86 replies to this topic

[Willk]

Good points. Welcome to the Western Conference, where the seeding doesn't matter and every team would be a #3 seed in the East! (or better...)

Edit: Just went to confirm my statement. Did you know Indy (#1 in East) would be the #4 seed in the West? Houston, Portland, and Miami all have the same record? We'd be the freakin' #2 seed in the East. Wow. That is all.

This is the toughest Western Conference I have ever seen. Memphis is beating OKC. The Mavs have outplayed the Spurs for 7 out of the 8 quarters and should be up 2-0. Record wise the Pacers would be the #4 seed in the West, but don't you think if they were in the west they would be contending for the 8th seed?

[Willk]

The guard closest to LMA should double him while the other guard covers his man. LMA would have to make a cross court pass to get to the open man which should allow the guard to rotate back and contest. Same thing that Dwight managed to do with Bev. But not suggesting they do this all the time. Problem is I have never seen Harden ever double someone, nor do I think he will expend the effort to rotate. I can see this happening if we have Bev and Lin on the court without Harden, as those two will give the effort on D.

The Rox D is pretty sad because of one guy not giving effort affecting the rest of the rotation. Everytime I see Harden on a PF I want to scream, because they don't move around too much as Harden doesn't move around too much, and that is where they try to hide him, With two relatively slow wing defenders that play 40 minutes, no wonder it's tough to get stops against a pick and pop, mid range shooting superstar.

if you double than the defense has to rotate. If the other team makes a couple of passes they will either find an open player, find a mismatch, or someone will be trying to box out someone who is much taller than them which compromises your defensive rebounding. LMA is a much better passer than Howard so I doubt doubling will rattle LMA. The Blazers are doubling after Howard makes his initial move to the basket. LMA is not attacking the basket so you cannot copy what the Blazers are doing to Howard. He catches and shoots a lot thus making double teaming impossible.
Harden has been giving a good effort on the defensive side for the last 6 quarters. Harden has been playing bad on Offense but he has been putting in effort on the defensive side. The only time Harden was on a big the last game was when the Rox went small and the blazers had robin Lopez & LMA on the floor. I have no problem w/ Harden guarding a big in this situation.

[Willk]

the 3 philosophy is a bit a a misnomer. Spurs and heat take a good amount. However, their offense has more structure while the rockets are unstructured. Of course those teams have a more balanced offense as well. Rockets need to fill out their playbook and incorporate more options on offence. Developing midrange options in the playbook while developing players midrange skills. The system needs to become more complete.

the spurs and heat also have been together longer so their offensive philosophy has evolved over time. This team has been together for 1 year.

[Willk]

Mr. wilk
what is your point in calling people out.
Not trying to talk about you, but why make personal suggestion about people you don't know. Our best player is james harden and d12. Those two guys set the pace for this team. Not sure why you would ask who our best player is.. Not sure what game you are looking at our perimeter defense is bad. The first thing you learn in playing defense is keep your man in front of you and move your feet. That's is elementary in playing defense, not letting your man get past you then trying to reach in from behind that awful defense. No disrespect toward you, but when you call people out. please have a clue about basketball. i wish you the best on this site, i will not add to the fire until the series is over. i tell my grandchildren to stay in front of the ball and at that the first then you learn while playing defense to move YOUR FEET..

No disrespect to you.
You said the rockets need to get the ball out of LMA's hands. I asked how do you do that? Please answer.
You also said the best players guard the other team's best players I.e. Lebron vs Parker. I asked who should be guarding LMA and then you told me that Howard and Harden are the team's best players. Again you did not answer. Also, who should be guarding Lillard?
Thanks for the lesson on defense. How many times did Harden swipe at the ball yesterday? Once and he knocked the ball to someone who decided to let the ball roll out of bounds for some reason.

[Johnny33]

Where to start......  First of all, I agree with pretty much everything Rahat posted.  This team relies too much on Harden to make things happen. Too often it's Harden, or Parsons, or Lin, taking turns going 1 on 5 with the rest of the team standing around.  The half court execution has been awful all year, but a few lucky shots or brilliant plays can cover up that fact.  Compound the problem with the fact this team plays without a floor general type PG - even with Lin on the floor he's usually not running set plays.  This is a team lacking leadership.  They don't have anyone going "ok guys, let's get into ____ set, let's get a score here" to calm the team down.

