Transcript after the jump.

I assume you read the title, so there’s no use waiting. Let’s get right to it.

First, I’d like to take a look at some video from the Duke-Georgia Tech game – the ACC Championship. It was clear from the get-go that the Yellow Jackets were making a concerted effort to get Favors the ball, but their inability to feed the post was evident early on. There are many examples of the little mistakes that their guards make when trying to set up their post players. In this first one, you see Favors calling the play himself – he points over to Peacock on the block and tells him to slide over so he can set up a pick and roll with guard D’Andre Bell. As he sets the pick, his defender flashes up to guard the ballhandler far too quickly. Favors recognizes this mistake right away and rolls to the basket, but Bell throws the pass too far down and Favors loses what would have been an easy dunk.

On this next play, Favors will come up to the high post to set a screen for Shumpert, but Shumpert surprises Favors by throwing a lazy pass instead. The pass is picked off by a floating Jon Scheyer, who drives all the way back for an easy layup while Shumpert jogs and watches.

Here, you’ll see Favors getting to the low block and establishing solid position on the smaller Lance Thomas. Shumpert tries to throw Favors a quick bounce pass, but it is too far to the left and ends up in the hands of Nolan Smith, who drives to the other end of the floor for an easy layup.

Before you think I’m just cherry-picking the three worst examples from this game, just know this: these three turnovers occurred in the first two minutes of the ACC Championship. That’s right, the first two. The Yellow Jackets ended this game with 17 turnovers, and many of them were silly mistakes just like these three. To compare, Duke only committed 10 turnovers, and in a game decided by four points, those seven possessions make all the difference.

Right now I’d like to take a look at what I think is the clearest example of Tech’s inability to include Derrick Favors on offense. On this possession, he gets good post position down low. He’s squared up on the same side as the ball and he’s looking for the pass. It’s defensible that Udofia doesn’t pass him the ball here, since D’Andre Bell is on the right side and the man can easily go help down, but the offense could have been created through Derrick in the post here. Instead, let’s see what happens.

The ball gets kicked back out, and Derrick sets a screen for Bell, clearing him from the right side. Now there’s no reason not to kick him the ball. He’s got a great seal and his extending his arm towards the basket, which would allow him to spin and finish right at the rim. However, Udofia decides that an easy dunk is simply not worth it, and opts instead for a pick and roll at the top with Gani Lawal. Udofia rolls to the left side and Derrick follows him, getting great position for the third time. he’s right in Udofia’s field of view, and Udofia picks up the ball to pass. Is he going to pass to Derrick?

… Of course not.

Udofia tries an ill-advised lob pass to Lawal down low, which he is barely able to catch. He then tries a spin move and throws a layup over two defenders, which promptly bricks and sends the offense the other way.

This is an awful offensive possession for Georgia Tech and shows exactly what the problem is. Derrick Favors, who’s a great talent, who’s a top-5 pick in the draft, has post position three times, and the point guard simply refuses to give him the ball. Instead, he opts to give the ball to a guy who’s not in position, and has to throw an ill-advised pass to get it there. It just doesn’t make sense.

These kind of plays were common in Georgia Tech’s offense. Between shooting quick contested shots, not finding Favors when he’s open at the rim, throwing entry passes away, and flat-out refusing to exploit his mismatches, Tech failed Derrick Favors time and time again. As a big man, you’re naturally reliant on your guards to get you the ball, and when they aren’t doing it on a consistent basis, your numbers are going to suffer. I can’t wait until Favors gets on the floor with NBA-level creators like Jordan Farmar & former All-Star Devin Harris and he realizes just how easy the game of basketball is supposed to be.

In part 2, I’ll take a look at how Favors was able to produce with the ball in his hands, and what sort of offensive repertoire we can expect from him next season.

Forcing Shots

We see this a lot from Devin Harris. In this instance, it was Chris Douglas-Roberts trying to hard to force a shot he didn’t have in the lane. CDR was clearly looking for contact on the play, as you can see from his reaction after the miss, but when you’re as bad as the Nets, you tend not to get these calls, ever.

