The Nuggets have some adjustments to make and I thought I would put together some film to help them out. 

In this segment I look at the Nuggets poorly executed scheme when Camby’s man sets a ball screen.  Camby goes opposite of the screen to play the baseline.  The on the ball defender plays soft to prevent penetration away from the screen and they bring a third defender to cover the screen side incase the ball handler takes the screen. 

The biggest problem with that defense is Camby always allows the ball handler to just dribble past him through the paint and leaves Camby defending no one.  Meanwhile, whoever was set to cover the ball handler on the high side is stuck covering Camby’s man and leaves the Nuggets perimeter D lacking, even more so than usual. The other weakness this defense presents is with Camby roaming after the ball handler someone is left to defend the lane in front of the rim alone, which resulted in some of the easy buckets that were so frequently scored by the Lakers.

I recognize that this scheme is designed to allow Camby to stay closer to the rim, but it is just so poorly executed the Nuggets really have little chance to consistently make stops with this strategy.

The other really interesting thing I documented was the way the Nuggets pushed the pace and were aggressive with the ball during their run in the second quarter.  They looked completely different than the way they played the rest of the game.  They were not necessarily scoring on the break, but they were attacking from the start of the possession.

I also threw in a couple of other interesting clips as well so take a gander to get ready for game 2.

You can check other game videos in the Pickaxe and Roll Denver Nuggets Film Room.