Eastern Conference Playoffs X's & O's Preview

X's & O's from every Eastern Conference Playoff team.

The NBA Playoffs are officially set after the Play-In games and so it’s time to look at the big picture X’s & O’s for each team and what they normally run as well as some specials they will include. I will be doing game & series breakdowns/previews throughout the playoffs - the best way to support is to become a paid subscriber with the NBA Playoffs Sale!

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Milwaukee Bucks

Everything revolves around Giannis and then Jrue/Middleton taking advantage of their matchups in Budenholzer’s free-flowing offense. Bud talks a lot about “Flow” offense and playing fast and free and allowing the players to play without thinking.

The Bucks system does play well into playoff offense, since it is based off reads and chemistry that the Bucks have continued to have with Giannis/Jrue/Middleton, and a lot of it starts with a quick hand off on the wing or flip up top.

Another way they will attack early is with ballscreens and using multiple players in multiple positions - especially guards in the dunkers spot with a high ballscreen up top.

They will also screen for Giannis with lots of reads and options for flipping the angle of the screen, ghosting the screen, and putting the other team’s worst defender in ballscreen defense.

When they do look to run plays the main one they run is “Stack” for Middleton to come off and get a ballscreen - a go-to look for him and Giannis setting it.

Budenholzer loves his counters and they run several off this stack action with an elbow touch - their favorites being a backscreen into a dribble hand off and then a screen away into a dribble hand off.

But when it matters most, they give the ball to Giannis and let him decide how it goes and where he wants it - typically an ISO in the middle of the floor or if they do look to post him up it’s on the left block.

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Full Breakdown on the Bucks defense and a change that has me excited for their playoff run:

Miami Heat

Everything is going to revolve around Jimmy Butler & Bam, but we saw how when it matters most that Jimmy Butler will take over and use his incredible footwork and physicality to find the other team’s weak spot. Since we have film from the play-in games we are going to look at the crunch-time offense since that is the most replicable for the upcoming playoffs.

Butler prefers to get to his spots from the mid-post and uses his footwork to find creative angles to finish.

Avoiding the preswitch is something that NBA teams in the playoffs are going to do as we see Caruso switch off here with Lavine and then Butler controlling space after.

Butler decides to avoid all of this and tells Herro to continue to put Vucevic in ballscreen defense.

The Heat will look to put the other teams weak spot in ballscreen defense, against the Bulls they looked to find Lavine. The Bulls did a great job pre-switching him out with Beverly here but the Heat continuously look to get him involved.

Although the Bulls did a great job pre-switching him out with Beverly here but the Heat continuously look to get him involved and the weakside exchange opens up the drive and kick 3.

Boston Celtics

The Celtics offense has been 5-Out based this season since Rob Williams missed time and under Mazzulla they have been much better about their pace and space actions.