You look at the Warriors, their players leverage a system to their advantage and maximize efficiency while also very mindfully making in-game adjustments. It's impressive to see their various players making smart adjustments play to play. Our team suffers from rigidity and an inability to make adjustments. We just try to do the same things over and over, and our best answer is generally "We just needed more energy", which ironically turns out to be very true a lot of the time. Think about Harden in this game.. getting stripped repeatedly.. does he make an adjustment? It just continued for the rest of the game. Maybe fatigue and being stifled defensively, but still representative of an underlying issue imo. Tonight, we got owned when we didn't have Harden and Howard out there together, we went down a lot when one of them went to the bench, resulting in some atrocious series of plays. When things aren't working, it seems like we just keep trying to do the same thing. In tonight's case, we tried going to Howard in the post, and it was horrendous. And we had no other idea of any alternative options either with that lineup, so why were we going with this lineup again? We went down 6+ points during these stretches. You would think we would try to find something that would work. Some of the guys are huge main culprits for our offensive ineptness at times, such as Howard, Smith, and Harden. Ariza as well, but he doesn't make some of the really bad turnovers like the other guys. Brewer seems to have more flexibility offensively but also clearly has bounds to what he can do offensively. I have no idea what TJones was doing for most of this series. And Smith.. some of the turnovers he causes on offense are just too simple to be happening. All that being said, we still played very well & matched up pretty evenly with some great teams in the playoffs. Imagine if we actually came into games better prepared and the players had better in-game recognition and awareness. Still a talented team regardless, and it will help to shore up with some roster upgrades, but others teams in the West will surely improve as well. Just a very interesting challenge to not have enough playmakers. I do think being undermanned probably causes us to just do enough to stay in the games to the extent possible and keep things close, but you have to wonder about some of the simple things we miss or don't do sometimes. Like being down by 10 or so with 3 minutes left, why are we still dribbling out the shot clock instead of looking to get some quick shots off? Add some playmakers, shore up the defense, get more discipline and intuitive/flexible players, I can see us being able to build solid leads against teams and maintaining them. How does the team play smarter though?
Great post. I noticed the same things. We don't counterpunch well. When GS is packing the paint and all their defenders have eyes on Harden, the wings in the corner need to go backdoor. James will find them. Another poster in another thread mentioned that James is good at the pass that sets up a score but not necessarily the pass that keeps the offense humming along. I agree this is an area for he and the coaching staff to work on. Also, I think he should add post game. He should be devastating guards down low with his strength. And he has the skills to be a terrific facilitator if/when the double team comes. We need to get Harden the ball at the elbow rather than from the top of the 3 pt circle. He can beat his man and be in the paint (where he can finish, lob, or kick out to a shooter) rather beating his man and being faced with yet another layer of defense as is the case when he penetrates from up top. Furthermore I want us to commit to a power game that emphasizes interior scoring rather than 3's. Terrance Jones sucked big time this series but he is usually a good finisher. Dwight, Dmo and Capella are great around the basket too. I trust Dmo, Josh, and Harden to make solid interior passes to the other big man if the defense collapses hard. This is something I want to see much more of next year rather than Ariza or Brewer trying to create. All in all it was a great season for us. I'm excited to address our needs this offseason.
Yeah, I was baffled last night to see in the first quarter absolutely no movement from our players. Gotta have energy in order to win. That's a very interesting point on James how he doesn't necessarily get the offense started and flowing. It's rather difficult though when you have a bunch of other players who aren't the most slick and smooth at passing and moving offensively. I think we are on the same wavelength on the last two points as well. If James is struggling and turning it over mightily in the same way trying to slash, why not post him up? Get him closer to the hoop and try to draw a crowd and work it inside, frees up other guys. I'm sure you can draw more fouls too working in that space. However, the 3 pt threat obviously lessens, and he really is best when he gets some lane to drive in explosively. He doesn't have the multiple gears and ballhandling like a Chris Paul or Steve Nash to weave in and out easily. He'll get stuck. Another alternative is to run him off off-the-ball screens. Curling in at the elbows/top of the free throw line. I do think Smith and Jones hurt the game a lot with their inability to complement and cut quickly at the right spots and times. This series was definitely about the power game for us as well as Harden stepping it up. I don't think we leveraged that as well as we could. It was also about the defensive lapses (and moving screens) and giving up open shots to their league-best perimeter shooters. Certainly, we were undermanned, but just think if we don't have the same mental slip-ups and droughts that we are so accustomed to, the predictability that Cuban alluded to, and then we would be a scary team. For this last game in particular, you have to attack the Warriors inside and pressure them.. otherwise, they get comfortable and take their time setting up their offense instead of being on their heels and focused on protecting the rim and defending. We weren't aggressive enough, we had inept lineups and offensive play execution, and they came back and starting putting up some buckets. McHale's strategy is to put players in and see who might have the hot hand. I think there is more that we can be doing, including preparation long before the playoffs to get our team functional with good offensive sets (think Adelman's teams). All that being said, still a great season by the Rockets, and definitely credit to the Warriors for getting it done on defense.
Last night's game could be a nice study of contrast in offensive style. When Golden State was on offense, the ball keeps moving and their players keep moving. You can see our guys keep scrambling on defense just to stay close to their men. When Houston was on offense, it's the big man on top, handing it to a perimeter guy coming from the left, who then dribbles to the right and handing it to Harden coming from the right. Then EVERYBODY STAND and watch Harden use about 10 seconds to try to shake his man. Occasionally, a big man would come out to set a pick. Most of the time the pick doesn't do anything because the big man's defender just crowds Harden and Harden can't go anywhere. NOBODY moves.
Yeah, we had to put the onus on the Warriors to actually face an offensive attack / threat. Instead, we have a very predictable and ineffective/off sequence of the dribble to the 3 point line and pass to big at top, who passes off again to a wing. Very easy to read... obviously you're not going to get good looks with that. Easy to stifle, then they go on the offensive end and patiently do their thing. They certainly tired out our undermanned team with their offensive system (and moving tackles), but you gotta put your players in a position to actually score. Dwight at the 3 point line with the ball? Josh Smith heaves / bail-outs (and passing it to the other team)? Still baffled at Terrence Jones doing absolutely nothing this series. I want to analyze the game/video more closely.. time permitting..
