Pre-game: JHSS is one win away from maybe a top seed. We're gonna come out fired up, led by Lebron's baby powder routine.
Yes, use a pre-game routine that has never won anything in a huge game. Brilliant. From now on my team is going to come out for all my big games with the Clippers anouncer .

We're going to go to Bellamy early and often. He hasn't been a big part of our offense for our first two games, but this is the game where we really need to establish our inside game as our great perimeter advantage isn't as obvious. We want Bellamy posting up on the low block and getting easy buckets. If Wallace starts, Bellamy has the size to go over Wallace and if Sabonis or McAdoo are starting, he has just way to many moves for them. At his peak, Bellamy was averaging 31 PPG. If Bellamy gets it going early, we think that they'll have to start doubling opening up Lebron and Nique to start slashing.

Bellamy was a house of fire early in his career, that 31 and 19 his rookie year did go down after that a fair amount, but he could score.

Sabonis is on Bellamy and Big Ben Wallace will defend Howard. Sabonis will do fine on Bellamy, especially as Bellamy is not going to be looked toward much for offense. Adding A + B you get a good game for Bells in this one.

Our second defensive plan is to attack Iverson. If Iverson starts out on Hamilton, we'll have him running around screens early to get some easy jumpers over Iverson who is 7 inches shorter than him.

Iverson will guard whoever else they choose to start. They all are taller but they all are perimeter players as well. So they can not take full advantage of the height discrepancy and post Iverson. Why are you running screens to get jumpers over a man that you have 7 inches of height against? Can't you just rise and fire? All you are doing is giving Iverson a chance to get some steals here. So far you have focused on your two unexpected weapons, which can be good, but using too much effort to get the ball to Rip is just asking for something bad to happen either on the ball or on the pass. I don't like this for JHSS.

3) Although he's getting lots of minutes this game, Manu is not going to be a big part of the offense. He'll be a spot up shooter mostly. Well anyone not looking for their O is going to be a detriment during the man-zone look of TAD.

4) When Bellamy is out, we're going to pick n roll with Howard and Lebron. If we get Iverson matched up against Lebron, THIS IS THE ONLY TIME, we'll be using that pick and roll

Ok, so no PnR?

5) When Iverson is out, although it sounds crazy, we're going after Jordan. We want Jordan matched up on Lebron. To do this, we'll run the famous Boston Celtics wing men pick and pops where the wing players are setting screens for each other. After we get Lebron matched up on Jordan, we're going to let Lebron plays his game. Attack the rim, and get his defender into foul trouble. With Iverson out, we expect that Jordan will be doing a lot of their offensive work. By attacking him, we want to A)get him in foul trouble and B)tire him out a bit. We want to make him work.
No need for this, Jordan gets LeBron. LeBron is a unique player in NBA history, he will have his success. Jordan will also have success here. I don't think you are going to get MJ in foul trouble. MJ was never in foul trouble in his entire NBA career. I think the most fouls he ever had on him was 1. At least that's how I remember it. Jordan is only playing 38, and you got other options here outside of LBJ, so I'm not going to buy that LeBron will tire MJ out. MJ will have to work, but he's up to that.

Also note the man zone will give this some fits, as Ben will clog at the FT line, turning King James into a jump shooter more then he would like.

In the 4th quarter, it's time for Dominique to come alive. Early in the game, we want Bellamy to establish our post game (31 PPG, led NBA in FG%) and we'll continue to feed him and also attack Iverson. In the middle of the game, we're going to Establish Lebron. We're hoping this gets our opposition to start sleeping on Dominique, our most dangerous offensive weapon. In the 4th, we're going to put the ball in Dominique's hands and let him control the offense. He can either A)Isolate on his defender or B)Call a pick from Howard or Bellamy. We trust his decesion making to close out the game. I like Nique plus a pick as late game offense here. Nique will do better with help then iso'd, but Nique was a great scorer, it's a good way to go.

Defense:

We are using the Detroit Bad Boys "Jordan Rules" created by Brendan Malone to try and contain Michael Jordan.

