lebron reads the defense
an amazing sequence in game 4 of the 2017 nba finals
lebron james is one of the smartest basketball players ever. i've watched him play for nearly 20 years now, and it still amazes me sometimes how quickly he can read and react to things on the court.
i was watching game 4 of the 2017 nba finals one day during quarantine, and there was a two-play sequence in the third quarter that blew me away.
here's the full sequence:
let’s break it down.
kyrie irving pops out to the top of the key to get the ball. he calls for a high pick-and-roll with tristan thompson in hopes of getting a more favorable matchup in a switch (zaza pachulia instead of klay thompson):
but instead of switching, golden state's scheme is to trap the ball handler and force him to get rid of the ball. the typical read here for kyrie is to get the ball out quick to the short roll man, tristan:
but the warriors are baiting that pass with steph curry, who's been anticipating the pass the whole time. steph breaks up the play to force a turnover, and the warriors get a pretty good look on a transition 3:
lebron rebounds the miss and starts pushing it the other way. the warriors get back, so he pulls it out and sets up a play - the exact same play they just ran that got blown up. he calls tristan over for the high screen:
now lebron knows exactly what golden state will do. he watched it all unfold just seconds ago. he knows the trap is coming, and he patiently waits for it:
he knows steph is in the corner on jr smith and that he'll look to jump the pass to tristan again. so lebron pump fakes a pass to thompson, and when steph overeagerly tries to get another steal, fires a bullet to jr in the corner. wide open 3:
simply incredible.
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