Defensive Analysis part 2

Part 1 against Chicago:

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?p=8776680#post8776680

The Rockets did not lose the game to the refs. Once again, there were many defensive mistakes by the Rockets that young teams make, the "growing pains". So, throughout the game, for every made or missed shot, I recorded who missed an assignment, or did a good job. There are five categories: good and bad on-bal (OB)l defence, good and bad rotation (R), and "meh" (falls in between). I only recorded on shots, not for the full game. Some good plays will go unnoticed, like Dmo denying the inbounds, or Beverley picking up full court. From this recent game against Miami, this is the results:

<table border="1" style="width:1000"><tr><td>Player</td><td>Good OB</td> <td>Good R</td><td>Meh</td><td>Bad OB</td><td>Bad R</td></tr><tr><td>Bev</td><td>6</td><td>6</td><td>6</td><td>5</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Harden</td><td>7</td><td>2</td><td>7</td><td>7</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>Parsons</td><td>6</td><td>3</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>Jones</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>2</td><td>0</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>Howard</td><td>6</td><td>13</td><td>9</td><td>1</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>Lin</td><td>1</td><td>3</td><td>3</td><td>5</td><td>4</td></tr><tr><td>Asik</td><td>1</td><td>4</td><td>0</td><td>1</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Dmo</td><td>2</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>0</td><td>2</td></tr><tr><td>Hamilton</td><td>4</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>1</td></tr><tr></table>

Some notes:
1) It is clear that once again, Howard makes the defence work. He bails out many, many mistakes.
2) Also, Howard calls out the rotations on defence for the perimeter players. I remember specifically he told Dmo to double Lebron. Not only does he anchor the paint, he also anchors a lot of the rotations, a key element for a younger contender. Communication is key, and I love that Howard orders people around and calls them out as well. Great stuff.
3) Harden, where art thou? Harden had an absolutely awful first quarter defensively. Don't quote me on this, but he gave up (give take) 20 points in the first quarter. What is frustrating is that when he is dialed in, he can produce, but just is not there all the time. Nearly all of his good defensive plays were in the second half.
4) A little off topic, but Dwayne Wade whines too much.
5) Beverley really needs to stop fouling 3 pt shooters. Worst defensive play in the game.
6) If you were listening to ABC, Simmons is wrong. On defence, although the Rockets don't have an Andre Iguodala, Dwight also just dominates the paint. That is never useless. Beverley is nowhere near useless, and was used against Wade with success. While Simmons writes good articles, he on-air commentary is a little off sometimes.
7) Other than the charge against Lebron, Harden is just LAZY on transition D. He let way too many Heat players blow by him. Make a stand, for goodness sakes.
8) This game had some examples of good D, better O. It is still good defence.
9) Harden also got away with the "poke-from-behind" steals after getting burned on defence. This is technically good defence, and I had to record good on-ball defence, but if it doesn't work, it is terrible defence, further emphasizing his lazyness. I hope we get a dialed-in Harden in the playoffs, or the Rockets will most likely not (never say never) win a championship with such perimeter sieves.
10) Parsons had a typical game from his rookie year: not a lot of offensive production, but really came out to play on the defensive side. He really showed up to play, and a lot of his bad defence was just having to guard Lebron. Lebron does that to everyone. Great anticipation by Parsons, and really did well with the defensive schemes the Rockets were using.
11) Harden should never be on Ray Allen. Ever. How do you let Ray Allen burn you with both on-ball and off-ball defence? This guy moves at a snails pace at this age.
12) To emphasize how bad Harden was, Dmo had to guard Ray Allen, and was exceptional at it. He had two good closeouts: Allen hit a tough fallaway three, and threw up a bad shot on the other three. It is just despicable that a 7 ft PF can outplay Harden on the perimeter. Just awful.
13) Most of Beverley's bad defensive plays was against Norris Cole in the third. Both him and Asik got burned by Cole on the pick and roll. I would not expect that to happen often, and both Asik and Beverley made many good defensive plays in other parts of the game.
14) If you were wondering whose fault it was on the wide open Ray Allen 3: it was Lin. The very next defensive possession, Lin was guarding Ray Allen. These are the plays that make Lin a very frustrating player to watch. Lin killed the Rockets in the fourth quarter, both offensively and defensively. In hindsight, Dmo should have played the fourth quarter. However, emphasis on "in hindsight": the small ball lineup has been very effective this season.
15) Hamilton had good on-ball defense, but with no offense, was not needed with Parsons stepping up today. Hamilton is clearly on a short leash with Mchale.
16) It was not surprising that Garcia didn't play this game, because he had some bone-headed plays against Chicago that veterans are expected to avoid, especially one that does not have much offensive value (other than spot shooting).

If you have any questions on how to judge who did what wrong on a play, just ask below. Also, should I incorporate defensive rebounding next game?

tl;dr: Look at the chart, Harden killed us first quarter, Lin was not good in the fourth. Howard is awesome. Refs are not to blame, but did not help us out either. There are too many mistakes by the players to blame the whole game on a couple mistakes by the refs.

 

Did you notice who he was guarding next possession? Ray Allen. Who was Lin guarding the rest of the game? Allen. Harden was above the 3 pt line waiting to pick up his man coming to half court. He was running out of desperation, not because he lost his man. That is not on Harden.

