khandor’s sports blog

Let’s back this analysis up even further and ask the following 2 questions, pertaining to the way in which the Raptors chose to deploy their individual defenders against this well-known Lakers SLOB action:

1. re: Individual match-ups

Turkoglu [should have been Antoine Wright instead] vs Artest …
Bosh [should have been Amir Johnson, instead] vs Odom
Bargnani [should have been Chris Bosh, instead] vs Gasol
Jack vs Fisher
Wright [should have been Sonny Weems, instead] vs Bryant

2. re: How Turkoglu, Wright & Bargnani were initially used during this sequence

If Turkoglu was not going to be asked to pressure the inbounds passer while out of out of bounds then he should have been sitting on top of Bryant in the Right Low Post position, in full denial mode [i.e. facing Artest with his rear end pressing into Bryant's stomach.

With Turkoglu in this position, then, Wright should have been fully behind Bryant, in a sandwich position, preventing any lob pass going toward the basket.

With Turkoglu and Wright in these two positions, Bargnani should have been in a full better left-side half-front position, in order to deny the initial inbounds pass from Artest to Gasol. i.e. If Gasol would have tried to back-cut vs Bargnani for a lob/layup attempt from a quick pass directly into the key/moving towards the hoop, Wright ... who has decent quickness, athleticism and size ... would have been in a good position to disrupt this pass, while in a sandwich defensive position vs Bryant in the Right Low Post]

[* Please Note: If Chris Bosh would have been used to check Gasol, with Weems used to check Bryant, and Wright used to check Artest ... this would have put the Raptors in an even stronger defensive position to prevent the Lakers from being able to get the ball to Bryant using this specific set play, as Bosh is a superior athlete compared to Bargnani, Weems is a superior athlete compared to Wright, and Wright is a superior athlete compared to Turkoglu.]

With 9 secs left in regulation time and the score knotted at 107, the Raptors had the wrong combination of players on the court, in the first place!