[SI.com] The Fundamentals: Rockets thrive on in-between game with Howard out

Screw SI! I will NEVER buy another one of those in my life. The last on I bought was in 95.

 

Further proved most NBA writers doesn't watch the games before writing sheets like this.

Without Dwight, the Rockets defense may not be a joke, but its pretty close to it.

 

Didn't even read it....went down and saw we were ranked 7th, but have held the 4th best record in the league for like 2 1/2 weeks. Moving right along.... *insert eye roll*

 

Article actually had some good points and analysis. Nothing new to us in Clutchfans but it's a decent attempt to analyse our team which I always welcome from the national media.

 

Surprised that we are top 10 in points allowed per transition possession. I still think our offensive style of long bombs, turnovers, and crashing offensive boards mentality lead to way too many fast breaks for the other team, the volume could be too much to defend in the playoffs. We're great in the half court, we need to keep teams from running.

 

I've have no clue what everyone else read, but that article seems to be complimentary (maybe not accurate) if anything else. The Rockets do have a Jekyll & Hyde style of team play. Sometimes there a good as it gets on defense while other times, they appear to be completely unorganized and haven't got a clue how to stop anyone! As far as Harden being our driving force on offense, well cue the "Captain Obvious" meme!
.......
.......
.......

 

Good article for those that don't regularly watch Rockets. Still several interesting points otherwise.

 

I mean.....the article is somewhat right.....

 

The article seemed a little generous to me but I'll take that over the smear pieces from folks who don't watch the games that we usually see.

 

They obviously don't, but this got me interested in how long it would take a really dedicated NBA writer to watch every NBA game in a week, so they'd be able to write accurate nuanced articles.

There are 55 NBA games next week (Sun-Sat). The average regulation length of an NBA game is around 2 hours 15 minutes. If you're efficient at watching games, you could make that 2 hours. So, that would be 110 hours next week to watch every game. That's just about every waking hour on an 8-hour sleep schedule. That's probably a little excessive for one person. However, if you split it between multiple people or watched every other game, then the hours become more manageable.

I do wonder if any writers out there that aren't dedicated team writers actually watch any full regular season games. It's interesting that people who make their living writing about basketball games may not have the time to watch them.

 

I doubt these guys are watching commercials, halftime or, in many cases, free throws. I can get through a game on the DVR in about an hour if I fast forward through all three. Hell, fast forwarding through jump balls saves about 30 minutes on its own.

 

The article gives the Rockets a little too much credit, but I'll take it. There are interesting bits of data in there. When it comes to describing our actual play, Rob Mahoney makes us look waaaaaaay smoother than we actually are. Still, it's nice to see the praise start to come in for the Rockets.

Without wanting to, I nonetheless have to scrunch my nose up at this quote: "Houston's power comes from that harmony. A cohesive game plan executed by a balanced roster (one to be heightened by Howard's eventual return) makes for more than a good offense or a good defense."

Since Dwight's been out, the team has been forced to play a more balanced and experimental game of attack and defend with the smaller roster they're left with. And that's worked (usually). Smith, Jones, D-Mo, and even Dorsey are working pretty well as the big unit. The team has been moving faster in general. And Harden, without having to share the ball with Dwight, has just gobbled up all his points and more.

Even if Dwight comes back 100% and playing like the DPOY, he's still an awkward presence in our offense, and you've got to take that with his defense. That's got to be solved, because right now the Rockets aren't winning "in spite of not having Dwight." They're just winning. In fact, they beat their nemesis who was always "too big" for them to beat last night. If Howard doesn't come back and quickly gel with the team that's developed by playing without him (PnRs, Dwight, please, no postups), then I don't know if it's even just a lateral step when he comes back. It might be a downgrade. I hope that's not the case.

 

That was just a link to another article, I believe. And you missed a pretty decent article about what's making the Rockets' defense tick.

I'm surprised there are so many posters who are so dismissive of it.

 

So McHale has a game plan after all....

 

You make a good point. When Howard comes back, it's going to affect the rotation of the entire team and especially affect the PT of the front-court players. That's why it's going to be important how fast a healthy Howard can rejoin the team, and if there's going to be enough time to redevelop chemistry.

Because as much as I love how this Howard-less team is currently playing, they'll need their star big man if they want to go far in the postseason.

 

Zach Lowe is one of them, he did watch the full games (of course not everyone of them, but mostly the important games every night) in replay before he wrote.

You can tell from a people's work if they really know what is going on with the team or just check on the box scores.