[CBS Sports] Why Houston's first-round struggles bode well for its playoff future

But Spurs or Memphis will have less rest if they play 7 games.

 

@heypartner mentioned in another thread that the Spurs will likely hard trap Harden and that they do it very effectively. I agree that OKC has a pantheon of tall defenders to give our shooters problems. The Spurs do switch very well, but I'm hoping normalized length/size of the Spurs' defenders will enable the Rockets' shooters (looking at you Ryan Anderson) to just let the 3s launch.

 

Now THIS is something I am legitimately pissed off about. Ariza, Gordon, even Harden and Beverley have shown that they CANNOT be trusted with the basketball in the waning seconds of the game. Ariza and Gordon in particular have shown terrible awareness about who's around them once they gather a rebound, while Beverley is just looking to get rid of the ball and Harden tries to dribble through 3 guys. I think a LOT of it has to do with the fact that the bigs on the court at the time, whether it's Capela or Nene, tend to drift past the half-court line, and wait for the guards to bust the press. They need to come back and give an outlet to the ball-handler instead of watching everything break down 50 feet away.

 

well yeah obviously but he said it in terms of harden resting which it doesn't matter

 

Well that's good to know. Thanks for clarifying that. I just care about Harden healing and resting up. and 5+ days is adequate I think for the Rockets to reset.

 

i like it too. gives the rockets a chance to get over the series and let it go and shift their entire focus to the next while letting our bodies rest an extra day or two

 

Old man Nene shot 85 percent for the series.

Dayum!

 

Nice , but I'm sure most of us noticed this watching this series. We didn't play up to our potential and we are going to have to if we want to advance.

 

The problem with this mentality is that without HISTORIC low % from Roberson and that 4th quarter from russ, we lose two games

 

If we had played like that and had to grind out a 7 game series, I would be worried. The fact that we got the gentleman's sweep, and know that we can play so much better bodes well, in my opinion. I think they were under a lot of pressure, due to everyone (the media) wanting the OKC Russes to win. Now they are playing with house money. They can come out more relaxed, and play their game. The extra time off should help too.

 

Averages are a bit misleading in a playoff series, there's so few games, it's more about good game vs bad game, not your average. If i shoot 30 shots in 3 games, 60% in 2 games, win those by 2 and 3, and 10% in 1, lose that by 20, i'd take that over 43% in all 3 and lose them all by 10, but you know, my averages are the same.

 

A few of you have touched on this but I also hate this notion that we won when we sucked, so thats a positive.
This was the first round and we didn't play well, period. I'm so happy that we're in the second round, but that doesn't mean im convinced we're looking good. Serious contenders want to enter the playoffs playing their best basketball. We have not done that. In the middle of the playoffs is not a time when you decide to turn things around, against a team like the Spurs nonetheless.

If we ever did get to play the Warriors, they would feast on us.

 

Just to be clear, Kawhi is a waaaayyy better defender than anything OKC has on it's roster - he is the ultimate long aggressive switching defender. I agree that OKC has a glut of wing perimeter defenders and that certainly impacted Harden's game but Kawhi for 38 minutes + a little time from Dedmon/Simmons is a better overall defensive unit than anything OKC could throw at us.

You do touch on a really good point though - OKC has length and mobility defensively and it seems like our team has a problem shooting well when challenged by long defenders(see our shooting struggles against GS). OKC's perimeter defenders didn't really help on the PnR as much - they stayed close to our shooters to contest. The two PnR defenders just blitzed Harden and OKC lived with the results of the roll man. Capela had an awful series and wasn't able to capitalize much on PnR attempts, but obviously it made a more offensively capable Nene look like an All Star. Back to San Antonio - they don't have as much length to defend our shooters so I think we will likely shoot a lot better depending on Pops defensive strategy. I don't see Harden having monster scoring games, but I see the Gordon, Anderson, Lou Williams trio being a lot more effective at spreading the floor this series. The crucial thing here is going to be spreading the shooters and getting Harden at least some breathing room in the PnR from Kawhi - that guy is amazing at fighting through screens by staying hugged to his assignment.

 

I really don't agree, Roberson is an absolutely elite defender, his offense is just so horrible he doesn't get the credit he deserves. Kawhi is a better defender, but the gap isn't huge and Roberson has given Harden more trouble in the past.

 

I agree Kawhi is pretty darn good defensively. But come on, Roberson is the epitome of a "lengthy defender." He made Harden work A LOT during the OKC series. If anything, I feel that that was a great training for Harden. With those extremely long arms of Roberson, he was able to slow down Harden, a bit bringing the ball up. Kawhi is a good defender, but he's also got to shoulder most of the Spurs' offensive responsibilities as well.

If Kawhi is going to be on Harden TOUGH for most of the game, Harden is VERY capable of tiring out Kawhi with his plethora of weapons in his repertoire as well as possibly getting Kawhi into foul trouble.

You can't have it both ways. You can't say Kawhi being on Harden for 38+ will just render Harden ineffective. We've witnessed Harden being "ineffective" so to speak against a premier lengthy defender in Roberson (for the majority of the game) and Harden still got stronger and better as the games wore on...that's a fact from my eye test. To add, Roberson also did not have the offensive load to carry like Kawhi does....which is also a factor to consider.

 

I agree that Roberson is an elite defender - absolutely....however, Kawhi is something I haven't seen before, he's literally the best wing defender I have ever seen play basketball. If anything I'm overrating Kawhi, but I don't think so - ask the pros and the scouts - he's really that good.

 

• The Rockets were outscored when starting center Clint Capela was on the court.

This is the only truth you need to know about the whole situation.

 

Get kashi in foul trouble beard.

Pop will keep green on harden for 75% of the game for that reason.

 

I never said Kawhi would render Harden ineffective - I said he likely wouldn't be having monster games(40+ points). I mean look - Roberson did as well as any defender has on Harden all season and Harden STILL averaged 30+/6/7 in 5 games. Harden can have a disaster of an offensive game and still get 18+ points.

As for Harden tiring Kawhi out - I suppose it's a concern in the back of the mind for San Antonio, but honestly that dude is 25 and I can't say I have ever seen him gassed like we did with Westbrook in this past series. If you ask me, he's damn near in that Lebron orbit of tireless engergy - normal rules just don't seem to apply to guys like that in their mid 20s. I think the bigger concern is the cross switching that is going to result from Kawhi guarding Harden on one end and getting guarded by Ariza on the other. Houston will likely want to push the tempo considerably to get into their offense as soon as possible to prevent the Spurs from picking the matchups they want. The Spurs however aren't equipped to do that against Houston - at least, they didn't in the regular season as one of the slowest paced teams in the league.

I also want to point out that the Spurs aren't as heavily predicated on Kawhi making plays to get shots for his teammates like Harden is. The Spurs need Kawhi's scoring production, but they still have a number of fairly crafty offensive players so it's not like the offense goes in the toilet if he's gassed. Kawhi is the team's best offensive player, but he doesn't shoulder quite the load that we are used to seeing Harden carry so I would adjust your expectations for the load that Kawhi carries for his team.

 

Yes, but by some unlikelihood that Kawhi is minimized in his production, the Spurs are in trouble. He might not have the usage like Harden does for the Rockets, but if he doesn't play well and efficient (Kawhi), then the Spurs are in trouble.

I get that the Spurs still have a lot of other quality players and vets, but Kawhi is their trump card. In games that Harden was "horrible"....that mainly speaks to his shots being off and turnovers to an extent. But Harden was still able to have "good" games in spite of being off.