Bad Decision Making

I always like to see the Nets try and feed Brook Lopez in the post, but Dwight Howard sealed him pretty good here, so why is Devin Harris forcing the pass anyway?

Missing Open Jumpers

I wish there was a site out there that tracked FG% based on open and covered shots, because I bet we will find the Nets miss more open jumpers than other team in this league.

Lack of Awareness

Hayes is coming off a screen here in a play designed for him to get a shot, but look at Kris Humphries down low who has Vince Carter guarding him. Jarvis elects to shoot the jumper anyway, and misses. He looked like he thought about hitting Hump for a second, but decided to stick with the original play call and shoot himself. You are allowed to call an audible in sports, last time I checked, especially when you get a mismatch in your favor.

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.

After getting the ball inbounds (which they failed at doing their last possession), the Hornets quickly go into a pick and roll. David West comes up and sets the screen, and Chris Paul uses it.

Late in games, teams usually switch every screen, and the Nets are no different.  Because the Hornets probably like to switch screens, they are anticipating the Nets doing the same.  The screen isn’t designed to get Chris Paul to the basket or to get David West open on the roll.  The screen is set to get Jarvis Hayes defending Chris Paul.

After the Hornets get what they want, Paul then attacks. He quickly gets Jarvis Hayes on his hip, and he has a lane to the basket. You would like it if Devin Harris was closer to the middle of the lane, but that is the beauty of how the Hornets set this up. They put Peja (a knockdown shooter that you need to stay with) on the side Chris Paul was going to drive to. This means that Devin can’t help.

Paul finishes the lay-up, and gets fouled, clinching the win for the Hornets.  The Nets set a “moving pick” on their final possession and the rest is history.

Nets vs. Bucks

Defending The Pick & Roll

It’s a side screen and roll here.  Brook shows, to prevent Luke Ridnour from getting to the basket.  So far we are looking good.  Brook is wide, and he is forcing Ridnour towards the baseline.

Luke Ridnour gets to the baseline and he has nowhere to go.  This is where the good defense stops.  As Dooling tries to get back to Ridnour, he needs to get in the passing lane, to make Ridnour’s pass to Bogut harder.  He doesn’t, so as Bogut cuts, he has a clear lane to receive the pass.

So the pass gets made, and since Dooling was out of position, he lunges for the steal, but just misses it.  Notice the wide open lane for Bogut to drive through when he makes the catch.

By the time Lopez and Najera get to Bogut, it is too late because he was already allowed to load up his jump.

And he finishes with the dunk.

Nets vs. Hawks

Defending The 3 Point Shot

The Hawks shot 13-22 from 3 against the Nets.  A lot of these three point shots were wide open looks with no hands in the shooters’ face.  A lot of this was because the Nets gave the Hawks a heavy dose zone, but even in man to man defense, the Nets gave up a ton of open looks.  This was because of poor rotations.

Mike Bibby makes the catch, and he gives Devin a pump fake.  You have to close out hard on Bibby, he is a good shooter, so you have to respect the shot.

After closing out though, Devin needs to use his speed to regain position on Bibby, and not let him drive.  Instead, Harris just reaches.  I can’t understand this, Devin Harris is one of the quickest guard in the league, but slower guards continue to get by him because he chooses the lazy way out and reaches.  Once he reaches here, Bibby puts him on his hip and forces the Nets into rotation.

Lee makes the correct rotation (he rotates over to Al Hortford as the pass gets made), but everyone else is late with their rotations.

As Al Hortford makes the catch, all 5 Nets are in the paint.  After Hortford assess the situation, he realizes that Joe Johnson (one of the better shooters in the NBA) is wide open for 3.

Joe Johnson gets the pass, and is allowed to pull up for 3, without a defender getting a hand in his face.  As the Nets continue to mis-rotate, Nets’ players are going to lose faith in their teammates in terms of rotations.  So instead of allowing his man to get open shots, nobody is going to help, and opponents are going to be able to drive to the lane with ease.  This is what I am most worried about, as this team moves forward, they need to clean up their rotations.

