Yesterday, I examined the 1/2 pick & roll, which involved Jameer Nelson and Vince Carter, and showed how the Orlando Magic used the play in the fourth quarter, at the behest of head coach Stan Van Gundy, to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday. Today, I want to share Nelson's detailed explanation of the play, which Ben transcribed after the game.
What did you think of the play that led to Carter's dunk?
That wasn't Vince. That was Sanity right there. I call him Sanity when he does stuff like that.
What did you see there?
Well, we ran a one-two pick-and-roll and ran it six or seven times in a row, and they never stopped it. Only reason why they stopped one of them is because he fell down. I think his knees gave out on him or something. I don't know, that wasn't Sanity right there. But that play worked well for us down the stretch and they had no way to guard it. They put LeBron [James] on me, they switched [Anthony] Parker onto me, and I don't think Vince has a matchup advantage in the post against LeBron so I thought I had a better matchup. Playing smart down the stretch helps us out.
How comfortable are you with the new play?
Well, when you have a situation where you have a good shooter in myself and a great offensive player in Vince Carter, you kinda put a team in what you would call a bind. They have to either show and leave him open or just not show and let me go. And the thing is, coach [Stan Van Gundy] did a great job of continuing to run that play after it worked once or twice. We kept going to it, trying to see what they were going to do and I would say it worked for us. We were fortunate enough for it to work for us.