Now that the dust has settled/ adjustments for game three

i think josh smith is a very good player and i believe he genuinely has a good heart as a person. but his decision-making on the court is a big ? often times.

if there's any adjustment to be made, i wish mchale would limit his role in ball handling and remind him not to take too many long jumpers, especially early in the shot clock (occasional open 3's are ok).

but any great playoff series will eventually come down to intensity and mental part of the game. sometimes i doubt there're too many technical adjustments can be made...

 

Some tell Trevor,Josh Smith, And Terrence Jones to leave those mid range jumpers alone.

 

Every guard/wing needs to stop going under the pick. How many times did we allow an open 3? Fight over the screen for once. Please and thank you.

Kevin needs to have Dwight and Josh playing on the court together, for both offensive and defensive purposes. They work incredibly well together.
Their presence also allows James to have more room to penetrate because the defense has to decide whether or not to leave Josh or Dwight to step into the lane.

Corey Brewer should be defending Jamal Crawford and CP3 if he comes back. He has the speed and length to keep up. He is our second best defender outside of Ariza. (I'm excluding Dwight, in terms of paint protection).


Jason Terry should get more minutes. He was crucial in our comeback with his runners and jumpers. Even if he's older, we saved him for this type of situation. He can score. I'd much rather have him in the game than Pablo when it counts. Pablo seems to be overmatched by their guards and isn't strong/fast enough to guard any of them.

Terrance should have some plays ran for him. He's hard to guard off the dribble, as we saw in Game 2. Put him in there with Dwight and you have a good offensive/defensive combo. I prefer Josh in there, but with Kevin, he can't decide what he wants to do with our bigs.


Kevin is the main adjustment, and I hope he's practicing an inspirational speech to get our guys going in the big lights of LA. If he notices some guy by the name of Blake going Hakeem on us, I hope he decides to throw a different look at him, you know, like all coaches do to guys who are on fire.

This is going to be hell.

Matt Barnes is going to be nastier. James is going to have to control his temper for Matt's comments about his mother. ((Bad move to release the beast in James). DeAndre loves his dunks and flexing sessions to his fans. Jamal plays better at home, but he's been at his best when poor Pablo has had to guard him. You put Corey on him and he doesn't get the best looks.

Here's what I'm calling for sure: Blake is not going to shoot the ball nearly as well. He's due for an off game. He's not a jumpshooter by nature, and he's not LaMarcus. Put Trevor on him and let him take some shots before doubling him. He'll get cold. If he plays the post-game, get some weak side help, but ONLY from the guy who's not guarding a sharpshooter or DeAndre. Leave Matt Barnes open until he makes a few. He's only going to hit 3-4 at the most.


Love ya'll. Go Rox.

 

Play with the intensity on defense that they played with at the end of the third and into the 4th quarters last night. They played tight, energized defense which obviously paid off. Double off screens, and sprint back. No more lazy, sagging defense. We won last night because we picked it up, intensity wise.

Aside from that, hit your open threes. It is crazy. The Clippers seem to make their open threes every time, and we seem to brick ours more often than not. Ariza, Terry and Brew NEED to hit those threes that are wide open.

 

So you admit Smith is an x-factor, yet completely have him out of your rotation?

 

Dudes really want Smith defending the PNR with Dj?

The guy is so lazy when he gets a screened glad Mchale kept him on the bench

 

Yes. By X-factor, I mean unknown, unpredictable quantity. I just don't think he's reliable. If he gets significant play the next few games, I hope he proves me wrong.

 

Josh Smith is 6-21 from the field this series, and has repeatedly got burned on pick and rolls.

Sit this bum until he can step it up.

 

If Paul plays, put Howard on Griffin. If he is still out, put Jones/Smith on Griffin and double when he first puts the ball on the floor.

 

Who won game 2 last night?

 

Id love to see what a Dorsey and Nick Johnson can bring you in some defensive minutes when their bench is in

 

Drive against DeAndre Jordan to get him into foul trouble.

Play Terry when Harden rests so we can have someone who can create.

JSmith is overmatched vs Blake, for some reason. Or he may just need someone to help doubleteam. They double James every time he touches the ball. Heck, why not Blake?

 

Dorsey and his 21% FT shooting would immediately be hacked and sent to the line.

 

With CP3 clearly not 100% i want to see the Rockets attack him. Attack him in the PR, make him go through a lot of screens and try to wear him out. I think the move to front BG with Ariza and having someone wait on the back was brilliant. I'd like to see a no PG line up more often with Cp3 in the game Brewer, Harden, Ariza, Tjones/Smith and D12.

We need some production out of our 4s Smith and Tjones need to step up. ahh I miss Dmo he adds another dimension to our team, his post game would be greatly appreciated it right now.

 

Why the hell do people want Smith guarding Griffin? Griffin scored 18 of his 26 in the first half while Smith was on the court. Griffin was obliterating him.

 

We were playing desperate and at home. They were missing their best player, CP3. Jordan was in foul trouble. We barely pulled out a victory.

 

I loved our guys diving to the floor on those loose balls. We won every freaking jumpball in the 2nd half. That's the way to play.

Harden needs to make quicker decisions. Don't overdribble and wait for the doubleteam.

 

The clips are an entirely different team with Jordan out. Getting him in foul trouble and pressuring doc to keep him out due to hack-a-whoever made a huge difference in the game. That needs to be the rockets top priority, IMHO.

If/when Paul comes back, we need to make him run run run on defense - let's test out that hammy!

 

Ball movement is the key! Moving the ball gets the defense chasing players to catch up. It makes them have to spend a lot of energy playing defense. It gives you more opportunities for an easier shot thereby increasing shooting percentage over the course of the game. Dribbling out most of the clock reduces these opportunities and puts pressure on the person with the ball usually Harden. This leads to bad shots and turnovers. Even if you want Harden to take the shot moving the ball around will give him a chance to get the ball while the defense is recovering which will make it easier for him to beat his defender. Holding the ball makes him have to make a move with the defense set. He is much easier to defend this way.

Make the extra pass especially around the rim. They did a better job of this in the second half. Get Jordan to commit and pass to who he came off of. Josh Smith does a good job of this. He shouldn't be shooting unless he is wide open. We really miss DMo for this. He is really good at keeping the ball moving.

 

My observations of game 2 are a bit different from yours. Yes the game was a must win, but I saw the Rockets come out of the gate with a lot more focus and intensity. The problem was not effort last night from the get-go. They just still couldn't hit shots for much of the game.

Clippers came back from being down double digits and extended their lead in the early part of the 3rd.

Rockets didn't give up and gutted out a good win. The narrative of "without a CP3", "Jordan was in foul trouble" and "desperate at home" means nothing at that point.

Rockets took back a game that was slipping away from them and evened it up at 1-1. That's a good sign...about the best we could want considering how badly things played out in game 1.