Rockets vs Lakers Strategies

[tomjc]

Any tips for the Rockets?


Here's my 2 cents:

I think the Rockets force the ball into Kobe's hands. I think it was Doug Collins who said it best, even if you're the best jump shooter, you can't shoot better than 46%.

[jzmagic]

Here's my strategy for how to beat them:

Let Kobe get "his", gear our defense to shutting down his allstar teammates and roleplayers.

Kobe is not the true threat here, his teammates are. If you thought Aldridge was money, you haven't seen Pau yet.

Odom is also an allstar quality player, don't let the fact that he comes off the bench fool you. This guy will feast on us.

Ariza has developed into a tremendous role player, so has Shannon Brown who's going to be a mismatch for our pgs

Bynum is also an allstar quality bigman.

If we can somehow contain his team, we have our best shot at winning

[dakeem1]

i agree.

Force Kobe to play hard in the first half by shutting down the rest of the team. Make him exert the energy so that he can't take over the game in the fourth quarter.

[Rocketman2000]

You know when I first read this thread I didn't like it, but after some thought it makes sense.

Kobe beat during the regular season because of the rest he got during the 3rd period. His team kept us down or kept the game close then a rested Kobe came in and killed us.

Also, Luke Walton is out of this series and believe it or not, that is a slight advantage for us. His motor is always running. One less bench player to worry about.

As far as Lamar goes, the Blazers have conditioned the Rockets to play against players of his caliber. La Marcus, Outlaw and the like have similar play and body type. The Rocket should be ready to handle him.

[jogo]

I think we guard Kobe hard all game. Don't let him "get his", make him work from the starting whistle. Hopefully this will tire him out and frustrate him into taking bad shots late. BUT, don't let the refs have reasons to call fouls on us for our D on Kobe. D him strong but don't let the refs bail him out.

Limit our TOs! This is huge. If we can get close to 2:1 Assists to TOs then we've got a close game.

We also have to drive to the hole and draw fouls, or get fouls from offensive rebounds. If LA gets a free throw disparity then our chances of winning the game are greatly decreased.

[dakeem1]

I think we guard Kobe hard all game. Don't let him "get his", make him work from the starting whistle. Hopefully this will tire him out and frustrate him into taking bad shots late. BUT, don't let the refs have reasons to call fouls on us for our D on Kobe. D him strong but don't let the refs bail him out.

Limit our TOs! This is huge. If we can get close to 2:1 Assists to TOs then we've got a close game.

We also have to drive to the hole and draw fouls, or get fouls from offensive rebounds. If LA gets a free throw disparity then our chances of winning the game are greatly decreased.

Have yu watched kobe throughout an entire game? If we really mark him hard and give his teammates a chance, he will set them up early one and rest his legs on offense, choosing the facilitate the play instead of finishing it.

We need to tire him out earlier in the games. How do we do that? Make him feel like he needs to carry the Lakers from early on, instead of the fgourth quarter.

We need to shut down Gasol and Odom; make sure they struggle so that Kobe steps up early. We can still have artest or battier mark him hard and make Kobe really work for his shots, but don't double him and leave the court open for the role players. Just mark him VERY hard one on one, and mark the role players even harder. Make them struggle, and Kobe will start struggling in the fourth quarter.

[WeMissDekeMan]

Let Kobe get his? Are you guys serious? You don't let wing players get their stats, because

#1 they are very well conditioned especially Kobe
#2 they can hurt you all 4 quarters.
#3 They get never get tired.

You don't want anybody getting their share at all. We need to stop Gasol though, In my opinion if we stop him we should be fine. The biggest problem we will have is the 4th quarter. That's the their best quarter since they have in my opinion the best closer in the game. 4th Quarter is the quarter we struggle the most, because usually that's when Yao is fronted and that's when Artest and Brooks go on chuck mode.

We need to have the lead before the 4th quarter to win any of the games. There's no way we can keep back from behind against a team that has the best closer in the game. No way at all.

[apollo33]

Let Kobe get his? Are you guys serious? You don't let wing players get their stats, because

#1 they are very well conditioned especially Kobe
#2 they can hurt you all 4 quarters.
#3 They get never get tired.

