Do you guys have any idea on how to find and exploit his weakness? I would for one go to all of his back games and watch the tape and see how his opponent dealt with him.
I think we need to switch up our PnR coverage. I'd probably tell my guard to go under Aldridge's screens and give Lilliard the long looks that Aldridge is getting. We are hedging right now and allowing Aldridge an opportunity to catch the ball in his comfort zones.
Yeah, I would also maybe attack Lillard on offense. Start Lin, run Lillard through a thousand screens and then have Lin double LMA on the side away from the basket and have Asik stand in between LMA and his basket. I think it's best to gamble on a tired Lillard taking midrange then let LMA go god mode on us.
You just have to make sure that Aldridge doesn't catch the ball and the easiest way to do that is to give someone else shots. We took our chances with Aldridge and we lost. It's time to give Lilliard the shots.
The rockets have to take turns running up to him from behind and swiping at the ball. Always keep him worried about getting stripped. It will take away a great deal of his confidence if we get a strip early on and score in transition off of it. Take as much time off the clock as they can before he gets the ball and he will have two things to worry about. Getting stripped which he will check for immediately followed by the shot clock winding down. Once he begins making his move occasionally have a player run by him and swipe then run back to their man before he can get the pass off. It stops his game while giving us a transition game. It gives us more shot attempts while taking away their first and second chance points. The only problem is the officials will call anything that looks like a foul. They are giving aldridge superstar treatment and protection so we the rockets have to be careful. We know he wants to back down jones and shoot jumpers over asik. This should help the players a great deal when they decide to go for the steal.
He's a efficient mid range shooter. You know how mid range shooter get hot? They miss a few here and there from the start and then goes in a super hot streak. Sound familiar? There are many options: 1) deny the ball even if it forces a double man denial and force someone else to take it in. (watch lopez double harden to deny the ball and let Dwight goes full in). You don't need to deny every possession, but deny a few here and there so he has to start his streak with a few misses again. 2) hard foul, make him feel off via force. Yeah it sounds cowardly, but even a hard hit to the arm once or twice will get the rhythm off because of balance and power distribution. He'll have to restart with a few misses to get hot again 3) strategic timeout calls used to get the hot streaks cooled down. (See Pops and his TO eveytime Rockets gets a fast break) 4) hard switches on the defense, sometimes have shorter people and sometimes have taller people guard, but switch it constantly so that he can't guage what exactly is the right release angle. And a lot more, but this is all just coming from rec league experience. Don't know how much will actually apply to the NBA.
I am thinking he just hit his best form of the season at the right moment. I think he is at the level at which he can only stop himself. Hate to break like that.
It's been hard to watch this series, but I finally gave it a second viewing. Our best bet is putting Donatas on Aldridge early on. He is the player we want Aldridge to shoot over. He is much quicker than Asik and if he can put pressure on Aldridge's release by jumping straight up with his hand up when LA shoots then he will think twice about shooting. This makes Aldridge much more predictable because he will want to back down D-Mo which isn't a bad thing. Now, we know what he wants to do and he can no longer see the basket and where all of his teammates are. This makes it much easier to play zone defense and go for steals once he puts the ball down. The Rockets need to get a steal from Aldridge early on and score. He needs to feel pressure to lose his confidence. That's when he starts to over think things and he will take more time in the post to score while we are figuring out ways to take time off the shot clock before he gets the ball. I noticed Bev is not pressing Lillard as much. Injuries? And we need to play inside-out. Our shooters need to just shoot the ball when they get it. They need to move around on the perimeter and stop standing around. That makes our offense so easy to guard and so predictable. They need to get in Dwights view put their hands up and call for the ball. Then just shoot it. Our players are not shooting it when they're open and it needs to stop. Just shoot it. And why not focus on defensive rebounding on some possessions and running in transition on others?
I understand D-Mo can't jump high, but he is not somebody anyone wants to just shoot over. If I am Aldridge, I always want to try to back him down a little.
Drives home the point that single coverage definitely isn't working. Not even close, if his makes do not even touch rim. From ESPN Dime. http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-140423/lamarcus-aldridge-scorches-rockets-again
WTH? Why not double team him and make him pass the damn ball!?!?!? It's not like he's Kevin Durant or Lebron out there. He posts up on the same damn left wing and turns over the same shoulder. He catches the ball out near the three point line, and the other 8 guys stand there and watch.
I thought of fronting Aldridge, except that since he plays so far out, any front would require Dwight to be pulled away from the basket. The biggest problem with doubling/shadowing Aldridge with 2 players is that all the other players must scramble, and when you have just one player (AHEM HARDEN) who doesn't get to the open man fast enough, that destroys the double team and gives Portland a wide open three pointer. So lesson: tell Harden to man up on D, and that the entire team needs to hustle when doubling Aldridge.
I could only think of double teaming LMA, Rox needs to do a better job on rotation on defense. they are too 1 on 1 when it comes to playing defense. No one rotates and no weak side help. Let someone other than LMA beat you on the scoring. Put bodies on LMA, play hard defense on him. Most importantly Harden needs to show up.
Aggressive double team. Dwight was contained after he started red hot by quick doubles even when he caught the ball deep in the paint. Deny LMA the ball, double quick, drop a guard down hard. Anything but single coverage. He's shooting lights out when he gets to his spots. The touch fouls aren't helping either.
