Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, not LeBron James. Superstars close games, or so the saying goes. Coaches can count on (most) of those guys to put teams away late in games. It seems like Doug Collins has finally found his closer, only it's not a player, it's a lineup.
For the past two games, Doug Collins has called upon Elton Brand, Thaddeus Young, Andre Iguodala, Evan Turner and Jrue Holiday for the most important stretch of the fourth quarter. Two games in a row, they've delivered. For years, the past couple of seasons, the fourth quarter has been Lou Williams' time to shine. He's done a great job, don't get me wrong. Lou's capable of getting hot and carrying a team's offense when the game is on the line, but it appears as though Collins has evolved along with this team's identity. Lou's circus shots and regular trips to the foul line come at a price on the other end of the floor. This team wins with defense, and that's what this lineup is all about.
You've got on-the-ball pressure at the point, great size and instincts at the two, a blanket at the three, the quickest four in the league, and the long-armed anchor at the five. This unit flies all over the floor, pressuring the ball, living in the passing lanes, switching, doubling, making it impossible for their opponents to even get into their offensive sets, let alone get a good look. That defensive pressure and unreal athleticism turns into free points in transition. That's the formula. That's the unit that's going to bring games home.
It's going to take a lot of patience and planning for Collins to be able to use this unit at the end. He needs to make sure Brand has enough gas left in the tank every night to play the final 8 minutes with a frantic energy, he's going to need to make sure Jrue and Iguodala get a little more rest early, but it's all manageable. It's imperative. Stops equal points, stops equal wins. This is the unit that gets stops. This is the unit that creates havoc. This is the unit teams can't keep up with.
Watch out for it tonight. If the game is close heading into the fourth, watch how Collins bides his time until he can unleash this unit on the Heat. If any team is capable of handling it, it's probably the Heat. This is the test. I'm envisioning the Sixers being a team that just needs the game to be close by the time they get to the 8 minute mark in the fourth. Just within reach and then they can pounce. Just like how OKC knows they've got the edge if it's close coming down the stretch because they've got Kevin Durant, Collins knows he has JTIYB in his back pocket, just waiting to unleash them.
Tonight's game tips at 7:30, the game thread will be up in the late afternoon.
I definitely like this lineup in the 4th. I still don't trust Collins in a close game though. He seems to get completely flummoxed down the stretch if it's close (both last year and this year). We've played 15 games. 11 of them were blowouts, we won all 11. 4 games were close, we lost all 4.
He made so many errors at the end of the Nuggets game it was unreal. Isos to Iggy on the final 2 possessions of regulation. Not double-teaming Andre Miller. Removing ET and Thad (the two leading scorers in the game) for LouWill and Meeks on the final possessions of the 4th and OT. Not calling a timeout on the final play of OT.
Is Collins ever going to learn how to coach a close game at the end? Perhaps this is why he eventually wears out his welcome?
Not a big fan of that gif. It's annoying
Um, why is my screen blinking?
Cool as hell, love it. Ha clever.
I want to see what Thad does tonight - Miami shut him down in the playoffs, what does he do to adjust?
That picture is hurting my eyes
Wade is out tonight...
Damn. I wanted to see Jrue match up to him defensively.
Damn Brian, thought that graphic and headline meant you were closing down the blog!
Or maybe a protest to SOPA. A little too late for that party.
Like this change a lot. Hopefully it's a new way of thinking on how to close basketball games in general, with defense instead of offense. It's like "Don't worry about what we do on offense, if they can't score, we'll beat them." Really thought this whole unit played outstanding defense even with Willie Green hitting some ridiculous shots. The quality of the Hawks' looks in the 2nd Half with this team on the floor was encouraging. The 3rd quarter had a lot of run-outs and great transition plays, and credit to Jodie and whoever was playing center, but that's not sustainable, at least a 10 point quarter where the team plays out of its mind.
Offensively, every person on the floor is capable of beating you with an isolation. That's good for when things break down, but they are really capable of beating you when just running some offense. If it's close tonight, I'd start by running some cutters off Brand at the foul line and trusting him to make a good decision.
Jrue has really been exceptional this year at stopping dribble penetration by moving his feet. For isolation defense against a quick guard intent on penetrating, I'd even want Jrue over Iguodala (who is still without peer at challenging jump shots).
A couple observations on the Hawks game:
* To my eyes, this was Jrue's best game of the year, and I would have given him PotG. Even though he didn't shoot that well (16 points on 16 shots) and committed 5 turnovers, he played a big part in the 3rd quarter run with his defense and passing. Within that short period of time, he connected on his first alley-oop to Iguodala this year (that I remember) and set up a drive-and-dish dunk (by Vucevic) for one of the first times this year. One of his 4th-quarter turnovers would have been another drive-and-dish dunk if Brand had been able to catch the pass (that's a turnover I can live with). The team is so much better when they get easy offense like that; not coincidentally, it was one of their first wins this year when they were able to overcome bad jumpshooting.
* I noticed that Iguodala had help on Joe Johnson when Johnson penetrated, and I hope they do that tonight with LeBron too. Not having to get completely in front of his man enabled Iguodala to defend the pull-up jumper from Johnson, whose three field goals included two low-percentage, high-arcing jumpers. The most impressive part about Iguodala's defensive performance was Johnson's 8 FGs attempted. What doesn't show up in the boxscore is how many times Johnson passed up a shot because he didn't have one (kind of like the shutdown corner who never gets thrown at). And this followed a game where Gallinari took only 3 shots in 33 minutes for the Nuggets, mainly vs. Iguodala.
No Wade tonight.