 

Do not like. Jordan Rules are a good way to play, but firstly, Jordan can reconigise this, and secondly, it's a 3 guard offense Jordan is running with. That makes getting the ball to a guard off the double easy and leaves you vulernable. With AI also able to run the show, this doesn't seem like the right time to be doubling Jordan. I'd want to go on first move to the basket, not on the catch or the dribble to the side. TAD isn't a good shooting team, but it's an excellent driving team, and Jordan is going to get the ball to slashers here.

Also, while not spelled out, I assume LeBron is on MJ. If I'm JHSS, I'm thinking I need to use LBJ's ability to play excellent defense to shut down one part of the three guard attack, but now you are using LeBron as a guy who is getting help. I'd rather have seen LeBron shut one option down and let a double come from two other players, use Nique's defensive averageness with constant help to fight MJ.

I do like you are poking at MJ when he gets down low and playing him dirty. This was the REAL way the Jordan rules was successful IMO.

JHSS should have no problem doing it's three goals, but did they spend too much energy focusing on one man?

We are still utilizing the three-guard attack, using the dribble-drive offense, in a 4 out offensive set, looking to keep the paint available for penetration from the pg, sg & sf positions. This is where the doubling opens up drives. An excellent method of attack.

Right away, we are going to look to keep Dwight Howard Honest. We know he loves going for the shot block, so we will not look to draw him out of the paint. Rather we are going to put Wallace/Eaton on the “short corner” a lot and bait Howard on our drives to the basket. By having them in the “short corner” it will make it so Howard can not be in the paint without defensive 3 seconds being called. WE KNOW that these 2 are seen as players not needed to be guarded but YOU CAN NOT LEAVE THEM ALONE UNDERNEATH THE BASKET. When Howard comes out to shot block Jordan and Iverson are going to look to lob it or dump it down to one of those 2 (Eaton and his famous TIPPY-TOE dunk). After a couple of easy baskets, or fouls by Howard, that should keep him at bay, making him a little hesitant to jump out so quickly. Brilliant.

The biggest asset of Sabonis’ OFFENSIVE game that we want to Utilize is his passing.
Excellent.

Petrovic

Drazen Petrovic will be the lone back up guard this game. NEVER AT PG. He will have the green light to get his jump shot going.

With your floor spacing and the constant JHSS rotation, I don't think you want Petrovic shooting some jumpers here, it's going to be too open inside to attack with your versitle players. If Petro goes cold, this could give JHSS a big window to combat those easy buckets. I would have kept using the hammer, but Petro was a great shooter, and I can't really fault you for wanting to get him some looks.

G: Jordan
G: Iverson
F: Hawkins
F: McAdoo
C: Sabonis

1) Jordan at the top of the key, with the ball
2) Hawkins & McAdoo, will play play the corners
3) Iverson & Sabonis will take the wings

Its all about spacing all five players on the perimeter. All can not be left open. And some poor guy left alone on an Island to guard Michael Jordan, one-on-one with no help. Also a “give and go” for Jordan with either wing player, Iverson or Sabonis. If McAdoo’s or Hawkins’ man come over to help they will be open for the baseline jumper as well.

More give and go with MJ over the course of the game would have been nice given how he is defended, but this is fine. This takes Howard off his island to help on drives though, I think Howard is most effective here, this is begging for help side D, where Howard is very good at. This also cuts down the lenght of the rotations so it will be harder to drive in this set. I'll call this advantage JHSS.

Thompson will guard Nique. Before we get all caught up in the “he’s too small” gaff lets really look at this. Thompson is definately 1 upping Nique on athleticism. Remember, at nearly 3 inches smaller he can still out leap Nique. Plus Nique will not be posting up, even in that case, that’s not Nique strength. Of course Nique will not be stopped but he will not man handle Thompson AT ALL.

If Thompson gets picks, Nique should have a good game late. One on one Thompson can hang, but Nique will get his, like you said.

 

I also do NOT want to hear anything about Howard being too big or strong for Wallace (6’9 vs 6’10)  

Howard isn't a big part of the JHSS O, so don't worry about it. It's almost a waste of Wallace given that Howard isn't used very much.

