Serious discussion. What happened to the offense that made Harden, Picasso? All I saw this series was Harden high screen and roll or a variation of isolation sets with Harden bringing the ball upcourt wearing what I assume are shoes made of molasses. What happened to quick ball movement and crisp passing that made the offense so deadly?
As Phil Jackson would say give them some f***ING credit. OKC has excellent defense and wasn't leaving shooters open. Ariza became a non factor on offense because of it. This caused Harden to rely more on PnR offense. That coupled with RyNo not being able to hit the backside of a barn and the Rockets have to become more of a paint hammering team. Also, the Rockets are not bad in that half court set either.
* more specialized defensive gameplans. * players playing with more effort (like closing out quickly on shooters) because they're not conserving energy for an 82 regular season or playing off back to backs. * playing a good defensive team. * rockets players hesitating and not shooting with confidence. (ariza & anderson)
The playoffs happened, it is an offense that shocks folks in the regular season, as it is so unique but once you can hone in on it, and prepare for it, it is super predictable. DD
There were quite a few instances throughout this series where Ryno could have/should have shot the 3. He would have 1/2 a second daylight, but usually that's all he would need. He became more and more hesitant in taking shots and that is the problem. Make or miss, he needs to be confident to put up 7-10 3s a game. I don't think a confident and assertive Ryno would miss all 7-10 3s shot within the flow of the offense. His confidence would get him at least 3-5 makes with those number of attempts. He needs to recuperate this week and regain that form. He's very important to the Rockets' success.
I agree the Thunder defense was outstanding. But then the Rockets at times played with no designed plays whatsoever. Only Harden freewheeling, taking 15-20 seconds off the shot clock slow-walking his way and putting guys like Nene in the uncomfortable position of shooting a 3 as the shot clock expires. That is the what I mean. It's one thing for our shooters to miss wide open shots, but another thing when the offense grinds to a halt and guys are longer even trying to run plays. Just standing around watching Harden play iso-ball.
OKC took away our 3 point shooting and the PNR so Harden, Gordon, and Lou had lots of lanes to attack. We out scored them by attacking the lane more often and outscored them in points in the paint.
What happened? Predictably, Anderson shriveled up under the bright lights, in effect, killing our beautiful spacing. Beginning to feel like 'home Ryno' has overstayed his welcome in Houston.
Length! D'Antoni's adjusted for the length OKC finally decided to use to close the passing lanes starting Game 2.
Meanwhile the Spurs shot 14-28 from 3 tonight. Oh do I miss the days where 12-15 made 3s per game were pedestrian for the Rockets....
Rockets averaged 112.8 ppg for the series while shooting terribly from 3pt. Please ask again what's wrong with the offense....
they took away the threes, we drove to the basket, we won You really think teams are going to let us rain threes in the playoffs.
I love Harden but I go seriously yell at the TV when hes being denied the ball and doesn't cut back door. This series would've gone 6/7 if we didn't have Lou.
It's just that those points seem a lot tougher to come by without the 3s falling. I remember when Ryno would habitually take 3s with a defender on him but not in his grill. He would just take them. I didn't see him do it this series. That's a concern.
Agreed 100% - I think his and Ariza's confidence was shot this series. Good thing they have couple of days to get their minds right. Even still tho, they did enough offensively and stepped up defensively when it was needed most. They're both good shooters and i'm confident they'll step out of their funk - they'll absolutely have to.
No doubt it was a complete team effort. I'm proud of the result and the series win. I'm not too concerned with Ariza as he's an ok..not great shooter. Ryan absolutely needs to be money. He is the cog in this offense that's been stalling. Anderson needs to come around for the Rockets to have a fighting chance to be at their best. I don't have a problem with the Rockets losing a series if they're clicking on all cylinders. If Ryan is effective like the Rockets pay him to be, then let the chips fall where they may. I just want to see our known identity come to fruition in the playoffs.