So, yes, it is Lin's fault because he forgot who he was covering after a timeout. It was a critical mistake the Rockets just could not afford.

 

1st play. Good rotation by Lin and good on-ball by Dmo. That was just a tough fall-away 3 pt jumper. Good defence, better offense. There were a lot of switches, as part of the defensive scheme with the small-ball lineup, but give Ray Allen credit on that one. That is why he is one of the best shooters of all time.

2nd play: Harden/Bev are on one page and Lin on the other. Lin orders Harden to guard Allen, Harden looks like he is saying that is who you are supposed to get, and Harden is then forced to desperately rotate to Allen. While I don't have a translator, it seems like Harden was pointing that Lin should have been on him. If Lin wanted to pick up the ball, he should have put pressure to stop them from bringing it up so quickly (hard to make a cross-court pass under pressure), or communicated earlier. However, this was just after the timeout, and Ray Allen was actually who Lin was supposed to guard.

Fact: Lin is on Ray Allen later on in the clip. It is clear that the rest of the team knew Lin was on Ray, except for Lin himself. This is clear evidence on "growing pains".
Fact 2: Parsons is pissed at 0:23. The Rockets clearly talked about Defensive matchups in the timeout.

Therefore, bad rotation by Lin.

3rd play: Bad rotation by Parsons and Lin. Parsons clearly did not communicate loudly or at all about the backscreen (Lin got mauled), and should have switched when seeing that Lin could not get around at all (shocker why...). However, Parsons didn't call switch, so Lin tried to work through it and keep up with Allen, and failed miserably. While Lebron held him, I cannot give Lin a pass for an bad missed call: results are results.

What should of happened: Assuming Lebron holds him, Parsons calls switch, and then no layup is given up. Shout-out to Bev for the astute rotation.

4th play: Lin did everything right, denying Bosh the ball on the roll, rotating quickly to Allen, but he jumped. Therefore, he rotated right, but left his feet: bad on-ball. Harsh, but just cannot leave your feet.

It was a brain fart. Good way to describe it.

Who else is wrong here? Harden and Bev for guarding who they were supposed to guard?

I don't see how this wasn't just like a normal defensive play. Harden was waiting above the 3pt line for Wade, Bev was ready to pressure fullcourt if Cole had the ball.

How does who Lin guarded afterwards not mean anything? You don't think the Rockets discussed who they are going to guard before the game and during the game? It just shows that Lin missed an assignment.

When the play starts, Harden is nowhere near the ft line. If Lin really wanted to guard ball for this one possession for who knows what reason, he should have pressured the ball to stop such an easy pass by Wade, knowing that him and Harden had a miscommunication. If this was the situation, yea, Harden would have had a bad rotation. However, Lin was guarding the wrong guy. Remember this was after a timeout; why would they change their whole scheme after one possession on the fly? It is more sensible that Lin just had a brain fart.

Whether the ball passes half court is not an issue. There is only one wrong, and it is Lin.

 

The miscommunication was Lin not knowing who he was supposed to guard. Everybody else was on the same page.

Oh, we do know what assignments were. Who was Lin on all game afterwards? Why were both Beverley and Harden saying that Lin should be on him? You are telling me that the Rockets didn't discuss small-ball matchups in their shoot-arounds, walk-throughs, and film study? This was after a timeout, not after somebody got repeatly burned on defence, where in-game switches are usually made.

Have you played basketball? Every timeout, coach either says "know who yall have" or "call out your man right now" and the players then do it either in the timeout or right after huddle breaks. Do you know how much time is spent on film, walk-throughs, and team meetings? These guys do basketball for a living, and it is inexcusable for Lin not be aware after a timeout.

What you are referencing is typical transition D, which is true. However, this is after a timeout. Another poster mentioned a late substitution; however, Lin should know who was on the court already, who he subbed in for, and who he is guarding in that certain matchup. Players, especially rotation players, should be mentally engaged in the game. Why was everybody else on the team on the right page, but Lin?

Heck, if I did something like this, I would be pulled immediately. (Yes, I do play, D1 actually, a 3 and D, high bball iq role-player).

That is a good point, and it was "growing pains" for Lin. The right play was Lin being mentally engaged in the game.

If this is true (wasn't particularly noticing, writing down observations), then I should make a category called "Lin had a brain fart". Through hours of film, walk-through, team meetings, etc., you don't know beforehands who you are guarding in small-ball lineup? He should know, when on the bench, who is guarding who before the timeout anyways.

With your point about Mchale, I just don't understand how Dmo knew he was subbed out and Lin did not know he was subbed in. Since the whole team knew, I am just stunned how Lin didn't. I can't see how this is on Mchale.

If it is true that Lin substituted late, then I should just add a category of "being a dummy". Also, Lin should have pressured the ball instead of casually backpedaling if he really wanted Harden to get his man across the court to stop the 50 ft pass Wade made.

Dmo did a great job on Allen; I made sure to have that in my "notes" section. That was a good contest by Dmo, just give credit to Allen for a fade-away three. Great player making a great play. I discussed this at number 12 in notes.

Thank you, much better to talk about rotations than knee-jerk "so and so sucks at defence!" (insert PPat's name here).