ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Mavericks 12/8/2018

I'm with you. It has to be situational. Sometimes you switch, sometimes run zone, sometimes run man. It depends on the matchups, foul trouble situation, time left in the game, who is hot who isn't, are we going big or small- all of that. To just say we are switching no matter who, what, or when doesn't make sense to me.

 

If you are going to point to "huge flaws" in a defense, I feel the conversation is a lot better if we can also state the "huge flaws" in the other way to defend PnRs and Motion? Or at least state the advantages of switching to weigh against the disadvantages.

Only then can we even discuss when to use one or another ... but definitely *never* zone...that doesn't achieve anything that switching already achieves, yet much worse at it.

 

In this instance it's clear who had the advantage when it came to switching in the last 2 minutes of the game. Dallas used our defense to setup the matchup they wanted- get Capela on Luka and then abuse him. It worked out for them just as they hoped. They kept going to it. We kept taking the bait. Loss for the Rockets.

Of course there are flaws in every defense. One of the biggest flaws in switching was exploited last night. In my opinion, we would have been better off assigning our best defender to Luka and then fighting through the screens. We didn't need Clint trying to pick him up at the 3 point line. Huge flaw and poor decision.

There's so many holes in this team though. No point in arguing about any of it. How about I just say our defense sucks. We no longer have the right players to run it and I'll leave it at that.

 

I'm just asking what they are. I mean, do you realize we threw three different looks at Doncic? 2 switches, 1 non-switch and 1 trap.

We can also break down the first corner 3, that had a highly-effective initial switch on a pin down, and got Dallas scrambling.

Not arguing,,,just seeing if anyone is interested in expanding the conversation with more analysis of the defenses options, especially since we saw three of them against Doncic in that Dallas run.

 

But even pj was having trouble sticking to Luca on the play he was guarding him in the final minutes. He kinda bullied tuck on a drive and scored

 

Another thing to possibly consider is just how likely those last few shots were to ALL go in.

I know there are shot probability stats available through second spectrum that I wish the public had access to and I would guess we would likely take our chances with those shots in the future.

Credit to him for knocking them down but I doubt it’s replicable on a consistent basis.

 

Right, it was a PnR with DJ, and Tucker did well to go over it (DJ is a huge pick to get past), but couldn't stay in front of him. Then we trapped Luka, too. He passed to DJ who caught Paul napping for a back-door easy bucket.

We'll only remember the step-backs, though, and say why not mix it up.

 

You mean when he lowered the shoulder aka off foul

 

That's a cool photo. Makes me think of Paul's speech to AAU kids, that was posted in the summer, where he talks about how they have to work, because he's not going to let them take his job -- to inspire by telling them how Vets view work and the younger crop of talent.

Here we have Paul staring at a 19yr old, acknowledging the kid has it.

Now Paul can say this summer, "You think you're going to take my job...well, don't forget about the 19yr olds all around the world, working their butts off, getting in line, too."