don't give dwight the ball

It worked in the beginning, but then they double teamed, and by then, everyone else was out of the flow. OP's right, we didn't get this far posting up DH every play. Swallow your damn pride and do some damn pick and roll!!!!! Stop listening to that fool, Shaq.

 

Did you mean to title this thread..

"REASON WE LOST: NOT GIVING DWIGHT THE BALL"

 

Funny thing... when Dwight has taken 20 or more shots against Portland this season we've lost every single time. Lopez and LMA are their best defenders we should be exploiting the other guys.

 

give dwight the ball the post. just reduce the amount of post touches by 25-50% and use post up plays more judiciously.

 

Honestly, "dumping it into Dwight" makes me nervous. It's just not the same as dumping it into Yao.

The problem with Yao doing Pick and Roll was his lateral speed. But we CAN do this with Dwight. Need more Pick and Rolls McHale. Mix it up a bit. Harden ISO ball and dump-the-ball-to-Dwight isn't going to win us the series.

 

Feed Dwight. He has a definitive advantage against Lopez. Much more than Harden over Mathews. He missed some bunnies but that's ok. Getting him going will get Lopez out of the game with fouls and will bend the Portland defense into getting our other guys open looks. Dwight played great tonight and went all-out all game. Our offensive problems occurred when our guys stayed stationary while Portland sent help to cover Dwight. When the help comes our perimeter guys need to move without the ball to get easy shots. Parsons and Jones to an extent were good at this earlier in the season, tonight that didn't happen. Our guys just stood still when Dwight got doubled killing our offensive flow. Also FFS please post Dwight on the right block. He's so much better going to the middle with his left hand.

The reason we aren't getting Harden and Parsons easy looks is because Portland is shooting lights out against us and there are few opportunities for fast breaks and early offense. Also with LMA shooting so many mid range jumpers there are going to be a lot of long rebounds available. Our guys have to stop leaking out to run and commit to boxing out and securing the ball first. All season long we've been dealing with our forwards not boxing out Dwight's man when he goes to blocks shots. We either have to tell Dwight to stop leaving his feet to challenge or drill it into Parsons/Tjones head to box out and go after defensive boards. We can still get into our transition game if either of them get the rebound and push it up themselves.

Harden has got to step it up. Idk what the relationships between our guys in the locker room is but he needs to be challenged by the leadership of the team to get his head in the game. Even if his shot isn't falling he needs to be a decoy, hustle, set off ball screens to free guys, go after rebounds, etc. Very disappointed in him.

Coach McHale has enabled this entire team to develop such terribly bad habits, its sickening. He's got to go. The fact that we are running a ymca offense in the NBA is a disgrace. Portland wants to essentially do the same things as us on offense, get the ball to their big in the post or run high pick-n-rolls with a guard up top. The difference is the players without the ball are still engaged in the play either setting picks for each other to get open or cutting to the basket when lanes are open. Our players have no idea what to do against a set defense. We've been getting by on pure talent alone which is amazing considering we won 54 games and secured HCA in round 1. It's a complete waste of our relatively good health this year that we have no half-court system to run against good teams. I have faith in our guys. I have faith in Morey to bring in talent. I just don't trust McHale to get the most out of it.

 

Yes, any fans understood this was a problem. When Howard missed easy shots again after again, I knew the danger was coming. But McHale didn't changed the game plan. McHale is just suck!

 

Inside out is the best way to win when you have a big man rolling. If the rest of the team can't adjust to all the wide open opportunities that having a big man dominating down low creates, then that is their (and the coach') fault.

 

Give it to the 4 for 17 guy instead?

 

Dwight beasted sure but the rest of the team just stood around not getting into any kind of rhythm. Parsons, Harden were ice cold. There was no flow to the offense.

This strategy benefits Dwight and only Dwight. It's detrimental to the team and what the Rockets are supposed to be about, pushing the pace, getting into transition and scoring quickly.

Even commentators were saying Portland was doing what the Rockets were supposed to be good at doing better than they were. They pushed the pace and took quick shots, while the Rockets were playing at a slow pace.

 

Why do we deviate from what worked in the regular season against Blazers? Go back and watch the film on we dominated the Blazers.

Our offense always began with PnR at the top of the key. Get Harden initial the offense. Penetrate and/or dish. Move the ball. If the shots aren't there, post up Dwight.

Everyone gets their touches!

 

I can't believe that everyone doesn't realize that Dwight's first quarter was "fool's gold". It tricked us into thinking Dwight's post-ups are a reliable option. I believe all of Dwight's made FG's in the first quarter were dunks. You can't dunk it on every post up. The dude has NO shooting touch. Even if he has an easy shot one foot from the basket, heavy odds are he will miss it. This is not an exaggeration. Watch the tape. And this idea of getting open shots from Dwight double teams is false. When Dwight is double teamed, heavy odds are a turnover is coming soon.

I disagree with the way the OP framed the other option. We don't just shoot threes. We get open threes from Harden's dribble penetration. Yeah, Harden had a rough night, but he didn't really try to penetrate much - possibly because of the force feeding to Dwight.

Give the ball to Harden and tell him to ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK!!!! Let Dwight earn his massive paycheck through his admittedly spectacular defense and offensive rebounds.

 

I like this post, but I disagree with a couple things:

1. Dwight ALWAYS misses bunnies. You can't game plan for him to make those.
2. Dwight is a lousy passer out of the double team.

Also, I'm kind of torn on the whole players just standing around on offense thing, because that's the exact thing ppl said about Rudy's offense in 94-95.

 

Nothing against Dwight, I'm glad he's with us. He's got my support, and I'm probly just sayin this bc if our current situation. But, I think it'd have be real nice to have gotten Milsap + another (playoff) veteran with some of that $ instead. I know... random statement at this time.

 

I'm not sayin that Milsap would be able to hold LA bc frankly... that dude has been unstoppable thus far this series. We just need more veterans with successful playoff experience

 

- On the 'identity crisis' statements... "Let's lose... being us." I can agree with that. We just gotta play the way we've played all season long. But here's the thing... in the playoffs, there are times when YOU DO have to make some adjustments. But unfortunately, we have a coach who is just flat-out clueless (or whatever you wana call him) on how/when/who to make the proper in-game adjustments that give us the best chance at winning the game.