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.

It was Llull at fault for the Oleson three after the rebound too. With Huertas curling out to the left corner as Dorsey kicked the rebound out to Bostjan Nachbar, it was clearly Fernandez’s assigment to pick up Huertas in the corner, as he was the nearest man after the rebound. With Llull frantically recovering after losing Huertas on the previous play he floated in no man’s land, turning his head to an open Brad Oleson, before turning to an already guarded Huertas in the corner. When Nachbar fired a pass to Huertas in the corner, Llull rushed over, perhaps as an attempt to trap, or perhaps a mental lapse. As Llull closed down Huertas rips a pass off to the open Oleson who obliges by knocking down the open three.

This is what it looks like in images:

First we see Huertas taking a hand off from Nachbar, while Dorsey comes to screen. Then we see Huertas beginning his drive as Llull expects the Dorsey screen and Reyes overplays Dorsey also expecting a pick and roll. As Huertas had been knocked down multiple floaters in the game this not an unreasonable position, just very poor execution from Llull.

In these two pictures we see just how badly Madrid lost Dorsey, as all three Madrid players in the paint have their eye on the ball. Which allowed Dorsey to take his position in the second photo, on the edge of the no-charge semi-circle. It is also interesting to four of five Madrid rebounders  in the paint. This is partially the cause of the confusion after the offensive rebound. As Mirotic and Fernandez lost Nachbar and Oleson while pursuing the rebound.

Next we see the game still immediately after Dorsey has taken the rebound and kicked the ball out to Nachbar, who is just off screen to the left. With Huertas under the basket following his layup attempt we can see Llull (standing towards the left wing) has already turned his head and lost him, Oleson however is directly in his line of sight. Mirotic quickly closes out to Nachbar who dribbles towards the three point line, meanwhile Huertas cuts out to the left corner and Oleson drifts towards the weakside, while Llull steps up to the elbow and Rudy positions himself on the left of the paint.

As Nachbar passes to Huertas in the corner Llull and Fernandez both step to cover him, with Mirotic also shaping towards the ball as well, and with Reyes having to stick in the middle of the paint with Dorsey, Sergio Rodriguez was the only player left to cover the weakside, allowing Huertas to hit Oleson for the open three.

Four point game.

Real ball. 57.1 seconds left.

Play 2: Navarro Shows up on D, Reyes get his Comeuppance

Real inbounded the ball to Sergio Rodriguez who immediately set about wasting some time, running 16 seconds off before making any kind of move. He set up a high pick and roll, driving right around a Felipe Reyes screen, with Reyes before covered by Joey Dorsey in front, and some fantastic help side cover from Juan Carlos Navarro behind the pass wasn’t on. Chacho instead kicked to Nikola Mirotic in the right corner, who swung the ball immediately to Rudy Fernandez at the top, who swung on again to Sergio Llull to take an end of shot clock three. Navarro recovered and managed to get a key hand in the face off Llull, who missed the shot. On the ensuing rebound Felipe Reyes finally got his karmic retribution after he had been flopping and embellishing on every rebound in an attempt to draw fouls. As he wrestled with Joey Dorsey to try and get an offensive rebound the referees rightly blew the whistle on him, eliminating him from the game with his fifth foul.

This is the play in images:

In these images we see Sergio Rodriguez rounding the Reyes screen and kicking to Mirotic in the corner. The first image already show that Navarro has shaded off Llull in the corner to take a help position on the weakside of the paint, by the time the ball swings to the corner Navarro has come fully across the paint to take up a position that cuts off Reyes roll. Responding to this Llull comes out of the corner and increases the distance that Navarro will have to recover.

The next image cuts to Sergio Llull as he takes his shot after the ball rotated from Mirotic in the corner to Rudy at the top of the key to Llull on the left wing. As we can see Navarro has completely recovered to contest the shot. The second image shows Reyes wrestling Dorsey for his foul, after Reyes’ flopping all game, it was refreshing to see him on the receiving end.

Play Three: Bourousis…

After Dorsey missed both free throws Ioannis Bourousis inexplicably missed a box out on Brad Oleson, a man 9 inches shorter than him, and allowed the American to swat the ball out to Marcelinho Huertas. Huertas set up for a pick and roll with Joey Dorsey and Dorsey set perhaps the greatest screen of his career, forcing Rudy Fernandez to stumble. Bourousis played the Huertas pick and roll the same way he had all game floating in no man’s land in the middle of the key, which gave Huertas the choice of either a lob to Dorsey or a floater for himself. He chose the latter and knocked it down.

