Four-time NBA champion Draymond Green share his in-depth analysis of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals between the Lakers and the Nuggets.
The Warriors forward noted how Denver used the action that is labelled after the Greek legend Vassilis Spanoulis as he explained in detail how the action works and how the Nuggets were able to use it to their advantage.
“Another action that the Nuggets ran and got a lot out of it is called the Spanoulis action,” Green said. “Spanoulis is a Greek national player who played for 20 years EuroLeague, was drafted to the NBA by one of the Texas teams, maybe by the Spurs or Dallas, ended up playing with Houston or something of that nature.
“But he’s a Greek legend and he was famous for his cut you could essentially come from under the rum and you’re cutting up the lane and there’s a big hole in the ball maybe at the free-throw line, possibly a little higher, but right in the middle of the court.
“And you’re coming from under the rim, so up the floor and the big hands it off to you. Well, as you would imagine, all the defense’s down the floor, so once you hand off coming out, you’re open. Jamal Murray got some threes like that, KCP got a couple threes like that, Michael Porter Jr. got a couple of threes like that.
“But it also allowed them to get downhill. When they got downhill, now AD has to make a decision – I’m going to help with this guy coming downhill. If you help, guess what that opens up again pocket to Joker. So they were really good with the Spanoulis action.”