You don't want anybody getting their share at all. We need to stop Gasol though, In my opinion if we stop him we should be fine. The biggest problem we will have is the 4th quarter. That's the their best quarter since they have in my opinion the best closer in the game. 4th Quarter is the quarter we struggle the most, because usually that's when Yao is fronted and that's when Artest and Brooks go on chuck mode.

We need to have the lead before the 4th quarter to win any of the games. There's no way we can keep back from behind against a team that has the best closer in the game. No way at all.


i dont think lakers are going to front Yao as much as blazers did, because pau can guard Yao fine behind him.

but i agree with you, we cannot let kobe get his. when kobe goes on fire, the team usually wins, kobes gets shut down and takes bad shots, the team falls apart with him.

[WeMissDekeMan]

i dont think lakers are going to front Yao as much as blazers did, because pau can guard Yao fine behind him.

but i agree with you, we cannot let kobe get his. when kobe goes on fire, the team usually wins, kobes gets shut down and takes bad shots, the team falls apart with him.
Sorry, but nobody can guard Yao 1 on 1 at all. Ask Jeff Van Gundy he said the exact same thing when he was arguing with Mark Jackson saying Bynum can't guard Yao single coverage.

I doubt Gasol is capable of fronting him anyways, Yao can easily get into position against him. Gasol is much weaker than Yao, both upper and lower body. Bynum is not going to front him, Phil is probably going to say let Yao have his, contain the rest. That's the way I see Phil as a coach. He probably realizes he has teammates like Aaron Brooks and Ron Artest who won't pass him the ball in the 2nd half either.

[Gutter Snipe]

Let Kobe get his? Are you guys serious? You don't let wing players get their stats, because

#1 they are very well conditioned especially Kobe
#2 they can hurt you all 4 quarters.
#3 They get never get tired.

You don't want anybody getting their share at all. We need to stop Gasol though, In my opinion if we stop him we should be fine. The biggest problem we will have is the 4th quarter. That's the their best quarter since they have in my opinion the best closer in the game. 4th Quarter is the quarter we struggle the most, because usually that's when Yao is fronted and that's when Artest and Brooks go on chuck mode.

We need to have the lead before the 4th quarter to win any of the games. There's no way we can keep back from behind against a team that has the best closer in the game. No way at all.

Item 1: Kobe played in the Olympics last year.
Item 2: Kobe isn't young anymore. He's played about 20 fewer games than KG.
Item 3: Kobe won't kill you if you have him carry the Lakers - it's the Lakers playing as a team that will kill you, especially if you let Kobe rest up for closing time.

The Lakers role players aren't much better than Portland's. They have their warts - and you'll get to see the warts if you guard them. Leave them open because you pay too much attention to Kobe, and they'll shine.

You could say the exact same thing about the Rockets - and that's why in this series we need Yao to come out strong again to open things up for the rest of the Rockets.

If we make Kobe think that he has to take over all of the games, we have a chance of destroying the Lakers' team concept - something fragile whenever your team revolves around Kobe.

[apollo33]

in the four season games against them, we were pretty much evenly matched with them the whole way until the fourth. Kobe starts to go on fire, hitting ridiculous shots with battiers hand(s) in his face.

the key to winning IMO is contain kobe in the fourth.

[StonesRunIt]

Kobe- Keep Shane on him to shadow his movements and hope he makes it easy on our defense with a bunch of contested jumpers ( which he can make).

Odom- Put Ron on him since he has a mediocre post game and let the aggressive physical defense take him out of his game.

Pau- Put Yao on him and force him to take jumpers in an effort to control the points in the paint.

Bynum- He has been sub-par of late and i feel is subject to fall victim to some flopping, Scola can have at it.


Pick and Roll

In the Kobe/Pau pick and roll we must have Yao sag off Kobe after the screen to cut off the penetration and make the roll pass to Pau more difficult. Also If we need Ron to help on the weak side for the lob pass into Pau either forcing a difficult enty pass, contested jumper or forcing Lamar to be a jump shooter.

And probably most important...REBOUND. If we lose that battle everything else is academic.

[WeMissDekeMan]

Kobe- Keep Shane on him to shadow his movements and hope he makes it easy on our defense with a bunch of contested jumpers ( which he can make).

Odom- Put Ron on him since he has a mediocre post game and let the aggressive physical defense take him out of his game.

