27 replies to this topic

[majik19]

But holy crap, we got killed on the boards. That's the main thing that kept them in it. Some of those were probably due to long rebounds from the 40 3PA they took... But still. 22 offensive rebounds, Thompson with eleven! Goodness.

This is absolutely our biggest weakness that no one is talking about right now with Howard out. 

 

We are absolutely getting killed on the "short" rebounds. The bigger bodies are boxing us out and getting easy putbacks. Motiejunas, Jones, and Smith are not great at boxing out. I feel like Motiejunas in particular gets beat more than he should - he's 7 foot, so it should be hard to get over him, but it happens frequently. Dorsey is pretty good at boxing out, but he's not tall enough to keep some of these guys off the boards.

 

Per NBA.com, we grab 75.1% of defensive rebounds when Dwight is on the court (and 51.7% total) and 72%/49.4% respectively when he's off. With Jones on the court, we're all the way down to 69.7%/50.7% respectively. That doesn't feel like what I'm seeing with my eyes...

 

The Motiejunas-Jones-Ariza-Harden-Beverley lineup (45 minutes) grabs only 53.3% of the available defensive rebounds and 44.7% of all rebounds. The next worse lineup switches Motiejunas with Smith (38 minutes) and is only grabbing 58.5% of available defensive rebounds and 40.5% of all rebounds. Next up is switching Beverley for Terry (32 minutes), 62.9%/48%. That seems to tell the story a bit more... 

 

 

http://stats.nba.com...eups/advanced/�

[rocketrick]

Part of the problems with Cleveland outrebounding the Rockets yesterday may pertain to the Rockets concentrating on keeping LeBron from driving to the basket, and when he did, challenging at the rim. This would result more often than not in Rockets frontcourt players being out of position and not always able to block out the guy they were guarding. Beverley ended up grabbing 2-3 key defensive rebounds late in overtime yesterday.

[rocketrick]

I am surprised that nobody else has mentioned the use of the pick n roll in the 4th quarter.  We left 10 points on the floor in that quarter with Harden connecting on nice passes with Motie, Jones, and Smith on the PnR--and none of them could finish the play.  Outside of all the weirdness of this game and anyone who may want to say we got "lucky" LeBron couldn't hit free throws I say we let them off easy from getting blown out by 10+ tonight by missing so many bunnies.  I think McHale and Co. are going to work on them finishing stronger and we are going to be in business.
 
Really fun game to watch.  I loved seeing Ariza get in Mozgov's face.  Bev not taking any of LeBron's "dominance".  The closing line up of Harden, Bev, Ariza, Jones, and Smith.  That Harden lay-up where he ended up on his butt after blowing by 2 Cav's players.  That PBev plays better angry (I'm imagining Bev before the game going up to D-Mo and saying, "Slap me.  Slap me hard!" and D-Mo just stares blankly while Bev insists, "Come on, man.  Hit me!"  Then Bickerstaff appears without saying a word, open hands him across the face nearly dropping him to the floor and just walks away to continue doing his job.  Bev shakes his head, flexes his muscles, and heads to the court).  

JG on point with the Rockets inability to finish at the rim in crunchtime yesterday. It's not like the Rockets were missing them badly, they just didn't quite bounce our way. You would think at least a couple of them would have found the bottom of the net. Those missed shots mysteriously were balanced out by key free throw misses from LeBron.

Patrick Beverley. This dude has gotten so much grief on these boards this year. Some have wanted Canaan to take over. Games like the one yesterday clearly show why Beverley is the right player at PG for the Rockets this season. When the intensity level is ratcheted up to maximum like it was all game long yesterday, Beverley clearly becomes even more effective. This is something that is not quantifiable so doesn't fit any of the analytics tools available.

So although the Rockets do rely on analytics, they also rely on Coach McHale's game experience to just know the right substitutions to make in a tight game like yesterday's. Anyone else notice that Prigioni played a total of 0 minutes in the 2nd half and overtime yesterday? He was ineffective yesterday, that's gonna happen. I think Prigioni is going to help the Rockets win a couple of games at some point this season.

When the intensity level is ratcheted up like yesterday's game to Playoff Games 5,6 or 7 levels, Beverley is who should be on the floor at PG in key moments as he was yesterday.

[cointurtlemoose]

This is absolutely our biggest weakness that no one is talking about right now with Howard out. 

 

We are absolutely getting killed on the "short" rebounds. The bigger bodies are boxing us out and getting easy putbacks. Motiejunas, Jones, and Smith are not great at boxing out. I feel like Motiejunas in particular gets beat more than he should - he's 7 foot, so it should be hard to get over him, but it happens frequently. Dorsey is pretty good at boxing out, but he's not tall enough to keep some of these guys off the boards.

 

Per NBA.com, we grab 75.1% of defensive rebounds when Dwight is on the court (and 51.7% total) and 72%/49.4% respectively when he's off. With Jones on the court, we're all the way down to 69.7%/50.7% respectively. That doesn't feel like what I'm seeing with my eyes...

 

The Motiejunas-Jones-Ariza-Harden-Beverley lineup (45 minutes) grabs only 53.3% of the available defensive rebounds and 44.7% of all rebounds. The next worse lineup switches Motiejunas with Smith (38 minutes) and is only grabbing 58.5% of available defensive rebounds and 40.5% of all rebounds. Next up is switching Beverley for Terry (32 minutes), 62.9%/48%. That seems to tell the story a bit more... 

 

 

http://stats.nba.com...eups/advanced/�

 

Exactly what I've been noticing lately (posted it in a recent game thread too), we're not moving to box out. It strikes me mainly as that, a discipline thing, rather than a skill/ability issue. So I would assume the staff is letting them know, and hopefully that'll mean gradual improvement.

[thejohnnygold]

Check this out.  It's the new Foul Log for the final 2 minutes of the game that the NBA is releasing.  Pretty interesting.

[clydesmoustache]

Check this out. It's the new Foul Log for the final 2 minutes of the game that the NBA is releasing. Pretty interesting.

Wow this is awesome but I still disagree with the last smith call on lebron. Seemed like he jumped straight in the air right where he thought lebron would go. Looked to me like lebron made contact. Oh well i guess the point is to be transparent and show that you win some and lose some calls.

[thejohnnygold]

Wow this is awesome but I still disagree with the last smith call on lebron. Seemed like he jumped straight in the air right where he thought lebron would go. Looked to me like lebron made contact. Oh well i guess the point is to be transparent and show that you win some and lose some calls.

 

I agree that LeBron forced the contact on Smith, but James Harden does quite a bit of that himself.  Can't complain too much when it goes both ways--but it was a ticky-tack call on the last play of the game when referees are supposed to swallow their whistles unless it's a blatant foul.

 

I like it and like that they include the corresponding video clips.

[Losthief]

i find it funny that even nba reviews call lebron 'the james' instead of just james....hmmmm.....*stirs pot* <----mostly joking.