Lesson in a song for Scott Brooks: " Too much Derek Fisher will kill you everytime!"

They have three players Bosh, Lebron and Battier who can play Power Forward so i don't know if you can characterize this team as small ball. Wade is likewise tall for his position.

 

Have you ever seen them play a lineup of Westbrook , Durant, Harden, Fisher and Collison in the fourth quarter against LA, Dallas, and San Antonio?

 

The Heat are playing zone against OKC and its forcing them to take difficult shots. On the other hand, OKC is using small ball but is not playing zone which is why you can see james in the post with only Harden guarding him and a wide open layup for wade against westbrook.

The Heat using zone against OKC and OKC using man to man small ball defense against the Heat. Advantage Heat.

 

When Harden and Durant are receiving the ball the other defenders are sagging and clogging up the driving lane. Steve Smith expressly stated this in his analysis that the Heat are playing zone and it is readily observable from anyone who understands how a zone works.

 

Maybe Steve Smith hasn't watched a lick of this series because he analyzed it in slow motion and even paused it to explain that the Heat are playing zone.

 

This is an interesting article as well.

Comments OffOklahoma City Thunder: Big lineup under-used?
Posted by Berry Tramelon June 20, 2012 at 12:30 pm Kendrick Perkins was not a happy camper after Game 4 of the NBA Finals. Perk is not a happy camper anytime the Thunder loses, but he had a point to make.

“I just don’t understand why we start out the first quarter the way we did, with the lineup that we had, and all of a sudden we change and adjust to what they had going on,” Perkins said. “So they won the last three quarters, and that’s what happened.”

True enough. The Heat trailed 33-19 after one quarter but won the last three quarters: 27-16, 33-26 and 25-23.

With 6:19 left in the first quarter, Scotty Brooks made his usual substitution — James Harden for Thabo Sefolosha. The Thunder led 15-10 at the time. Three minutes later, the lead had grown to 23-12.

With 3:17 left in the quarter, Brooks again subbed, only this time more than the personnel changed. Brooks took out Perkins and inserted Derek Fisher, going with the small lineup. The lead grew to 33-16 before Norris Cole’s 3-pointer just before the buzzer brought the Heat within 14.

At the start of the second quarter, Brooks stayed with a small lineup — Kevin Durant, Thabo, Fisher, Harden and Nick Collison. And the Heat scored the first 13 points on the quarter. In a span of four minutes, the lead was lost. Midway through that spree, Westbrook replaced Durant, then Durant two minutes later replaced Thabo. That was the only time in the game Durant or Westbrook sat out. Brooks stayed with his small lineup the rest of the quarter, and OKC had a 49-46 halftime lead.

In the third quarter, Brooks went back to the big lineup. This time, it was not so effective. Mario Chalmers’ 3-pointer with 7:07 left in the quarter gave Miami a 64-60 lead, and Brooks replaced Perkins with Harden 35 seconds later. So the big lineup was outscored 18-11 during that span. And did not return.

Brooks went small the rest of the game.

So let’s review. The big lineup was on the court together 14:11 and outscored Miami 34-30. The small lineup was used 33:49 and was outscored 74-64.

The truth is, 14:11 is not a long enough time to establish overwhelming evidence of the big lineup’s superiority. But it is the second straight game in which the big lineup was more effective than the small lineup. Same thing happened in Game 3. In the two Oklahoma City games, the Thunder’s small lineup clearly was more effective than the big lineup, but that has changed in Miami.

So that’s what Perk was talking about. The reliance on the small lineup is becoming a question. Its effectiveness lessens with every game.

Plus/minus numbers can be deceiving. Thabo was minus-19 in Game 4 — the Heat outscored the Thunder by 19 when Sefolosha was on the court — but clearly Thabo needs to be on the court a ton, to help check LeBron James.

Durant and Westbrook were even — they both played more than 45 minutes, and when each was on the court, the score was tied. Perkins was a plus-four. Everyone else was a small minus.

The big lineup does not space the court as well as the small lineup, and using Ibaka with the big lineup takes away his chief asset — he’s forced to guard Shane Battier, usually, drawing him far from the basket, limiting his shot blocking. But the bulk that Perk and Ibaka, or Perk and Collison, or Collison and Ibaka provide, has paid dividends the last two games.

Maybe Perkins is right. Give the big lineup more court time in Game 5.

 

Thats correct. I'm actually an OKC fan so I want them to succeed. I guess you can't come out of the West without a solid defensive frontline. But you can't win it all without a coach with the right critical thinking and analysis. And also without bringing the full defensive arsenal. Zone and man to man.