Pau- Put Yao on him and force him to take jumpers in an effort to control the points in the paint.

Bynum- He has been sub-par of late and i feel is subject to fall victim to some flopping, Scola can have at it.


Pick and Roll

In the Kobe/Pau pick and roll we must have Yao sag off Kobe after the screen to cut off the penetration and make the roll pass to Pau more difficult. Also If we need Ron to help on the weak side for the lob pass into Pau either forcing a difficult enty pass, contested jumper or forcing Lamar to be a jump shooter.

And probably most important...REBOUND. If we lose that battle everything else is academic.
Yao on Gasol? I don't approve of that. Gasol has a solid mid-range jumper, He's not like Tim Duncan. Duncan's an overrated mid-range shooter and he's not as mobile Gasol either. That's why Duncan often struggles against Yao.

I suggest Landry/Hayes and Scola on Gasol like we should be using. Kobe/Pau pick n roll is the only thing I am scared of because chances are they will only run it when Gasol plays center and when Yao is out there. I do agree with the rest though. Artest on Odom for sure.

[Microfridge]

Kobe- Keep Shane on him to shadow his movements and hope he makes it easy on our defense with a bunch of contested jumpers ( which he can make).

Odom- Put Ron on him since he has a mediocre post game and let the aggressive physical defense take him out of his game.

Pau- Put Yao on him and force him to take jumpers in an effort to control the points in the paint.

Bynum- He has been sub-par of late and i feel is subject to fall victim to some flopping, Scola can have at it.


So.....Scola guards Trevor Ariza? If the Lakers-Utah series means anything, it shows that we can't sag off Ariza since he can make the 3-ball. I actually think Scola's offensive output can neutralize Odom's.

If Lakers start Bynum to guard Yao, they are doomed. Yao is a beast against traditional centers. If they have both Bynum and Gasol double team Yao, Scola will have a field day.

Shane and Artest should rotationally guard Kobe. Make him work for his points. Don't allow him to go to the basket and get free throws.

We can only win this series if we do what we did to Portland, which is to shut down their role-players. It will be a much more difficult task this time around, since the Lakers are not prone to panic.

[Dave_78]

Odom isn't THAT big a deal. When Odom has a slow start he usually becomes a non-factor for the rest of the game. Sick Ron on him if he hits a few buckets. After Ron gets physical with him and demoralizes him for half a quarter you won't even know he is on the court for the rest of the game.

I keep saying it but Gasol is the key. If he gets going he'll pick this team apart with his offense and then his passing. He is to quick for Yao and too big for Scola so I suggest that if he gets it going then Hayes better be out there to cool him off quick (yeah, I know Hayes is short, Chuck Hayes haters). Scola and Landry are also going to need to be very, very aggressive offensively when they are in so that Gasol won't be able to save his energy for his offense. Carl Landry, you better freaking show up in this series.

[fogo11606]

Sorry, but nobody can guard Yao 1 on 1 at all. Ask Jeff Van Gundy he said the exact same thing when he was arguing with Mark Jackson saying Bynum can't guard Yao single coverage.

I doubt Gasol is capable of fronting him anyways, Yao can easily get into position against him. Gasol is much weaker than Yao, both upper and lower body. Bynum is not going to front him, Phil is probably going to say let Yao have his, contain the rest. That's the way I see Phil as a coach. He probably realizes he has teammates like Aaron Brooks and Ron Artest who won't pass him the ball in the 2nd half either.

Have you watch any Rockets game vs LA?

Gasol always gives Yao trouble because Yao also can't cover Gasol 1on1. So hopefully Byum vs Yao matchup is better for us.

LA surely won't front as much as Portland but remember their hard double from Kobe force Yao to turn the ball over for 3 straight possession. So that is something that I fear the most. LA will simply use the man that's guarding our least offensive threat guy, in that case it's Shane Battier.

So in order to get Yao the ball efficiently , everyone will need to step up a notch offensively.

[WeMissDekeMan]

Odom isn't THAT big a deal. When Odom has a slow start he usually becomes a non-factor for the rest of the game. Sick Ron on him if he hits a few buckets. After Ron gets physical with him and demoralizes him for half a quarter you won't even know he is on the court for the rest of the game.

