I don't care what it is, but what we are doing now is not working. Right after game one Phil Jackson knew his starting lineup was not going to work, so he decided to switch Bynum with Odom. I feel this has created a horrible lineup for the Rockets. The Rockets starting unit looks slow and out of sync and cannot keep up with the Lakers starting lineup. Scola cannot guard Ariza on the perimeter. And if there is a defensive switch, he can't guard Odom well either. Yes, Scola plays well offensively against Odom, but we are giving up too many baskets on the other end. Also, Wafer's minutes needs to be reduced drastically. This isn't the Portland series where he was driving to the basket and making shots at will. The Blazers perimeter defense was a lot weaker. Wafer has also contributed to a lot of turnovers. That is why we need to PLAY BRENT BARRY. It makes no sense that he is sitting on the bench. He has CHAMPIONSHIP EXPERIENCE. I thought that is why we got him on our team. Why is his talent and basketball IQ rotting on the bench? He KNOWS how to run the offense. He will MOVE THE BALL. He is a better ball handler and he CAN knock down shots, he just needs playing time to get into a rhythm. I just feel like we NEED to do SOMETHING. That is why Phil Jackson has championship rings b/c he is not afraid to make the necessary changes. I'm afraid Rick Adelman will trot out there with the same old stuff that's not working and expect different results.
Adjustments Hell I'll be glad when he finally gets off his ass and make a substitution when the team is clearly struggling. The 3rd qt was ridiculous yet it took him until the 5 minute mark to make a substitution. I don't even think he called a timeout.
brent barry? umm i'd take an athletic young von wafer over a 37 year old brent barry who has been past his prime for awhile now
I don't think Rick has to do anything, It's the roster that's been playing poorly. I thought the Rockets did a decent job executing to be fair with you. I was cringing when I saw Artest taking 3 point jumpers open and contested and ended up missing all of them anyways. I cringed when Aaron Brooks had the ball in his hands like always. Truly, I don't think this team is playing with any passion, desire or motivation to win aside from Kyle Lowry, Shane Battier and Yao Ming. Everybody else is playing lazy and are content with that Game 1 win. The only thing Adelman can do at this point is either be more strict about his team or motivate his team. He's really not known for either, so I don't think we can make many adjustments especially for Adelman. The only thing I suggest at this point is start Lowry. That's it.
While I gave Rick a lot of credit for outcoaching Nate and Phil in both game 1's, it is clear now that Phil has made the adjustment to our team and Rick has not countered, thinking we could win with the same formula that we did in game 1. In a 7 game series, it is always about adjustments...it's a chess match. Rick hasn't made a good move in two games now. Of course Phil does have the refs to help him make better moves. But Rick better come out with some type of game plan on Sunday other than "we just have to play better", or he might be back on the list of coaching mistakes I love to point out.
In my opinion, Wafer cost us the game tonight - every time we had a chance to make a comeback, he messed up. Put in Barry. Leave Wafer on the bench for now.
This is kinda silly. What adjustments do you want him to make? Should he play Dorsey? We have an eight man rotation. There aren't that many moves left to make. For all the strategy that goes into basketball, sometimes it comes down to things as simple as hitting open shots and not throwing the ball to the other team. How many wide open shots did we miss tonight? Artest missed several. Yao missed (or got blocked on) two dunks. Landry missed a dunk. We missed seven free throws. And I don't even know what Wafer was trying to do out there. We had plenty of careless turnovers that led to points for the Lakers. It's one thing if a specific Laker was outplaying someone on the Rockets. Then you can say you make an adjustment. Odom had a good game but guess what? He played terribly in the first two games and the same guys were guarding him. Sometimes guys hit shots. The Lakers shot 55% from 3s. It's hard to beat ANY team, whether its a lottery team or the Lakers, when they shoot 55% from 3s.
here is the catch though: we CAN win with the same formula.. we just have to have Kobe play a NORMAL game where he isn't shooting lights out and hitting half court all-aways at the buzzer with a hand in his face.. the law of averages says that Kobe won't be that hot in the next two games, but with our luck, he just might.. also: it would be really helpful if the little pocket rocket Brooks would stop impersonating a combination of Luther Head and John Lucas III .. He's playing like a chicken with its head cut off, and it's really annoying me..
I'll take Brent Barry shooting open threes over Von Wafer driving it into a crowd of long athletic wings (when you KNOW that he has no capability to pass it off). Benching Scola is a little drastic, but it should be apparent to anyone by now that Wafer emotionally is off his game and won't be contributing much to the team effort in this series. Get him off the floor ASAP.
Adelman was terrible tonight...he didn't call timeouts or make adjustments in the 3rd quarter...he needed to make subs early in the third he is playing Yao too many minutes, i don't think bigs are capable of playing 40 effective minutes...he should be getting 34-36 minutes, Hayes is capable of giving good 12 minutes because he has defense and can rebound Adelman needed to calm the team down, and tell Artest to stop playing one on one and just dribbling the ball for like 15 seconds before doing anything
Keys adjustments Yao's lack of rebounding needs to be addressed. Substitute Scola with Landry. We have enough offensive firepower when the starting group with landry, yao, and artest. wafer does not play at all. god, he sucks, won't pass, won't wait for a good shot. more chuck on D. and... LESS YAO. I hate to say this, but with his lack of mobility and injuries, he's really being limited. Also, we have at least 5-8 turnovers and blow plays due to his butter fingers or bad inbound passing.
Turnovers are the reason why we lose. The adjustment we need to make is to start Lowry over Brooks. Lowry runs the offense much smoother than Brooks. Brooks, like someone mentioned, is a headless chicken dribbling all over the court without any purpose.
Hate to say it but it's over. Offense is too predictable with too many low IQ players making dumb mistakes. At least we made out of 1st round.
agree. I can't see the desire to win. some players are satiesfied with the 1st game victory. If we lose this series, we lose our heart first.
There is no change or move to overcome our sloppiness and mental lapses. Starting Lowry might mean less T/O but he's not that much better over the Laker PGs to overcome the fact the Lakers as a whole outplayed us tonight. It's just a panic move to me. We just have a bunch of young guys that need to grow up and learn real fast, otherwise this series will end in 5.
Why not try inserting Brian Cook. He's a former laker. Which means he should have an idea how some of there bigs play offense. In particular Bynum and Odom. Use him as a pick n roll situation, he shoots the 3 ball pretty well .393 is his career stat.
