Welcome to The Passing Game, where we simply take the time to glorify the dimes being thrown all around us.
First up is Ricky Rubio, no stranger to the passing game…
It’s essentially a situation where Rubio has two rollers. Karl-Anthony Towns is the first roller, and Gordui Dieng, who just does a great job of making himself available, is the second. Brook Lopez gets help from Thaddeus Young on Towns’ roll, which frees up Dieng, but it’s Rubio’s quick awareness and no-look pass that deceives Young and gets Dieng a wide open dunk.
Next we have two Kings sequences in Toronto.
DeMarcus Cousins shows great awareness here, exposing terrible defense by Terrence Ross and hitting a cutting Omri Casspi for an and-one lay up.
The Kings had great spacing here and passed the ball beautifully starting with Rudy Gay passing out of a double team on the pick-and-roll. He swings to Omri Casspi who hits Cousins immediately on the roll, and Cousins finds an intentionally open Rajon Rondo, who knocks down a rare corner three.
How about this pass from Brook Lopez? After feeling out the double team, he retreats and send a bounce bass along the base line to Wayne Ellington in the opposite corner for an open three. Shabazz Muhammad was the defensive miscue by not dropping to the level of the ball, but the awareness by Lopez is outstanding.
