This Week in Basketball: 1/19-1/24

Breaking Down Houston's Pick-and-Roll: One of the coolest part of new technologies is the ability for people to break down offensive plays in the NFL or NBA. Take for example this breakdown of the Houston Rockets pick-and-roll offense by Scott Rafferty. In this breakdown you see how easily the Rockets run the pick-and-roll and how creative they are at that play to make points. This is going to be huge for the Rockets, especially if they go 0-for-19 or whatever they went from behind the arc against OKC last Thursday.

Paul George is Great: You probably missed this dunk this past weekend so I need to post it here. Check out this in-game dunk by George against the Los Angeles Clippers. Eat your heart out, Blake Griffin.



OJ Mayo Is Not Happy With the Bucks: The Milwaukee Bucks are horrible. They're worst than the Sixers or the Jazz. And this isn't making OJ Mayo happy. Mayo signed a 3-year deal with Milwaukee this season and he isn't happy with the inconsistency of the overall team play or his own minutes. Check out this piece at Eye on Basketball.

The Ballad of Boogie: Jonathon Abrams is one of the best writers in all of writing in my opinion. And his latest story is a long profile of Demarcus Cousins of the Sacramento Kings. I do suggest reading this to better understand Cousins and what makes him tick and what makes him angry almost all the time.

Where James Harden Draws Fouls: When think of NBA players who draw fouls, who do you think of? You think of big men who patrol the paint drawing fouls because there are usually two other defenders in their trying to knock the ball loose. You do not think of James Harden a guard who draws quite a few fouls. Harden ranks fourth in the league in drawing fouls. Kirk Goldsberry of Grantland looks at where Harden draws these fouls.

Brooklyn Nets Gone Small: If you haven't been paying attention, the Brooklyn Nets have been the best team in basketball this month. And it's for one simple reason, they've gone small. Jack Winter looks at the Nets lineup since Brook Lopez went out with an injury and has found that the Nets have embraced small ball with great success. Who knew not having Lopez and Garnett on the floor at the same time would make the Nets faster and give them more floor space to defend and score?

David Stern Retrospective: With Stern retiring soon, Tom Ziller takes a look back at Stern's 30 years as the commissioner for the NBA. Everything from the "frozen envelope" to the dress code is looked on in this retrospective.

The Best of the Week: A look at the best upcoming games of the week.
Friday, January 24th San Antonio at Atlanta: The protege meets the mentor! If you watch Atlanta you'll see they play like the Spurs. Efficient and punishing. Even without Al Horford the Hawks just keep on rolling just like the Spurs.
Sunday, January 26th San Antonio at Miami: The rematch! What's interesting to see if the Spurs rest their big 3 again like they did the last time they visited Miami during the season.
Tuesday, January 28th Washington at Golden State: The Wizards are one of the most fascinating teams I've seen this season. Bradley Beal is turning into a star and John Wall is looking like the player we all thought he could be. Playing Golden State will be a real test for them.
Thursday, January 30th Phoenix at Indiana: You'd think this game would be on TNT right? It's not. Instead you get the millionth Knicks game and they're playing Cleveland out of all teams. Thank you schedule makers. I suggest finding a stream or buy League Pass because this is one of the better games you'll see all season.