Harrison Barnes Dunk

I usually do not get too excited for dunks especially in the NBA, but this one by Harrison Barnes is pretty good.

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David Lee: "Stop flopping"

When David Lee calls you out, it should be a wake up call. After a few bumps, David Lee yells at Blake Griffin to "stop flopping."

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Flop of the Day

The flop of the day goes to Darius Morris during the Lakers first win of the season last night. He doesn't get paid much, so I would advise him to refrain from this reaction in the future.

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Tony Parker Game-Winner

There was only one game tonight in the NBA, and it was a good one. Oklahoma City faced-off against San Antonio, who was playing the back end of a back to back. It came down to the final play with the score tied. We will dissect Russell Westbrook's defense on the last play of the game.

This is how the Spurs set-up to in-bound the ball. Russell Westbrook is in the red circle. He starts the play off in horrible positioning.

Tony Parker cuts from the top of the key area to the baseline, short corner. Notice how far Westbrook is from Parker. Westbrook is in the red circle, Parker is in the blue circle. There is about a 10 foot gap between the two and Westbrook is watching the ball.

Westbrook should either be on Parker's hip if you are going to try to stop him from catching the ball. That would be the right "X" or he should be in help side position, where he could see the ball and Parker, which is the left "X." Either of those would be 100 times better than the positioning he chose.

Now, the Spurs have the ball in-bounds and Parker is going to use a screen. Westbrook (red circle) is in a terrible position to cover Parker (blue circle). Westbrook can't see Parker because he is fully turned to watch the ball. The ball is heading to the right side, so Westbrook guesses that Parker will come out on ball side and tries to fly over the top of screen to either stop the pass or intercept the pass. Unfortunately for Westbrook, Parker heads to the other side of the floor.

Look where Westbrook (red circle) is positioned when Parker (blue circle) catches the pass. I promise OKC is not playing zone defense. When I saw this positioning, I thought it might be a zone but the start of the play clearly points out that the Thunder are man to man.

Westbrook does not hustle to get back into the play and Parker gets a wide open 17-foot shot for the game-winner. That is basically a lay-up for NBA players.

Here is the whole play...

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