Here is a break down that I watch diligently. He breaks down a lot of NBA games quite regularly & runs a pretty cool website. <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3FTAWs3dy1g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> He does a break down of the Rockets Knicks game & touches on both teams offense & defense. http://www.bballbreakdown.com/ Enjoy
Haha in the collateral "Why they fired Mike Brown": "Brown’s offense was, for lack of a better term, a hot steaming mess. It consisted of isolations and weakside players standing around, creating the most difficult shots possible..." Hmm. That sounds familiar...
Interesting on the Lin fake timeout. I think McHale really did want a time-out, but Lin saw the opportunity for a free shot. It would've looked really bad if Brewer hadn't given Lin two free points. Not sure how McHale feels about that. He wasn't too supportive of Lin despite his fantastic game when he waved off the iso against the Spurs a few games back.
I can't say for sure, as I haven't spent any time focusing on the Rockets defensive scheme, but I think at times the Rockets do want their players to help one pass away, if that's what it takes to prevent the offense from middle penetration. Most teams simply want to prevent penetration towards the middle at all costs. On that first highlighted one-pass-away-help from Parsons for example the Knicks screened the screener preventing the Rockets from hedging, which is why Parsons had to help - his help angle just wasn't great.
Agreed. Harden already walked to Mchale and Parsons started to walk back to the bench. Lin just saw the opportunity to attack. Luckily Brewer grabbed the rim.
I knew Harden was a slight liability on defense according to the RAPM (currently -0.61 for the season) stats that I've been looking at, but I never really paid attention to him on defense. After watching the video breakdown here, it looks like Harden is trying to do everything on defense the way he does on offense. He does have a habit of moving away from his man even if his man is the next pass away. In such cases, the help defense just needs to come from someone else. Still I don't think he's a bad defender never to improve. I would say it's more bad habits than anything else. Defense is very much more a team process than offense in today's NBA and Harden needs to build more chemistry on the defense side. On a brighter note, wow, what a heads up play by Lin on the fake time out! I guess that's what people talk about when they say he has a high basketball IQ. And JR Smith, that's what happens when you don't have a high basketball IQ.
It isn't just the Rockets. It seems that all NBA teams help with the defender who's one pass away from the person being doubled. The only time I didn't see this was when the Rockets played the Heat a couple of seasons ago with Adelman coaching. They were doubling everything with different defenders, never more than one pass away. It was beautiful, and the Heat were excellent at swinging the ball. The interaction between the offense and defense in that game was spectacular, and believe we ended up losing by just a couple of points in a high scoring bout.
I agree with McHale. If your going to be bold enough to wave of a pick at a crucial time.....you better at least get a shot up. The way he got shut down on that final possession makes it look like he really needed that pick.
Oh, I think most, if not all teams would prefer to never have to help one pass away, but sometimes you just have to pick your poison and I think most teams would rather help one pass away than give up middle penetration.
Cool video. Coach Nick from b ball breakdown on youtube. If you are a basketball fan of watch a lot of NBA. You should check out all his videos, they are pretty informative and will increase you b ball IQ from a coaches perspective. The history of basketball series with all the OG coaches is pretty cool.
I'm all for making this guy the next Rockets head coach by next week. He understands more on how to get Lin and Harden to play together than McHale and Sampson.
On the "fake timeout." Lin got a layup. It is a good shot, make or miss. Coaches don't get on you for getting but missing a good shot. They get on you for taking bad low% shots (like contested 20 footer with 15 sec on the shot clock).
if they play how they play against the east, yes. as of right now, they gotta figure out how to play better against western teams, especially team in our division.
