Amir Johnson’s been known to pick up fouls at a fairly quick rate, every 5.49 minutes to be exact. He picked up three fouls in a span of 1:57 against Cleveland, one of those fouls was a little interesting and is a subject of this BID segment.
Andrea Bargnani is guarding Antawn Jamison and Amir Johnson is checking Anderson Varejao. You can see by looking at Bargnani that he’s supposed to also worry about closing out LeBron if he beats Turkoglu off the bounce, a high probability event. The Raptors are expecting LeBron to put it on the floor and have the help ready. While Bargnani has two things to worry about (LeBron’s drive and his own man), Johnson is committed to Varejao at this point.
One of the things Jack Armstrong talked about in the game was that if Antawn Jamison simply cuts without the ball in Cleveland, he’ll be a successful acquisition. Bargnani’s attention is drawn more and more towards LeBron, Jamison will take advantage of this and make a cut from the wing area right down the heart of the paint. There are two possible rotation options – Amir Johnson leaving Varejao and picking up Jamison (in which case Weems must make the rotation to Varejao), or Bargnani reacting quickly to his man’s cut and picking him up thus sparing the rotation sequences from being started.
Bargnani is caught in no-man’s land because of LeBron’s quick read of the defense and Johnson is forced to contest Jamison’s shot. Johnson’s defense so far is good, he hasn’t fouled Jamison and you can see that Jamison is about to lean into him to draw contact. If Johnson simply holds his ground and keeps his arms straight without leaving his feet, he’ll have done his job in forcing Jamison into a tough contested shot.
Alas, look at Johnson’s feet. Even though his arms are in perfect position (straight up, not leaning downwards), his feet have left the ground and any official watching the play will give the benefit of the doubt to the offensive player.
What do you think should’ve happened? Should we expect Bargnani to recover quickly and catch-up to Jamison even though he was the help man? Are we asking too much of Amir Johnson to not foul a great player like Jamison? Should the Raptors have shown help and allow LeBron to dissect the offense so easily? Should the help have come from elsewhere and not a poor help defender like Bargnani? Is there anything we could’ve done differently or did LeBron and Jamison just make a great play? Interesting questions that popup in even the simplest of basketball plays.
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19 Raps
Amir fouled because he has the tendency to leave his feet on every play. Bargs was in the correct position as he was expecting James to blow by Turk. However, Bargs was left in no mans land as no one expected James to make a pin point pass between two defenders (though it looks like Caledron was late to trap)..thats what great players like James do, I doubt we could have played it differently.
Andrea was in the wrong place because Turk only had one side of the ball to guard, he have stayed at home incase of the pass or the split. Amir had lebron’s left and Turk should have rotated down or used Amir to trap, that being said Amir should stay on his feet when ever possible
Of course there were different options. Calderon could have stepped in to contest drive and either Bargs or Amir help if LeBron gets by.more likely Amir because he is heads on and Bargs drops to Amir’s man.
Look at the attention LeBron commands. All five Raptors players are in and around the key trying to block off his options for driving. Sometimes I think you have to just let LeBron get his points, and make sure that other players are covered. But then, he gets 50 points.
In the above instance, Amir should be the help defender. I would rather tight D was played on Jamison than on Varejao. As long as Varejao is boxed out when the shot goes up, I think that he is pretty much a non-threat.
I don’t think that the Raps have the weapons to contain LeBron, like Boston (maybe), and Orlando. Dwight Howard would both be able to guard the lane against LeBron, and cover Varejao. Lewis would be sticking tight to Jamison. The Raps should have tried to emulate this, and make sure that Varejao’s man was the one that was helping.
It seems to me that Jose is lending nothing defensively in the sequence. I assume his man is Mo Williams who is probably the 3 pt. option on the play but Jose is too far off him to not have made any difference. Rather than Bargs providing help, Hedo should be shading LBJ to force him towards Jose (and a potential double team), taking a j from that location or laying it off to Williams for a 3. Imo, all would have been lower percentage scoring options than what happened. It is always a better thing to have LBJ give up the ball or force him to take a shot.
ps…it might lend to the conjecturing if the shot clock info were available in the image sequences.
I was thinking something similar. Why is Turkoglu playing Lebron so tight. You want to force Legbron to the wing and make him a shooter. Counting on help D is a high p[ercentage play…but against Lebron, who is a greatt finisher AND passer, and so strong…it seems like your best option is to lay off and force him to hit a contested 18 footer.
It will cut down on the ‘and ones’.
Defense is sometimes situational, depends on the characteristics and abilities of your opponent. Don’t play to his strengths by getting into his grill.
Just my opinion.
