Earlier this season, over at out Project Spurs Network site AnalyzingTheLeague.com, we broke down the San Antonio Spurs’ Side Elevator play that gets a shooter an open 3-pointer through the use of two screens at the same time.
In their recent win against the Brooklyn Nets Wednesday, the Spurs ran their Mid Elevator screen set that opened a window for Patty Mills to shoot the center 3-pointer.
Here was the play from Wednesday’s game against the Nets.
This is a set the Spurs have used over the last few years, and specifically, they’ve traditionally run it for Mills, because he can quickly lose his defenders and burst through the screens from the bigs.
With the Spurs missing key players in Kawhi Leonard, Rudy Gay, and Manu Ginobili at the moment due to injuries, San Antonio has been giving Mills more minutes off the ball at the 2 to get him more efficient looks either off screen action or spot-up action.
Mills scored 25 points against the Nets and made a career high 7 three pointers in the game. Sets like the Mid Elevator and the Side Elevator show two ways the Spurs can get Mills some efficient looks rather than Mills just shooting pull-up shots off a screen.