But one of the emerging problems is their lack of an identity at the offensive end, particularly since point guard Devin Harris has returned from injury and Kiki Vandeweghe has taken over as head coach.

It was funny though, because I was working on a post about the Nets and a few new wrinkles they had on offense.  What I have been noticing is that the Nets have been running the pick and roll less and less.  Even though they aren’t really good at running it, it was still their bread and butter (sounds silly I know).  As they continue to shy away from the pick and roll, the Nets are starting to run some new stuff, and some of it seems to be working pretty well.  After last night’s game against Milwaukee (don’t get me started), I feel like there is enough of a sample size to look at some sets that the Nets have been running, and to see which one is their new, “bread and butter” offense.  A offense they can go to whenever they need a bucket, whether it be early or late.

Believe it or not, the Nets have been somewhat successful on offense since Kiki took over, and I think part of it has to do with the offensive stuff the Nets are running.  Specifically, they have been running three different sets, and we are going to take a look at each of them today, and rate them using a pretty awesome new scale (more on that later).  In the end, all of these three plays combined can be the Nets’ go to offense.  They don’t use the pick and roll anymore, but if they give defenses a healthy dose of these plays, they will be successful.

Give & Go With Brook

This is one way the Nets decided to take advantage of all the double teams that Brook Lopez gets.  Anytime Brook gets the ball on the block or the high post, the Nets run a cutter right off of him, and Brook has the option to hand it off (or pass if he makes the catch at the top of the key), or make his move:

Here, Keyon Dooling has the ball on the wing, and he is going to dump it into Brook Lopez (dashed yellow line).  He is then going to get off of Brook’s left shoulder and either get the ball or continue to cut through.

Before the ball even gets to Brook Lopez, Corey Brewer is already looking at Brook.  Dooling notices this, and he starts his cut.

Because Brewer was peeking at Brook, Keyon Dooling was able to get a lot some separation on his cut.  This is Brook’s key, if Dooling gets this much separation, Brook hands it off.  If Brewer was right on Dooling’s hip, Brook would fake the hand-off and then make his post move, since there is no double team anymore.  This also forces Al Jefferson into a tough decision (he is covering Brook Lopez).  Does he help off Brook to hedge on Dooling’s cut, or does he stand pat and cover Brook straight up?  No matter what he does, something ends up being open.

Dooling gets the handoff, and he is now in the middle of the lane with the ball.  Since the Timberwolves already were beat by this like 4 or 5 times, they collapse on Dooling, leaving Courtney Lee wide open for the big time 3 point shot.

Here it is live, plus a give and go with Brook at the top of the key:

Advantages:

• Forces defenders into tough decisions.  The man covering the entry pass has to decide to either double down or stick with the passer to make sure he doesn’t cut backdoor.  The man defending Brook has to decide whether or not to help on the cut or stick with Brook.
• Keeps doubles away from Brook.  Teams have to respect the backdoor cut, which means the man covering the cutter can’t double Brook anymore.
• Anytime the offense goes through Brook, it is a good thing.

Disadvantages:

• When the Nets run this, Brook seems to be looking to pass too much.  He almost never fakes the pass and makes a post up move.
• It is a quick hitter, not something you can run multiple trips in a row, or late in the game exclusively.
• Sometimes Brook feels like he has to force the pass, and he ends up turning it over.

Overall rating:  2 out of 5 Smiling Sebastians.

Little To Big Screen

This is something that the Nets have been doing for a couple games now.  Brook’s three game stretch when he struggled wasn’t because of Yi, despite what most people seem to be thinking.  The real reason for Brook’s struggles those games were that teams were fronting Brook and not allowing him to catch the ball.  Opposing teams think that if they can front the Nets’ post players, and force the Nets to shoot from the outside, they will beat the Nets (that is 100% true by the way).  This is the Nets’ response to teams fronting the post, and it is a pretty good one.