Amir was out of position. He needed to take one step up along the edge of the free throw line and take away that easy pass + cut for Jamison. He still would have been in position to contest a pass to Varejao and if Varejao cut to the other side of the rim along the baseline it would have been Bargnani’s responsibility (once Amir made the call) after Varejao passed to the other side of the rim. Allowing Amir to stick with Jamison the whole time.
Amir’s positioning was poor and it gifted the Cavs a layup opportunity.
Sonny Weems was also out of position. He got caught ball watching and let Delonte slip towards the sideline. Delonte’s movement allowed Weems to drop back lower (from the elbow down a step alongside the side of the FT line).
That would have allowed him to provide superior help defense against LeBron + made the pass to Jamison more difficult (especially if Amir was in the right position) + still be in position to close out and contest a potential Delonte West three point shot.
Men Raptors were suppose to win that game. I think they should have put Turkoglu on Lebron James one on one. That way he won’t be able to make those nasty drives and kick it to the open man. But it was a well fought game.
In what universe is a mediocre team like the Raptors supposed to win against the team with the best record in the NBA? Yes, there were a lot of factors helping the Raptors (playing at home, facing a team on the second game of a back-to-back) but to claim that the Raptors were expected to win is ridiculous.
LeBron James routinely does nasty drives against even better defenders, so expecting a slower player like Turk to prevent those drives by himself is also ridiculous.
West was wide open that whole play.
Of course West is open that’s how help defence works.You do not stick to someone on the weak side of the floor.
You are there to help on a blowby.Which is a very strong possibility with Hedo having to contain LeBron.
LeBron is unselfish and a good passer and recognizes that they are overhelping on him and hits Jamieson.
Good play by LBJ! Better communication needed by Raptors.
It looked to me like Weems just forgot about him.
consider jamison’s position – back to the basket and ball thrown up uncontrollably in the air. if johnson kept his feet on the ground, jamison would have faked body contact while turning to face the basket and shoot a fadeaway jumper and most definitely got a foul “and one”. personally, I think johnson did the best he could under these circumstances. if you watched the game carefully, you would have noticed how the text book referee bias was instituted. while first half was half decent in delivering officiating, second half unfolded possibility that cleveland migh lose the game, and both coaches and players of that team started the campain with the officials. Each stoppage was used to coral one or more refs, and to protest, request, bemoan and such. The result of that campaign was that a multitude of incorrect calls were called which hurt the home team, and manufactured overtime, and subsequently, a win for cleveland. At one point of time during the fourth period, I thought that even a court side waitress will be called for a foul because she walked to close to passing lebron james. Also a different set of officiating measures is applied because this player is allowed to protest each call, delay the game, and commit an astounding number of (uncalled) turnovers, in a variety of triple hopscotches, ball palmings, travelling violations, and personal fouls.
Tin….Foil…Hat…
http://meltyourfaceoff.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/tin-foil-hat.jpg
A major factor is poor technique by Bargnani and Weems.
The position is a open stance some call it the pistol stance.
First frame Bargnani has his back to his man and the ball.
Wrong. He should have his back to the basket. He should
be on ball line between his man and the ball or flat triangle.
His movement had nothing to do with James movement.
He moved in anticipation of James instead of moving to stop
James.
Weems defense is even worst. He keeps his back to West the whole play.
With the open stance on ball line He would move down the key making
the pass difficult.
This requires alot of energy. Can players do this playing 82 games?
Lack of “pistol” stance is not the problem: both players have their heads turned to see both ball and man and can easily respond, and further are mostly ready to respond, which having your arms stuck out away from your body obviously doesn’t allow – it just slows you down.
Weems is 100% on the line of the ball and in proper help position in boxes-and-elbows system. He is exactly where he should be. Bargnani is clear of the lane, properly, but off the line of the ball, and that is the problem on the duck-in: he should have been on the line of the ball with proper athletic stance and hands up. Amir was fine.
The problems visible from this picture shows me an unathletic team that doesn’t care about defense a whole lot about defense. Hedo should step right into LeBron and force him to become a driver. Andrea should be low in his stance on the line of the ball and his knees bent and hands ready to deflect any pass along that line. This is just poor interest and poor execution by a poor team.
Johnson has the length to contest Jamison’s shot without leaving his feet. He might have got a reputation foul anyway, but he didn’t necesarily need to leave his feet to make the play.
I agree that the refs will call a defensive player for the foul if they leave their feet but Johnson defended the play perfectly. He is entitled to his vertical space and I say thats a bad call. On one hand, if you aren’t getting the call you need to adjust (Amir fouls so much he doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt). On the other hand, all you can do is make the right play which he did. If he doesn’t leave his feet Jamison might have scored easily over the top. I say he did it right. If you start thinking I am going to get called for a foul everytime I leave my feet your screwed before the game starts!