Yet Dwight was never able to beat teams entirely by himself. Harden can do it, that's why they bit the bullet and just let Dwight get his while shutting down the rest of the team. Dwight had a great statline and he was a hell of a player in that series, but he can't carry teams anymore.
Missing shots(in our case, 3-pointers) will theoretically be every team's Achilles heel. The Rockets' problem is they don't have great shooters given the system they run. Harden oddly enough might be our best after overcoming that slow start earlier in the year. Terry is streaking(but clutch as we've learned the hard way). Ariza is streaky. Bev is streaky. Brewer is only good from the corner. Smith is only mediocre from the corner. And Canaan is not allowed to play in the NBA anymore. Honestly, I'm more concerned with turnovers, defensive lapses, and free throw shooting. The 3-point shot won't be there every night, but if it was, we'd never lose. The Rockets have shown they can win games despite shooting poorly from the outside. But not if they're plagued by those other issues.
When you were looking at the stats, did you not notice we are among the league leaders in FTA and one of the worst at making free throws? Doesn't it make sense that that's what's killing us? If we were, say, 13th instead of 28th in FT%, we would be competing with GS. Hitting above league average 3pt% despite taking 6 more attempts than the next most prolific team is GREAT news. That is probably exactly where the coaches and front office want the team to be.
Yep - it could be his health, but that needs to be factored in, we can't go on what they USED to be able to do, or we would sign Hakeem. DD
There are some differences between shooting a lot of FTs and shooting a lot of 3pters. 1. FT% is way higher than any shots, even for most poor FT shooters. (A 60% FT shooter is still more efficient shooting FT than shooting other shot.) If a player's 3pt% is below .325, it is less efficient than a league average 2pt shot. 2. FT shooting has no risk. 3pt shooting, as pointed out has the risk of TO and long rebounds that turn into opponent's easy transition offense. In other words, FT shooting is a sure thing. 3pt shooting not as much.
Absolutely. We don't need to take 3s when we are up 20. Missed 3s leads to long rebounds and fast breaks for the other team. They should take high percentage shots and eat some clock
What is up with the revisionist history here... So, Dwight forced Harden, Parsons, Harden, Lin, and Beverley to play below their regular season? Dwight obviously had a hand up in Harden's shots. Dwight was clearly holding Parsons down while Batum ransacked him. Dwight hurt Beverley's knee, and was holding up Lin's hand while he racked up the turnovers. Oh, and I almost forgot that Dwight got Jones' panties in a wad. One guy can't win a series against a legitimate team. Yes, many of the East playoff teams were not as good as the Blazers team last year. If those guys had played just average, the Rockets would have advanced. Right, because everybody else was consistent, except Dwight This narrative to just let Dwight "get his" is frankly ridiculous. Letting Dwight get his really stopped Harden from running the PnR effectively, and he couldn't get his post game going because the Blazers let Dwight "get his". And the lack of perimeter defense was because the Blazers were letting Dwight "get his" blocks. Bit the bullet? What are you talking about? Don't let Harden's exceptional play cloud the lack of play last series, caused by himself. He couldn't handle Matthews physical D, and he couldn't hit open shots either.
3 pointers worked fine last night and got a 25 point lead. Then the trash men came in, took quick lazy shots, stopped defending, and allowed the Lakers to within 10 (not that close really, but still not acceptable. I wouldn't fault the 3 pointer as much as the lack of depth which has reared it's head again with no Jones or Howard. The Rockets had 4 solid guys starting last night, maybe 2 more in Brewer and Smith when he's not taking jumpers. Dorsey and Terry should be playing cameo minutes really. Papa, Capela should be in RGV. Canaan should be with the big boys.
3 pointers won't make our achilles heal. If so, Kobe wouldn't have had to sit out a year and Brandon Jennings wouldn't need surgery. They'd just shoot some 3s and resume playing.
fwiw: Canaan is still recovering from injury. Using his Viper's time to play his way back into NBA Game shape. See the Monitor game recaps in the RGV forum. Several quotes from him.
I'll try to be quick... Did Dwight have a good series last year against Portland...Yes Did Dwight having a good series last year against Portland help us advance...No You seem to be a big Dwight fan and for the record I don"t hate him, but we are not being honest as Rockets fans if we try to act like his limited offensive game is not frustrating at the least. He went off on Portland last year because they wanted him to. They concluded (Correctly) that a hot Howard was not nearly the threat that a hot Harden would be. And for the record I think that even you will agree that the Dwight Howard we've seen so far this season has no chance to replicate what he did in last years playoffs...
Yao had a good series against Portland a few years ago, then helped us to advance. That would be a good example for a good playoff performance. Howard did a good job when he was in Magic, but not in Houston.
I did a search, Terry belongs to a good three point shooter. His 3P% is 0.380, John Barry is 0.392, and Jason Kidds is 0.349. But Terry is too old to play a good minute because he can not defend others.
We need to be healed: http://youtu.be/o5WGuDzLMWA Volume 3pt shooting has won us games, but I don't think it will work as well come playoff time. But as others have mentioned, the poor FT shooting is an even bigger worry.
Harden spent pretty much every moment after the first quarter avoiding injury or energy usage by avoiding driving.
Harden is our bread and butter It is obvious that Harden is our bread and butter. Do we have any games that we won where these 2 following happen?: 1. Harden did not play well 2. The team is above 0.500 If I was an opposing team I would not even let Harden touches the ball. That's the strategy to beating the Rockets.
