The Rockets Adapt Out Of Playoff Necessity The Houston Rockets are not themselves. The most prolific three-point shooting team of all time—one that attempted 500 more threes than any other team on record—has normalized. Houston’s bustling offense has been stalled to the point that nearly half of its usual allotment of fast break points has evaporated. This is what the discipline and specificity of playoff defense can do to a team. It can deny and contain whatever mechanisms an offense relies on most, forcing players to sort out some alternative rhythm in real time. In Houston’s case, that just hasn’t mattered. Oklahoma City has tried to switch and contain most James Harden pick-and-rolls as a means of limiting the manpower involved. If Harden never turns the corner, then there would be no need for a third defender to slide into the lane while leaving an shooter unattended. Even if he does, the Thunder are resolved to stick to the Rockets' floor spacers 'til the end. Trevor Ariza, Taj Gibson, Lou Williams, Victor Oladipo, Eric Gordon, and Russell Westbrook might as well not even be on the floor on this possession. This is a true two-man game—a creator and roller left to their own devices. That approach has completely bottled a player like Ariza, who took seven threes a game in the regular season and now can barely find room for an attempt. Passes just don't swing his way anymore. The few that do tend to kill whatever momentum would be generated in the first place. There is no close-out to attack. A balanced, well-positioned defender is already on top of Ariza as soon as he gets the ball, nullifying the value of his possession in the first place. Closing off those kick-out avenues is something almost any defense can do. Most schemes demand versatility across the board—bigs have to show, wings need to rotate, and guards are forced to scrap their way through mismatches. For those guarding off the ball, this strategy only demands their attention. Houston wants to keep the floor spaced, so as long a weak-side defender eyes a potential pass out to the perimeter, their matchup in that moment is as good as contained. The success and failure of a defensive possession then falls on just two Thunder defenders. Harden and the Rockets have taken a 3-1 lead in this series on that tradeoff. It turns out there's a reason why every defense's first instinct is to collapse on any of Harden's drives; there is no other way to contain him that doesn't involve putting a defender—even one as sharp and relentless as Andre Roberson—at a significant disadvantage. Roberson can try to pursue around a ball screen but already gives up the lane at the point where it's set. Taj Gibson or Steven Adams can try to switch, but Harden is brutally effective in using a defender's positioning and leaning against them. The core defenders involved are essentially set up for failure. As a result, Houston's playoff offense has relied on a noticeably different shot profile from the regular season but scored with almost identical efficiency. What the Rockets have lost in three-point attempts they've made up with drives deep into the paint, burst creativity from Houston's other guards, and the manipulation of the defense to draw fouls. Starting most every possession with two compromised defenders staring down a Harden pick-and-roll has led OKC to some particularly desperate holding and swiping. That's no way to defend one of the most deceptive covers in the league, nor to contain a roll man with great touch and clever footwork. Harden attempted more free throws than any other player in the league in the regular season. In this series, his free throw rate has only gone up—to 14 game and to a proportional terror of .68 free throw attempts for every field goal attempt. Nene, while working on a much smaller scale, is nearly maxing out as Harden's running mate. Of the 35 possessions he's used in this series: 23 have ended in makes (good for a ho-hum 92% shooting from the field) and nine (including two and-one finishes) have drawn fouls leading to free throws. Oklahoma City's chosen style has left its active defenders with little recourse. This is where Harden leaves you. The Thunder have busted ass to get back in transition all series, further siphoning off some of the Rockets' favorite looks from deep. They have regulated Houston's spread pick-and-roll to work within the arc. Ariza and Ryan Anderson have been handcuffed by their own specialty. With dedicated effort, OKC has shut down the mechanics that allowed Harden to create more than 1100 points this season on three-point assists alone. They've done all of this right and still they're drowning.
lol we are ourselves. We will be different series to series depending on how people guard us. Every playoff team adapts to the team they are playing. Lame article is lame
I'm certainly not offended or crying conspiracy. I mean it was well written and complimentary. Just seemed pretty state the obvious and kind of boring to me. we're all critics right? lol
I did too... i read it as regardless of what OKC is doing to take away the Rockets' strengths, Rockets are still coming out on top and have a 3-1 lead in the series.