I keep saying it but Gasol is the key. If he gets going he'll pick this team apart with his offense and then his passing. He is to quick for Yao and too big for Scola so I suggest that if he gets it going then Hayes better be out there to cool him off quick (yeah, I know Hayes is short, Chuck Hayes haters). Scola and Landry are also going to need to be very, very aggressive offensively when they are in so that Gasol won't be able to save his energy for his offense. Carl Landry, you better freaking show up in this series.
I agree 100% with this post. Gasol is their key player in this series and our key player is Yao Ming. It's the matchup of the big men out here. I don't think they will guard each other until the 4th quarter, like we saw in Duncan-Yao matchups.

I think Scola can do a good job on Gasol, I believe he actually has. However, I would say Hayes and Landry are better at defending him just because Landry and Hayes are better defensively and stronger.

Another key player is going to be Von Wafer and Kyle Lowry. Lowry is going to have to stabilize the offense and in my opinion he will get a lot more minutes than Brooks. Wafer has been huge against the Lakers this year, so we need a lot of production from him off the bench scoring wise.

Almost everything is key in this series for us.

[Dave_78]

Another bright spot for the Rockets is Shane Battier. Dude was giving absolutely zero offense during much of the season and I specifically remember Kobe not even paying attention to him during Rocket/Laker games. Kobe just roamed the court and played help defender and, of course, swatted the ball out of Yao's hands from the blind side about a million times.

Now, Shane is raining 3s like he never has and is actually trying to score some buckets. If he keeps that up Kobe (or whoever is guarding him at the time) has to stay home on him and things open up for everyone else.

[WeMissDekeMan]

Have you watch any Rockets game vs LA?

Gasol always gives Yao trouble because Yao also can't cover Gasol 1on1. So hopefully Byum vs Yao matchup is better for us.

LA surely won't front as much as Portland but remember their hard double from Kobe force Yao to turn the ball over for 3 straight possession. So that is something that I fear the most. LA will simply use the man that's guarding our least offensive threat guy, in that case it's Shane Battier.

So in order to get Yao the ball efficiently , everyone will need to step up a notch offensively.
Where did I say Yao shuts down Yao? :confused:

I don't remember that at all. All I said was Gasol can't guard Yao. You need to read better kid. I agree with the rest of your post though.

[Dave_78]

I agree 100% with this post. Gasol is their key player in this series and our key player is Yao Ming. It's the matchup of the big men out here. I don't think they will guard each other until the 4th quarter, like we saw in Duncan-Yao matchups.

I think Scola can do a good job on Gasol, I believe he actually has. However, I would say Hayes and Landry are better at defending him just because Landry and Hayes are better defensively and stronger.

Another key player is going to be Von Wafer and Kyle Lowry. Lowry is going to have to stabilize the offense and in my opinion he will get a lot more minutes than Brooks. Wafer has been huge against the Lakers this year, so we need a lot of production from him off the bench scoring wise.

Almost everything is key in this series for us.

These two guys but especially Lowry gave the Rockets a huge boost by attacking Portland's big men and drawing fouls on them. I said it in another thread but Von and Kyle have the ability to take Gasol and Bynum right out of the game by attacking them the way they did Pryzbilla and Oden.

[Malcolm]

Let’s address Lakers weaknesses and see if we can attack them

1 Attack Derek Fisher's lack of an ability to guard speedy point guard. If you look at his past you will se a list of players which Fisher has trouble with which used there speed against him in the playoffs. Going play unto the 2002 playoffs you can see the trend of players who have had great series against the Lakers. Mike Bibby, Troy Hudson and just last year against Rondo fisher were dominated.

2 Having a true low post threat. Even though the media will try to tell you Andrew is a young star player he has yet to play big against other big men. Gasal is no a shot block therefore attacking there inside defense is not impossible.

3 Keep a priory of giving Kobe Bryant different looks defensively and make him try to play one on 5. When Kobe is taking more than 25 shots in a game the Lakers are less likely to win. You can defend Kobe by making sure you have a good defender on him at all times and use help in smart circumstances like when the shot clock in getting low which makes him have to take a tough shot and now give him time to get a team involve because its not enough time on the clock.

