Posts by Sebastian Pruiti
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What Does OKC Need to Change on Offense?
The Oklahoma City Thunder only lost to the San Antonio Spurs by three points in Game 1, but the score doesn’t tell the whole story. The Spurs dominated the fourth quarter, scoring 39 points and wrapping up the game before the final minute. Oklahoma City had their chances, and this is far from a mismatched […]
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The Coming Western War: Oklahoma City–San Antonio Preview
So far in the playoffs, neither the San Antonio Spurs nor the Oklahoma City Thunder have been truly tested. But when they face each other in the Western Conference Finals, I’m expecting that to change for both teams. They both score efficiently, but in polar opposite ways. As I’ve written about before, San Antonio relies […]
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How Did Miami Adjust to Indiana’s Defense?
The Miami Heat struggled offensively in the first three games of their series against the Indiana Pacers. Even in Game 1, which they won, they failed to to crack 100 points, and in the two losses they scored just 75 points. Game 4 was a must-win for them, and they knew they had to make […]
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The Perfect Execution of the San Antonio Spurs
When commentators and analysts look back at the San Antonio Spurs’ sweep of the Los Angeles Clippers, many of them will focus on the Spurs’ 24-0 run from Game 3. But they were successful because they continually out-executed the Clippers on offense, not just during the one run. In the second half of each game, […]
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How San Antonio Contained Chris Paul
Despite having the best regular-season record, the San Antonio Spurs had some problems on defense — particularly containing ball handlers in pick-and-roll situations. According to Synergy Sports, they were last in the league in terms of points per possession allowed to ball handlers in these plays. I expected the Los Angeles Clippers to exploit this […]
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Was Miami’s Final Play a Good Idea?
At the end of Game 2 on Tuesday night, the Miami Heat trailed the Indiana Pacers by three points with 8.3 seconds left in the game. The Heat had to inbounds the ball from the corner, which makes setting up a play more difficult. Instead of going for a quick 2, coach Erik Spoelstra designed […]
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How Miami Defended Indiana’s Side Pick-and-Pops
Last week, I wrote that David West would play a pivotal role for Indiana in the Pacers’ second-round series against the Miami Heat. Because of his ability to run pick-and-pop plays (which have hurt Miami all season long), I thought that if West played well, then the Pacers would have a real chance of winning […]
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![David West]()
How the Pacers Can Beat the Heat
As the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers prepare for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Sunday, a handful of TV and Internet analysts have noted that the Pacers match up well against the favored Heat. Indiana has the size and talent to slow Miami’s march to the conference finals, they say, and perhaps […]
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How Kenneth Faried Outplays Andrew Bynum
Kenneth Faried is a ball of energy for the Denver Nuggets. On Tuesday night against the Lakers, he was matched up with Andrew Bynum. Bynum is clearly the superior player, but only when he wants to be. The fundamental differences between the two bigs was very clear Tuesday night. Faried rim-runs (runs the length of […]
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How Fourth Quarter Pick-and-Rolls Helped Oklahoma City Sweep Dallas
The Oklahoma City Thunder started the fourth quarter of their series-clinching Game 4 against the Dallas Mavericks trailing by 13 points. With Russell Westbrook on the bench, the Thunder started the quarter with James Harden as the primary ball handler. When the team began running pick-and-roll plays for Harden, coach Scott Brooks found a mismatch […]