Credit where credit is due: OKC has had the best defense Harden has seen this entire season. Roberson gives him problems and they are very good at stopping our 3's from launching. That's why our wins have been impressive. We've come back to tie games from 10 point deficits regularly. This team doesn't panic and shows heart. I'm excited to see what they do to a defense that isn't as feisty and OKC's in the playoffs.
Great article! We are winning by taking whatever the defense gives us. Most team say they all will do that but few actually accomplish it. We are one of the few... the proud... the H-TOWN ROCKETS!
Whoa. For the series, Nene is 23 of 25 for a shooting percentage of .920, and throw in six and a half rebounds per game in only 21 minutes. Whoa. I wonder what the record is for FG% in a playoff series with at least 25 attempts? Whoa.
[sigh] I swear, people describe our offense like we have just one PnR like Paul/Jordan or how Sloan really only had one PnR too. MDA has shown all year and 10 yrs ago that both Nash and Harden have many types of PnR plays at their disposal when adjustments are helpful. Everyone knows that. But simplistic journalism always devolves to MDA only has one PnR play like Sloan, when they need an article to write. Someone should explain to Rob Maloney (and Zach Lowe for that matter) that MDA plays a heavy dose of Pick n Pop with a spacing 4, too, not just Capela. Nearly the entire 3rd Q game two, we ran 41 High over and over and over. Then MDA has a plethora of others PnRs ... featuring heavy use of 3-man PnRs. We closed out Game 2 with that. My complaints about the Rockets for Game 4 is Ryno doesn't set a good enough pick on Roberson like Ariza does ... those are complaints about our 41 High. I don't think we ran Capela/Harden much at all in Game 4, because MDA just says, "Fine, you want to bring help on that, well, try bringing help on this other play, then." and so on. These articles talking about the Capela/Harden PnR not getting as much burn need to know this isn't Sloan's offense.
This. Also this idea that an offense will just be bottled up magically in the playoffs is silly. If an offense is that easy to stop, it will be stopped during the regular season as well. The difference is the quality of opponent is usually higher in the playoffs and certain matchups become more obvious over 6-7 games. There seems to be this idea that MDA just rolls the basketball on the floor and tells his team to run a simple PNR and run at break neck speed for 48 minutes. The offense that he runs is a pick your poison offense; and Morey has done a very good job at tailoring the personnel to fit how MDA wants to play. The Rockets are likely to lose a series coming up, but it will not be because of the Rockets offensive philosophies; it will be because they ran into a team that has more talent.
Well this is bad news when we face superior teams. Obviously the Warriors would kill us either way but they might sweep us if they can defend better than OKC and score much better on the offensive end.
The Rockets are likely to lose to the Spurs or Warriors but it won't be because they "solved" the Rockets. Also, the Rockets have slept walked through the first 30 minutes of games 2-4, just keeping the score close and trying to turn it on in the 4th quarter. Right or wrong, after the game one blow out, the players felt the series was theirs and it has shown. The Rockets were a Harden 3 from a sweep. Let's just hope they take finishing off the Thunder in 5 seriously.
After Donovan's miserably failed attempt to use Denver's defense against us to not leave 3pt shooters, imso, he has gone to the videos of how GSW plays us. GSW won't be learning from this defense; it's the other way around. If you intend to sag a big, you have to send help to stop Harden driving with Capela for a 2 on 1 at your big. And on the 41 High and our 3-man PnRs, GSW flashes the 4 to allow Harden's man to recover, but then get back fast on the shooters, that is what Gibson is doing....and GSW has length to play a help defender at the Nail or have Iguodala come in from the corner, yet still recover to the 3s. OKC can field some length too, with Grant and Roberson. Roberson has proven to be very special at requiring a really good pick from Ariza or Ryno, or he can chase Harden when Gibson flashes then runs down Ryno. But that doesn't work on picks from Nene or Capela ... just seems to render the Ryno pick useless. It takes talent, not some silver bullet simple scheming. But, we will lose to GSW because of our defense....same with Spurs.
The Warriors ability to switch nearly all picks is one of the things that take their defense to the next level. In particular against the Rockets, they can easily move Draymond Green to C. One step at a time though. They need to close out OKC tonight and wait on MEM/SAT.
