I Noticed Something With Miami's Small Ball and it Effects Splitter

**cd021** · 06-04-2013

When Miami went small and Indiana stayed big there two things I noticed

1. West/ Hansbrough was matched up against Mike Miller. West had problems against Miller, in part because he sagged off and began ball watching. Miller would stand in the corner and depending on where the ball was would slide laterally to the right near the elbow of the 3pt line. Lebron found him several time (he missed a couple of clean looks but none the less). Hansbrough did a better job playing closer to Miller. While he was away from the rim he keep Miller at arms length and made sure he didn't slide when he wasn't looking.

2. On defense when the ball went up they sent to guards to box West or even Hansbrough out . This actually slowed them down in transition despite playing for down they were actually forced to play much slower because they had to guards boxing out along with Bosh. If the Spurs can take care of the ball in the half court and swing the ball ( I believe both are very likely) the Spurs can take advantage of them on defense. Splitter would have to check a wing but on offense he would only have to deal two guards and playing Splitter in screen and rolls could force Miami to go big again. When he catches the ball on the run only Bosh would be there to stop him. Playing Diaw, Manu, Leonard/Green and Parker/Joseph alongside Splitter against there small ball unit in the early second quarter would seem to give the Spurs an advantage. Diaw can simply spot up on the corner 3pt area pulling Bosh off the paint while Manu/ Parker work off a screen and get to the rim with Splitter setting a pick and rolling to the basket.

Miami doesn't have a ton of defense anyway at the rim. Birdman is a good shot blocker but also fouls a ton and send people the line. He averages 3.1 BP36 compared to 5.7 Fouls per 36 minutes. Anthony isn't going to play real minutes unless of foul trouble.