Major Lin sighting tonight against the Warriors. Heck McHale didn't even pull him out even though he was trying to hit home run after home run!
He took advantage of the constant double team traps GSW sends to Harden. This has been one of the bigger problems for the Rockets so far, failing to take advantage of double team traps. Harden will get a double team whether he is 1-10 or 9-10, and it's up to the players, Lin in this case, to exploit it. He played well tonight, certainly proved why he deserved to be on the floor in the 4th.
Today McHale's comment will be fitting, Lin was trying to do too much. I think he just tried to prove sth to coach. He had a so so game but I give him credit for at least trying and take responsibility. Harden was way worse though. Beard clearly had an off night. But still, those guys won the game for Rox so I can't complain.
I honestly thought McHale was going to bench Lin after that turn around fadeaway airball or that driving airball layup. It really looked like Lin was trying to prove something tonight for sure.
Not trying to get into a grammar battle here, if that's what you're trying to make it. But if you want me to go grammar nazi on you, at least capitalize your "i", use apostrophes, "than" instead of "then", "trolls" instead of "Trolls", properly conjugate your verbs, and $43,000 instead of 43,000$. I was only pointing it out because you were talking about success and I found it funny you believe there is some redeeming quality to having worked around successful people.
Would have liked to see Beverley get more minutes late in the 4th. His aggressive defense could have made a difference............. (Kidding)
Possibly he realised Lin had to create something out of nothing (no screens or movement off the ball) leading to that fadeaway. You could tell Lin didn't expect Harden to pass out of his iso. Also the layup was actually a little trickier than it looks as I think it was Curry that was running under Lin, causing Lin to adjust and wind the ball left to right over Curry's head at full speed.
The airball layup was a good shot, he completely broke down the defense and went for the layup, however I thought he rushed his shot in the last second. The turn around jumper and the turnover was result of the bad habit: picking up his dribble in the crowd and having no clue about his next move. I guess old habit still die hard. But at least he shared some burden on Harden today so beard didn't have to go full ISO on every possession.
Yeah that was actually a great move to the basket. It was the turnover after getting trapped and passing it to Delfino that was bad.
Lin Harden PNR should be our go to play down the stretch all the time. And Asik needs to be in the game in the 4th to grab rebounds. If anybody deserves to be on the floor unconditionally it is Asik.
Then you run the risk of them fouling him late just because they know he's a terrible free throw shooter. Same tactic to how teams do with Dwight some games. You have to understand its a REALLY tough decision as a coach keeping a player like asik in when it comes down to the wire.
Nice post. Lin's shooting stats don't look great, but he did the little things to help with the win. The other way to avoid Harden's double teams is to allow him to play off ball and catch in the triple threat area or do the 1-2 PNR Lin/Harden, which is the Rockets' best play until a Rockets big improves his PNR play.
JVG was absolutely spot on about the rockets: they want 3 kinds of shots: layups, 3 pointers, and FTs. that means jeremy and beard all night long. when you put beverley in the game by himself without jeremy or beard in the backcourt, you basically take away 2 of the rockets' favorite shots: FTs and layups. IF delfino and parsons sink their 3s while harden and lin are on the bench, mchale gets MESMERIZED and thinks it's all because of some magical 2nd unit voodoo and plays them in crunchtime in the 4th--and the rox go to ISO ball. witness asik completely cleaning the glass in the fourth quarter tonight and JL/beard running the 1-2 pick n roll all the way to the bank. if you don't think they would have had a BETTER CHANCE of winning against dallas the other night if they did this you need your head examined for a stroke. when beard is hot, effing ISO him every single time down the floor in crunch time! when beard is ice cold, run pick n roll with JL. it's not rocket science. it's just best practice rocket basketball.
