FILM STUDY: How Brook Lopez FRUSTRATED Joel Embiid

Brook Lopez flat out frustrated Joel Embiid last night. Lopez played phenomenal defense on Embiid and even got a monster block. Brook actually also outscored Joel and kept him scoreless for the entire second half.
Let’s analyze the film and see exactly what happened. What up everybody, my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it.
Embiid dominates almost every matchup but against Lopez even in the past it’s never been bully ball.
This was the case once again last night. With Brook defending, the Bucks have the privilege of not double teaming Joel which is a huge plus.
Right here, he holds his ground and forces a contested fadeaway that Embiid can make, but this is a good defense and a miss.
You can clearly see here on this backdown that the Bucks big man is not going anywhere. Great defense, the contest, and another miss.
And watch what happens here: Joel is matched up against Giannis and on the drive is overpowering him, but we’ll rewind it a little to show you that Brook is following and rotates down low, so as we stop it right here- we see that Embiid would have been able to go up on the left side, but having Lopez there makes him come back right which gives Antetokounmpo just enough time to recover from that bump and go up for this phenomenal block at the rim.
And this is the same sequence, right after the block watch the quick glance back by Lopez and as soon as he notices that Embiid is kinda slow to get back, he hustles to the three point line, while his opponent isn’t. And he gets a completely wide open look as Joel is just now entering the frame, we got the shot and the swish. This was a tremendous effort on display on both ends of the floor.
And here’s another exact same example. A great rotation and block on Tobias Harris, and in transition, Lopez gets away from Embiid, or better said Joel doesn’t follow the action, so we got another wide open three…bang!
His movement and ability to stretch the floor was a problem for the Sixers big man on multiple occasions.
Watch him fool the entire Philly defense by slipping the screen right here and going straight down the middle for the alley oop. Amazing.
Stan Van Gundy who was doing the game took a moment to praise his incredible reinvention especially on the defensive end.
STAN VAN GUNDY
This was a hard fought game that went down to the last seconds, and in those games, it’s the little things that get you the win. And last night Brook Lopez did all that it takes for his team to be successful.
I always enjoy showcasing lesser known effort guys so hopefully you liked this video. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.