Welcome to The Rotation, our daily playoff wrap-up of our favorite stories, large and small, from this weekend’s NBA action.
Wizards Lucky Charm
By Ashley Docking (@smrtash)
The Wizards were touched by an angel tonight.
Point blank, period.
You had Dennis Schroder playing, well, not like the usual Schroder. The refs missing calls on Paul Milsap down the stretch. You had Markieff Morris wildin’ out, compounding the damage of his loose ball foul by adding a tech when the Wizards were only up three. John Wall blew a layup and missed an uncontested (and unnecessarily off-balance) jumper from the foul line, both with time winding down. Then there is Marcin Gortat. Today, Gortat’s first of just five points came in the fourth quarter off a free throw. He’s been struggling, shooting 3-of-14 over his last three games. In fact prior to tonight, he hadn’t even attempted a foul shot this series.
Atlanta had every opportunity to steal this one, but they didn’t and we need to give some of that credit to Kelly Oubre Jr..
Playing a modest 13 minutes, Oubre Jr. impacted the game on defense, specifically a play that saw him swarm Taurean Prince then scream towards the crowd like a middle aged woman watching Magic Mike with her friends. He grabbed three boards (one offensive), had an assist, hit a 3-pointer and added a block.
But the best part about his game was a left-handed slam that came early in the fourth with Bradley Beal and the second unit. The ball worked from Beal to Bojan Bogdanovic, then swung to Brandon Jennings, who finally passed it to Oubre Jr. in the corner.
The shot was there, wide open. Spacious. Ample. He had extensive time to shoot a 3-pointer. Oubre Jr. thought about it, you could see him start to shoot and then realize, “If I take this shot and miss I won’t see double-digit minutes tonight,” or something like that. So instead he drove, and slammed it home while Dwight Howard watched. 92-83 Wizards. If you believe in momentum, it was one of those moments.
But more importantly the play came just two minutes after Oubre Jr. missed a clean, spot-up 3-point attempt. Another player, maybe even him at another time, gets that pass on a weak side swing and sees the internal green light, perhaps in some way stubbornly trying to make up for the earlier miss. But Oubre Jr. was aware of his weakness (28.7 percent 3-point shooting in the regular season), thoughtful about his decision, and smart about his limited time with the ball. That’s exactly what you want from someone who’s going to spot minutes in the postseason. Maximize their impact during their time on the floor. He did that tonight.
Dennis Schroder finishes what Rajon Rondo started
By Ian Levy (@HickoryHigh)
We humans are visual creatures and we tend to lean on that crutch when it comes to making player comparisons. We don’t do a good job of seeing beyond facial structure and stride length, wingspan and jump shot form. Players get linked because they share visual markers, not necessarily stylistic or functional ones.
Dennis Schroder and Rajon Rondo are tied up like that. Schroder looks kind of like Rondo, he has a Rondo glide in his step, a similar frame, a somewhat shaky jumpshot. The comparison misses a ton of stuff — the fact that Schroder’s shooting isn’t nearly as bad as Rondo’s, the fact that Schroder is far more willing to score and create for himself. But, for whatever it misses, I don’t mind the laziness of this comparison because both guys share so much inherent saltiness.
John Wall has been the star of this series but Schroder has been quietly spectacular.
Schroder’s Hawks lost last night, but certainly not for a lack of production on his part — 29 points and 11 assists, 5-of-6 shooting on 3-pointers. It was a perfect encapsulation of what makes him special and distinctly Rondo-esque. It’s a stubborn refusal to acknowledge the context around them — preferring to try and force the universe to meet their vision of reality, rather than the other way around. You get the sense that, like Rondo, Schroder is wholly uninterested in addressing his weaknesses, choosing instead to just render them irrelevant through force of will.
Rondo and Schroder are those guys who can hold up a simple kitchen spoon and fold it in half with their minds. You know it’s not magic, you’re certain it’s not real. Yet the damn spoon is twisted up just the same.
Play of the Day: Boston’s twist on screen-the-screener
By Jeff Siegel (@jgsiegel)
Screen-the-screener actions have spread through the NBA like wildfire. Almost every team has their own version, using their best shooter as a screener underneath the basket before he flies around another screen for an open three-pointer. Defenses have to identify the play very early to have a chance to stop it and even then, the response is usually to switch the screens, which can lead to positive matchups for the offense.
The Boston Celtics put their own spin on STS: instead of having Isaiah Thomas pop out for a 3-pointer, he comes straight toward the ball, gathers the dribble handoff, then attacks the paint.
Thomas triggers the play at the half-court line, throwing to Kelly Olynyk and continuing his cut to the basket. Horford sets an up screen for Thomas, but this is just window dressing to make the pass from Olynyk to Horford a little easier. Robin Lopez backs off slightly when Olynyk fakes the pass to Thomas, but Olynyk is very rarely going to throw that pass through traffic. Horford catches on the left wing and the real fun begins.
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Thomas runs out to the right corner, opposite Horford, and screens for Jae Crowder to come toward the basket and toward Horford. The initial threat is that Crowder will get a quick pass from Horford for a layup or deep post-up, but Dwyane Wade evades the screen and cuts that option off. Undeterred, the Celtics move on to their bread-and-butter dribble handoff for Thomas. After setting the screen for Crowder, he sprints up behind a screen from Olynyk and curls around toward Horford, who has moved toward the middle of the floor to execute the handoff. Isaiah Canaan is left trailing Thomas as he hairpins around Horford and begins his attack toward the basket. Horford rolls to the rim to provide another option for Thomas and another thing that the Bulls have to defend. Lopez decides to stick with the rolling Horford, leaving Thomas wide-open for a floater. And, well, Thomas just doesn’t miss on those non-restricted area floaters.