The entire side was cleared, giving Roger the space to go one-on-one with LBJ.
Mike Breen's eyes widened; Roger actually specifically called out to challenge James one-on-one!
From a tactical standpoint, this pick-and-roll was meaningless because Roger didn't use it to switch to a weaker defender.
Many people think that the pick-and-roll targeting strategy only came with the small ball era. In fact, it was already very popular in the early 21st century. Back then, the most assured hard solution for the Princeton Kings was to use Mike Bibby to run a 1-5 pick-and-roll to attack the immobile Shaq, which achieved remarkable results.
But the Lakers' three perimeter defenders this season are all excellent defensively. Phil Jackson assigned Chauncey Billups to defend Roger simply because he needed James to save more energy for offense. Plus, Billups is calmer.
Yet, in terms of overall defensive level, James is definitely not weak either.