4 Play tough team defense. The Lakers defense has not shown they can shut a team down. So if you fall behind you can still get back in the game with good intense defense because the Lakers will let up.

5 Play smart limit your turnovers and not make bad fouls. If your going to foul somebody make sure they feel it but still keep your composure and they might loose theirs.

6 Don't buy into the Lakers hype. The media is driven to push the Lakers franchise as the prominent in the NBA and they will always be overhyped.


I see the Rockets have the ability to do all these things so get ready to shock the world because the Rockets will take 1 in LA and this series will go a minimum 6 games.

[csnerd84]

I was listening to Darel Morey interview on 610 today. Morey said they were going to look at the defense that was played by Celtics in the last year's finals. Apparently, it was strong side zone defense and double teaming Kobe when he puts ball on the floor. There is a thread about this kind of defense on the Laker's forum http://forums.lakersground.net/viewtopic.php?t=86079.

I found some videos on Youtube where some Laker/Kobe fan is talking about this. If you can ignore the commenting guy's man love for Kobe then I thought the following videos were interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQaVvf2VOsc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kYBeNQdSCc

It seems like the basic strategy was to not let Kobe beat you and make the other guys beat you. I'm not sure if this will work this year though as I think his supporting cast has improved a lot and Kobe has been passing the ball well as well.

[Aznoob]

Here's my strategy for how to beat them:

Let Kobe get "his", gear our defense to shutting down his allstar teammates and roleplayers.

If we can somehow contain his team, we have our best shot at winning

You'd rather TRY and stop 11 people, rather than 1 person?

Good luck, coach.

[mdrowe00]

Any tips for the Rockets?


Here's my 2 cents:

I think the Rockets force the ball into Kobe's hands. I think it was Doug Collins who said it best, even if you're the best jump shooter, you can't shoot better than 46%.


Well, you mean aside from actually praying?

I got an idea or two...

The first thing every Rocket has to do is recognize the challenge in front of them. The Los Angeles Lakers are the best team in the league. You can love the Rockets more than your own teeth, and that's still the truth.

Saying it out loud isn't a crime, it isn't quitting, and it isn't rooting for the Lakers to win. It's accurately assessing the level of competition you're facing.

Going into this series thinking that there's a ton of weaknesses that the Rockets can exploit against the Lakers is stupid. And it makes me glad somebody other than some of these forum fans are coaching.

The Rockets HAVE to control the tempo of the game. Period. The Rockets have a few more options offensively than they've had in the recent past, but not enough to get into a shootout with Los Angeles. The Lakers are going to score no matter what you try to do to them. The Rockets' best chance lies in making sure that the games stay half-court affairs as much as possible.

Sine the Lakers don't need help scoring, don't turn over the basketball or let the game degenerate into a track meet.

What we're going to see from the Lakers is a team that not only has more talent than the Rockets from one to eight (truth, not homerism or Laker-butt-kissing), but a team that has had their playoff mettle tested TOGETHER for the most part, for the last four seasons. With the exception of Pau Gasol, most of these Lakers have been here since Shaquille O'Neal was traded. They've played together. They've grown together. They've won and lost, together.

Chemistry doesn't do justice to what the Lakers have. Chemistry can certainly be created in a small amount of time (our '95 Rockets could attest to that), but don't think for a second that the Lakers won't be ready for whatever the Rockets can throw at them. It's not so much that the Lakers don't consider the Rockets a challenge. Far from it. But their focus is such that the Rockets are a step on the road to where they want to go. The Lakers will treat the Rockets like a legitimate threat.

The Lakers won't be bullied, they won't be fooled, and they won't beat themselves. If the Rockets want to win, they HAVE to play:
1) with discipline. Lapses on offense or defense for any length of time will be death.
2) with resilience. The Lakers are so good that they will hit the Rockets with 10 or 15-point runs on more than one occasion, no matter how well they're defended. The Lakers do have a habit of letting people get up off the mat. But they almost always give themselves enough of a cushion that they can recover and regain control. The Rockets do not score enough to let the Lakers play with a lead of 8-to-12 points for any extended period.
3) with efficiency. The only real chance the Rockets have is to play through Yao Ming, no matter how the Lakers defend him. If the Rockets have any clear advantage matchup-wise, it's with Yao. If playing Portland taught the Rockets anything, it's that they'd better be ready to counter how the Lakers defend Yao. The Lakers will be much more effective and less predictable with their defenses. They'll mix fronting with one-on-one defenses and weak-side double-teams. Yao has to be decisive. And his teammates have to make the Lakers pay.

