Western Conference Playoffs X's & O's Preview

X's & O's from every Western 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!

Either way, I thank you for reading, supporting & sharing my work and I hope I have been able to help.

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Denver Nuggets

Everything revolves around Jokic and his ability to not only create for others directly but draw the attention of the defense around the entire floor.

Throughout the game Jokic will navigate to the left block, right block, flash to the elbows, and nail as well as pick and pop to the 3 point line. While he prefers to post up on the right block (48% of time), he will continuously look for advantages all over the court and after kickouts become a threat off ball to cut the basket when the defense falls asleep.

Their go-to play when the game is on the line is going to be 2-man game between Jamal Murray & Jokic to look to keep it in their hands of their 2 best players.

When they need a bucket in ATO situations, they like to run a couple of looks for Murray, starting off with some decoy action like a stagger screen.

Here Green keeps it and has the option to hit Murray off a face cut, or go into a dribble hand off.

Another action they use out of Horns is to pass to Jokic at the elbow and then have Murray set a backscren and then come off a dribble hand off looking for a shot.

The best part about Jokic and his versatility? They will even run some of these actions for him in scenarios that guards are normally - so much you can do with a player like Jokic.

Minnesota Timberwolves

It’s hard to know much about the Minnesota Timberwolves with their early struggles in the season with both bigs and then KAT missing most of the season with an injury. They are caught between two different styles and what seems to be the preferred style of Finch with 5-Out cutting and screening actions.

We could see from the play in game without Gobert their offense looked alot more comfortable and natural until it grinded to a halt with nobody being able to make plays - although I doubt Gobert would alleviate that.

When they do need a bucket for KAT they go to a couple of different looks, with their main option setting a flare screen for him out of Delay. Tough action to guard by having normal looking action before it and then using a guard to set the flare screen.

Finch is creative and runs really good ATO’s as we can see with the blind pig set to start the game against the Lakers.

Another way they get the ball to KAT in ATO situations is to have Ant cut off the elbow out of Horns and then post up KAT after.

The times they do involve Gobert it is mostly combined with Conley and their ballscreen chemistry, Finch even mentioned how they stole the empty corner pick and roll action from Utah.

A concept they use will be a quick reversal and then kickback into a step-up ballscreen like they ran tonight against OKC:

Memphis Grizzlies

The Grizzlies playbook has a lot of fun and creative actions - especially ATO’s and special situations, but their biggest flaw has always been half court offense. Running in transition and offensive boards can be mitigated and with the loss of Adams and Clarke this will put a focus even more on half-court execution. In their flow offense a lot of what they look for is split action, especially out of the basic 5-Out “Wide” action and hitting the elbow.