Film Room: How Miles Kelly caught fire at Kentucky

ABC's generator wasn't the only thing at Rupp Arena that was in flames, as Kelly's nine 3s powered an Auburn title-clincher.

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(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Two years ago, Auburn traveled to Rupp Arena and hit seven 3-pointers as a team in a 32-point blowout loss to Kentucky.

On Saturday, Miles Kelly matched that total — by himself — in the first 25 minutes of a 16-point, SEC championship-clinching victory in Lexington.

Then Kelly hit two more for good measure, proving that the generator powering ABC’s broadcast of the game wasn’t the only thing on fire.

It was a historic performance in a historic win. Kelly, the sniper who turned down the NBA and everyone else in the transfer portal to join Auburn this offseason, delivered his best game in order to claim what he told Bruce Pearl was his first-ever title.

“Every time I shot the ball, I thought it was going in,” Kelly said afterwards.

He finished 9-of-14 from beyond the arc, just one triple shy of tying the Auburn single-game record. He went for it, though, letting a deep shot fly with 1:13 left as the traveling Tigers crowd roared in celebration, singing their way to the final buzzer.

But the way Kelly — and Auburn — started the game mattered far more than how he ended it.

After winning the opening tip, Auburn executed a masterfully designed play to get Kelly a 3-pointer on their very first possession.

Empty-Side Spain Hammer

To initiate the early action, Denver Jones dribble-pitches the ball left to Kelly, who loops behind him from the left wing before quickly kicking it over to Johni Broome at the high right slot.

After the first pass, Jones cuts from the left wing down and across the baseline while receiving an up-screen from Dylan Cardwell. On the ball, Broome runs a dribble pitch to his right to Chad Baker-Mazara, who cuts to receive it from the strong-side corner.

Let’s freeze here to focus on the right side of the court. Baker-Mazara now has the ball on the wing after receiving the pitch from Broome, who is setting up for a side ball screen. Meanwhile, Jones halts his baseline cut, positioning himself in the mid-post along the right lane line.

This sets up a three-man action we’ll call “Empty-Side Spain.” It’s “empty” because the strong-side (ball-side) corner is vacant. The “Spain” action refers to a back-screen for the ball-screener (Broome) out of a stack, usually with bottom-side man (Jones, in this case) popping out.

Play. After delivering the pitch and setting the ball screen, Broome makes his cut. Jones sets that back-screen for the National Player of the Year frontrunner and pops up to the right wing. After Baker-Mazara catches the pitch, he drag-dribbles up to the slot — momentarily selling a pass to Broome.

Now, let’s shift our focus to the left side of the court. While the Empty-Side Spain action is occupying Kentucky’s defense — and most of its attention — on one half of the floor, Auburn is executing a hammer screen on the other.

A “Hammer” screen is an off-ball up-screen that is set on the weak side — that is, the opposite of where the ball is — with the cutter moving down to the nearby corner. And Cardwell lands a perfect one, laying the hammer down literally on Kentucky star, Otega Oweh.

Notice Andrew Carr, the man responsible for the screening Cardwell, has his eyes on the basketball. Cardwell does an excellent job of holding his position on the screen and ensures that Oweh is hung up for an extra beat on Kelly’s fade with no help to be found.

The result is a wide-open look for Kelly, right in front of Mark Pope and the Kentucky bench.

Corner 3. Bang. Auburn has set the tone, and it’s done so exactly the way it wanted.

“I mean, I just came out feeling it,” Kelly said. “The first possession down, they went to me, and I knocked the shot down. After that, I was feeling it from there.”

According to friend of the newsletter Henry Patton, in all but one of Auburn’s SEC road games this season, the Tigers’ first or second shot has been a Kelly 3-pointer.

The creative action drawn up by Pearl and offensive coordinator Mike Burgomaster might have caught Kentucky off guard. But, as Pearl noted afterwards, the Wildcats had to know an early 3-point look for Kelly was coming.

“I mean, scouting is so good,” Pearl said. “I guarantee you Kentucky knew one of the first looks was gonna be ‘screen the screener’ for Miles Kelly. And when you call that number — when you call his play early — obviously, I'm sending him a message that we have confidence in him.”

And there’s nothing better for confidence than drilling a 3-pointer on the opening possession of the game, in one of the most historic venues in the sport, right in front of your opponent’s bench.

“It means a lot,” Kelly said. “First play down, we come out and hit a 3 on the very first possession. It just brings the overall team energy up. When you hit your first shot, you just have ultimate confidence the rest of the game, and that's what I have.”

For the rest of the game, Auburn’s offensive strategy showed just how much confidence it had in Kelly. And Kelly, in turn, showed how much confidence he had in himself.

In a wide variety of ways, Kelly’s nine made 3-pointers against Kentucky illustrated what makes him such a dangerous veteran scorer for the newly crowned outright champions of the toughest conference ever — and what makes that attack one of the best in the entire country.