Why overthink it. Howard on Aldridge. Beverley on Lillard. Asik in the middle.

Playing TT against Portland is the sure way to self destruction.

The real issue is : both Asik and Howard have ZERO offensive skills 5-8 feet away from the basket, and Asik maybe even close to ZERO or 1/10 even inside the 5 feet from the basket.

Portland will just stay in the lane whenever they see any Rockets will start a drive.

So if you play TT on offense, it will kill off most if not all of Harden's penetration or he will just settle for an outside Asik screen for a long 2 or long 3 when the play clock will be running down.

If you throw the ball to Howard down low, it will be very easy for Portland to defend also, whoever is guarding Asik will just come over to double team him, Howard is not a good passer, more than often either he will miss or just create another TOV.

TT will not work with this roaster and the scheme we are running. Because Asik sucks big time on offense.

 

I think Howard would end up being in earlier foul trouble than usual if he guarded LMA....

 

We scored 120 points. We gave up 122 points. Playing TT for 12 minutes together and forcing the opponent out of their preferred lineup won't hinder our offense.

The real issue you are describing already exists with Jones and that is why Dwight had so much trouble in game 1. Spacing. Jones doesn't bring that. The Blazers do the same thing with him defensively as they do with Asik defensively...not account for them.

 

Why don't we play Jones on Lopez and Put Howard on Aldridge

 

That would be worse than Jones on Aldridge and Howard on Lopez. You're taking Dwight out of the defensive paint and replacing him with Jones. Blazers would love that and would drive to the rim ad nauseum.

 

We only saw a few minutes of the TT last night early on, and Asik got robbed with 3 quick ticky tack fouls that put a stop to it.

So any conclusion about last night should be thrown out the window. Early in the season there was 90+ minutes of game footage that didn't show it to be effective at all on both ends, but that doesn't mean with practice it can't be effective in spurts.

My thoughts about the TT were that I wasn't confident in it because I didn't know that they had enough time to get both practice and some game chemistry with Howard and Asik to have it be effective in the postseason, but I dont mind it in spurts if McHale really feels confident about how they are working together in practice.

Just throwing it on the floor, and hoping it works out wouldn't speak very highly of McHale to me. IMO, I feel that right now throwing it out there is a bit too over reactionary and a bit reckless in a series they really should win. The Rockets need to force the Blazers to play their game, and not over match themselves to the Blazers score card.

Remember... the Blazers are a team that actually WANTS to go small anyways. Terry Stotts hinted the other day that he didn't mind at all that the Rockets would go big with Howard and Asik because he knows that if they want to go super big, he can counter that as well by going small, and shooting a sh#$ ton of threes.

Just saying.... If McHale over-reacts to last nights game, and goes crazy with the TT it could blow up in his face, and make him look over-matched, but I do think that last night, if Asik doesn't pick up those quick ticky tack fouls, LMA gets slowed down much of the first half with Asik on him.... not sure about everyone else from the perimeter though.

 

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports....ar-severity-of-patrick-beverleys-knee-injury/

When Beverley was not in the game Lillard was twice as aggressive, because he saw a defenseless Lin. He would of gone for 45 if Bev wouldn't of played.

 

Yeah, heard the Stotts quote and I laughed. Gotta read between the lines here. They don't wanna go small on us and they don't want us throwing our TT at their two bigs. We are better than they are with the small ball lineups. And if we go TT and get them out of their double big sets...we're not going to set there in the TT when they go small. That's when we trade out a big for a small and we play small on small. That's where we will win the war at. We're the superior small-ball team.


The TT lineup should be used specifically against LaMarcus and Lopez to get Portland out of that lineup. Once they send one of those guys to the bench...we counter by sending one of our bigs to the bench.

 

Asik got eaten up by LMA. If you think Asik can guard LMA why not use DMo. Dmo is definitely quicker and more athletic to move around with LMA. He is a 7 footer that has shown in the past he can slow down LMA. Yeah I know it's a small sample size but it's more success than anyone else has had. I don't get McHale not even trying him once. TJones doesn't work. Might as well put Bev on him. At least Bev might slap the ball away.

 

Simply not true.

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=8875603&postcount=176

 

I hope Morey is looking at this site for potential coaches. If he were to let McHale go I nominate basketballholic as the new Head Coach for the Rockets. He is never wrong and knows what it takes to win a Championship.

Get here done Morey, hire this man ASAP!!!!!

 

How isn't it true, didn't he make all his shot attempts when Asik was guarding him?

 

Sarcasm noted but wasted bandwidth nontheless.

 

No. He didn't.

 

Didn't we beat them twice without this TT lineup? Yes sir we did. Again Harden didn't have a good night period, dude shot 28% from the field during the regular season against them he shot around 50%. He didn't attack the rim in crunch time when both Lopez and LMA fouled out. If Dwight hits at least 4 of his free throws when they went Hack-A-Howard when win this game and it doesn't go into O/T. McHale needs to draw up better plays in crunch time when coming out a timeout. We didn't execute on those plays while Portland executed to perfection. But all you and a few others worry about is a TT lineup after we won at least 75% of our games starting Jones at the PF.

Im with Dobro, you play the Twin Tower lineup and spurts and give Dmo and Powell some burn.

 

yeah I used a lot of bandwidth on a sports blog..bwhahahaha

 

Yeah you are right he went 3 for 4 shooting 75%.

 

Dude you got all the answers right. If you were coaching you would have started the Twin Towers and the Rockets would have won correct?