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The day after – revisiting the EuroCup Final
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Lokomotiv Kuban’s high screen and roll was the talk of Charleroi yesterday evening. Here’s a frame-by-frame analysis of what the Bilbao defense managed and failed to deal with.
Kuban: No stretch four
A typical stretch four is absent from the Lokomotiv roster this season, as the power forward position is usually inhabitated by Derrick Brown, who is more of a mid range threat and has taken just nine three point shots in the 2012/13 EuroCup (made five, ironically), and the inside-4/5 Richard Hendrix.
Kuban usually have Brown floating around the free throw line area; like in the offense shown below, which is well-defended by Bilbao.
As is typical in pick and roll defense, the four (Hervelle) helps the helper (Hamilton) before he recovers back to the roll man. Hervelle then has to recover to his own matchup. Since Brown is not stretching the floor out to the three point line, there is less room for him to cover than when defending a stretch four.
Whenever Bilbao forced the ball into Brown’s hands in the free throw line area in pick and roll defense, good things happened for the Basques. There were five plays that match these criteria: Three times Hervelle/Moerman made Brown put the ball on the floor, which resulted in a missed close range shot after an uncalled travel, a (called) travel, and a one-dribble pull-up two that awkwardly clanked off the side rim. In two other scenes Brown hesitated before reversing the ball to the other side, without effect.
Granted, Brown is a monster in transition and has generally had better days from the mid range, but this is something good teams will continue to exploit. Some food for thought going into the off-season.
Calathes, Kalnietis and going “under”
Katsikaris referred to three different types of pick and roll defense afterwards, and from what I’ve seen, those were
- a relatively flat coverage, as in the scene above,
- a strong hedge-out to force the ball out of the playmaker’s hands and
- going under the screen,
with the “under” strategy dominating most of the game.
Going “under” and daring Kalnietis and Calathes (who came into the game shooting 26.7 percent from range for the season) to shoot sounds fantastic on paper, but those two have had years to perfect ways to attack the two-man defense regardless of what is (or is not, in this case) thrown at them.
Kalnietis loves to accelerate and suddenly change direction just as his defender is coming up from behind the screen on the other side. Here’s an example how that looks:
Kalnietis explodes to the left just as Vassiliadis steps out of Hamilton’s shadow on the right, causing confusion that results in a half-hearted switch. He finds Hendrix against the helpless Vassiliadis inside for the easy two.
Another problem of going “under” is the danger of facing a (deeper) re-screen, which you eventually will have to fight over. This is what Kalnietis and Calathes played to perfection.
In the following scene, Raul Lopez goes under the initial screen but over the re-screen, and Calathes drives inside to feed Maric for the high-percentage shot inside. Additionally, Hendrix is a threat on the close range baseline, so Moerman can’t come out too far to bump Maric on the drive; although the frenchman is arguably sitting back a little too deep here.
Pashutin went the entire fourth quarter with a small lineup where Jasaitis played the four, so Bilbao had to play tight defense on the perimeter instead of having their power forward sit back and help out.
On the following play, Vassiliadis, too, goes under the initial screen but over the re-screen (which is set close to the free throw line), and there’s absolutely no help as Kalnietis drives left and lobs it to Maric for the easy lay-in. For this to somehow work, Vassiliadis would have to be right on Kalnietis’ heels to challenge pass to the roll man or shot.
And one more time: under the initial screen, over the re-screen, which is set inside the paint. Kalnietis lobs it to the rolling Maric, who finds Hendrix with a touch-pass for the throw-down.
Sergey Bykov, too, was used as pick and roll ballhandler. Again, Vassiliadis goes under the screen; Bykov changes direction and attacks him on the other side, while Maric blocks Hamilton’s path to help out.
Seeing how often it happened, there’s a good chance Pashutin tasked his guards with attacking Vassiliadis via pick and roll. May sound trivial considering Vassiliadis’ reputation as a poor defender, but really needs to be executed at a high level to bring success.
Plenty of Breakdowns
When bombarded 40 minutes long with top-level pick and roll play-making, you’re bound to screw up once in a while.
One thing I learned from watching an Ettore Messina coaching clinic is that the strong side corner defender needs to be positioned diagonally towards the ball instead of right along the baseline. On the following play, Bilbao are defending flat, and Mumbru wouldn’t have given anything up by rotating two or three steps towards the ballhandler (and maybe challenging his pass) instead of standing right at the baseline.
There’s arguably a chain of mistakes here, and Hervelle, too, should’ve done a better job denying Hendrix from catching the ball in close range area.
On the next play, Moerman loses sight of Hendrix, who cuts back door. Bykov has no difficulties finding him for the reverse layup.
Bilbao: Posting up Mumbru to no effect
Bilbao tried attack Jasaitis through Mumbru in post-ups, but the Lithuanian more than held his own here. Mumbru had five post-ups against Jasaitis, which resulted in two missed fadeaways, a pass to Hamilton, whose shot was blocked, a pass to the weak side, where Vassiliadis missed a jump shot, and a drawn foul.
Mumbru also posted up on Kalnietis (made a lay up), Baron (was fouled) and Bykov (Bykov stole the post-feed). Altogether a terrible output in what Bilbao had identified as a clear mismatch.
Bilbao looked threatening whenever they included their versatile passing bigs Hervelle and Hamilton in side pick and roll. Here’s a nice play from the opening phase where Hamilton reverses the ball to the weak side corner for an open Vassiliadis spot-up three.
