LMAO, WHO IS GONNA PLAY MAKE THAT ISNT GONNA CAUSE MORE TURNOVERS. If we do that we will be losign by 20. We do not have the roster for dude's to play make like you want, we are not the Warriors. Harden hasnt been great at the end of games....but why do you guy's act like he's the main one at fault here, its ridiculous...
you may/may not have noticed this, but Harden/Russ are the ones with turnover problems. Beginning in the OKC series, CP3 began picking off some of those cross court passes to corner threes. Then in this series, Rondo has them figured out, among others. it'd be one thing if they were historically good at keeping turnovers low. They're not. Harden, and Russ, have been the exact opposite. The Rockets are winning the TO battle for the series, BARELY. They have 2 fewer. Big deal.
That's because both of them have high usage. If you put the ball in other player's hands we will see more risk than reward. And Russ i way worse with his turnovers. They need to be winning it by more, the only reason we went super small was for Russ.
I've been on DM for effectively being an average GM, no doubt about that. But this is part of the reason you put in a system and practice. The Lakers aren't exactly dominating ball handlers and creators outside of Lebron and AD. They have 2 more TOs in the 4 games than the Rockets. Again... the idea here isn't that the Rockets should institute a motion offense the day before an elimination game. Rather, the idea is HUSTLE, PACE, some movement other than standing 8 feet behind the 3 point line frustrated because your role player teammates aren't great. What exactly is your suggestion to try and win games here?
This is just a made up hypothesis. They were 15th in the league in TOV/game. Not sure pace adjusted. They've been as good as 6th I think last year to as bad as 27th in the MDA era. But again, you're responding to every post as if folks are suggesting we institute a motion offense. Again, that is NOT what anyone has suggested. They are just asking for Harden to MOVE, A LITTLE.
Morey has never been allowed to tank, keep that in mind. They get more rebounds than we do so they can afford to have more turnovers. That's what small ball is here. We have to take more threes and get more turnovers because we will be losing a lot of the rebounding battle. Hustle and Pace starts with defense, if you want increased pace, we have to get stops. We are playing the Lakers games. I donno, pass better out of traps, hope Russ hits his threes? Play MUCH BETTER defense. Like a lot better. If we do better on the defensive end we can get out in transition more and get easier buckets as well.
None, he’s one of the biggest Harden defenders here that Harden could do no wrong. He thinks everyone who criticized Harden is biased and does not watch basketball. But In reality, we are just bunch of frustrating fans that wanted to see Harden restore his playoff reputation and get it done.
This works in reverse, too. So it's not as simple as saying play better defense. In fact, I'd say the bad offense (or Lakers dominating defense) is leading to easy Laker baskets as much as anything. I don't have/know the stats to back this up, but qualitatively there's been a lot of fast break points it seems - not just off turnovers, but off blocks, misses, etc. https://www.espn.com/nba/recap?gameId=401242804 "Houston got outscored 62-24 in points in the paint, 17-3 on second-chance points, 19-2 on fast-break points." I can point to a few things in their halfcourt defense. Principally letting Kieff go off in Game 3, and letting Rondo kill them repetitively. Other than that, AD has gotten his, and Lebron was just unarguable for the first half of Game 3, but their half court defense has been solid. But their inability to score or play offense in any reasonable way is creating tons of easy buckets for the Lakers. It needs to be reversed. We need to get more easy buckets. Which we can do by increasing pace, which requires Harden to increase pace.
Its not though? And? We added in a guy who was worse with turnovers over Paul. 27th was when Harden was the only one handling the ball and his usage rate was historically high. And we are 7th in the post season. Do you really think that's not gonna lead to more turnovers espeically when weve seen how these guys operating in 4v3 situations...that's ridiculous. Lol im not, I just dont think hey move all ball, that's the trick. We'll make it any better, itll just lead to more turnovers. Lol okay man, Harden can move and the defense will never follow him and they will just let him waltz anywhere he wants on the court without every adjusting.
Yea those TURNOVERS are leading to easy fast break offense for the Lakers. That's whats happening, also they are limiting the threes we take. Guys arent shooting when they have the chance. Yea, those are bad rotations by Westbrooks. And his lineups are the ones we are getting killed in to lose both games 2 and 3. Yea and that's because of the doubles with Westbrook killing our spacing. Look at the Harden only lineups, they are killing. Westbrook and Harden lineups arent doing good because our spacing is bad. The movement you are talking about is just gonna exacerbate the issue because you cant rely on the other guys to pass.
That's fine but that pass getting there without turnovers is another thing entirely. Same with getting it to other player's.
Well, let me clarify further. Absolutely Russ' crap play generally is hurting... BUT... this was the system in place a bit all year. So the question becomes, why are the Lakers dominating defensively. Because bar none, that is the story of this series. It's not big vs. small - Lakers have generally capitulated on that. It's the Lakers have taken a team that shoots 45-55 threes a game, and held them to 30, while further dominating them in fast break points because of their defense. Certainly a lot of it is personnel. The Lakers do after all have Lebron AND AD, both guys that can guard inside out fairly well, WITH SIZE. Unlike say OKC with CP3. But it's also because they went back, watched tape, and said, hey this isn't that complicated. Step 1 = double Harden. Step 2 = quickly rotate off that double, but stay close to 3 point shooters - give up lane drives if you a choice has to be made. Step 3 = rotate back to Harden when he gets the ball again. So to me, counters: - PACE!!! Pick up pace, and score outside of halfcourt - Fix step 3 Because step 3 which is effectively the other team has defended really well and rotated, etc. is going to happen against all good defensive teams going forward. Not every play, just enough to disrupt. How to fix step 3? Nothing complex, but how about adding a back cut. How about having Harden rotate to be the guy in the corner sometimes. But, but, but... who else can create you say??? What's the point of EG out there? How about Russ creating, etc. The number of times I can remember Russ or EG creating and assisting Harden is like 1... ALL SEASON.
Okay so I see what you are saying here. I whole heartedly agree with pace for sure. That way we can get more threes. Man...if either of those guys could reliably do that without consistently turning it over, I would say go for it. But look at how Gordon performed last series when he had to create more, he had ALOT of turnovers. Russ has a lot of turnovers right now himself. My thing is yea Harden can move but how effective that can be remains to be seen and if Russ has the proper decision making to make this happen. Doing so loses all of Harden's all ball opportunities and giving it to Westbrook more might make us way less efficient. It's a pretty big gamble is all I'm saying. And I just dont know if it would work with those two guys passing. Either you way, like I've said many times before, you'll get your wish for this off ball stuff if Dantoni gets fired.
Except the opposite. Bucks had their single win when Giannis was off the court. Rockets are a net negative when Harden is off the court. See the difference?
No. The regular season Bucks are Harden. Harden is probably one of maybe 3 players who can drag any team into the playoffs but he can’t win it for you since the game changes. The game changed and the Bucks lost. Harden is a 1B not a 1A.
The team is in James Harden Purgatory. Destined to go as far as James can take you. He just isn't the guy and that's ok. There are only a few every so often, you just have to get lucky to get one. Enjoy him for what he is now, a great scorer. Tilman is not tanking so he is here to stay for now.