It is an inverted box set, which means you have the Nets’ guards on the low post and the Nets’ bigs up top where the guards usually are.  Devin picks a side and dribbles to it.  When he does, the guard on the side he dribbles to cuts through the middle, stopping in the paint, setting a screen for the big man.  The big man (Yi here) comes off the screen and posts up.  The guard (Courtney Lee here) finishes the play by cutting to the top of the key.  You can’t switch this screen, because you then have a guard covering a big man, which is why this works.  It also “chips” the defender not allowing them to get to his spot so he can front his man.

The screen gets set, and and Yi cuts behind.  This doesn’t have to be a great screen.  All the screener has to do in this situation is get his body on the big man (more on this later), to stop his movement for a second.

Yi’s man tries to front him, but he wasn’t in great position, so Yi was able to fight through the front attempt and get the ball in the post, which is the goal of the play.  Here it is live (notice Yi’s defender trying to front him):

The little to big screen can also draw fouls on the opposing team’s big man because when a little guy sets a screen on a big guy, any contact the little guy takes is exaggerated:

Teams are going to start cheating on this, but the Nets have high basketball IQ guys, who can read it and cut off of it.  Here, Shaq tries to beat Brook to the spot and Brook responds by cutting backdoor:

Good stuff all around.

Advantages:

• Keeps teams from fronting the Nets’ bigs in the post.
• There are plenty of options
• Anytime the Nets gameplan to get Brook the ball in the post, it is a good thing.

Disadvantages:

• It isn’t a motion based offense.  Once it ends, it ends.  If the ball gets thrown to the post, and there is nothing there, the ball needs to get kicked back out and the offense needs to get started back up.
• For this to truly work, you need a shooting threat to be setting the screen.  The Nets’ don’t really have that.  The reason is that teams are going to start funneling the ball to the screener, forcing him to make a shot.  That could kill this play.

Overall Rating:  3.5 out of 5 Smiling Sebastians

Pick and Roll Plus

I know I said that the Nets don’t really run the pick and roll anymore, but they do run this.  It is an awesome play, with a ton of options.

To start this play, you have Brook Lopez coming up and setting a screen for Devin Harris.  Brook rolls to the middle of the hoop, and Devin comes off the screen.  Brook’s roll is going to cause Luis Scola (the man covering Yi) to sink in to prevent the lob pass to Brook.  Yi floats around the 3 point line looking for an open spot, and making himself available to the pass.

Devin makes the pass.  Look at how many Rockets’ defenders are in the middle of the lane trying to prevent the pick and roll from happening.  Also, look at how free the Nets’ best 3 point shooter (currently the best 3 point shooter, we will see if that continues).

Luis Scola has to make a decision here.  He has to decide whether to close out hard on the shot or play the drive.  With the way Yi is playing now, this is a real tough decision.  Here, Scola closes hard on Yi’s fake, and that opens up a huge lane for Yi to drive into.

Yi gets into the middle, of the paint before a defender meets him.  Yi has the size to be able to finish around the rim, so if you can get him to the rim easily, it makes it easier for him to finish.   Here is it run a few times live:

As you can see, Yi’s ability to make the shot and now drive is what makes this play go.

Advantages:

• There are just so many options/threats on this play that opposing teams have to worry about.  You have Devin coming off the screen, Brook rolling, and Yi floating out at the 3 point line.
• Isolates Yi’s man and forces him to make 2 tough decisions.  The first, should he help defend the roll.  The second is should he close out hard on Yi or should he play the drive?
• Once teams start to realize that Yi is a threat, his man won’t clog the middle anymore, and that will clear up space for Brook on the roll.
• Brook and Devin are real good running the pick and roll together, so it is good to exploit that.
• Anytime Brook is the focal point of the set, it is a good thing.

Disadvantages:

• The way Devin has been running it, he seems to be just looking for Yi.  He needs to explore all options on this play.
• This play only works if Yi is playing well.  I know “New Yi” is consistent, but if he is having a bad game, this might not work.

Overall Rating:  5 out of 5 Smiling Sebastians!

