Then why the **** are we paying Dwight Howard? If he can't even shut down the other team's best post player, then what's the point of even having him?
remember when the knee jerkers thought portland would win like 2 games this season and L.A would come to houston. Yeah, I don't see that happening now.
Asik didn't do that well, either. There were a couple of possessions where LMA's quickness > Asik's lateral movement, resulting in 2 made buckets.
The use of the twin towers in the first game was poorly timed. Why bring both of them in when Portland has Lopez and Thomas Robinson in? Why not with LMA? If they're calling fouls on Jones anyways, why not try DMo?
I posted this in another thread, but I think it deserves to go here. Never once did they adjust on lma. Game 2 rockets will double team Aldridge once he takes a dribble in the post. Force him to pick up his dribble, pass it out to someone else, then rotate. Make someone else beat us. This has worked on Aldridge before, don't know why they never tried it last game. Sucks to have Mchale as our coach.. Mchale left jones on an island guarding Aldridge. Only thing positive that can come out of a first round exit is Mchale being let go...
A nice hip check followed by a submarine when he goes up fro a layup. Lastly a good old fashioned forearm to the head while "going for the ball". Whatever the case, his jersey needs to hit the floor EVERY DAMN TIME he shoots the ball. I don't care if he's launching a 50 footer. Deck him.
Most of LMA's post up looks started in the high post with him backing down the defender. A defender that was playing high and tight on him thus basically inducing the back down. I'm almost tempted to play off of him and concede the 20-footer. If he wants to beat us shooting 20-footers and fadeaways, fine. As long as it keeps him out of the post (where he's basically unguardable).
Howard can guard him but McHale doesn't want to put him on LMA because they don't want to take him away from the point. And, after Aldridge has **** on us every time we've played, I don't know why we'd care about that and not about doing anything to shut him down.
Guys..... LMA was scoring against Asik and Howard one on one. Jones gave a valiant effort when he was matched up with him, but if Asik and Howard can't guard him one-on-one nobody can in the NBA, and that's why he's the best offensive PF in the game right now. Griffin and Dirk are great as well, and might be better in offering more than just scoring and rebounding, but as far as pure shooting goes, I think LMA is as tough of a cover if not tougher than those two. -The answer is you have to most likely keep Dwight and Asik on LMA & keep on motivating Jones to crash the boards like he did last night, and hope that LMA cools off. I mean, lets be honest here... do we REALLY expect him to drop 46 in every game in the series? Even great players cannot sustain Video Game God Mode in a 7 game series if you have two of the best low post defenders game planning to stop you after they are now well aware of how you can go off. The one concern I have is the rim protection when Dwight/Asik have to come out to defend LMA further, the rebounding that Lopez can give off of second chance points, and the 3 point shooting if they have to double LMA. (And I haven't even begun to explain how much of a killer it is to lose Beverley, and having to now worry about Lin getting destroyed by Lillard now in a 7 game series.... THAT IS SUSTAINABLE, and indefensible).
Umm.... You do know he's the best 20 foot shooting big man in the league right? The fact is, LMA is a Pure SHOOTER. You have to force him to do other things than just shoot or force him to give the ball up.
A 20-footer is one of the lowest percentage shots that you can take. I'd rather have LMA, a career 40% and change shooter, taking those as opposed to dominating TJ in the post and drawing fouls.
Look the guys gonna score. The strategy is to make him shoot a low percentage shots and keep him off the free throw line. Start the game off with TJones, explain to him that he HAS TO STAY ON HIS FEET and not let LMA get him off balance. Then as the game progresses, bring in Asik to body him up. Make LMA shoot fadeaway jumpers all game. If he gets 40 doing that, then so be it. But we can't let him shoot free throws all game. Asik is CRUCIAL because not only does he defend but he rebounds. Had we been able to grab a damn rebound we'd won easily
You need to make him settle for jump shot. No undersized PFs who can't play defense. Heck throw Asik in there if you have to.
