The Los Angeles Lakers came out victorious on Monday night against the Denver Nuggets. Although the Nuggets did not play their starters in a majority of the final quarter against the Lakers, it was still an impressive win for the purple-and-gold and may mark their last win of that nature with their final game being on Thursday against the Sacramento Kings. The win was secured behind a game-winning three-pointer from Kyle Kuzma off of a beautifully designed play from Frank Vogel out of the timeout. Kuzma said it was a play that they had done in practice a few times, with Vogel giving even more clarity on the play afterward.
Vogel said he stole that last play of the game, which led to Kuzma’s game winner, from the Atlanta Hawks when Mike Budenholzer was their coach and used to run it for Kyle Korver and Paul Millsap.
— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) August 11, 2020
Vogel, not afraid to point out that this was no original idea of his own, states that he actually stole the play from watching the Atlanta Hawks back in the day. Then, they were helmed by up-and-coming head coach Mike Budenholzer who is now one of the acclaimed coaches in the NBA and was recently voted as a finalist for the Coach of the Year award. Vogel pointed out that they would run the play for Kyle Korver and Paul Millsap, with the Lakers running it yesterday with Anthony Davis and Kyle Kuzma. Below you can see a clip of the exact Hawks play that Vogel is referencing, courtesy of Positive Residual on Twitter. In the play, the three ends up being covered, but there’s always an extra option for the play with Korver dumping it to Millsap.
As Frank Vogel discloses, he got this play from Mike Budenholzer and the Hawks. Here’s one implementation of the play, courtesy of @RyanPannone. https://t.co/hvrYfe2eAP https://t.co/8sNSjzLwws https://t.co/xmJDCXi38m pic.twitter.com/6RXMVqXmF0
— Positive Residual (@presidual) August 11, 2020
Frank Vogel spoke in depth about his absence from the NBA when he was first signed. His words reflected a coach that may have realized the game outgrew him as he said that he really dove into some film to gain a better understanding of today’s NBA. This may have been a play he picked up during that absence, as Budenholzer is as good of a coach as any to mimic.
