We have lots of players jacking 3s cause it's the system, but as far pure shooters, we have maybe 3. Harden, Paul, and Gordon
That's a super useful game for all of our guys to study on video. Defended and refereed like playoff basketball, with some of our favorite plays systematically taken away. I'm just sorry it was important to our position in the standings.
We can study all we want, but if we're not going to hit our open shots we're not going to win any games. The only thing that seemed to work was Harden doing the floater.... but they would have eventually picked up on it.
I like how people here pretend that our non shooters will suddenly drain open 3's when it comes to playoffs even though we have been bad at shooting all season long. Even last year in the playoffs, in the first and second round, go look at our game log, there were so horrific shooting games from everyone from 3, and that's against the Timberwolves who doesn't defend 3 pointers.
Do fans not watch the games. Bucks did this in our first meeting, remember? Harden scored 42 points, and we wrote off the loss because Paul and Gordon were out. Several teams immediately after did the heavy-shade on Harden, and then the league stopped doing it. Really, y'all don't remember Bledsoe shading Harden most the game in the first meet up??? I am disappoint
Sure. But we have known this. IMO if a defense was really disruptive, to me, that constitutes seeing the other team play out of character. You would see guys forcing shots that they don't normally take. Aside from the occasional shump/rivers head scratcher, I feel like we generated enough of OUR shots to win, or at least be more competitive than we were. Were the Bucks great on defense? Absolutely. Did their defense prevent the Rockets from generating the shots they want? IMO, no.
Yeah I remember the first game, Harden caught fire in the 4th but it was too little too late. They f'd us last time, this time was no different. My memory must be incorrect but I don't think any other team really successfully used the same strategy for the entire game.
Just a rough offensive game overall. The Rockets strategy is 3's, layups and free throws. The Rockets unfortunately missed a lot of 3's ( shot around 30%), for two point attempts including layups 20 out 47 (42.5%) and only attempted 7 free throws all game.
Basically Budenholzer's first season at that. You think MDA could have coached the Bucks to 60 win season in his first season? I think MDA's Knicks were in the East as well, they did not exactly go on a tear either. Most he won was a 42 win season. That is barely making it a winning season in 4 years. While Budenholzer's Atlanta team did win 60 games without a single superstar, or bonafide star.
Yeah, other teams tried it, then everyone stopped. I just thought Bucks only did it because Paul and Gordon were out in the first meeting. But, they did it again, and it led to Paul getting free, and many wide open looks from others. It's too gimmicky for me to worry about, now that Harden has a floater. Bucks are a good defensive team, but standing to the left of Harden and letting him take the lane with no fight is merely a math game. It takes away his 3FA and is good at taking away his FTAs too. So he becomes a 2pt shooter and passer to open 3s. I'm just disappointed fans like @Zboy either didn't watch the first game, or don't remember, then make this out to be some brand new thing we've never seen before. No other team had success with it, and I don't think Bucks will in a 7-games series either, nor will they make the Finals.
Honestly, I really don't know why every team in the league doesn't play the Rockets like this. Especially after Game 7 of last year. Just protect the paint and make the other team shoot themselves to a win. The risk lies with the team shooting the huge threes to actually make them, and that is not an easy thing to do. In fact, there is only one team that can consistently win any game with threes, and that's the Warriors. They actually have the shooting talent to do it. The Rockets committed an astounding number of turnovers in the first half and then went ice cold in the second. Yeah, you're not winning when that happens. The Bucks took those weaknesses and enhanced them multifold for the Rockets. I think the Bucks actually are on to something with their defensive strategy, especially knowing they just do this against the whole league. They dare you to shoot your way to a win. They have the best record in the league. I'm now starting to think that has much less to do with their tall, long-named player or the conference they're in and much more to do with their calling the rest of the league out on the long-range obsession everyone's just taking for granted as the new way the game is played.
I have seen shading a player before, but this was crazy. The defender was standing beside Harden, giving him a wide open lane to drive straight in to a big waiting in the paint. GS did some of that in games 6 and 7 last year. They had Donkey standing there waiting for Harden to drive in. He would front Capela and wait. The refs aren't going to call a foul when harden dribbles right in to the defender. So Harden stopped driving to the basket and kept passing to wide open teammates. Our scrubs kept bricking 3s. Game over, series over, season over. The Bucks took that strategy and ramped it up to the next level. Harden needs to be selfish there. I don't care if Tucker and EG are wide open for 3, if they are laying bricks all night then don't pass it to them. Take the wide open mid range or the floater. Harden for mid range or floater is better than random role player brick layer from 3.
It's true. If they keep doing that same tactic over and over, we'll beat them over a 7 game series. We can't always keep shooting horribly from the 3pt. And as you said, it's a very big gamble leaving Harden to have an open lane. What makes me angry is we was shooting well in the first half. If we kept around the same shooting %, we would have went on to win the game. The Bucks started to look tired by the end of the 3rd.
Bledsoe did this in our first matchup, when Paul and Gordon were out, and Harden scored 42 points. Other teams immediately followed suit and tried it in spurts. Then the league stopped doing it. The league has seen this heavy-left shade, invite the lane defense on Harden before. And there is a reason why no one kept doing it. I thought Bucks only did it the first time, because Paul and Gordon were out. but alas.
That Atlanta team much like this bucks team aside from Giannis was just deep with solid players. No stars but all really solid. Bucks def have more talent tho.
The same people defended MDA last season when MDA kept playing Joe Johnson even though he sucked.. they all said 'just wait until playoffs he's going to be a difference maker!' Which, maybe he was. I wasn't paying attention to him on the bench, was Joe Johnson some super motivating cheerleader on the sidelines? If that's the case, what kind of cheerleader has SHumpert been when benched? Thats really the only way I can see SHumpert possibly helping us in even the tiniest of bit in the playoffs.
Spot On The Rockets were not attacking or countering its almost like they were testing their tactics. It was the same demeanor they took against the warriors. Capela and House played good James and Chris need to just take the ball to the basket. They need some hard ball screens and a few post ups by James and Chris but ultimately guys got to hit wideopen uncontested shots that's ridiculous to miss that many.
How can this be a defensive masterpiece when Rox were missing open looks? The defense fails when the opponent gets an open look and the coach did his job when his players get an open look. It is up to the players themselves to hit the shots and Rox were just blanking everything ala game 7. This is the failure of our players fir being one trick ponies who can't create when their 3 pt shot is falling and the failure of Morey for getting such players to surround Harden. And the failure of Harden himself for not stepping up against adversity in order to get his 2nd MVP.
Bucks are good but that strategy they use on Harden generated a lot of open looks. We should have easily naked 5-8 more 3s and I don’t know if we win but it’s a tight game going down the stretch. I don’t expect Gordon to miss that many threes again. Also teams can’t defend the rockets like the bucks can because no team has 2 seven footers in the game at the same time with long wings. Their great on D and very physical but the rockets while def has to work just because of their pressure generated plenty of wide open looks. Only thing I wish harden did was in the 3rd when we tied it and then they went on that 8-0 run harden should have taken 10 straight floaters instead of passing it to the open corners. Pj was awful this game. Harden makes more floaters and the bucks while still would have the lead it wouldn’t have been 19 heading into the 4th prob more like 7-10. But the refs really swallowed their whistles this game 7fts the whole game and harden as well as Gordon should have both shot atleast 5-8 ft combined. Tough game but I didn’t come out of it thinking we can’t beat them but we have to be more disciplined. The stupid TOs in the first half didnt help either.
