Playoff Rockets - the team looks different

I know it's a small sample size, but I noticed the following trends while comparing regular season and playoff stats.

Shot attempts out of isolation and PnR plays are up, as are mid range, although efficiency is also up in all of these areas. There's no significant change in corner threes, but our above the break three point attempts are way down (7 fewer attempts and 10% less accurate). Passes (aka ball movement) are also way down from 272.4 to 236.7 per game. As a result, assists per game are down by more than 8, and secondary ("hockey") assists are down from 5 to 2.7. Overall assist % has plummeted from 62.6% to 42.1%. The ball is simply getting stuck...there is no flow.

Surprisingly, offensive efficiency is actually up from the regular season, going from 111.8 to 113.7.

Here's why: James Harden has been really, really good in isolation.

Regular Season - Isolation
6.6 points per game (1st in the league)
0.97 points per shot (same as LeBron, although not league best)

Playoffs - Isolation
12.0 points per game (1st by a mile)
1.24 points per shot (this is crazy high)

I'm not really building up to a grand revelation here or anything, I just thought this stuff was interesting and worth sharing. Hopefully the ball starts moving again and our shooters get into a groove before Harden runs out of gas.

 

They aren't jacking up three's because they know they are not a 3 point shooting team.

 

The hate is strong in this thread, hard to make sense when all some people can do throw insults and ludicrous statements at the wall.

 

I'm ready for MDmA's fine tuning to hit the court and demolish these guys. They look like they can be exploited. He'll figure it out.

 

I'd like to see Harden be aggressive out the gate looking to score in game 4. I think our slow starts have had to do with James coming out to set his teammates up but OKC staying home on the shooters. Make OKC react rather than Rockets.

This team does have a different & more disciplined feel. Mark Jackson in gm 3 noted how steady and calm we were in spite of being down double digits. Looking forward to gm 4

 

That's totally it. Looking forward to game 4. 5 games has us win at home and gives us a little more practice before we probably meet up with the Spurs.

 

OKC is making James into a scorer . They know that if he can set up our shooters for 3's and our bigs for dunks , then the outcome will be like G1.

Also making him have to score wears him down more . He needs to use more energy to finish , he will take more contact , and sometimes his shot is off .

He's gotta be aggressive from the get go and force OKC to adjust so that he can pass again . He had more TO's than assists last game and is only averaging 7.7 for the playoffs .

He's scoring ~39 a game .... On pretty good shooting .. But one player can have an off game and it will kill you if he's taking the shots ... If he can distribute an off game from one player shooting doesn't hurt as much

 

In game 3, the Thunder's role players shot amazingly well. To the point that I doubt they shoot that well again for the remainder of the series. As long as we continue to do our thing, we'll win this thing in 5. We desperately need Ryno and Ariza to play much better though to have a good chance. Bev has been a godsend for us.

 

So, with this below-par shooting in the play-offs and our no-show so far can we agree that we need changes?

 

Exposed, flawed strategy and no adjustments coach.

 

relax, cowboy. relax.

 

"Not the same group. We've got to quit saying that. I'll leave it at that. Whoever told you that, they kidding themselves."

 

It's the rotation. MDA shrinks the rotation to 8 guys. Tired legs miss shots and don't get hustle points.