[ClutchFans] Rockets vs. Spurs: Breaking Down the Game 1 Beatdown

In the first gif, that's our very difficult to guard 41-High PnR. MDA will always use that, it's even named after Rudy T (Fist Up Houston). But he will use it heavily to combat some sagging defenses vs our normal PnR with Capela.

Notice here he just moves Capela to the rim, and runs PnR with the shooting 4. This takes the opponent big completely out of the play, because they have to stay home with Capela at the rim, for fear of the oop that Harden throws in the third GIF.

See Lee come out, then move back to Capela, forcing Kawhi to recover on Harden and defend the drive all by himself. Parker is also afraid to leave the corner 3 man.

 

The Rockets are now the 3rd best defensive efficiency in the playoffs. They will likely jump to 2 next game if the Raptors have anything similar to their game one performance

 

Doesn't this characterize every blow out? A team gets demoralized by the other team making shots at a high-level clip and then a mental toll comes into effect on the trailing team, thus the snowball effect of the increasing deficit. I didn't see the Spurs laying down so to speak.....I saw the Spurs flat out Beat out of the gate and the Rockets never stopped hammering the stick. Sooner or later over the course of the game, a team will become defeated (regardless of who they are) because the other team is just overwhelming them all game long.

 

If Leonard is on Harden all game, he's going to expend a lot of valuable energy fighting through screens that they need him to be using on the offensive end; as he is their main scoring threat.

 

Outstanding work!!

DD

 

The one who really gave up on the Spurs was Aldridge (Game worst -36). He got abused in the PnR early, was unable to capitalize on his post ups vs. Anderson in the first Q, and began settling for long twos, and Anderson did a decent job getting his hand in LMA's face on those.

 

Players not playing their "normal" game and tendencies is not the same thing as "laying down" as some suggest. Rockets took game 1 and I've never seen a more emphatic taking of a game 1 give the high profile nature and stakes/implications of a series like the Rockets-Spur series.

If Anderson were not in the game doing whatever he did to "affect" Aldridge's play.....that's chalked up to scheme and effort. Now Aldridge can certainly come back in game 2 and just be more assertive and focused on being effective in the paint.....but that's part of him making the adjustment from game to game.

 

Also, the Rockets jumped out to a 30 point lead faster than any I've seen in my recollection (could be mistaken). That extreme jolt out to an almost insurmountable lead can certainly make the Spurs "appear" to lay down on the railroad tracks.

Give all the credit to the Rockets.

 

Let me rephrase,

LMA's confidence was shot from getting torched by Harden repeatedly in the PnR. Not because of what Anderson did defensively.

Unless he gets some of JJ Watt's bacon and avocados between now and game two I don't see him dramatically improving his lateral quickness.

The Rockets aren't going to let him or Lee hide defensively.

 

Yep and that's credit to Harden being so great at what he does. Rockets are tough. They took care of business in a manner beyond most (mine at least) of our imaginations. Not surprised they won. But they were just so dominant.

 

I'd welcome that move. Kawwi will be gassed out by halftime.

 

The thing with putting Kawhi on Harden, is Harden uses a pick like 80% of the time. So you're inevitably going to end with Kawhi NOT on Harden.
That said, him trying to be the first guy guarding that pick is probably better than the alternative they had last night which was him not being that guy, and the Rockets purposefully not picking very much with whomever he was guarding, to keep Kawhi from becoming that switch defender.

And more to your point, I'd be okay with Kawhi having to "chase" Harden around PnRs all game.

 

The rotation by the Spurs was slow,which undoubtedly gave us confidence, but our defense and rebounding doubled the pressure on them.

It was a terrific team performance from our guys.

 

Excellent point. In fact, the Spurs did spend a solid bit of time with Kawhi guarding Ryno for this exact reason (attempting to completely remove Ryan as a P&R option). This means a big tries to track Ariza. Normally this is a fairly sound strategy when Ariza is not playing out of his mind - but it could also be part of why Ariza played out of his mind.

 

yeah.... i think the spurs fans are probably right. Outside of more strategic shifts such as not leaving 3 pointers as much, utilizing more ICE defense, etc.... Kawhi on Harden from the get go probably does make the most sense.

But the risk of Kawhi tiring and the partial risk of Kawhi picking up a quick foul or two are real.

Regardless of the reason why, LaMarcus is playing bad (I think 60% on LMA, 40% on Popovich in a weird sense), and Kawhi is needed even more offensively.

I can't off the top of my head remember the 4 regular seasons games so well as to compare in my head their defense those games vs. last night. It didn't really seem like the rotations were so much slow, as just the Rockets were confident and hitting. By default, if a defense is rotating, there is going to be a bit of daylight somewhere. Once the Rockets started hitting with that bit of daylight, it was game over...

 

Fantastic article. Great read. Thanks fudge

 

that's unfair. it depends on who you got matched up against. we've played a terrible offense in OKC for 5 games.

 

Even if LaMarcus had a decent game offensively, they weren't beating the Rockets last night.

Difference between an Assertive RYNO and hesitant RYNO is night and day. His confidence was vintage last night. That's exactly the Ryan we need every game.

 

In fact, the way the Rockets jumped out last night reminded of how the 2008-09 Rockets team that took game 1 against the Blazers on the road. They came out and set the tone right away and took it from the getgo.