Thanks to John Hollinger at ESPN (insider) for pointing out that isolation offenses aren’t as effective in the playoffs, where preparation is much easier than it is in the regular season:

I wrote an article recently about playoff myths — things people think change in the playoffs, but in fact don’t.

However, there’s another piece to that puzzle. Perhaps there are things people don’t think change in the playoffs, but in fact do.

I may have accidentally stumbled upon one in observing my two “home” teams, Atlanta and Portland, compete in the playoffs over the past two seasons. Watching the Hawks in particular, nearly every commentator has been shocked by how little ball movement their offense generates and how many times they end up isolating Joe Johnson while everybody else stands around and watches.

This complaint might sound familiar to folks in the Northwest, because it’s not altogether different from what the Blazers do with Brandon Roy. Both teams’ fan bases constantly complain about the lack of originality and shameless predictably inherent in such an attack.

And:

In other words, theirs is a volume strategy. The Hawks and Blazers might not take better shots than other teams, but they take a lot more of them. Over time, that gives them enough of an advantage to make them potent offensive squads overall.

So what’s the problem?

Apparently, there isn’t one … until Game 83. Remember when I was talking about things that change in the playoffs? One change is that these iso-heavy offenses apparently have a lot more trouble when opponents have time to game plan against them in a playoff series.

Take a look at the playoff results from these teams the past two seasons, and the conclusion is hard to ignore. If this happened in any one playoff series, we might be able to dismiss it as a short-term fluke. But the fact that it’s happened six times in six series tells us that maybe something about isolation-heavy offenses doesn’t function well in an environment in which opponents have several days to scout, game-plan and match up for this specific tactic.

I guess we all love it when we find others who agree with us. I think I take special delight when it’s someone I particularly respect. Hollinger — along with Henry Abbott and his True Hoop — are two guys, by themselves, worth the few cents a year that ESPN Insider costs. They know what they’re talking about.

And man, how long have we all been saying this about Nate McMillan’s “Here Brandon, take the ball one-on-three and score” offense?

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Like I said on “Talkin’ Ball” last night, this was not a game to get worried about. In their fifth game in seven days, the Blazers played a very good game. In fact, that’s as well as they’ve played all season.

In mid-November, you can’t get worked up about the outcome, it’s how you’re playing that really counts. I said that in some of the Portland wins — yes, it was fine that the Blazers won but the real issue was they weren’t playing well.

I’d like to have seen Rudy Fernandez get some shots early in overtime. The guy hits a stunner like the one he buried to tie the game at the buzzer, I’d come out in the overtime and want to try to ride him. Instead, he really didn’t get much of a chance until it was a pretty hopeless situation. And he responded favorably.

Portland opened the game establishing both Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge in the post. Now THAT’s how you’re supposed to start games. It’s too bad that later it reverted to more of a perimeter game.

And I’d also mention that this game showed how much it hurts the team to start — and use throughout the game — three guards. Portland was pounded on the boards all night long and a lot of it was just expecting the two big men to do all the rebounding.

You’ve got to get boards from your small forwards and off-guards, too. Portland’s stock in trade is rebounding the ball but that’s going to be difficult to maintain against the more active or taller teams without another forward in the lineup.

UPDATE — forgot to mention this earlier. The zone defense really makes it difficult to rebound, too. It was effective in terms of getting misses out of the Hawks, but blocking out when you’re playing zone is problematical and Atlanta found numerous paths to the offensive boards. Long-term, zones are usually not much of a solution in the NBA.

Good game, though. Atlanta is getting a lot out of its talent right now. Be interesting to see if the Hawks can keep it up for a significant length of time.

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Got totally blacked out on this one. No Internet feeds available, that I could find. Whoever is trying to stamp out this piracy stuff was on the job today. You’d think that a guy who stars (yeah, right) on his own Comcast Sportsnet show could get them to run a cable out to his house, wouldn’t you?

Nope, been here 13 years now and still no cable.

So I can’t really tell you much, other than — were you truly surprised by the outcome? Until the Trail Blazers start playing consistent defense, this stuff will keep happening. Allowing plus-50 percent shooting just isn’t going to get it done.

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The Trail Blazers go on the road tonight — well, actually, it’s listed as a home game — to meet the Atlanta Hawks in Kansas City. Why Kansas City? This is apparently the exhibition game that’s usually played in Corvallis or Eugene.

From the Blazer media guide, perhaps this has something to do with it:

“From 1999-2002, (Kevin) Pritchard served as general manager, head coach and director of player personnel for the Kansas City Knights of the ABA, winning the ABA championship in 2001-02. A member of the 1988 Kansas Jayhawks NCAA Championship team, Pritchard is one of the University of Kansas’ all-time best. He averaged 12.2 points over four seasons while starting 129 of 139 games, was an all-Big 8 selection as a senior and was named to the All-Big 8 Academic Team three times. He ranks among the Jayhawks’ all-time top 10 in scoring, assists, steals and 3-pointers.”

I can’t believe I didn’t realize it sooner, but it’s a homecoming game for Kevin Pritchard! Can you imagine how rewarding it must have been to be the coach, general manager and director of player personnel for a team — then win the championship? Talk about building a franchise single-handedly. . .

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