NBA Playoffs cheat sheet: 7 cool plays you missed from the Raptors, Bulls, and Clippers Game 2 victories

Before the NBA playoffs began, I listed 31 set plays and player quirks that these 16 teams use that you need to look closely to discover. Call them the Easter Eggs or the cheat sheet of the NBA Playoffs. Click the link to learn more about them. Each night, I’ll round up examples of those 31 set plays and examples of other interesting plays or player quirks that you may have missed.

PREVIOUSLY: April 15-16 | April 17

Tuesday’s Game 2s offered a fascinating look at three favorites that needed to make adjustments to come back in their respective series. Two did, while one didn’t in awful fashion.

In Wednesday’s edition of the Cheat Sheet, let’s talk about some nifty Rajon Rondo stuff, a critical Raptors adjustment, an underrated DeAndre Jordan play, three Cool Things You Missed from the original list that showed up in a big way, and more.

How about that Rondo throwback game! I haven’t seen Rondo as lively on both ends as he was in Game 2 since he donned a Celtics uniform many years ago. It was a beautiful reminder of how idiosyncratic his game is.

This set play is my favorite example. The Bulls designed a set that posted Rondo up at the elbow with Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler screening for each other in the left corner.

This is a similar look to the Cavaliers’ UCLA Seal play that was highlighted in the original Easter Eggs post. In that sequence, LeBron James stands at the elbow and tips a pass to Kyrie Irving slipping backdoor.

This Bulls play is different than UCLA Seal, but it’s similar to a number of other Cavaliers plays run with James at the elbow.

In this case, Rondo used his size advantage over Isaiah Thomas to pick out a perfect lob pass to Butler. Boston switched the Wade/Butler screen in the corner, so the Bulls took advantage of Butler’s size advantage over Avery Bradley.

A lot of folks are sharing this clip of Kelly Olynyk yanking Robin Lopez’s arm in the same way he dislocated Kevin Love’s shoulder in 2015.

But some additional context is needed here. Not to defend Olynyk’s actions in a vacuum, but Lopez is the king of holding help defenders’ arms and positioning his own body to prevent them from helping on drives. Lopez is just smarter at hiding it.

Just ask Al Horford.

Toss in Lopez’s utter domination on the offensive glass in the first half, and you can understand Olynyk doing whatever he needs to do. It’s the playoffs.

Lord knows why it took the Raptors a game to get over the sticker shock of the Bucks’ hyperactive trapping pick-and-roll defense, but they didn’t have much of a plan in Game 1 and got burned. That changed in Game 2 in two key ways, and it did just enough to even the series.

When DeMar DeRozan had the ball, the Raptors did something called “shorting” the pick and roll. As DeRozan accepted Milwaukee’s traps, a third player slid over from the wing to provide a passing lane. Rather than try to find the roll man immediately, DeRozan accepted Milwaukee’s pressure and quickly found that third guy. That triggered the necessary ball movement that allowed Toronto to take advantage of the 4-on-3 situations that resulted.

Sometimes, that led directly to a bucket.

Sometimes, it took a few passes.

Either way, it was an effective strategy.

Also an effective strategy: attacking the cup after the trap went away. That’s how Kyle Lowry was able to get off in Game 2. Watch his progression on this drive.

The Bucks’ general strategy on these traps is to bring length, aggressively slide the other three defenders over to one side of the court, then have all five defenders get back to their men as quickly as possible.

That last point is key for Lowry’s approach. Knowing that the Bucks always want to recover, Lowry brought the Bucks’ trap to him without intending to pick up his dribble. Once the Bucks thought the play was contained, they began scurrying back to their men. At that point -- and only at that point — Lowry took his man off the dribble and got to the hoop as the Bucks’ other defenders were scrambling. That got him and his teammates good looks, especially because he generally drove the opposite way from the trap.

Credit Dwane Casey for those adjustments, but also be concerned that a) it took a game, and b) the Raptors nearly lost anyway.

With Rudy Gobert sidelined, Jordan dominated Game 2 on the inside. But I’ll posit that the play he made that singlehandedly affected the game’s outcome the most happened much, much further from the hoop.

With the Jazz down eight late in the game, Jordan ended up switched onto Gordon Hayward thanks to a nice Jazz screening action. Seeing the switch, Hayward tried a common tactic guards use to get the space needed to exploit the mismatch. He tossed the ball back to a teammate and cut to get it back far away from the hoop so he could get a running start.

But Jordan blew the play up by never letting Hayward get the ball back.

The Jazz were forced to settle for a wild Joe Johnson fadeaway that bricked off the back rim.

First, Griffin contested Derrick Favors at the rim, ran straight to Hayward, and punished him with a dunk.

Then, Griffin pinned Johnson damn near on the baseline for another layup.

Nothing went right for Boston in Game 2, but at least they ran this nice wrinkle on their classic “Loop” set.

Instead of finding Terry Rozier racing around the paint, Olynyk dribbled at Bradley on the opposite side. The Bulls, expecting a dribble handoff, tried to deny the ball. That allowed Bradley to cut backdoor for a dunk.

Thanks to a number of you for pointing this perfect crunch-time example of Giannis Antetokounmpo beginning the play as a pick-and-roll ball-handler and ending the play as a devastating pick-and-roll roll man.

Worth noting that this amazing Stretch Armstrong rebound and putback also came on a play where Giannis switched roles.