The Trailblazers' Beautiful First Play

A lot of NBA coaches like to start off the game with a set play.  It can hopefully get an easy look for a player and start a little bit offensive rhythm.  Portland's first play against Los Angeles was drawn up by Terry Stotts and executed to perfection by the players.

LaMarcus Aldridge gets the ball at the high post from Damian Lillard who then cuts and gets a brush screen from Nic Batum.  This initial action is really just to keep the defense guessing and maybe
create a switch.

Next comes a little dribble handoff between Aldridge and Batum.  Again, this is just to create some space and distract from the real action: a back screen by J. J. Hickson and backdoor cut by Wes Mathews.

Batum delivers and absolutely beautiful bounce pass between two defenders to the cutting Mathews.  Blake Griffin was distracted by the strongside action and can't help in time leaving an easy layup: