But I guess they respected our shooters (or probably trusted their defender-on-Evans) enough to not double-team all night. I actually thought they’d employ some kind of faux-zone; having Artest cutoff one side and forcing Evans towards a bigger defender. However, Evans did a good job of scoring using either his speed or strength. I seriously hope he works on his jumper this off-season.

I found this piece very interesting by Sebastian Pruiti to break down all of the defenses on Tyreke Evans by the Lakers, which even included such nuances of how many dribbles Tyreke took against certain defenses versus minimal dribbling, when Ron Artest was on the bench. It just goes to show how much teams study him, to the point of counting the number of his dribbles. The more dribbling equates to the stronger defense. When Tyreke does not dribble much, he moves directly to the rim for a basket.

So basicly he was defended well & still dominated? I love it. That means he is really ungaurdable. There are only a few of those in the league & I’m glad we have one. In all fairness Tyreke was shut down once this year by Shane Battier but he is probably the best perimeter defender in the league.

That people are feeling it worthwhile to analyze all this. Is that being done for other rookies?

 I doubt it.

this kind of analysis is rare for most fans, but its what turns a casual fan into the nerd. I love it.

Tyreke will save the world in 2012 just so the kings can get their championship rings

Was Tyreke more impressed by Artest’s defensive capabliities than those of Farmar and Brown, well I should hope so. But there was nothing physical about Artest’s defense. For the most part he gave Evans the long jumpers and stayed back about 8 ft to give himself time to react when Tyreke tried to drive. Plus in everyone of those vids he had Bynum and Gasol in back of him flanking the paint. It would have been stupid for Tyreke to even try and drive past him. If Evans went right he runs into the double team with Gasol, and if he goes left he gets doubled by Bynum.

All the plays were run before the 14 seconds on the 24 clock. You can count as many dribbles as you like, getting the ball across the time line and starting a half court set in 10 seconds is quick. And, it either means that their running a predetermined play in which case Artest had no bearing on Evans decision, or Evans saw that the Lakers had their 3 best players protecting the paint and decided to go elsewhere. The 2nd possibility says more about Tyreke’s improved ability to run an offense, than about Artests defense.

In the first vid, it was early in the 1st quarter, Artest and Bynum were playing back, so we ran a play for Spencer to hit the 3 and punish the Lakers for not bring Bynum away from the basket. Set Play no bearing on Artest.

The 2nd vid was with less than 5 minutes to go in the game, we needed to score down 8. We ran that curl play with success since Cisco came back into the line up. Set Play no bearing on Artest. Artest was completely out of the play, and didn’t even come out to help Kobe when Evans set the pick which freed up Cisco for what should have been an open jumper.

3rd vid, was a side pick and roll, again Artest went under the screen and gave Tyreke the open jumper which he didn’t take. Instead he feed the ball back to Hawes who then got doubled but still got off a shot. The only thing that Artest did well was fight through the initial screen. The rest of the play was a disaster with Spencer trying to beat Bynum man to man and the rest of the team standing around watching. Once Artest went to double Hawes, Evans needed to cut in behind him for the return pass. He didn’t he stayed out at the 3pt line. Which was the shot that he could have taken when Artest cut under the screen. Bad play by Spencer and Tyreke.

4th vid. The lakers were doubling Cisco on the strong side blocks with Bynum. There was no way Evans could get to the rim. Once he got Artest to move toward the corner, it left JT undefended for one of the 18 fter he likes so well. Evans worked Artest on this play and not the other way around. The only mistake Tyreke made was trying to make the pass over Artest. Like Tyreke, Artests defensive prowess is based on his quick hands, Evans needed to make a bounce pass. Props to Artest for his hands, but he went where Evans wanted him to go.

The Farmar & Brown vids, were different. Artest was setting up at the FT line. The other two tried to pick up Evans half way between the top of the circle and the time line. They were stationary and Evans was coming right toward them. Basicly it was a minny fast break for Evans, because there was no way for the defender to get up to Evans speed from a standing position and there was no one close enough to slow Evans down so that the defender to catch up. It was really poor defensive positioning, on their part.

In the last Farmar vid, the Kings spaced the floor well, Kobe was heading to the weak side to pick up Cisco, and Gasol was also on the weak side defending JT. There was no one along the strong side of the lane to help Farmar so Evans attacked the basket. If Bynum and Gasol had been flanking the paint like in the Artest vids, I doubt that Evans attacks Farmar. And if that were Artest, Evans would have driven past him just like he did with Farmar. Or, doesn’t anyone remember, Evans faking Artest out of his shoes earlier in the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-7ns_IyoMU

This is one of my faves. He is SOOOO quick! In a second he splits the two defenders and he is at the rim. Incredible.