Every NBA Playoff Team's Philosophy Summed Up in One Video

Nearly through the first round of the NBA Playoffs, we're starting to figure out what each team is bringing to the table, and how they're approaching advancing into the next round.

While some teams wear their philosophies on their sleeves, others tend to go about playing their game in a variety of different ways, but generally coming to the same conclusion whether it be offensively or defensively.

The Golden State Warriors, for example, won't shy away from taking any and every three-pointer that comes their way, but they do tend to go about finding different alleys to walk down in order to get an open three-pointer.

Of course, with the way they've been shooting they're just as likely to drain a 30-footer out of a triple-team, so I suppose you could call them unpredictable.

Other teams, like the San Antonio Spurs, start with one basic tenant and grow in about 40 different directions from there.

There's been a lot of sophisticated offensive direction so far in the playoffs, with a dash of fun defense here and there.

In order to get a good look at how each of these series' have been played, with very little effort on your part, we can go through and get one solid example of what each team tries to do every time down the floor.

Houston Rockets

Offensive Philosophy: Penetrate, offensive rebound, shoot from range.

It's rare that you'll get a clip that shows the three main portions of an offense that routinely scores more than 120 points in just 12 seconds, but this play from early in Game 2 in the Houston Rockets' loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder is just perfect.

What they've done all season long is rely on three-point shooting, but not solely. What they end up getting is a lot of help from Omer Asik on the offensive glass, and some penetration from James Harden and Jeremy Lin.

So, what do we get here? Oh nothing but Harden driving to the rim, missing a layup, Asik getting an offensive rebound and Francisco Garcia knocking down a three-pointer.

If you watch one Rockets game all season, you'll see a ton of exactly that. It probably all won't happen right in a row very often, but you'll get that in almost every play.

Milwaukee Bucks

Two-way Philosophy: Force the change in possession, score on the break.

The Milwaukee Bucks in the half-court offense is a very dangerous thing. Not dangerous in that other teams should be afraid of it, dangerous in that they're absolutely horrible in the half court if shots aren't falling.

While it may not have been the Bucks' No. 1 goal to score on the fast break against the Miami Heat, it was definitely a goal of the team to force the ball into the other direction and get attempts with the man advantage.

This can work in a number of ways, whether it be a steal near the top of the key, an intercepted pass in the post or, like this, a Larry Sanders block that sends the play moving in the other direction.

What it does is keep Monta Ellis from settling for three-pointers (he shot 16 percent from downtown in their four losses), and gets the momentum going into the post.

Unfortunately for the Bucks, they didn't get quite enough of this to even land them one win.

Los Angeles Lakers

Philosophy: Pau Gasol as the pivot.

With the Los Angeles Lakers essentially working without a point guard for the final two games of this series, the onus fell on Pau Gasol to take over the ball distributing duties whenever he was on the floor.

That generally consisted of Gasol getting into position and playing the pivot, which is an old-school role for an NBA big. Basically he'll find his place in the high post, generally at one of the corners of the free-throw line, and hold the ball high.

From there, Gasol can either take his man off the dribble, go up for a jumper or wait for the play to unfold around him. At that point he's going to either hit somebody cutting along the baseline, Dwight cutting from the opposite end of the free-throw line or a spot-up shooter looking to knock down a three.

So why didn't this work? Basically the Lakers didn't have enough shooters or enough cutters to offer a consistent threat. San Antonio was able to work out that the ball was either going to Howard in the post, or Steve Blake or Antawn Jamison on one of the elbows.

Boston Celtics

Philosophy: Paul Pierce as the point, Jeff Green runs the break.

When the Boston Celtics lost Rajon Rondo, they lost more than just the guy who brings the ball up the floor and finds open shooters.

Rondo was a point guard that they could always count on to run the fast break, and with Jeff Green and Avery Bradley both healthy, he would actually have somebody to run the break with.

Without Rondo, Boston found themselves without a consistent point guard, and without a capable ball-handler to take the ball when they found a rare opportunity to push the tempo.

Suddenly their offensive game goes to Paul Pierce running the point, Jeff Green getting out and running on a break (usually alone) every once in a while, and the Celtics shooting a ton of jump shots.

At least they aren't getting swept.

Golden State Warriors

Philosophy: Screens for shooters, and a ton of Stephen Curry iso-threes.

Really, you could just describe Golden State's offensive philosophy as "LOLYOLO!" when you watch them play. So many inconceivably bad shots end up falling that it seems like they're trying to drive their own fans and everybody watching at home insane.

However, when you realize just how good Curry is at getting a shot off regardless of how close his defender is, a lot more of their shots become acceptable.

"

Via Synergy going into the night, Curry missed both open looks. Nailed 6 of 9 guarded.10 of 15 on jumpshots off the dribble.