The Nets did a very good job on the offensive end, their ball movement looked crisp, and they were getting open looks.  But in what seems to be the theme of the Nets’ season, they just couldn’t knock them down.  Securing defensive rebounds were also a problem.  After the jump, we are going to look at a couple good plays and a couple bad ones, breaking them down.

Old Devin Harris

Every once in a while, we get a glimpse of the Devin Harriss from  last year.  Just check out this video clip, he pushes the ball so hard that when he beats his man, there are no Cavs there to help, this results in an easy lay-up:

Getting Brook The Ball

For a three game span, teams were able to take Brook Lopez out of games by fronting him.  Against the Cavs, the Nets showed a few wrinkles that they used to get Brook the ball and prevent the fronts.

The first thing that they did was use ball and player movement (not just Brook either) to get Brook Lopez in a position to score.

After some ball movement, the ball gets to Yi at the top of the key.  Remember when Josh Boone used to get the ball here?  Yeah, that sucked.

Yi swings the ball to Devin Harris and goes to set a pick for him.  Notice how all of the defender’s eyes are focused on this pick and roll, and not on Brook Lopez, who is starting to slide into good position on the low block.

As Yi rolls, you have Hickson following him, worrying about Yi getting the ball rather than helping deny Brook.

As Brook makes the catch, Hickson finally turns his attention to Brook, but it is too late, as he makes his catch on the block with room to work.  With time to make a move, Brook puts a great dropstep move on Shaq, getting the bucket.

The next is a play that the Nets have been running since the Knicks game to get the opposing center on Brook’s back.

What the Nets have been doing is setting a backscreen for Brook Lopez.  This isn’t designed to get Brook a wide open lay-up.  The design of this play is just to chip Brook’s man, to prevent him from fronting him.  The beauty of this play is who the Nets use to set the screen.  CDR is one of the Nets best shooters, so he is always a threat to pop off the screen to the foul line and hit an open jumper.  Because of this, LeBron James or anyone else, can’t help on Brook’s cut off the screen, they need to stay with CDR.

On this particular play, Shaq gets a sniff of what is going on (Probably because it was pretty successful against the Knicks, so  they could have been looking for it).  So he tries to cheat and get over top the screen before Brook gets through it.

Brook recognizes this and cuts backdoor for the lob.  Devin sees it and throws the pass, this leads to another dunk for Brook Lopez.

Getting The Defensive Rebound

Teams have been killing the Nets on the offensive boards recently.  Now some of it has to do with luck, but some of it has to do with fundamentals.

Here, LeBron makes the pass to Mo Williams as J.J. Hickson slides in to set the screen.  Yi does a great job of noticing that Devin got caught in the screen and switches it.  Closing out hard on Mo Williams.

This switch means that Devin Harris is responsible for boxing out J.J. Hickson, trying to keep him off the glass.

Devin doesn’t box out, he just turns and looks for the ball (this is something the Nets too way too much).  This specific play is even worse because the Nets have two guys to box one.

Both Nets just continue to stare at the ball as Hickson flies past both of them to get the rebound.

On offense, you are going to see the the difference having 3 point shooters make.  I have talked about it a little bit before, but when you have shooters, it forces teams to stay close with them.  That makes helping out on defense harder, and it also makes doubling Brook Lopez harder.  The Nets lost this game on the defensive end though.  They got dominated in the paint, and part of it was poor rotation, allowing the Timberwolves to get easy lay-ups.  We are going to take a look at some examples after the jump.

We are going to look at the mistakes on the defensive end first, just because I want to get it out of the way and end this post with positive thoughts.

Poor Rotation/Defense:

Here, the Timberwolves are running a side pick and roll, but it is a little funky because Flynn is running it towards the middle rather than towards the sideline.

This is initially defended pretty good.  Harris gets around the screen, and cuts off Flynn’s drive to the basket, forcing him to take a dribble backwards.  You also have two players in good help position in case Flynn does get past Devin.

