Three Up: James Harden: First and foremost, our MVP. After a shaky shooting start, Harden really rose to the occasion in the later games. He finished the series averaging 28ppg, 8apg, 4rpg on 47/39/96 shooting. But I think the biggest stat is that he was only out there for 36mpg. While that is a good amount of minutes, its nothing compared to the last two years when he played 41mpg in the Thunder series and 44mpg in the Blazers series. Personally, I thought his minutes would spike up to around 40 minutes this year, so I was pleasantly surprised at how effective he was in his relatively lower minutes. A part from some 2nd quarter struggles, this team has shown that they can manage without Harden on the floor at all times. I totally expect Harden's minutes to spike in the later rounds but it was good that he was able to rest early in the playoffs. Josh Smith: What a great series he had! He finished the series averaging 17ppg, 6rpg, 4apg, a steal and a block on 52% shooting (39% from deep). Keep in mind that he had a horrible game in Game 1, too. I can see why Morey thought Smith could be our 3rd star when he went after him in 2013; he has been spectacular. Smith, more than anyone else on this team, is our x-factor. If he is playing well and making the right plays, we are so much harder to beat. He does need to work on his free throw shooting though because 44% is not going to cut it. I can see Pop licking his lips at the thought of repeating what he did to Smith a couple of weeks ago. Dwight Howard: The last up goes to Dwight Howard. He was completely dominant this whole series. Even when he was limited by foul trouble in Game 1, his presence alone made us infinitely better than the Mavericks. He was kind of iffy on Game 4 but that was a poor performance from the whole team. He finished the series averaging 17ppg, 14rpg, 3bpg on 58% shooting. Take away his foul trouble Game 1, and he averaged near 18 and 16 this series. I'm a firm believer that his health will be the biggest factor to our goals in the playoffs. If he was 75% Dwight, we would be extremely lucky to get to the WCF but if he was greater than 90% Dwight, a Finals appearance is a real possibility. Right now, I think Dwight is as healthy as he has ever been with us, last year included, and I really think we have a chance at the whole thing! Three Down: Trevor Ariza: After a great Game 1 performance, he really struggled from then on. He finished the series averaging 8ppg, 7rpg, 3apg on 29/23/83 shooting. Just awful shooting from a player we need to shoot almost lights out in the playoffs. Defensively, he was not as good as I thought he would be but I can give him a slight pass because I think Ellis is a tough cover for him due to Ellis' quickness and size. Even then, Ellis averaged 26ppg on 22 shots so it was still an slightly below average job done by Ariza, at worst. I have full confidence that Ariza's defense will come back strong but he can't shoot 23% from three if we expect to beat anyone in the playoffs. Free Throw Shooting: This may be our ultimate downfall, especially if we are going to play coaches like Pop or Kerr who will exploit it all game long. I know the NBA is looking to change up the "Hack-A-Player" rule but till then, our big men have to be consistent with their foul shots and make them! We aren't going to win close games with Dwight Howard and Josh Smith shooting sub 50% from the foul line. Jones and Capela were pretty good from the foul line but they had their moments of horrible shooting too. It's not just our big men but the team as a whole needs to improve; Brewer, Ariza and others didn't shoot their free throws as well as they have all season, either. James Harden cannot be our only good free throw shooter. Fast Break Defense / Effort Defensively: This is probably the most worrisome thing that came out of this series. At times our defensive intensity was an absolute joke, whether it was on the fast break or in the half court. Not getting back on defense, lazy rotations, defensive breakdowns or awareness issues, lack of team defensive rebounding and overall poor defensive effort will hurt the Rockets if it continues. The Mavericks' only way to score consistently against us was by the fast break off our quick shots or turnovers or by abusing our perimeter defense with the pick and rolls. As well as we have been this season on defense the team couldn't stop them, mostly due to lack of effort. One thing about Howard coming back healthy that worried me was that the team, as a whole, would "relax" defensively and let Dwight clean up their "mistakes." This cannot happen; we cannot rely on Dwight to save us defensively and get the rebound for us as well. Defense, especially defensive rebounding, has to be a team effort. I was pretty disappointed in Smith and Jones at times for their lack of effort or awareness on defense this series because they either stayed on the perimeter or tried to leak out, instead of helping Howard or Capela get the rebound. Defense doesn't end until the rebound is secured. This goes for the team as a whole too. Teams with better players, better schemes are going to exploit us on defense. Anyway, I'm extremely happy with our series victory! But as the team was saying last night, we cannot get complacent at what they have achieved thus far. There were a lot of positives from this series and quite a few negatives that need improvement as well. Dallas was a great first test for us and harder test are going to come and come fast. I hope we are ready to pass those as well.
Great analysis. I said in a thread last night that I think everything is going to come down to free throw shooting in these playoffs. The lack of offensive production by Ariza can be dealt with by collectively taking the ball inside more, and we've always had him mainly for his defense anyway. The transition and overall D issue is a mental thing (and maybe physical, but hopefully this extra rest will help that). I think they can turn the D up way more just by going out there and DOING IT. I imagine they'll have the need to play better defense and the need to stop turning the ball over DRILLED into their heads in this off-time, and it should already be very apparent to all of them to get things straight in those respects before the next series, anyway. So, it's going to come down to free throws, and I imagine our bigs will practice them a ton between now and the next series. I also hope they work on being a little more zenlike at the line, since our making free throws are greatly affected by our guys' frames of mind at the time they have to shoot.
I would throw on offensive rebounds. Dwight is conflicted on wether to go for the block or not because nobody is there to rebound. When Dwight goes for the block. We need to BOX TF OUT. Jones needs to rebound consistently. Ariza needs to hit the boards as well, if he's not shooting. We need to replace Beverley's rebounding.
Agree with everything, but I have to throw another one out there related to Ariza and actually instead of him because he should not be singled out like this. This is very simple, get Ariza & Terry some open looks! We've been good because of Harden's passing and Josh stepping up as a playmaker, but most shots for Ariza and Terry are not by design. They have been forcing some as well, because of their misfires since the hot short in game 1 & 2. Get those guys going by getting them some easy looks. I would say defense in general should be your third since rotations, helping out on defense, getting back in transition, silly fouls instead of good defense and not boxing out and helping out Dwight when he goes for the block is just killing us. If we continue that, look for Duncan and their other bigs to have a field day and go crazy on us. Commitment to rebounding is also part of that and glad we saw aggressive Ariza today. FT shooting didn't worry me until game 4, good lord, we are absolutely atrocious and glad Webber called us out: it's a lack of practicing, simple as that.
agree with ur three down. the team defense is wildly inconsistent. and ariza's 20/20 perecentages from the first round are terrible. inexcusable, unacceptable, pathetic. im tired of seeing him miss wide open shots. we dont have a choice so we have to see if he can break out of iit, but if he keeps this up i'd rather trade him. the only thing he does really well is defense. i'd rather have good defense and average offense then elite defense and w/e the **** ariza is doing on offense.
Jones' rebounding has been one of the biggest, quietest issues in the series, as well as his ability to finish around the rim. I was glad to see him come alive a little bit at the end of game 5. As the OP said, defending the PG with the combination of Jones never boxing out leads to automatic put-backs if Dwight helps on the ball handler. THAT is our kryptonite. Ariza seems like he has been rushing shots rather than taking set jumpers.
If Dwight/Smoove can hit their free throws during hacks, I think we can take on the Spurs. They are the better team, but we just seem like a mismatch for them athletically. When Dwight was on the court in both losses, we had a double digit lead. When they started hacking, we got tilted. If they can win vs most likely the Spurs, people will respect this team.
