Why you don't take out Dwight during hack-a-Dwight

Just listened to Terry Stotts on Rome. Compared hack-a-dwight to an intentional walk in baseball. Sees nothing wrong with it.

 

No you don't if you have an elite scorer in Harden and an very good offense game overall. Hack-a-Howard completely messes up Rockets' offense flow.

 

Stotts agrees with his own semi-sportsmanlike tactic? Color me surprised.

 

$22mill 0-1

 

Rockets don't need an offensive flow during hack-a-Howard, they are getting free throws everytime.

 

Couldnt he fake an injury? Let Asik shoot them.

 

Yeap. I was so sure that McHale called the timeout to decide between rather or not to keep Howard in or sub him out for Asik. Other than having confident in Asik hitting those pressure FTs (he shown it in the past), you give Howard a well deserved rest to finish out after the 2min mark and you continue to have paint protection and elite rebounding. I cannot believe he decided to just go small when we are still leading as if more offense is the primary goal instead of defense.

 

Only if he could hit those Fts.

 

We were using the same strategy on Dwight last year. In fact, it one us one of the games against the Lakers. We knew we would have to deal with it. It's on the coaching staff to be prepared and on Dwight to be prepared.

 

does he not have an assistant or anything?

 

Agreed. McHale panicked after he'd been leaving Dwight in all season.

POR scored at will inside once Dwight left because Asik wasn't even the sub. Omer showed he could handle the FTs last year vs OKC.... smh. Hopefully McHale recognizes his error(s).

Rockets with a 80% Bev still wins this series.

 

It really pissed me off that he was too scared to put him in at like 2:05 mark in which I believe Lillard ended up scoring lay ups

 

If the elite Teams in the NBA have an offensive point per offensive possession at a rate of 1.07 or higher, Dwight making 1/2 is enough to devalue the intentional foul(hack a blank) strategies. If Howard averages his FT shooting percentage(55%), he allows for the Rockets to be more efficient(scoring at a clip of 1.1 points per offensive possession). Even if Dwight doesnt make both his shots on a possession, if the opposing team isnt getting a quality shot, that technique is a failing proposition. True statisticians understand this.

The Rockets failed to stop people on defense. They had trouble guarding the paint during the clutch moments of the game. That was the difference. The inability to close the lane for Lillard and LMA sealed our fate. If the Rockets shore up the interior defense, the result should be more convincing: the Rockets are supposed to win.

 

Taking Howard out was just one of the mistakes, if that already hasn't been mentioned. Beverly was guarding Lillard great all night...until he got hit in that knee. Then outside of the block from behind, because he got beat, he was getting eaten up. Given, I really don't think you can stop anyone as Chuck alluded to post-game (great offense always wins against great defense). McHale should have taken Bev out. The grit and heart is certainly admirable, but he was a liability with the hurt knee. Just my take.

I love Harden, I know he is The Man on the team, and has been clutch so many times...but perhaps on a night where he's not shooting well, we should look for him to create for others down the stretch. All hindsight. Plenty of reasons why the game slipped away. Let's just hope they pull a LAC and come back and beat POR by 40.

 

1. Asik is a worse free thrower.
2. If you let others shoot for you, you cannot come back to the game anymore.

 

I get that it won't look "cool" and he's already tired, but Dwight should make an effort to avoid the foul when they start hacking him. This way we can at least waste some time off the clock, and maybe the other team loses focus and we can score a quick one on them.

 

Asik is not a worse free throw shooter

 

Alright, fair enough, Asik is better, but not much.

 

So I don't understand. Are we leaving in Howard because of some weird pride thing?
Or in the hopes that he'll get used to it and start making it more often?

Because if it is either of those reasons McHale should be fired. I can't believe Morey is ok with this? He is a stats and numbers guy and other than that 1 point per possession statistic that I've seen floating around here and there, I don't believe leaving Howard in is at all beneficial to the Rockets, unless he starts shooting 80%.

 

The mistake wasn't taking Dwight out. It was not substituting Asik in his place or doubling Aldridge in the absence of either center. And before anyone says they would've gone to Hack Asik, yes I agree the Blazers would have done that. But Asik is a better free throw shooter than Dwight and stepped up a year ago when OKC tried the same stunt in Game 5(and that was on the road in an elimination game).

It's easy to second guess McHale now, but at the time, don't tell me I was the only one having flashbacks to that Steve Blake 3-pointer early in the season. I'll bet good money McHale was also worried about that happening again.