Special Man Zone Defense  

Great! I'm not sold this is a great way to play the PnR, but putting the defensive brick wall at the foul line will cramp LeBron some, like I said. No qualms about this at all.

I don’t want to see any of the crap about it being bad for Iverson to gamble. I wanted to see Iverson play LeBron straight up, and also get some time against Howard. Wait, no I didn't...

Of course Iverson should gamble, it's what he did well.

Overall JHSS attacks some places TAD didn't expect, but TAD just has too much offense in this matchup. I personally think the Jordan rules fails big time vs. TAD the way it's constructed, TAD is using all it's chess pieces in harmony to attack the hoop, and JHSS is letting it happen. I liked the detail of JHSS's offense, I give them credit for getting their players involved in unique ways and attacking with overall balance, but Rip is wasted on screens, and it's going to be way harder for JHSS to score then it will be for TAD. TAD takes it as Jordan drops 11 dimes, Sabonis brings back memories of Bill Walton with his distributing, and points in the paint is a huge TAD blowout. Let's say, 105-91.

Defensive Assignments:

• Chauncey marking Tiny
• Drexler marking active SG or Bernard King when King is in.
• Cunningham marking active SF at all times except when King is in, Cunningham takes SG, Clyde takes King
• Malone marks Shaq
• Ewing marks McHale

On defense, we have all of our bases covered. The opposition has no huge advantages on us. Well, YSD is a team that makes mismatches happen, there are few teams if any that can really claim that YSD doesn't have huge advantages against them. You more have to gameplan for the mismatches then to just deny their existance. This is amplified in this match. Ewing on McHale was very smart, this will catch YSD off guard and I think Ewing has the defensive chops, speed, and grit to play McHale hard. But then you have Malone on Shaq, which prime Shaq will have a great game with (granted he has a great game all the time, but this one sllightly more so.) Most importantly, YSD wants to go to King at SF, and you are moving the Glide on him. I don't like this at all, and I don't like that this puts Cunningham on Ray Allen, as Cunningham is more prone to being caught in screens then Drexler was, IMO. Chauncey will do well on Tiny, I will give you that.


Our offense will run through everyone. In our starting lineup, we have one outside threat (Chauncey), two mid range threats (Cunningham, Malone), one slasher (Drexler) and one baseline scorer (Ewing).

We will run lots of isos at Tiny with Chauncey, and at Ray Allen with Drexler.

Malone and Ewing will play outside the paint, where they are still very effective. Bringing Shaq and McHale out of the paint will be key, where we can shoot with our bigs or pass to the slashing guard (Drexler, English, Wilkins, etc.) This is basic but it seems feasible to me. YSD is cross matching with Shaq on Malone and Ewing baseline. This is going to draw Shaq out if you play Malone mid range, and this will let  Drexler get his against Allen. English can be an X-factor in this set as well. Ewing will get his fair amount on the baseline, McHale can play D, but Ewing working baseline was what he did, he will have a typical Ewing game. I think Shaq can defend Malone high to decent effectiveness, but of course Shaq is out of the paint here. I don't think Chauncey is the kind of player you want to run iso's for, I don't like this. Chauncey has never really flourished when asked to create his own offense.

Why we'll win:

1. No big holes on defense
2. We can score from anywhere on the floor
3. English- instant offense off the bench
4. Rebounding advantage- Cunningham, Ewing, Malone all averaged 10 or more rebounds per game in their career
5. Too much offense, opposition doesn't have the tools to stop us

1 I disagree with, 2 you made true with a basic but effective offensive gameplan, 3 works for me given your set, 4 I'm not buying, I am not giving credit for people that put in rebounding SF's when they still have a PF and C down low, most SF's with big rebounding numbers didn't have two other great rebounders on their team, if they did they wouldn't have got 10 boards, and #5 is how you are going to have to win this game, let's see if you can...

