I could tell lillard was getting the ball the whole time. Should not have had tjones on the inbounder. I think it's well established that mchale is not a good coach. Time forcmorey and less to sack up.
Bingo you win. #1 is totally spot, Lin was crowding Lillard all night very effectivley and thats the only way you can play him. Trust me when Spurs or Mavericks play Blazers their strategy will be to not let Lillard breath.
"WhoppingCostlyChimpanzee"? Really classy gif name there, OP. Also, they lost completely as a team. Coach and every player had chances to tip this seesaw game. Asik's pick. Dwight's last free throws. Chandler's layups. Lin's uncontested 3-pointers. On and on.
It's amazing. It ruins any discussion in any thread. This is a one-star thread with a racist gif title, but even THAT can be downgraded by complaining that Lin would have saved the day. The Lin-as-only-topic narrative dominates everything for them and I guess it will dominate the LOF's thoughts until he retires, never having been "given the chance" to become the ultimate combination of Michael Jordan, Chuck Norris, and Elvis. SMDH indeed.
There are 3 PLACES on the court that you mostly guard on a play like this: 1) The corner 3 on the inbounds side of the ball. 2) Obviously the Rim 3) The closest pass inbounds to a 3 point shot. What you want to do is force a long pass to a player that even if you are a step behind, you have some time to recover while the ball is in the air. Even if it's a lob towards the basket. While TJones was obviously playing for the corner 3 or inbounds lob pass with Dwight in the paint to guard it, there was obviously NO PLAN FOR GUARDNING the closest pass to a player inbounds for a 3 point shot. NO STRATEGY - NO COACHING - NO AWARENESS BY THE PLAYERS ON THE COURT
That shot really reminded me of Clydes mess up on defense against the Jazz when Stockton hit that 3 at home to beat us.
It's not as simple as blaming the coach for this one play. The fact is, a very similar scenario happened very early in the regular season against the Lakers and Steve Blake, and I think one other game. That time, we all attributed it to a learning process where the whole team was feeling each other out together with the coaching staff. But for the exact same thing to happen in an elimination game many months later in the playoffs, I think that has to fall on the coaching. If the system had been in place and ingrained in the players, and the discipline to do what you have to do after so many repetitions by this time, I guarantee you, Lillard would not have been as open as he was. People do hit buzzer beaters or game winners in the playoffs all the time but rarely as open as Lillard was. If he hit it with a hand in his face and contested, it would not have been as heart breaking.
maybe u can stop blaming harden. mchale made the call. Press: "is Parsons on Lillard is what you wanted?" McHale: "Yeah, they just matched up over there".
The switch was the right call by Harden. He was expecting Parsons to get screened of so switiching all screens would put Beverly switching back on to Lilard. Problem is they set a double screen, not allowing Beverly to switch. You get 3 seconds to zone. Jones should have been roaming the three point line. Not guarding the passer who can't hurt you. You guard the passer if you are trailing, and need a turnover. not when you are winning and need a contested shot or a stop. We wasted a (long and athletic) defender on that play. Jones and Parsons together could have easily bothered that shot. Jones should have the back of one shoulder to Batum so he could see the play and get a running start towards the shooter, but still challenge if batum tried to throw the ball off of him and shoot it. McHale gets paid to know this. Kelvin Sampson would have known this.
Lillard said he heard them talking about how to defend the last play and they all sounded confused and unsure. After a timeout. Fire. McHale.
Sorry to say, but this is 100% on golden boy Parsons. He gets switched onto Lillard so Beverly can switch back on the first screen, but Parsons doesn't have his feet set when the play starts so he stumbles out of the gate and is out of the play without a even getting screened. He's also on the WRONG SIDE of Lillard - see how Beverly is positioned before they switch, preventing Lillard from going around the screens at a flat run? When Parsons gets set on Lillard, both Beverly and Parsons are underneath their man and have no chance of getting to Lillard.
The Rockets have had trouble against screens all year long and that is a big reason why guards always seem to light it up against them despite Beverley there. If your man is screened by a big guy or double screened by others, there is just no way for a defender, no matter how good he is, to be successful defending him one on one. There has to be a system set up where everyone knows exactly what to do. If Bev gets screened by Lopez, DH or TJ should show hard for example as a standard. Or the nearest man should switch every single time. Anything just as long as everyone knows his role. Switch here means on the screen and not switching even before the play develops. I do not understand why people here keep saying Harden is right for calling the "switch", when in fact he called the switch even before there was any movement at all, which is very strange. If you look at the video after Lillard brushed past the last screen, Harden was actually the one guarding the last screener, so if switching was the policy, he would have reached Lillard way faster than Parsons or Beverley could have
My problem is why do they even allow them to screen you?? Why not guard between the ball and your man? For God sake, they inbound the ball from the other side of the court. I told you some of these Rockets are stupid...either that or they have a stupid coach that don't preach defensive scheme. I remember Beverley got screen and got burned one time in a similar fashion as well in this series. To prevent screening, all you got to do is guard between the ball and your man and just try to play cat and mouse game instead of do that stupid thing where you have to follow their man...it's just stupid defensive strategy. Actually, there is no strategy on the Rockets' part, they're always fcked up and don't seem to the IQ to defend this type of play.