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) April 29, 2013"

"

Via Synergy, of Curry's 11 catch and shoot opportunities (not sure if tonight is factored), 9, NINE were guarded. Two unguarded.

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) April 29, 2013"

Basically, Curry is allowed to do whatever he wants with the ball, while the rest of the team goes off screens (often using their now-famous elevator screen) to find open shots.

Of course, there's also Jarrett Jack's God Mode to factor into the offense, which consists of him going into isolation for 15 seconds, driving into the lane and shooting a ridiculous fadeaway on three consecutive possessions, all of which fall.

Atlanta Hawks

Philosophy: Pace, three-pointers and drives to the rim.

In Atlanta's two wins over the Indiana Pacers this series, they've gone with a bigger lineup capable of rebounding, but also capable of running a faster pace because of Josh Smith and Al Hoford being able to run the floor.

What the Hawks look to do, ideally, is get a rebound and kick it to midcourt as quickly as possible. If they've got numbers, they sprint to the hoop.

If that's not available, Atlanta will work the ball inside and then kick it out to the perimeter, looking for an open three-pointer.

Should that not be an option, we then go into Josh Smith isolation mode, which can go one of two ways.

Here you see him do the smart thing, put the ball on the floor and get to the rim. However, he's also prone to pull up and crank off an ill-advised three-pointer at any moment. If it seems incredibly unlikely to fall, it generally goes in.

As surprising as it sounds, this Atlanta attack is actually pretty fun to watch.

Memphis Grizzlies

Philosophy: Perimeter to the high post. High post to low post.

The Memphis Grizzlies have the advantage of using a point guard around the perimeter who is an increasingly capable passer (Mike Conley), and then a secondary, enormous point guard in the high post who has the crazy Gasol passing gene (Marc Gasol).

Both players have it ingrained in their DNA to look for the pass first, which generally leads to open shooters getting the ball quite often, but they're both capable of taking the ball off the dribble and working in isolation.

Here you get to see their ideal tic-tac-toe play, their two passers passing, and the big mean finisher in the post putting down a layup.

Conley drops it down to Gasol in the high post, who sees Zach Randolph cutting, and puts the ball right in his pocket as he goes up for a layup.

Chicago Bulls

Philosophy: Concentrate on the dangerous players.

The Chicago Bulls are the only team that I decided to focus specifically on defensively, because that's how Chicago is able to initiate most of their offense.

Odd-man rushes down the court are generally a result of good defense, both of which are what Chicago focuses on.

Coming into their series against the Brooklyn Nets, they knew exactly who to worry about, and who wasn't going to sink a shot if their lives depended on it. In this case, they double-team Brook Lopez in the post and concentrate on Joe Johnson and Deron Williams constantly.

As far as the starting lineup goes, they completely ignore Gerald Wallace on the perimeter, just keeping an eye out for a cut. Meanwhile, they just pretend like Reggie Evans doesn't even exist.

It's going to be interesting to see how they're able to deal with the Miami Heat if they make it to the next round, but for now they seem fine getting beat if Wallace makes three-pointers or if Evans makes any shot, ever.

Los Angeles Clippers

Philosophy: Distraction, pin-down screens and back-door cuts.

The Los Angeles Clippers are blessed with a flurry of solid passers, which is why they've been able to come up with an assist on 71 of their 136 field goals through four games in the playoffs, despite matching up against a team that plays passing lanes incredibly well.

Unlike the Grizzlies, however, the Clippers tend to play the passing game from the perimeter, using a series of screens, or simply letting a corner shooter go forgotten about with some top-of-the-key isolation for a good chunk of the shot clock.

In this clip you see the unlikely hookup of Lamar Odom and Eric Bledsoe, Odom hitting the baselined Bledsoe after Mike Conley completely forgets about Bledsoe in the corner.

Generally their cuts aren't quite this explosive, but they look for streak to the rim quite a bit, generally coming from the other side of the court while the defense concentrates on Chris Paul or Blake Griffin on the other side.

Brooklyn Nets

Philosophy: Feed the beast.

We're getting to the point where counting Brook Lopez as the most polished offensive center is no longer a debate, and these playoffs are definitely helping his case.

Lopez led the team in scoring in the regular season, picking up 19.4 points per game, and he's taken another step forward in the playoffs, averaging 23.6 points through Brooklyn's first five games in the playoffs.

We saw the Chicago Bulls completely ignore two players in the Nets' starting lineup a few slides back, so it goes without saying Gerald Wallace and Reggie Evans will do little more than set screens on offense.

Deron Williams will generally work off those screens, sometimes going to the pick-and-roll with Lopez, while Joe Johnson is generally an isolation worker.

On nearly every possession, Brooklyn will at least look to get the ball down into the post and they're generally successful, as Lopez leads the team in usage in the playoffs, coming off at a 28.7 usage percentage thus far.

Denver Nuggets

Philosophy: Work the body.

