I’ve been loving our defense since the trade. Reminds me of our switch everything defense during the 65 win season. It’s such a breath of fresh air from our shitty defense.
Houston plays at a really fast pace, so 110 per game at our pace would actually put us at a top 5 defense in the league. Looking at per game stats is misleading.
The defensive effort has been better. Lot of reach-ins in the past few games. Some were fouls, few shouldn't have been. Some of that is the Ref's view angle. They just see the swipe attempt; they call a phantom foul even if mostly ball. This leads to a related topic: Coach's challenge. I don't subscribe to the notion that you save it at the end. Sometimes if there's a bad call; you pointed it out early. If referee initiatively want to clamp down on an aggressive defensive player (say RoCo). By winning the challenge, it gives that player (and rest of that game) more credibility and benefit of the doubt. Getting into the foul penalty early. Team foul limit reached earlier by both teams. This kept both teams (celtics and rockets) in similar footing. Cold stretches when didn't hit 3's. This is something to watch on. If the game wasn't close or opponent got hot like the Sun's game and hit their 3's, does Rockets have a plan B. Need to stay poise on defense and not give into careless fouls. Playing with 5 fouls with half of 4th Q left, is extra pressure. So far no key players were fouled out. And no recent games went into overtime. Not sure if part of that can be mitigated. If maybe 2nd unit allowed more minutes, matching starter's potency. Team foul limit still there; but could reduce risk of star player getting fouled out. Other matchup game plans panned out. The one with Lakers where their 3pt shooting wasn't good. So Rockets could afford to trap AD at possessions. Guys fronting him, Denying entry passes. Things opponents used to do to Yao. Different teams can have defensive wrinkles. Current identity seems to be switching defense with emphasis of deflections and steals. This can work, but risky with fouls. Spoiler Hey at least in recent memory, I didn't see any severe bad ball watching like this.
It's both. In total this year, the offense hasn't been quite up to the level it should be, and the defense has been WAY below where we'd want it for a true contender. Recently though, the offense has shown that it is starting to click and we are seeing the type of well-oiled machine it is close to becoming, and the defense overall has looked a lot better and has shown signs of what could be a very good defense.
