A Few Good Plays is back, and we’re once again heading around the NBA to highlight a handful of snippets of good basketball.
AD Participates in Trickeration
Anthony Davis is an exceptionally agile individual for man of his size. He can leverage his quickness to get to the rim in a flash and he did just that in the Lakers’ Game 1 matchup with the Warriors. Davis held the ball at the elbow as D’Angelo Russell ran towards him from the corner, setting up a standard handoff action, but AD saw an opportunity to take advantage of Kevon Looney’s anticipation to burst to the basket for an easy dunk.
Celtics Swing That Thing
The Boston Celtics don’t always make quick decisions, but they’re incredibly hard to stop when they do. The men in green took advantage of a smart slip by Jayson Tatum to get the Philadelphia 76ers into rotation during Game 3 of their second-round matchup.
From there the passing was quick and lethal. Tatum fired the ball to Al Horford as Joel Embiid came over to protect the rim. Horford pinged it to a wide open Derrick White with both Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris scrambling to him, and it was nothing but nylon from there.
A Noted Knicks Screen Rejector
Jalen Brunson tried everything in his power to keep the New York Knicks competitive in their second-round series with the Miami Heat. He managed to get things to six games through a combination of guile, touch, and elite footwork. Brunson loves to reject a screen to access the paint.
Once he’s got an inch of space headed toward the hoop, there’s almost no limit to his craft. Brunson makes the unconventional look natural. Look no further than the left foot, left hand beauty he finishes here.
KCP Turns Defense into Offense
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has been about as perfect a role player as the Denver Nuggets could have hoped to add this year. He’s an impactful perimeter defender who can contribute offensively without much need to have the ball in his hands. Between his nimble feet and quick hands on defense and his smart cutting and solid shooting on offense, KCP makes Nikola Jokic’s life significantly easier at all times.
He put his skills on display early in the Nuggets recent series-clinching victory over the Phoenix Suns. Caldwell-Pope timed a rotation perfectly to cover up for Jokic, who had slid toward Kevin Durant to provide some aggressive help, poking the ball away from Landry Shamet and sparking a transition opportunity that ended in an easy layup for him.