This game was lost on the defensive end. So we are going to look at three different possessions where the defense is lacking. You are going to notice some general themes that have been apparent all season. Check the breakdown out after the jump:
Poor Rotation/Help
How many times have you read Poor Help or Poor Rotation here. Probably way too much, because I know I have typed it way too much. Anyway, you can see it here again:
Baron Davis gets a pick set for him, and so far everything is all good on the defensive end. Yi could be closer to Marcus Camby, but if they pass it to Marcus Camby there, what is he going to do with it? So that isn’t really a problem.
As Baron Davis explores the baseline, everything is still good. The Nets executed the switch correctly, and Kris Humphries is covering Baron Davis, and Courtney Lee is covering the screener.
As Davis continues to drive the baseline, this is where the problem starts. Yi loses sight of him man, who is now getting into a scoring position. The first thing that you learn in basketball is to keep an eye on the ball and the man. Yi, turns his head completely just focusing on the basketball, and right now he has no idea where the basketball is.
As Davis curls out of the lane, he looks towards Marcus Camby. Courtney Lee notices that Camby is wide open and breaks to Camby. This is a mistake. Why leave a man wide open under the basket to go cover an ok shooting center 15-20 feet away to the basket. The only thing that I could really think of is that Lee thinks Yi is staying with Craig Smith underneath, which is why he rotated to Camby. But Yi breaks to Camby as well. The season is 40 games old, these guys should be on the same page by now.
Davis makes a great no look pass, and Smith makes the catch and finishes with the dunk.
Poor Closeout
When a player closes out too hard, that gives an wide open lane to the player with the basketball (in this case, Baron Davis), and forces rotation. Which we already discovered that the Nets aren’t really good at.
This is a scramble situation as the ball gets passed to Baron Davis late in the shot clock. Humphries has to close out on Davis with CDR going over to cover Camby.
Humphries closes out too hard, and the fact that CDR needs to go and cover Camby opens up a huge lane for Baron Davis to drive through.
As Davis drives, nobody comes up to meet him in the lane, and he gets far too deep.
CDR and Brook finally close out on him, but it is too late, and Davis actually has two options on this play.
He picks Chris Kaman, and Kaman finishes with the slam.
Poor Hedge/Show
The Nets are awful when it comes to defending the pick and roll, and to make up for that the Nets tend to hedge out real hard on any screen. Teams are starting to notice this:
Craig Smith is a pick setting machine. He sets a pick to free up Eric Gordon on the wing.
As Gordon receives the pass, Smith comes over to set another screen. Gordon holds the ball until Smith gets over into position for the screen.
Humphries shows way too hard, so Gordon decides to not even use the screen and attack the basket. This is where we get to another level of poor defense. Jarvis Hayes, is in proper help position, but Brook Lopez isn’t. Lopez should be in the middle of the lane, ready to help in case somebody drives. Instead he is right in DeAndre Jordan’s face.
This leaves Brook with too much ground to cover on Gordon’s drive, and as he takes off for his lay-up, Brook doesn’t even have his hands up.
Brook gets his hands up, but it is too late to effect the shot, and Eric Gordon finishes strong.
