http://www.postingandtoasting.com/2010/12/29/1901524/knicks-fail-to-beat-miamis-pick-and-roll-defense

The Miami Heat's pick and roll defense was covered by Bassy not too long ago and it was something I looked out for in last night's game. With it being such an integral part of the Knicks' offense, they needed to find a way to punish the Heat for showing hard on all screens. Unfortunately, Raymond Felton couldn't which led to a mediocre 5 assists (4 off his season average) and a poor shooting night going 5-13.

Instead of trying to run around the hedge all game, which probably would've ended up in a lot of wasted lateral dribbling, Felton opted to pick up his dribble and make quick passes to the roller or out to the wing. Here he has the right idea giving it to Wilson Chandler before the defense can trap him but Dwyane Wade picked him up by leaving Landry Fields and Miami got a block.

Here are a couple of examples of Felton passing out to the wing rather than the roller. While certainly not terrible shots, the Knicks were cold going 29% from three so they weren't able to attack the defense this way either. I would have liked to see the pass come to Amar'e Stoudemire on the first clip, though, as he was picked up by Wade.

Danilo Gallinari gets the pass on the wing on this possession and drives off the head fake. Of course, this happens on too few occasions with Gallo, but the other time it did, he threw down a majestic dunk.

On this play, Chris Bosh actually chose to stay with Chandler instead of showing on the screen and the difference allowed Felton to get all the way to the basket.

Unfortunately the team had to resort to the Stat-on-Five offense with Amar'e in the post to keep up. It was successful when he made his move early before a double arrived. We know the story when it didn't work. Catch it on the elbow, turn and face up, wait five seconds before a jump shot or drive on a prepared defense.

It was frustrating to see Felton rendered so useless but he wasn't making bad decisions. Maybe the paint would've opened up for Chandler and Stoudemire to roll if more of those threes fell. But right now it doesn't look like Miami has any issue defending the oldest play in the book.

http://nbaplaybook.com/2010/12/29/knicks-adjust-their-offense-stay-competitive-with-the-heat/

When you think of the New York Knicks, you think of a high octane offense that likes to run an effective pick and roll in the halfcourt, and that is the reality. After early struggles with the PNR, Raymond Felton and Amar’e Stoudemire have developed a nice chemistry and the PNR is back to being an effective tool for the Knicks. Overall, the Knicks are one of the best when it comes to running the pick and roll, and they use that to their advantage. According to Synergy, the Knicks run the pick and roll 17.1% of their possessions, while scoring .96 PPP (They are first in Roll Man PPP, 9th in Ball Handler PPP – according to Synergy).

So during their first match up against the Heat, they tried to go to their bread and butter, but it was far from successful. The Knicks ran the pick and roll 15.5% of the time, but the Heat’s hard shows on defense held the Knicks to just 0.59 PPP on Pick and Roll plays. The Heat defense also baited the Knicks into way too many ISO sets, they ran those plays 16.4% of the time, scoring just 4 points out of it (0.33 PPP) on 12.5% shooting. Looking at these numbers, it was no surprise that the Heat ended up blowing out the Knicks.

So when the Knicks went up against the Heat the second time, they decided to switch some things around. They still had trouble with the pick and roll (UPDATE: Gian Casimiro over at the Knicks’ blog Posting And Toasting does a great job breaking this down – definitely a must read), posting a low 0.50 PPP, with the only basket for the roll man came off of Stoudemire’s slipped screen/big dunk on LeBron (something the astute commenters here mentioned would work against the Heat):

The key is that the Knicks ran the pick and roll much less than the first game, only 11% of total possessions, understanding that they struggle with the Heat’s PNR defense. They were also able to limit their ISO sets, running those just 7.8% of their possessions. So what did the Knicks do with all of these extra possessions? Well, they ran sets that resulted in Spot-Up opportunities. According to Synergy, the Knicks run Spot-Ups 20% of the time on the season (for a PPP of 1.03), however against the Heat last night, they ran it 29.4% of their total possessions with success, posting a PPP of 1.13 on 44.4% shooting.

Why was this more successful? Well, spot-ups indicate set offenses with players moving off of the basketball and a lot of passing rather than a lot of dribbling (which happens in PNR and ISO sets), forcing the defense to move around, and resulting in catch and shoot opportunities, and open looks:

Here, as Danilo Gallinari starts his dribble, Ronny Turiaf cuts through the lane to the block. He gets the ball, a double occurs, and after he kicks it out to Gallinari, the skip pass to Toney Douglas opens up. Player movement (Turiaf’s cut) and quick ball movement (Turiaf’s pass out of the double, the skip pass to Douglas) results in a wide open look.

Again, you have quick ball movement here as the ball gets passed to Fields in the corner. Wilson Chandler flashes to the basketball, and after the catch he pump fakes, and attacks the lane for a dunk.

Finally here, the Knicks try to run their Felton-Stoudemire PNR, but Joel Anthony’s hard show throws everything off and nothing comes of it. The Knicks reset and get the basketball to Stoudemire at the top of the key. He passes to Douglas, who drives and kicks to a wide open Raymond Felton (who does a nice job of spotting up in the open area), who knocks down the three.

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When people talk about the New York Knicks, they like to say that they run a wide open offense, and I don’t know how much credit Coach D’Antoni gets (you often hear that he lets his players play, rather than people talking about his Xs & Os ability). However, D’Antoni tweaking the offense, steering it away from PNR and to Spot-Up sets shows that he knows what he is doing. The Knicks didn’t win the game, but they were able to stay competitive (which is something they were unable to do their first game with the Heat) and prove to Miami that they are a legitimate threat against them.

Also, expect to see this happen when most teams go up against the Heat. With the Heat now playing very strong PNR defense, teams will start to get away from it and try to find other holes in their defense.

With each game I see that Gallo is less and less fearful of the big name players in the league. His defense gets tougher and he's ever so slightly more aggressive. I would love to see him calling for the ball more and taking control during stretches in every game. He just doesn't realize how good he actually is.

More than I want to see a guy like Melo I want to see a guy like Verajao or Camby. Someone that can play in the trenches and give this team some resistance and toughness on the boards. If you too away all those extra possessions the Heat had, we'd have sufficient offense to compete with anyone.