[Fact Checker] Harden's 4th Q v Lakers. Were we stagnant?

I think there is more to that , MDA games plan was already exposed ,watch minutes 1:20 on this tube : they were running the same plays/place

 

Also, you forgot "yeah but turnovers"

oh wait, no I see you got to it later after your first few shots got blocked at the rim.

Well, that's what you get for posting in 7 seconds or less.

 

Good find. I feel like some of the stuff we're doing teams are gonna counteract. The alley oops aren't gonna a be there all season. We're gonna have to do more than 1 pass. It's too predictable

And teams are gonna deny the ball to Harden more and more, he's gotta be able to get open

 

Harden had 5 fouls so he couldn't be aggressive. That's one of the risk when you wanna make your best player defend like Tony allen. A lot of cheap fouls. He can't rest on defense like curry or lillard

 

Even at this early point, the O looks much better than last year. -9 after 7 min into the 4th is the big problem, along with no D for the game.

 

I believe Harden was the league leader or right there in the top 5 in 3s created both of the last 2 seasons. And now 1 game in to this season and "it seems to be gone" ?

 

We are analyzing this one game. I didn't see many corner 3s created

 

True, but your statement came off as well he used to be able to do this and now that he didn't do it much in the first game he must not be able to do it anymore.

Seems fairly likely and obvious based on essentially his entire time in Houston that it was a 1 game thing.

 

My concern is lost legs and the system as it's currently being run

 

That would be a good thread to compare how the offense was looking vs the last 7 minutes

 

A few times Harden went into one on one mode, can't say i remember him doing that much earlier...

Really i just see LA being more active and locked in. Made some key plays on D and the Rocketsa didn't. Game should have nevver been this close at the end.

A hole in Beverley's knee... and the fact that we should have beat LA more easily. It all trickles down...we should have had a bigger lead that would have taken more air out of LA, instead they smelled blood because it was a close game

Exposed is a strong way to put it...all teams repeat plays. It's a matter of execution. If you look at some of LA's key stops, at least on this clip, they were just good defensive plays on the ball. Harden got blocked, stripped, Capela Stripped...Harden forced a contested one-on-one three and air balled it. It's not like they were shutting down plays completely.

 

I feel like you're saying I have to watch your video.

And I feel stagnant about doing that.

 

Lol a large portion of people don't know what they're looking for even with the video right in front of them. They'll just regurgitate media talking points or make blanket confirmation biased statements whether they're accurate for that particular situation or not.


The change between our first Q barrage and this period was the Lakers started switching on the screens.

 

I agree, most people didn't realize we had only 3 plays out of 17 that resulted in more than one pass in that stretch. Like I said in my initial post.

Is that stagnation? Not necessarily. They're trying to run D'Antoni's quick offense.

I count the plays where they just dribble in one spot and shoot a 3 as stangation. So 3 plays (plays 2, 8 and 13).

 

I THINK that the sign of a team doing motion offense well is that the amount of passes INCREASE when the defenses get tougher. We are making the mistake imo of passing less when the defense becomes better. That doesn't mean we're not passing, but it kind of makes sense to me that if you're facing a better defense it will require quicker and more frequent passes to break through.

 

Makes sense. Thanks for the nugget!