EUROLEAGUE FINAL FOUR 2011 (Men) Maccabi

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Euroleague Final Four 2011 Maccabi

Team Characteristics

This team has been very difficult to play against due to their aggressive point guards and good shooting forwards. They are very much undersized in the low post and that is why their big men run the court in order to get their hands on the ball. They have been very strong in playing a run and gun type of basketball (most sequences in offense are with two passes at most) and confusing their opponents switching often on defense. Many back to back three pointers also made their opponents struggle and quick special options usually meant defeat for their opponents.

Transition

Jeremy Pargo is a player that naturally pushes the ball in every situation and even after the team receives a basket he runs the floor. Transition is the big strength of this team. They usually look for the first trailer, who then usually looks for at least two shooters around the perimeter to kick out the ball or passes to a player making a back door cut. Besides their first trailer and kick or drop pass options, they play superb secondary breaks with early pick & rolls, hand off pick & rolls or double pick & rolls. Most ball screen options are solved in the two man game, but there are always third player options with sharpshooters waiting to shoot.

Transition - Fast Break

Transition - Secondary Break

Offensive Tendencies

Very fast up-tempo style of game. Their entries into offensive sets are mainly short screen entries and mostly each player takes his first option to score. More than two passes are rare in their offenses and only occur on defensive rotations of the opponent. They use many drive and kick and drive and dish options to get open outside shots or easy layups for their undersized centers.

Set Plays

Quick offensive sets: They prefer to have pick & roll entries followed by baseline exits to give their shooters open three pointers. The other entry they use a lot is the hand off followed by a pick & roll, with the same intention of a quick score.

Screening offenses: They start with a high entry followed by a screening series to get the ball to the player in the low post. With Eliyahu they have used this option many times to score or to kick the ball out to their sharpshooters.

Zone Offense

Their initial alignment is with the 4 man outside and the 1 inside. They are looking for each first option to shoot. No typical long cuts, many changing directions of passes or overload situation will be used by them. The two players they are looking for are Schortsanitis and Pargo. They will first look to get the ball quickly low to Schortsanitis or look for the pick & roll for Pargo who will attack with strong penetration.

OB Plays

By having a player as Schortsanitis in their roster it made perfect sense that most BOB options were played for him. Usually they used very short options to get him in position, but they also had double screen action played for him to get him in position to receive the inbound close to the basket. Other than him they will be looking for the direct game with Bluthental or Eliyahu.

Defensive Characteristics

They are confusing opponents with various alternative defenses such as 2-3 zones, half court traps, match up defenses. Their primary Man to Man defensive technique is the switch. They give out many open shots to opponents since they don’t pressure the player with the ball and don’t play to deny passes. What they do very well is defend the drives and show/help and recover. Each 4 or 5 man who dribbles the ball will for sure have several hands on the ball from defensive players, while all other defenders position themselves for steals. They collapse so well that easy fast break points are making the difference at the end of the game.

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