With Roanoke Dimpstaff's not having one truly "go-to" guy like our past opponents, Bobby Jones will come off the bench. Into the starting lineup we insert Bernard King, a past scoring champ who likely will draw the opposing SF. Immediately we create a mismatch that makes it hard for them to focus on McHale and Shaq when they have an explosive scorer coming at them from the 3. We'll look to get him the ball often IF he's covered by English or Bill C. This is one of those situations I hate when I vote in these things, you say you want to go to King IF he's covered by English or Bill C, but he's got a better matchup IMO in Drexler. Do I think you were worried about a big coming up on King, or were you also worried about a SG defending him? Frankly I don't know why you'd worry about anyone guarding King, prime Benard King was a beast that nobody wanted any part of. To stay consistant here, I'm going to read this literally, and say you are not looking to get King the ball often early. King will still get his production as a normal contributor, but won't get a huge number.

Also, we are looking to slow the game down this time. McHale and Shaq are both expected to go at it on both ends of the floor.
Then you talk alot about the normal matchups you expected, but RD cross-matched. As previously stated by me, this is a plus to Shaq and a minus to McHale.

In the backcourt, Drexler was quick and tall so in order for Allen to be able to get his shot off, we will run Drexler through picks and run some PNR on him in order to free up space. Chauncey has some size on Tiny if they match up but we'll look to get Tiny running some PNR with McHale/Chambers to get him matched up with hopefully Malone where he can read and make the appropriate decision of whether to pull up for the J or drive on him.
In the backcourt, you have another cross match at the 2 and the 3, so Cunningham is on Allen, who should probably play the same way and be more effective, but with Ewing guarding the PnR and not Malone, that will probably aid Tiny's scoring on blow bys where Malone is stuck between a rock and a hard place, coming out means leaving Shaq, but again, Ewing can defend high well enough.

(Ewing never made an All-NBA 1st team defense).
What do you want from the man? He played with some of the all time great defending centers in his day. Ewing did lead the league in defensive rating for 2 seasons, and that's pace adjusted, I don't think Ewing was nearly the defensive liability or as defensivly one sided as most people seem to. Again, Ewing on the PF wins due to shock value and his talents, but it's going to give YSD advantages scoring at the C and PG.

Chambers will look to pick the tempo up for our offense by getting out and creating problems for the bigs of RD who likely wont want to defend him outside. Durant is getting big minutes because in his 17, 14 are at SG. We'll look to get those minutes in when Drexler is out where RD has shown a tendency to run Peja at the 2 which should bode well for us. Paul, White, and Jones will fill similar roles for the starters they replace (outside of Jones getting the ball to attack). At that point, he'll run the regular offense of moving and trying to find a spot for his jumper if the bigs are doubled. Chambers should get the normal defensive assingments, so that works fine for me. Drex is playing a ton of minutes, but Durant can score, nobody can deny that. Your bench is rather interchangable and this basic offense of work inside out will be successful. YSD is using their bench better then RD, who is starter heavy.

On defense is where we will have to try and win this game. First adjustment we will make is swapping the frontcourt matchups. We will stick Shaq on Malone. Malone had a very similar game to Duncan who Shaq historically has defended well. With Ewing having to guard Shaq at one end, Im guessing they'll go to Malone a lot. His game is more post up and turn for that patterned bankshot. Against a taller, stronger Shaq, we feel like we can force him out of the paint thus limiting his rebounds and points. He had a reliable jumpshot but hardly knockdown and if they want to let him take that all game we'll let him as he was much more dangerous on the block than shooting. McHale then will take Ewing. McHale is listed as 6'10 230 and Ewing 7'0 240. Yet McHale's wingspan allowed him to cover the area of someone 7'3. We know Ewing liked to play away from the basket and that's more suited for McHale's defensive style. His quickness and length should create problems for Ewing looking to attack the basket.
I'm not sure Malone is very similar to Duncan, but he's similar enough I guess, I think prime Shaq is fine here. McHale has the wingspan to contest, but Ewing took a lot of contested crappy jumpers and hit a fair amount of them, Ewing won't get red hot with McHale's wingspan, but McHale isn't going to make Ewing shoot 5 for 18 either.

Allen will guard Drexler and basically although Drexler will get his points, Allen should be able to keep him in front of him and live with him shooting. We expect some drives but the paint should be pretty filled if we're not chasing Malone on jumpshots. Tiny will guard Billups/Wilkens
Drex should find the paint lightly guarded and have a godo game. Tiny is more then capible of shutting down a Billups iso.