 

I've been up and down on McHale all season, but one thing really stood out to me - I believe he was being interviewed by NBATV when he said something along the lines of "this is a player's league" and he doesn't take credit for what the players do on the floor.  His coaching philosophy really started to make sense to me.  You let your best players sink or swim.  He will leave Harden, Parsons, Howard out there to struggle. Those are your best players, either they accept the challenge or face the criticism.  I obviously don't agree with the philosophy, but I can understand where he's coming from.  You don't bench your stars if they're struggling - you let them either win on their brilliance or lose on their mistakes.  Personally, I think it's tough for a team when your best player looks disinterested on defense, then talks about a lack of team defense after the game.  I will accept that James Harden isn't a leader - but at the same time you won't get far if your team's leader is your defense-first role player point guard.  Pat Beverley can only do so much with his talents and role.

 

As for the Lin foul, I didn't have an issue with it when I was watching the game.  Look, there were 30 seconds left - if the Rockets had managed to get a stop (not likely, based on how awful the defense was) they'd probably have about 6-8 seconds to get a good shot (in a game in which they often couldn't get a decent look within the first 15 seconds of the shot clock).  If the Blazers took the clock down under 10 seconds and scored - that's pretty much the ballgame.  You foul... if they hit 1/2, you can still hit a 3 and foul again only down 1.  If they hit both, you can still hit a 3 and be down 2.

 

I'm glad they made the adjustment of NOT playing Chandler on Lillard.

 

I don't think you can realistically double LMA on the perimeter.  The guards get him the ball and quickly bail to the weak side.  Your help defender only has a couple seconds to come double before he can turn and shoot.  If LMA is going to shoot contested 19 footers and make them all night, you've just got to pat him on the back.  That's a tough shot - if he shoots tough shots all series you just have to accept the results.  What you can't do is allow offensive rebounds or let Dorell Wright get hot from 3.

 

To me, the most troubling part of game 2 was early in the 4th when the Blazers went on a run with LMA on the bench.  The 2nd most troubling was the wide open layup by Wes Matthews with the Rockets not paying any attention to him.  3rd - Harden jogging up and down the court with the game stretching out of reach in the 4th Q.  I realize Harden played 44 minutes - but this is the playoffs.  Blame McHale for Harden being tired if you want, the optics just didn't look good.

 

FWIW, I hope the Pacers are knocked out of the first round.  If Vogel is let go, I think he can really help this Rockets team.

[Johnny33]

Spectacular really? Lin had a lot of help with guarding Damian Lillard you even mentioned Howard's block as an example of this help. Lillard also scored on Lin every time Lin guarded him in game 1.  Lin has done a good job against Mo Williams. Williams has not really challenged anybody that has been guarding. He has been looking to shoot jump shots. Bev played good defense yesterday whether you chose to see it or not.

 

Some fans hear Chris Webber say "Lin's playing great defense" and that will stick with them.  I thought both Lin and Bev played great D in game 2.  Personally I think the problem is that sometimes Lin tries to do too much on D - he is trying to run all over the court to guard 2-3 guys, and end up guarding no one.  He also has trouble recovering around screens.  But then again, I think the topic of Lin's defense has been beaten to death.  I don't think Lin is the problem in this series.

[Johnny33]

I wouldn't go so far as to say Lin is a natural leader. He lacks a lot in that regard. Yes, he's mature and handles questions well, and his off-court presence is probably more respectable and likeable. However, he just isn't vocal enough, critical enough, confrontational enough, take enough risks. Not that the team needs him to be that. He's just fine. But he's kind of soft (vocally). You can see it in his interactions with his teammates. He would need to take less blame and more control to be called a natural leader.

 

I would agree - Lin is too up/down to be a leader.  Just watch his body language when things aren't going well - that's not what you want from a leader.  But I also think he understands that this isn't his team.  Maybe if the Harden trade never happened you would have seen that Jeremy.  But not on this team.