Looks as suspect as ever. Nothing like what we faced in the Jazz. Harden won't have to climb Mt. Gobert to score in the paint. I doubt they try the "play almost behind him defense" on James. I guess I disagree with Jerry West because I think their defensive play is where they are most vulnerable. Rockets in 7.
Exactly as you stated, they don't have the Gobert, Lopez, etc..., giant anchor parked in front of the rim so they can't play behind James. Again, Curry was exposed last night against elite guards. Draymond is a great defender but he doesn't seem locked in right now and he's an offensive liability. I am curious to see if Bogut can be exposed in pnr which would make their front court depth even worse. Looney can't play 48.
They gave up 71 First Half Points When they needed it they could not get a stop They could not get a shot either it was weird Rocket River
they aren't as deep as they've been in the past. they used to bring a 2-3year fresher Iggy and Livingston off the bench.
I've said for a while now that their defense has looked off. Harden will have a field day against the Warriors.
Plus they used to all like each other. Bringing KD and his accompanying superstar ego into a team that won 73 games may have seemed like a no-brainer, but it made them demonstrably worse.
Rockets defense is worrisome. Dont let the numbers fool you. Utah got tons of wide open 3s, they just bricked them all. Golden State will not. Mitchell played a horrible series. Durant will not. Harden and CP3 however will play better against a weaker defense.
Houston is going to concede 3's to Iguodala (*HAMPTONS 5 member - lol) and Draymond just like they conceded them to Rubio.
Durant was getting cooked last night by Lou Will. They only have three good one-on-one defenders in Klay, Iggy, and Draymond but Harden would definitely prefer that over the Jazz scheme to funnel him into elite rim protection.
they are letting the clips score 120 plus on them. its either theyre playing lacksaidical defense because they thought their offense is enough to outscore the clips or they really are not good enough defensively.
The difference is Gobert being one and physicalness being two. They will be too cool to be that physical. The most physical guy on that team is probably donkey Dramond, who doesn’t even hold a candle to Jazz’s defensive play in terms of being physical. However, they have too much fire power, which puts a lot more pressure than Jazz on us to score. If we let them shoot that many open 3s, we will be surly punished even by igoudala. So the margin of error is much less against them in this series. It’s a different series.
Please don't count the Clippers out just yet. If there's one team you can count on to blow a 3-1 lead...
The GSW series is more about defense than offense. Which defense can stop the other’s elite offense. Will we switch everything to limit their offense, while causing 1on1 mismatches at perimeter and paint, and in adddition giving up defensive rebounding? We left good open shooters against the Jazz, not just Rubio or Mitchell; but Korver, Ingles, and O’neal. We also let them get into the paint easily. Against an elite offense, this can not happen. Livingston, Igudola, and Dray should be left open, and body up on Klay, Steph, and Durant, and run McKinney and Quinn off the 3 pointer. I don’t predict GSW switching to the gimmicky defense since they don’t have a rim protector anywhere close to Gobert, Harden could easily use the floater or lob against the shorter Draymond all day. Donkey is quicker than Gobert so he should be able to make Harden think quicker between lob and floater. I thought Donkey defended the Capela and the lob very well as the series progressed last year. The much improved Harden floater this year will strain Dray. This is a good weapon against their death lineup. With our offense our turnovers should be around 10 or less. That’s their Achilles heel on offense. Ours is missing 3 pointers and layups along with predicitable offense.