There's a reason why the Golden State Warriors have continually gone to the zone defense to slow the Denver Nuggets down when they get going. Denver works the paint relentlessly.

Generally they want to get out and run and finish at the rim in transition, but they haven't been able to do that quite as much as they would have liked through the first five games of the series.

However, with Ty Lawson, Andre Iguodala, Wilson Chandler and yes, even Andre Miller capable of taking the ball into the lane off the dribble, they have plenty of ways to get there in a half-court set.

What they tend to do quite often is take one of their isolation players, get them into the lane in any way possible, and have them followed up by either Kenneth Faried or JaVale McGee.

Once they get into the lane, the isolation player will usually go up for a shot with McGee or Faried there to rebound, or they'll dump it off to their helper in order to get the defense sliding over to cover the cutting man.

Whatever their means, the end is always to attack the middle.

Indiana Pacers

Philosophy: Help defense and low-post offense.

When the game goes down to the wire, the Indiana Pacers will often look at Paul George and tell him to go do his thing.

However, to keep him from getting completely gassed, they attack the post with their big men, and that's the goal on both ends of the floor.

David West and Roy Hibbert tend to have each other's backs quite well, looking out for a post-up while simultaneously being aware of Josh Smith's and Al Horford's ability to pass across the lane to one another when the help defender gets overzealous.

Hibbert showed the best way to deal with this, waiting as long as possible to come over and block the shot attempt, and then get the ball out to George Hill as West has already taken off.

The rest of the job is to just attack the post through West, Hibbert, George or Tyler Hansbrough.

San Antonio Spurs

Philosophy: Be smarter than everybody else.

San Antonio employs a bunch of smart dudes. If that's a revelation to you then go and watch their offense flow together, it's generally awesome.

Sure, they do go into plenty of patches where they'll devolve into Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili or Tim Duncan working their respective isolation plays, but when they're working together to get each other open shots is when they're doing what Gregg Popovich wants to see.

To sum up what they do is extremely difficult, but it's generally just putting the defense into opportunities to make a mistake, and then capitalizing when they finally do something wrong.

Here you see the Lakers overload the left side as three sets of eyes are on Tony Parker. That's a bad situation for them to begin with, but Duncan makes it worse for the Lakers by setting a screen on Metta World Peace.

World Peace has no time to recover as Kawhi Leonard streaks to the rim, and by the time Pau Gasol realizes that Parker was throwing an alley-oop, and not taking a shot, it's too late.

It's just one of roughly a bazillion ways that San Antonio's offense is able to take advantage of a sloppy defense. Perhaps that's why they swept the Lakers.

New York Knicks

Philosophy: Ride the hot hand.

Streaking offense is what the New York Knicks have rode all year long, and they didn't tend to go away from it once the playoffs started.

New York averaged the fewest assists per game in the NBA during the regular season, so seeing them stick to hard-and-fast isolation is probably the best thing for them. They work with teamwork through screens for the ball-handler, or off-ball screens to get another isolation player open.

If somebody is hot, they keep going to him. It's not that hard to come up with, and it's plenty effective when you've got shooters like J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony who tend to stay hot.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that the Knicks rely on three-pointers falling too much, but there is a reason why they had a terribly cold January and February when the three-pointers didn't fall like rain during a monsoon. 

Oklahoma City Thunder

Philosophy: When the game's on the line, get out of the way.

During the first 43 minutes of a game, there's plenty of teamwork shown. Kevin Durant does a great job of getting his shooters involved, and other players are even allowed to take the ball up the floor. 

However, now that the Oklahoma City Thunder are without Russell Westbrook, don't be surprised if the Thunder go into full-court isolation with other players touching the ball to either help Durant when he's trapped, or to take a wide-open three-pointer.

Durant is now the first, second and third option when the game is on the line, and as you can see, he can deal with every player on the floor knowing that he's coming to the basket.

That's not to say that Durant isn't going to pass the ball off, it's just that he's going to be the one deciding whether or not to pass to an open shooter, and he's going to be the one taking the ball in out of bounds.

It's an interesting development that could become the Thunder's downfall later on in the playoffs, but it seems as if they'll be just fine for now.

Miami Heat

Philosophy: Drive and kick.

Open three-pointers are the lifeblood of NBA offenses today, and with all the good shooters and terrific distractions that the Miami Heat have, they're one of the best at finding a shooter for an open look.

When they get a shooter hot, they're deadly.

Of course, the Heat also thrive on forcing turnovers in the backcourt and then sprinting down court for an easy dunk, alley-oop or even the rare transition three-pointer every once in a while.

However, when they're in their half-court set, the main goal of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade is to drive to the hoop, and if they happen to see an open Ray Allen, Mario Chalmers, Shane Battier, Mike Miller or LeBron in the process, look for the kick.

If not, at least they've got a guy driving to the lane with the opportunity to finish at the rim or get fouled in the process.