That didn’t happen nearly often enough, however, as Bilbao opted to go to Mumbru inside and got a so-so performance from Vassiliadis on the perimeter.
sJacas, 14/04/2013
Post-Game
Katzikaris emphasized post-game that not positioning had broken their neck in pick and roll defense, but their inability to use tactical fouls to stop the creation of easy baskets.
He also said missed shots from inside were what ultimately led to the loss.
Pashutin said that having two ballhandlers on the floor at all times is a necessity in modern basketball, especially when dealing with a defense that pressures the ball hard.
He aknowledged they (Kuban) had a poor start to the season but slowly started building chemistry when the late signings (Kalnietis, Brown, Hendrix) came in.
sJacas, 13/04/2013
Final Buzzer: Bilbao 64 Kuban 75
Rakovic has a wide-open lay-up to cut the lead to 6 points in a furious Bilbao comeback, but blows it. Only fitting for Bilbao, who’ve been unable to finish from close range all game. They’ve also been outplayed by Lokomotiv’s multiple pick and roll threats and found little solutions against the Hendrix/Maric-combo.
Friendly scenes here post-game, as Bilbao fans aknowledge Calathes’ and Kalnietis’ performance, who in turn pay respect to the Bilbao faithful. They’ve been fantastic – loud, respectful, fair – all game.
sJacas, 13/04/2013
sJacas, 13/04/2013
The Maric-Hendrix combo has been linking up well today, including a spectacular behind-the-back from Hendrix to Maric for the easy lay-in.
Nick Calathes gets my MVP vote, though, for being so in-control at whatever pace he chooses. (I guess we’ll have to send those sheets in soon)
sJacas, 13/04/2013
Half Time Bilbao 30 Kuban 38
Lokomotiv see a mismatch in Maric-Hamilton and Maric has been reading the help well, finding Calathes for an open three as well as Hendrix and Jasaitis on cuts to the hoop. Maric has been the dominating inside presence in this first half and Bilbao have been unable to expose his slow feet in (side) pick and roll on the other end. That Zisis/Lopez-Hervelle/Hamilton side pick and roll actually brought good results in the first quarter, including a couple of skip passes from Hamilton over to the weak side corner.
Moerman, too, has seen little light against Hendrix’ inside game, as Hendrix is leading the Rusians with 10 points and 7 boards.
Bilbao are expectedly going under the screen on Calathes’ pick and rolls. The Greek-American is 1 for 6, but is else filling up the statsheet, with 5 assists and 3 rebounds.
sJacas, 13/04/2013
Lokomotiv are indeed using the three-guard-lineup now, and Mumbru scores on Kalnietis with a quick post-move. That sequence is in the history books, though, as Grimau checks in for Mumbru.
Rakovic is a terrible defensive rebounder but a solid threat on the offensive glass. And he is one of Maik Zirbes’ top similarity scores – I knew you were wondering.
Bilbao take the lead on a well-worked Raul Lopez three to end the quarter, and this place is exploding.
sJacas, 13/04/2013
Lokomotiv are riding the Calathes/Kalnietis-Hendrix high screen and roll and usually have a weakside pick and roll option as well. Bilbao are looking to post up Mumbru on Jasaitis and run side pick and roll with the versatile Lamont Hamilton.
By the way: We slightly underestimated the number of Russian fans present here – we have a bad view on the business seats.
sJacas, 13/04/2013
Calathes, Kalnietis, Jasaitis, Brown and Hendrix are starting for Kuban; Katsikaris is going with Zisis, Vassiliadis, Mumbru, Hervelle and Hamilton.
Arena is not a sell-out, but the place is exploding anyways.
sJacas, 13/04/2013
We’re wondering here if we’ll see a three-guard-lineup with Kalnietis-Calathes-Baron and how it would hold up against a Bilbao five that has Mumbru at the three – quick, versatile, but Kalnietis would have to defend Mumbru in the post. Probably a better fit when Vassiliadis is playing the three for Bilbao.
Nick Calathes just collected his MVP trophy – the Greek-American averages a fantastic 13.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 6.6 assists in 33:33 minutes a game. Future still unknown.
Fotis Katsikaris received his Coach of the Year Award and quickly pointed to those who he thinks deserve it – players and fans.
sJacas, 13/04/2013
Per media rules we’re not allowed to post pictures from 30 minutes prior to the game onwards, so here’s the first and probably last impression from inside the arena; Plenty of empty seats still, with the Bilbao folks outnumbering the one Russian.
sJacas, 13/04/2013
Hello from Charleroi!
I’ll be live-blogging from the Spiroudome of Charleroi today, a 6,000-ish basketball-breathing oldschool-gym that is host to this season’s EuroCup final between Lokomotiv Kuban and Bilbao Basket.
The arena is still rather empty at this point, but among the early attendees are George Rowland of Trendbasket and Çağrı Turhan, who is writing for Talkbasket today.
The winner advances to next year’s Euroleague – a much-appreciated alternative path for two clubs that participate in the two toughest domestic/regional leagues in Europe, with little to no chances on advancing via B-Licence.
Kuban have been solid all-around, ranking 5th in offensive rating (115.4) and 7th in defensive rating (104.6) – altogether a 79.7 expected winning percentage. Bilbao, meanwhile, hold a league-wide 10th spot in offensive rating (111.4) but rank 1st on defense, at 99.8 point conceded per 100 possessions (=> 82.2 expected winning percentage).
Bilbao have reportedly been troubled by financial turbulences this season while Kuban’s Evgeny Pashutin has a roster at his disposal that makes half of this year’s Euroleague Top16 participants pale in comparison.
Till later.
sJacas, 13/04/2013
