Brett Koremenos' post on "Miami's Failed Experiment"

[tance]

Brett Koremenos has an interesting post (with clips) on NBAplaybook.com entitled, "Miami's Failed Experiment" that analyzes what Miami was trying unsuccessfully to do on Sunday.  He suggests that Spoelstra, a la Popovich, was using a "relatively meaningless" game (we can debate how important it was to them) to try out pick and roll defenses (and specifically a strategy to deny Pierce the ball). 

Worth the read:
http://nbaplaybook.com/2012/04/02/miamis-failed-experiment/

[guava_wrench]

Excellent article.

[letsgoblue86]

I think people are looking into it too much, I mean Miami is battling Chicago for the number 1 seed so why would they be gambling games away as such?

[Fafnir]

I think people are looking into it too much, I mean Miami is battling Chicago for the number 1 seed so why would they be gambling games away as such?

They weren't trying to lose. Rather they were just working on a new defensive tactic. Teams do it all the time.

[Bankshot]

Sounds like an excuse to me.

[radiohead]

I can't see how the author saw it as a meaningless game. Gotta give the C's more credit than that.

[Who]

Not surprising that they are testing out various PnR defenses ... reports have been saying that Miami have been getting cut up by opposing point guards in the pick and roll for a long time now.

They got a vulnerability there and they are desperately trying to find a way to cover that back up.