And now in pictures:

The first game still shows the effect of Dorsey’s screen, Rudy stumbles through it, freeing up Huertas to go against Bourousis, who doesn’t hedge out. As Huertas drives in Bourousis is backpeddling into the paint, afraid of Huertas’ ability to beat him. Huertas then takes the right decision to pull up and shoot the floater. The lob to Dorsey could also have been on, but with Nachbar cutting across the paint and bringing an extra help defender in Mirotic, it likely would have been a lot more heavily contested.

Two point game.

Real ball. 23.1 seconds left.

Play Four: Bourousis… (Again)

Real inbounded the ball to Sergio Rodriguez on the left wing, and he was immediately trapped by Brad Oleson and Bostjan Nachbar. As he attempted a pass out of the trap he found only Joey Dorsey, who quickly flipped the ball on to Victor Sada with 20 seconds left. With a defensive lineup on Barca were lacking the creativity of Juan Carlos Navarro and Marcelinho Huertas, they looked instead to Brad Oleson who set up a pick and roll with Joey Dorsey on the right wing, looking to head left around the screen. As Real again overplayed the screen (this time Rodriguez, not Llull), Oleson faked left and went right, and Rodriguez was caught by Dorsey swinging his screen around. Crossing over behind Dorsey’s screen Oleson left Rodriguez behind him and began driving left past the flat footed Bourousis, who ran to attempt to meet Oleson’s shot at the rim, clattering into him as Oleson left handed layup dropped in off the glass. The whistle sounds and Oleson sinks the free throw.

Here it is in image form:

First we see Dorsey come to set a screen for Dorsey, just like to set up the Huertas floater. But instead of taking the screen Oleson rips the ball over the hands of Sergio Rodriguez and starts his drive right, meanwhile Dorsey changes his course slightly to set a screen to tie up Rodriguez. With Rodriguez tied up on Dorsey, Oleson crosse from right to his favoured left and drives, which is what we see in the second image, though Oleson is obscured by Dorsey. It is also interesting to note that the normally aggressive help defence of Real isn’t present, Llull stays at home on Papanikolaou, Mirotic only shades slightly off Nachbar and most importantly Rudy stays with Sada in the corner, rather than coming to help on the Oleson drive. We’re Real that concerned about falling behind that they wouldn’t help off Sada on a layup?

The first image is just as Oleson starts his drive, we can see Rudy on the edge of the paint, and while it is pretty much a given that Oleson will beat Bourousis, Rudy still doesn’t alter his position even when Oleson is at the rim getting clattered by Bourousis on the foul.

1 point Barca lead.

Real ball. 8.8 seconds remaining

Play Five: Llull Redeems Himself

Facing and 8 point turnaround in the last minute Real had one chance to win the game. With no timeouts remaining Real had to inbound the ball immediately to Rodriguez after the free throw, with Victor Sada hounding Chacho as he drove down court. Rodriguez reached the three point line with 5 seconds left and drove left from the right 45 into the lane. Kostas Papanikolaou immediately came to help from Sergio Llull in the right corner. As it was impossible to cover both the Rodriguez shot and the passing lane to Llull both Sada and Papanikolaou jumped as Rodriguez shaped to pull up, looking like he was going to shoot Rodriguez fired a pass off to Llull open in the corner who sank the shot to win the game.

Papanikoalaou has been heavily criticised by the media (some of it rightly so) for his over exuberance in helping, especially when it looked like Victor Sada had Rodriguez covered. It is always easy to look back in hindsight and say what should have happened on a play, but nonetheless, the help on this play should not have been coming from Papanikolaou. Bostjan Nachbar had the opportunity to cover both Rodriguez and the pass to his man, Nikola Mirotic and stayed glued to the Montenegrin, and has drawn zero criticism. For every risky move like Papanikolaou’s there is someone taking a safe play that deserves equal criticism, in this case it is Nachbar.

And finally, Llull’s game winner in image form:

We pick up the final play after Rodriguez has already taken the ball over half court, he shapes right before crossing over to his left to drive in the second picture. In the first image we can see Papanikolaou in almost perfect help position, he can close out on Llull, and also come across and help late if Rodriguez drive. But, in the second picture we can see he has broken that to come to Rodriguez as he drives into the paint, even though Sada has played Rodriguez perfectly. The help should have been coming from Nachbar, stood near the left elbow, who could have stopped any drive by Rodriguez into the paint, and also covered the passing lane to his own man, Nikola Mirotic.

Now we see two stills a taken a split second apart, the first as Rodriguez shades to pull up, the second as the pass has already gone to Llull. Both Papanikolaou are aggressively contesting the Rodriguez fake pull up, and by the time both of them land in the second image it is too late to recover to Llull, and he gets the game winning shot off.