague levels for players.
Throughout the last three years, Valencia were one- and Bilbao two wins away from making the Euroleague Final Four in their sole Euroleague appearances. They are kept out simply for the fact that more than four to five Spanish teams are not wanted in the Euroleague.