What I'm saying is this, if mchale had doubled lma like he did last night ,he probably doesn't score 40+ in back to back games. Asik nor jones were the reason they won or lost the games. All 3 games have been decided on a couple of plays that didn't even involve either of them. Long time cf memeber,its no different than the KJ situation in the title years. Of course the rockets couldn't defend KJ because of what they wanted to do. They let KJ get his and cut everyone else off and they won the series. The 43 and 46 hurt the rockets,but they had late leads that they gave up in both losses. What hurt in game 1 was 1 rebound they didn't get and the 31 to lilliard and the 16 to mattews. In game 2, they gave up 18 to wright and 15 to mo williams. Last night they won, but lilliard and batum had 26+ because they doubled LMA. Its not what LMA is doing vs whoever,its the other guys. The rockets were a couple of plays from losing and both asik and jones were on the bench.
This is an illustration of hiding agenda. So many people on this thread gave some great dialog/pointers to this thread and you only give basketballholic props, because you only agree with him. Dobro and Leebigez were did on with there assessments, holic was partially right.
Is this the Oscars? People are now dissecting who all is thanked/given credit? I always appreciate good discourse. Dobro and Leebigez are super intelligent and great for the board.. I just gave holic props, because I thought the poster was giving me rep for being right about not wanting Jones to guard LMA. Really, holic was the one who fought that fight the most. My initial concern was actually about offensive inadequacies of TJones, not defensive. And I figured the rep was for the discussion on the defensive inadequacies of TJones, and holic was all over that - moreso than me, who just agreed with him for the most part. Still, no offense intended for Dobro, Leebigez, or anybody else who posted in this thread elsewhere. I learn stuff all the time from reading their posts - but I do reserve the right to disagree. haha
They may have doubled, but I still don't see how we would be any better with Jones on the floor than Asik. It seemed to me (and I may have missed it) that the double teams came kind of late (by design IMO), and Asik had already held his ground on LMA. Remember game 1? LMA wasn't even shooting midrange. He was backing Jones way down deep in the paint. I didn't see any of that with Asik. I agree though that doubling is a little troubling, in that they usually doubled with Dwight which took away our rim protection.
Jones and Aldridge both scored 8 points, but TJesus did it in 17 less minutes and was way more efficient.
Is there any argument (when comparing Game 1 to Game 5) that the Rockets are better with Asik guarding Aldridge than Jones? Regardless, glad Jones and the Rockets did well. I feel like the team is pulling together.
Aldridge cannot be guarded by Jones 1 on 1. Jones hasn't yet learned to bang with the big boys, and so will simply get pushed down on the block and scored on. If he holds his ground, good chance of a ticky tack foul going Aldridge's way. Jones has been playing 'weakside' defence for the team quite often, which is a poor matchup since Portland look to reverse the ball to get Aldridge that open 18' - Jones is all 'oops, I'm camped under the hoop again'. I think Jones will get there in a couple of years, but thank goodness for Asik. Shame we didn't go to Asik in either of the 1st 2 games - but what can be done now? Let's get it done in Portland!
he's fine. he's just too small to guard Aldridge. Even if he stays with Aldridge, Aldridge will just shoot over him. but he's as offensively talented as he always have been.
Jones did a good job last night of taking advantage of Lamarcus' foul count. Either the coaching staff or him made the conscious decision to take Lamarcus in the post when Lamarcus got 2 fouls in the first half. Lamarcus wasn't going to contest so that turned into few great possessions for us with Jones using his post skills to knock in a couple bunnies. If Jones did that on his own, if he recognized the foul count and decided to take Lamarcus on his own, double props to him. If I had been coaching the team I would have emphasized this and milked it every possession.
