From Mike Prada at SBNation: “Deron Williams was firmly in control in Game 1 of the Nets’ playoff series against the Bulls. Here’s a look at how he read the help defense beautifully and made plays for himself and others.

Deron Williams has been ballin’ for a while now, so it’s not a surprise that he was on top of his game in the Brooklyn Nets’ 106-89 Game 1 victory over the Chicago Bulls Saturday. But I want to focus on one element of Williams’ performance because it reveals a truism that’s often forgotten by basketball fans.

As the game has become more sophisticated, so too have defenses. It’s always been true that the back line has to be ready to help if someone gets beat off the dribble, but two things have happened to heighten the importance of help defenders.

The departure of hand-checking following the rule changed before the 2004-05 season placed an extra premium on positioning. Since it was so much more difficult to stop great perimeter players one-on-one, the second man has to anticipate having to help rather than waiting to come over when the first man is beaten. The relaxation of zone rules gave rise to new styles of defense that actually invited perimeter players to drive into certain areas where the help existed. On the flip side, it also gave rise to defenses that loaded up one side of the floor and clogged passing lanes to move it to the other side. Tom Thibodeau has long been seen as the man who started all this.

All this is to say that the game returned to its purest form. As an old high school coach once told me, success is determined by which side of the ball is the actor, not the reactor. If the offense can exploit a hole in the entire defensive alignment before the defense notices, it will succeed. By contrast, if the defense forces the offense to the area of the floor it wants, it will triumph.

How does this relate to Deron Williams? In Game 1, he exploited holes in the Bulls’ defense before they even noticed, and he did it not by reading his own man, but reading the man behind him.”

Read the rest of Prada’s take here: http://www.sbnation.com/2013/4/21/4247914/deron-williams-nets-bulls-nba-playoffs-2013