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Sunday, November 18, 2018

Basketball: Gotta Score, The R and R Meme, and The Big Four



"Time to stop taking a beating and start giving one." - Daredevil 

Do you have a Big Four actions to score when the chips are down? Let's work on it...but first some background. 

Practice allows us to get better. Games inform our needs. Remember Nassim Taleb's Antifragile advice, “A loser is someone who, after making a mistake, doesn’t introspect, doesn’t exploit it, feels embarrassed and defensive rather than enriched with a new piece of information, and tries to explain why he made the mistake rather than moving on.”

Read, learn, and apply what we've learned. Teach 'em and teach 'em again and again. 

In Why the Best Are the Best, Kevin Eastman recalls the 2008 Celtics (in a winning effort) allowing the Lakers 32 points on defensive errors and mistakes. Although we only allowed twenty points in our second game yesterday, half came on defensive errors...allowing basket cuts or transient ball-you-man violations. 

Recognition and reversal. In David Mamet's MasterClass, he explains that the hero's journey culminates in Act 3, identifying the solution and reversing the position of loss.  

Replicate or remedy. And political strategist David Axelrod reminds us of the principle of "Replication or remedy." Pound it or fix it. 



BOB. We scored multiple times with this BOB against the 2-3. Our guards came off the handoff hard and the five sealed and rolled getting perfect pocket passes. Really good execution for young players.



SLOB. GERONIMO. This SLOB is inspired by a combination of Spurs and Warriors actions. 3 gets entry off typical Zipper action. Then 5 makes a sequential screen (off-ball) for the inbounder. It was wide open and we failed to execute. If they switch, 1 should cut through and we get a 5 versus 1 mismatch. 

MAN. Whether ATO or a simple set, this should be great action. Part of our bread-and-butter is the high ball screen out of horns. But I'm the King of Wishful Thinking



More GSW action, with the high ball screen slip into a layup or a corner 3. 

ZONE. We knew our second opponent was going to play zone. Within our theme of R and R (Recognition and Reversal, Replicate or Remedy) was RUN and REBOUND. But we have other actions, too. 



Wham block. Possibilities after cuts and screens. 

Lagniappe: 
"If you see a back, backcut."