This is the time of year when it's fun. And I'm not one to go into predictions about who needs to win what matchup and who has to do this and who has to do that. But I will say that The Rockets have a much smaller margin of error than the Lakers. I still think that the Utah Jazz are one of the top 4 teams in the conference, and it took a monster game and a half-hearted effort from the Lakers for the Jazz to win one game.

I can't wait to see how this all shakes itself out. We'll watch the Rockets cut their playoff teeth in this round.

Like I said...a lot of fun...

[FR0497]

You'd rather TRY and stop 11 people, rather than 1 person?

Good luck, coach.

When you say it that way it sounds impossible but there's only 4 other people on the court with Kobe at one time. I think it's easier to stop the other 4 than it is to stop Kobe.

[slimichael85]

Here's my strategy for how to beat them:

Let Kobe get "his", gear our defense to shutting down his allstar teammates and roleplayers.

Kobe is not the true threat here, his teammates are. If you thought Aldridge was money, you haven't seen Pau yet.

Odom is also an allstar quality player, don't let the fact that he comes off the bench fool you. This guy will feast on us.

Ariza has developed into a tremendous role player, so has Shannon Brown who's going to be a mismatch for our pgs

Bynum is also an allstar quality bigman.

If we can somehow contain his team, we have our best shot at winning
I am amazed Lakers management is able to surround so many talents around argubaly the best player of the NBA. It is really extremely challenging or seemingly impossible to shut down most of or all these Kobe helpers at one time especially in consideration of Roy and Aldridge duo punch has put us into a situation which Rox have to pull all out in order to win. I agree that Kobe will come out with his numbers consistently, compared with Roy Kobe is more versatile, experienced and explosive. One point we can be relieved is that Kobe may be not a master of PnR.

In order to pull off wins against lakers, Rox should fully exploit Yao's mismatch, try best to cut Kobe's connection to the rest of Lakers, shoot open triple looks at high percentage, come out with consistent tenacious D, benchs have to show up big, last but not the least continually bear the heart of champion.

[Kwame]

Neglecting height and athleticism will really hurt the Rockets this series. The Lakers are going to get a lot of second chance opportunities due to this. This is what worries me the most. Also, they have three 7 footers they can throw on Yao and wear him down while Houston has nobody over 6'10" other than Yao (no Scola is not 6'10").

Other than what has been mentioned above, I think the Rockets can play the Lakers tough. One strategy could be to let Kobe get his and make him work hard to get those points and make him play defense as well, but try to shut the other guys down - especially the role players.

[jzmagic]

As some people have pointed out already, in our past games, Kobe didn't even need to jack up shots and put the load on his shoulders in the beginning, and they were beating us this way because his surrounding teammates are too talented.

The risk of gearing our offense to shutting down Kobe completely is that their teammates will get very open looks, similar to what Blazers did Yao. Only these guys are better and won't miss as many shots as the Blazers did.

In the past, we always tried to play very tough defense on Kobe, clearly it didn't work this year. Kobe is good enough to still play a high level if we give him our full attention.

We have a better chance at reducing the effectiveness of his teammates than we do Kobe.

[leebigez]

Odom isn't THAT big a deal. When Odom has a slow start he usually becomes a non-factor for the rest of the game. Sick Ron on him if he hits a few buckets. After Ron gets physical with him and demoralizes him for half a quarter you won't even know he is on the court for the rest of the game.

I keep saying it but Gasol is the key. If he gets going he'll pick this team apart with his offense and then his passing. He is to quick for Yao and too big for Scola so I suggest that if he gets it going then Hayes better be out there to cool him off quick (yeah, I know Hayes is short, Chuck Hayes haters). Scola and Landry are also going to need to be very, very aggressive offensively when they are in so that Gasol won't be able to save his energy for his offense. Carl Landry, you better freaking show up in this series.

I see u don't watch La much. The rox have no one who can guard odom. Ok, put artest on him, then that takes artest off kobe. Ok put shane on Kobe, what about ariza?