The Wood Shop: Not Trap Lords, Bojan the Working Man, IT is Right, and the Befuddling Bron

I’ve had about 63 hours to stew about the Cavs loss to the Pacers on Sunday afternoon. I was drinking during the game so my early thoughts about the loss revolved around the Wine & Gold needing to make shots. They did go 8-34 from deep after all. That’s not really like them; they may not have another game in the entire playoffs where they score just 80 points. Heck, they’ve had halves of basketball approaching 80 several times this year. That’s the most basic reasoning availabe to give the Cavs an automatic win the next game.

But after watching parts of the game again, the Cavs are actually in some trouble. It’s all because of their defense. Now, I know we are all seasoned Cavs fans at this blog and holding a team under 100 points is almost always cause for celebration. Not this game though. The coaching staff showed an almost absurd inability to adjust. And on top of that, LeBron James just isn’t going to do it for them right now on that end of the floor.

*Sorry for the poor video, when games are on national television, NBA.com doesn’t let you embed footage.*

Not Trap Lords

The Cavs trapped on a large number of pick and rolls and the result wasn’t pretty. I have a day job, so I can’t specifically watch every single shot to see how many points came out of traps, but I can say this next sentence for certain. Four of the Pacers 11 3-point makes resulted from poor traps. Unless the Cavs are out in the streets pursuing dreams of running a drug cartel successfully, they are not trap lords in any sense of the phrase.

In the play below, Victor Oladipo takes a screen near the center of the floor. The first mistake in the trap occurs when Larry Nance doesn’t stop Oladipo from getting around the screen and into the paint. The second mistake occurs when George Hill goes over the screen and is stuck behind Vic, unable to stop Oladipo’s dribble. The third mistake occurs by virtue of where LeBron James is positioned. James is in the paint with his man, Lance Stephenson, standing open in the strong side corner. Jordan Clarkson actually executes properly on this trap. He leaves the weak side to chuck the roll man.

Now, James is a beast so he covers some distance to make a closeout. The problem though is that he ends up off balance from having to stop so quickly when Lance pump fakes. Thus, he contests weakly.

In the next video, the Pacers show how the pass is faster than the dribble. Vic uses a screen and the Cavs try to trap. Rodney Hood ends up a little bit behind the play, and Nance takes an angle that makes hard to stop Vic from turning back to the paint. Hood and Nance then get split like pieces of wood before Vic whips the ball to the weak side. It’s a crazy long pass. It’s a good pass. And, it shows that the pass is faster than a man as Clarkson can’t close out in time to stop Cory Joseph‘s 3-pointer.

And, I’ll just leave this picture here. Notice the four Cavs covering two players. I wonder how that worked out. If you guessed that the Pacers scored a 3, you’re right.

Bojan the Working Man

Bojan Bogdanovic was the Pacers’ second leading scorer this season getting 14.3 a night while shooting 40.3% from deep. Well, in just one game against the Cavs he scored 15 while shooting 1-6 from deep. Usually, he hits two a night on five attempts. He was the third highest scorer in the game on Sunday for Indiana.

Here’s what’s really alarming: of the six 3s Bojan took, just one of them was ill-advised. He’s going to hit more as this series goes on, which means you probably shouldn’t have LeBron covering him and roaming around on defense, but I’ll return to that at the end.

The Cavs made Bojan into a decent player on Sunday when he should havw laid an egg and not contributed 15. Bojan is not a physical freak. I’m not being rude. I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said before. He uses his 3-point shot to make guys play him close, so he has a chance to drive by them.

Well, the Cavs did just that despite his cold shooting. Bogan didnt hit a 3 until the fourth quarter. Besides his made 3, Bojan had two buckets off of steals that he took the length of the floor. He could have been stopped if guys tried to make him pick up his dribble. His other two buckets came when he took Kevin Love and Jose Calderon off the dribble to the rack. Both guys overplayed him.

The Cavs have to capitalize when a guy like Bojan isn’t hitting his deep shot. Simply put, don’t let him contribute when he’s having an off shooting night by playing him too tight. He’s not a big enough star to do that.

IT Is Right

Remember when the much maligned Isaiah Thomas said something along the lines of Tyronn Lue doesn’t make in game adjustments? Well, he’s completely right. If the above Bojan example doesn’t make you believe that, this one will. As you know, Vic hit six 3-pointers. His first 3-pointer came off an offensive rebound. His second one he just pulled up over LeBron after sprinting to the 3-line. LeBron was a few feet behind the line to stop penetration. On Vic’s third 3, he did the same exact run up and gun move over Larry Nance. Nance was also inside the arc to stop the dribble drive. On his fourth 3, Vic missed. He pulled the same move. This time though, LeBron was even further inside the arc.

Oladipo did the same run up move  on his next 3 over Hill. Hill was just a foot inside the arc though. On his sixth 3, he missed, but he just received a pass and shot right away. He was running into his spot on that shot too. On his seventh 3, he used an off-ball screen to get open and score. He missed his eighth 3 over J.R. Smith. It was the same one he’d been making all game though. He sprinted into the shot and J.R. dropped back. And, his final 3 came after he denied a screen to shake J.R. Into going the wrong direction before Vic ran to his spot and triggered it with defender nearby.

So, let’s count Vic’s dribble sprint to a spot with a defender inside the arc on him 3s. He utilized that quick pull on 6-9 3s. He missed just two of them. So, he was 4-6 on that shot? Why did Tyronn Lue let him keep taking it? He used a screen to get that shot just once. How hard is it to tell defenders to just run him off the 3-line. Stay in his jersey. Meet him behind the arc. Vic’s shots weren’t being set up in some elaborate way.

Seeing that Oladipo likes to run into 3s shouldn’t require a film session.

Befuddling Bron

Lastly, LeBron James just wasn’t engaged at all during a lot of the game. He had a triple-double. Good for him. However, that doesn’t erase his almost nonsensical attempts at defense. Right in the first it started. Look at the steal Bojan gets on a lazy Kyle Korver cross court pass.

https://youtu.be/AJBpzhtyYuw?t=23s

It’s a decent steal. However, how does he get it down court? LeBron James isn’t faster than him? James can’t sprint? Really? That shot should have been blocked into July. James is basically at the same spot on the floor as Bojan when the steal happens.

On Victor Oladipo‘s first 3 of the night Bron simply refuses to run out to the 3-line after the ball is passed out from an offensive board. Vic was Bron’s original assignment. Notice how Kyle Korver hesitates to run out. He was banging down low already during the play, so, logically, he assumes the faster LeBron will close out.

https://youtu.be/X-Zu2_ze6_g?t=26s

The most annoying thing about that lack of effort is the fact that LeBron doesn’t even end up in position to rebound after staying down low. He’s being boxed out and isn’t getting a board if Vic misses the shot.

Let’s look at one more LeBron mistake. In this play, LeBron crashes down to presumably help out Jose Calderon who is getting beat off the dribble. James doesn’t help though. He doesn’t even get in rebound position in case Jose’s man tried to shoot. James stands behind a Pacer big not really able to do anything. Then he has to run out to stop Bojan’s 3. Bojan luckily misses the shot.

LeBron got a triple-double in game one, but he wasn’t the best player on the floor. Yet, he probably thinks he was. James needs to take a long look in the mirror before the next game and think about making winning plays the whole game, on both ends of the court. The Cavs should win this series easily, but if the coaches don’t fix the easy things and James is content to put up meaningless triple-doubles, the Cavs are in trouble. One mistake doesn’t kill a team, making one mistake over and over does.