After that backwards dribble, Flynn hits Harris with a vicious crossover…I mean this was nasty…I don’t think anybody would stay in front of him after this move.  The still image doesn’t really do it justice, so here is the video:

Disgusting.  So Flynn now has Harris on his hip.

This one is on Brook.  Boone is in good position, and Devin Harris is still on his hip, so there is no real reason for Brook to be there.  This is because of the way Devin is positioned.  Flynn isn’t a threat to Brook’s area on the court, so he should probably be closer to Jefferson.

Because of Brook’s over-help, Flynn is able to dump it over to Jefferson, leading to the easy on handed flush.  Here is the whole play:

Poor Zone Defense:

For the last few games, the Nets have sprinkled some zone defense against both the Timberwolves and the Rockets.  For the most part, it worked very well.  Here though, some communication and incorrect rotation lead to an easy jumper.  The Timberwolves start this possession by dumping it in to Kevin Love.

Damien Wilkens is behind the zone defense, but he is clearing out, while Al Jefferson cuts to the middle.  Because Wilkens is cutting away from the zone, he isn’t really a threat.  Brook takes a step towards him though, and that one step allows for Jefferson to find space in the zone to make a cut.

Jefferson makes the catch and quickly shoots it over Brook, who was out of position, making the shot.

The Dagger

This possession really hurt the Nets.  They almost got exactly what they wanted, but not knowing personnel once again hurt the Nets.

After dribbling out the clock, the Timberwolves enter the ball to Al Jefferson at the high post.  He pump fakes and starts to drive.

On Jefferson’s drive, Harris comes down and helps, digging at the ball.  This is the right move, you got a center driving to the basket, you want to see if you can force a turnover on the drive.  Jefferson doesn’t turn it over, and he kicks it to Corey Brewer.

This is where the mistake is made.  You got the shotclock running down and a poor outside shooter catching the basketball.  If you are Devin Harris, you should be celebrating, and allow him to shoot the basketball.  Instead, Devin Harris closes out like it is a terrific outside shooter catching the basketball.

Because of this closeout, Brewer now has Devin Harris on his hip, and he is doing what he does well.  Attacking the basket.

Brook Lopez comes with terrific help, but good offense beats good defense, and Corey Brewer makes a tough double-clutch lay-up.

—

Now let’s look at the positives on the offensive end.  The Nets now have shooting threats.  This is something that continued against the Rockets.  Against Minnesota, the Nets shot 50% from 3 hitting on 9 out of 18 attempts.  That is 27 easy points that the Nets haven’t been getting until this game.

Yi Trailing:

The Nets have a transition play that they run where they try to get it to Brook in the post, and if it isn’t there, they swing it to their PF trailing.

Here it is in action.  Dooling was looking for Brook Lopez down low, but Ryan Hollis (wasn’t he a pain in the ass those two games?) basically tackled him.  You got Yi trailing calling for the ball.  If Yi was still out, and that was Josh Boone out there, it would be a quick swing pass to Devin Harris, and who knows what would happened after that.

Instead, Yi makes the catch, and he instantly looks to score.  He calmly drilled this 3 to bring the game within 2.  With Yi now running this play, the Nets now have another threat teams need to worry about.

Dooling Drive And Kick:

With Keyon Dooling now getting regular back-up minutes after returning, he is another threat on the court…moreso than Rafer Alston.

After dumping it in to Brook, Keyon Dooling makes a cut backdoor.  This play worked really well against the Timberwolves, and it was partially the reason for all of Brook’s assists this game.  Anyway, Corey Brewer sticks to Dooling rather than backing up into help position after the dump in pass (which would put him in better position to defend the cut) because of his shooting threat.

Dooling makes a nice catch and attacks the basket strong.  He is unable to get a clean look at the basket though because three guys close out on him hard.  I like to think about what Rafer Alston would do in this position.  I’d think he’d try to draw a foul and throw up a crazy reverse attempt.  Keyon Dooling sees the court though, and he uses that vision to find Courtney Lee open.

Dooling finds Lee wide open, allowing him to step into the catch and drilling a three point shot.