The Game
Going into this game I knew that it would be a tough one. After a blowout loss against the Suns what would you think was going to happen against the Brooklyn Nets? The Nets came into this game ready to put another loss in the Heat’s loss column but the big three had other things in mind.
Statistically this was a very close game. Many lead changes and no team was able to gain a double digit lead. As the game progressed Dwanye Wade and Lebron James began to take over. With Wade slashing to the basket and Lebron taking advantage of switches that left Kris Humphries guarding him on the perimeter the Nets found themselves down 8 with under two minutes to go.
Down 8 with the game on the line Deron Williams decides to put the team on his shoulders and attack. Scoring 5 of the 8 point deficit Williams ties the game up with a deep 3 pointer leaving 7 seconds on the clock. The Heat immediately call timeout to advance the ball to halfcourt.
With 7 seconds left the ball is inbounded to Lebron James. As he receives the ball he notices Kris Humphries is guarding him. Everyone immedietly clears it out as the King prepares for takeoff. Lebron gives Humphries a quick hesitation cross and drives baseline. Ahead a few steps James lays it in leaving .6 seconds on the clock. With no timeouts left Williams throws up one last heave as time expires and the Heat move on victorious.
The Strategy and Execution
LBJ ended up with 37 points and 10 rebounds. The points scored was by design but not expected. The plan was to go at Wallace as I felt that was the best matchup. What I noticed is the Nets were switching on screens and a lot of times it left Humphries on James. I exploited that matchup every single time along with every other mismatch created from a screen. Along with taking care of the ball and not getting out rebounded too bad I was able to get the win.
On defense the plan was to help off of Humphries and Wallace. I did occasionally but ended up focusing on more ball pressure.
There was a key play down the stretch that allowed me to get a stop. I noticed a low post play they would run for Lopez that put Humphries at the top of the key. Lopez was able to get his way with Bosh but I only sent the double a few times. This particular time I manually sagged off Humphries to defend Lopez and Williams never made the entry pass and was forced to take a shot he didn’t want. The cpu is actually really smart. There were other moments but I will get into defense as I progress. Now on to the next one.
