That's too much strategy and change for our coaching staff, let's be honest. They like to keep it simple.
Also, LMA is not going to set another franchise record. No way. We lost this game because of Hack a Howard and not being able to adjust to it.
I would have someone on him, denying him the ball... and someone boxing him out mainly... denying the rebound. Boxing out. Getting Physical. If Jones and do this, that's great. But it's on him, or whoever else, guards. We need to bait them into bad shots, settling for jumpers. What we really need... is Shane Battier from five years ago. We need someone to study him, and make it their personal mission to stop him.
He didn't just shoot fadaway. He posted up, backed down the defender and hit the jump hook. Of course, if we brought help in the paint, he wouldn't have been able to do that. But then we'd leave someone else open. People keep saying LMA is just a jump shooter. True, he loves the midrange shot. But he has a very good post game. If you guard him with a weak defender, he'll kill you down low.
I am sure this will get tried at some point. Its just hard not to envision Dmo picking 3 fouls in 5 minutes though.
I say we put DMo on Aldridge some and give DMo the ball in the post on Aldridge like Portland did with Matthews. Wear the f*ker (LMA) out. It won't happen but it should. The rest of the time should be the Twin Towers set up and maybe a little Harden if we go small ball. No more weak dudes (Jones, all our SF's) getting bent over.
The biggest thing we can do it box LMA out. Take away his offensive rebounding and that will help out a lot.
He seems to struggle against players like boozer, brand, lee, young and/or players who make him work defensively. Our best post player is dwight, so if they ever run aldridge at center then we need to make dwight work him down low. I dont think they want aldridge guarding centers or players with a post game for this reason. It wears him out, and he wont have energy to score on the other side or grab rebounds. I also think it gets in his head when he gets scored on.
I would try DMO on Aldridge for starters. On offense get DMO to post up Aldridge and make him defend and zap his energy. Then to mix it up bring the double early in the game with with Jeremy or Beverly to force it out of his hands. You open up the the threat of threes or reposts so the double needs to come from someone who can recover quickly. Whoever is the primary defender on LaMarcus should stay on him until he sees the pass and then reposition to either help defend the lane or box out Aldridge for the rebound.
I was thinking of hayes when i noticed the type of players aldridge struggled against. Players that have a strong lower body and low center of gravity who he cant back down. They turn him into a jump shooter and get a hand up.
Thats half of it. Keeping him out there gives you 1 less rebounder to worry about as long as you box him out. He killed us on the offensive boards and those turned into a good chunk of his points.
Best bet is still Asik one on one on Aldridge. Keep him shooting the midrange. Sending a double team will just play into POR's plans because they do have good 3pt shooters. And it may be too confusing to our perimeter guys. That said, to keep LMA guessing and off-balanced, we may have to send different coverages against him in certain portions of the game, maybe when we have Garcia or Parsons in, more experienced guys who can make good decisions.
