Best post I have read tonight. Jones is just to small, and Asik was in foul trouble. You have to give Dmo some playing time to see what he can do. How could it have been any worse than it was tonight.
Aldridge is a great player. He had a great night. I didn't see a lack of effort from Jones. Aldridge did his thing. Dwight's role was to be the weak side shot blocker to start. Before they could implement their full plan for Aldridge, Howard and Asik were in foul trouble. Who knows what adjustments may have happened? And would it have mattered? Aldridge hit a fadeaway 3 pointer on Dwight in OT with Dwight all over him.
Very few NBA big men can defend Aldridge one-on-one. It takes aggressive double teaming or denying him position in the paint, something that Jones does not know how to do.
It's not an effort thing with Jones, he's just a horrible match up with him for some reason. He needs to learn post defense and work on his lower body strength over the summer badly. Howard completely shut Aldridge down that play(sure he made a r****ded contested 3 but you can't hold that against anyone) it's obvious he's our best bet against him.
DMo should definitely get some run on LMA. He's the only one tall enough with the quickness and fouls to burn. Keep LMA out of the paint and let him take all the jumpers he wants.
What was that killer star again? Aldridge and Lillard scored Portlands last 30 pts? You have to look at the coach. To get killed that bad and not make the right adjustments. I am not worried about this series, even if it's without Bev. Rockets in 6.
After that fall away 3 over Howard...you just body him up & hope for the best, or bring in Josh Powell to flatten him with an elbow to the head.
I'd say Asik is still our best defender vs LMA, only this game refs quickly took him out of the game with those ghost illegal screens. Stick with Asik/Howard vs LMA. We have to go bigger to get those rebounds if Jones cannot handle Lopez. Try Powell on Lopez to get those boards. Also try one of them Viper boys with the bench unit. We need to surprise POR. Bigger problem of course is who will contain Lillard?
The guarding of LMA was very poor, he was getting the ball wherever he wanted and could go inside at any moment. The lack of double teaming was baffling, as well as not using Powell or D-Mo.
Morey is crazy to not get courtney lee and brandon bass instead of waiting for a chacne to sign this guy and keeping asik instead. Bass at center would have been comical.
I saw a lot of this in the game thread. Playing zone only works if the other team can't shoot over the top of it. The Blazers can certainly do that. Zone is more effective at stopping the big man and keeping their guards out of the paint. Unfortunately the Blazers are built with a bunch of shooters.
Serious answer? Make asik guard him and force him to shoot mid range jumpers all game. If we can do that and then put d mo on him he will want to stick with whats working and d mo is lanky enough to contest him. Then he will try posting up d mo and that is where the fouls should be used if we need them....lol i am dreaming we wont have any to give. The worst is wasting fouls on and 1s. Soft nba indeed.
Asik needs to be on Aldridge, yesterday was rough because the officials took him out of the game in the first half, but if you noticed late, once Howard started guarding Aldridge in the post he stopped dominating. I knew Jones would struggle to guard him, but that was 100x worse than even i expected it to be. It wasn't as if Aldridge was even being forced to make tough shots during the 4th.I've watched a lot of LA's games this year, he is a great player but not nearly the beast TJ makes him look like. Double teams, D-Mo, zone, anything should have been done yesterday to avoid that. McHale simply allowing the same play to work repeatedly was completely unacceptable.
Everyone is saying double team him, but aldridge is tall and long. He has no trouble passing out of the post. He also knows where his shooters spots are. If you cheat off someone, then who? I think their worst wide open shooter is lillard. That says a lot. Lopez is just waiting for the easy dunk if you think about helping off of him. It is difficult because lillard can cut to the basket so howard has to position himself to stop lillard if he does while being able to stop lopez if he passes to him. Worst case scenario is lopez shoots two free throws and howard or jones picks up a foul. There is nothing wrong with trying it here and there, especially if aldridge is beasting again. It gives him something to worry about which is the best thing that comes from it. There is nothing worse than losing the ball as a post player. It is always important to be unpredictable on defense. Predictable defenses get owned. Your best bet is forcing him into long jumpers. Let asik use 3 fouls in the first half and 3 in the second. D mo might have to play some backup center if asik does get into foul trouble. He will need help rebounding obviously while he boxes out lopez.
I dont think Lin has ever lost a match-up with Lillard but you have to remember who our coach is. Likely to play Parsons on Lillard instead of Lin.