One question Im sure the haters will try to pose as ANY excuse to vote against me is how is Durant going to defend all-timers for 17 minutes? Well, again, as a sub we'll get him in during Drexler's bench minutes (or at least the a portion of his 17). So likely he'll be covering Peja, a one-dimensional scorer. We feel like everyone in this tourney can imagine which scorer will get the better of that matchup. Again, Drex is playing a ton, he will probably have a great game no matter who is on him, so really, Allen, KD, it's no different. KD might actually do a little better due to his lenght and athletism oddly enough, but Drex still scores. Then again, Allen and KD do too. Peja and Durant goes slightly to Durant, for Durant's lenght will bother Peja more then Peja's lenght will bother Durant, but it's not for very long.

In conclusion we feel like by putting Shaq on Malone we are limiting their best scorer. We can afford to let on or two of their other guys have abover average games because he won't get his averages. On the other side, King gves us a starting 5 that can put up big numbers against a team with no dominating or even really great defensive players (Ewing never made an All-NBA 1st team defense). I like our rotation and style to pull out a victory in our last pool play game. I'll agree with Shaq on Malone, you are setting up Drex for a big game and English as well off the bench will be effective. King doesn't have a matchup where you focus the O on him, and that's too bad, King still has a very good game vs. Drex, but not the great one he could have had. I think you short sell the RD interior D here, but to be honest, I'm about to do the same thing. Your rotation is used much better and your style has some pros to go with the cons that I've listed.

Overall the RD cross matches has allowed Allen, King, and Shaq to have better then average games at the expense of McHale, while the YSD defensive plans has allowed Glide to have a supurb game and will do fine with Ewing, but Malone will probably get his averages at best, Billups is misused, and they are relying a lot on their starters here, and I only see 1.5 bright spots in this starting lineup, and a bench X factor. YSD can match that with their bench play, and with 3 good matchups to the 1.5 of RD, I see YSD overcoming a sluggish start where the RD crossmatches and the attack the paint style of RD will start them off hot, and methodically wear RD down. YSD is up 4 at the end of 3 and outscores RD by 7 in the 4th, and YSD takes this one 111-100, despite the impressive 39 of Drex. King gets an quality 22 on 14 shots, Shaq goes for 28, and YSD wins bench scoring by 7.



Q&A

Nice vote KMVEENE

one question

More give and go with MJ over the course of the game would have been nice given how he is defended, but this is fine. This takes Howard off his island to help on drives though, I think Howard is most effective here, this is begging for help side D, where Howard is very good at. This also cuts down the lenght of the rotations so it will be harder to drive in this set. I'll call this advantage JHSS.

Maybe I didnt paint a good enough picture here but think more of Paul Pierce in game 4 against the Bulls in the 4th quarter. We are giving Jordan the entire middle of the court.

While I don't think I gave enough credit for how much of the middle Jordan has alone in this set axe, MJ is still facing a Jordan rules double after the force left, and with 5 out. the rotations can slide easier (less distance in most places, and simpler rotations without a middle presence). I went under the assumption MJ is forced left per JHSS's Jordan Rules, so the help comes left, and that leaves you driving from 23 feet WITHOUT the threat of the dump down to the blocks if Jordan distributes. I have Howard on the right here, and with nobody middle of the paint to cause concern or creeping short corner weakside, I see Howard helping with impunity, as the big is catching the ball mid-range at best if the driver kicks to Howard's man, not right in dunk range as usual. If you crashed the weak side big on a non MJ drive (granted you expected to drive middle, but I will give LBJ enough credit to force Jordan to James' help on the left), Howard is on an island again, forced to give up dunks when he rotates. But with 5 out, I think Howard's in play. Jordan on the give and go gets there too quick for DH12 and others, but Jordan finding the open man, ball rotation to the open driving lane, and then a drive from 23 leads me to think Howard can help backside.

Just my opinion on that set. Overall it was ingenious work, I am enamored with Sabonis' usage as a whole, but this set I though JHSS had defended well given his gameplan and the lack of the weakside big creeping at 15 feet to cause havok.