Mike AntioniO has an eight choiced Spin the Wheel going on after every loss on the reasons 1. Our defense was bad. Not my fault. Ask Jeff Biglydick about it. 2. Our crowd never shows up on time. 3. We lost our legs. Ask Keith Jones about it. 4. We did not have any fight in us. Ask the psychologist. 5. I wanted DMo. Ask Maury about it. 6. I need better bigs. It's up to the GM to find me a good big. 7. The players didn't execute what we had planned for this game. 8. This is not a valid option. Please spin again.
More penetration - definitely needed. But the Pacers played excellent, game-planned, playoff defense. I would have liked to see D'antoni make adjustments to help make things easier for the team instead of saying they need to try harder. Fair enough either way... As far as rebounding. At the NBA level I don't think it's a matter of trying harder and rebounding as a team. If you don't have the personnel you've already lost the battle. That's probably why the Spurs have been starting two 7-footers for the past 20 years.
Well we've had games where we started cold from 3 and then get back to our averages and win the game. If they had stopped shooting those nights, perhaps they lose instead. Randomness of statistics matters here. Just because you are say, 0 for your last 10, doesn't make you any more or less likely to make or miss your next 10. You never know when the shots are going to start falling (this is all barring an actual reason why you are missing like "dead legs" etc.) so when are you supposed to quit? And if anything, the fact that in the final minutes we were able to win that game (final score is a result of free throws at the end) tells you the strategy didn't actually fail. It kept you close and then you needed to execute at the end. I know people hate the numbers, but having that awful shooting night from 3 is like having a below average night from 2, with the difference being that if you have a run of them that go in they are worth more. It isn't like if you just don't shoot a bunch of 3s you are going to shoot better in general. There have been plenty of times in the past where we played a different system and had awful shooting nights from 2. I could make an argument that last night validated the system despite the loss. You shot like crap, got out rebounded massively, coach questioned your heart and played bad defense and yet it was a coinflip game in the final minute+.
3pt % Since Jan. 1: 30. Oklahoma City 31.3% 29. Orlando 32.1% 28. Philadelphia 33.1% 27. Detroit 33.6% 26. Houston 33.9% (14.0-41.3)(364-1074) They've attempted 155 more threes than the next team(Boston-919 for 38%) KJ McDaniels: 2-3(66.7%) Lou Williams: 14-28(50%)(3 games) Nene: 1-2(50%) Bobby Brown: 4-10(40%) Ryan Anderson: 64-165(38.8%) Patrick Beverley: 40-110(36.4%) Sam Dekker: 27-80(33.8%) Tyler Ennis: 1-3(33.3%) James Harden: 83-249(33.3%) Eric Gordon: 63-201(31.3%) Trevor Ariza: 56-182(30.8%) Corey Brewer: 9-40(22.5%) Montrezel Harrell: 0-1(0%) Chinanu Onuaku/Clint Capela: 0-0(0%)
These are your problems. Outside of Harden, Dekker, Gordon and Ariza turning into Corey Brewer (ok, a LITTLE better) kills the team.
This team just lack winner mentality and leadership, nothing new here, that's also why we're not on the same level of the Spurs, it's not just a matter of talent...they started very well yesterday, then they suddenly started walking around (Harden needs to do a better job when he comes back in the game, almost every game it happens the same...he comes back and he slow down the pace too damn much), no more defense, no more ball movement...because they thought the game was already done, just to end up with a loss against a mediocre team, at home... What i hope is that in the playoff everyone will be more focused and for 48 minutes every game. About our shooting % i'm not sure we can say they're just all shooting bad, without a reason...imo they're shooting worse cause they're playing worse, a shot taken after a good ball movement (hello Spurs) has always a better chance to go in, unlike a quick/forced/unnecessary/out of rhythm one, and to me it seems we're chucking up a lot lately.
Actually, if you want to feel better, Ariza had a 2 month stretch in our WCF year where he was this bad and then turned it around and caught fire again.
I do remember that. True. That's the thing. All these dudes are good shooters. They all are proven. It's feels impossible that this keeps up on such a team-wide basis, but we'll see. Until it does change, though, more attacking the basket needs to take place rather than settling for 3's. We're not built to handle all the long rebounds and leak-outs on fastbreaks.
Harden It isn't one single players fault. Didn't Harden only have 2 turnovers? It is odd to bring up turnovers after the Indiana game. Having said that, the Rockets need Harden to play better. The Rockets The Rockets are having issues with ball movement. Some of the ball movement issues are related to the Rockets trying to integrate Williams with Gordon and Harden. Only like 20% of their 3's against Indiana were from the corner. The team has been mediocre for about 5 weeks now. They next couple weeks will tell us a lot about the Rockets. They feel like a 50 win team right now. D'Antoni I see that D'Antoni is again deflecting blame away from himself. He has done this for 20 years. D'Antoni is great until the going gets tough, at that point he has historically folded. Lets see how he handles this situation and how the Rockets bounce back.
It isn't as bad defensively as you would think. Harden guards small forwards better than shooting guards and Williams guards point guards at a close to average level.
They missed 35 3's. They needed to hit 4 more 3's to win that game. When you're a team that is passable on defense but have an elite record, it's usually because you have an elite offense. Their offense was average yesterday, and their defense was below average. Even if they had hit 4 more 3's, they played a mediocre game. They gave up two huge first half leads. Just as fast as they put up points on Indy, Indy countered with their own, sustained runs.
FWIW Clint and Sam are one of the worst combo's defensively that the Rockets have put on the floor (as of a week ago) when I looked at the advanced statistics. Some of the defensive issues are not the players everyone assumes are the culprits.
I like how the article makes it seem shocking that the Rockets are being out rebounded inside....... that is what happens when you go small, there is a trade off of open shots on the perimeter for rebounding and size inside. Even more shocking? You mean if a team goes small, and shoots 50+ three points a game; they will have issues in transition defense? How shocking.... it is almost like other teams in the NBA for the last 50 years don't take so many 3's for that very reason.... who knew? The truth is really simple.... if the Rockets shoot 37-38% on 3's they can beat anyone..... and when they shoot like they did in Indiana (22%), they can't expect to beat anyone. It is cute that D'Antoni can talk about rebounding and defense.... but he and Morey built a team that isn't good at those attributes, and asking them to suddenly become good at it isn't going to work. The Rockets are who we thought they were. Let's just hope they make marginal improvements are focused and hit their 3's at a close to 40% clip. Otherwise they will lose in round one and there will be threads wanting to trade Harden, fire Morey and force Le$ to sell the team.
What's crazy is how much we've been winning in spite of that. Imagine if we were top 10 in shooting, we would likely never lose a game.
I am starting to think we are just a gimmick. Fools gold. Yea. It's fun when the shots are falling. Fans love it. Makes it look like we are better than we are. But all teams are going to do is run us off the line. Its 23 feet away. Any little disruption and the likelihood of a shot falling drops. After that. What do we have? Pick and roll works when you drain your 3's. When you don't then the pick and roll gets clogged up. I don't know. Maybe they will shut me up come playoff time. Maybe Trevor will get back from the arctic circle or wherever he has been vacationing. Maybe Ego will go god again? maybe maybe hopefully. Whatever. When does the astros season start so we can start b****ing about them?
"If I have to come up with a great speech or something to get them to give their best, then I've got the wrong guys to begin with." -- Rudy Tomjanovich A common illusion in coaching is that you can acquire players based on physical talent, and then instill heart. Eventually, you learn that heart is a trait, too. Don't assemble a roster based on talent and then complain that they lack heart. My view: Defend with at least 50% as much intensity as Patrick Beverley, or get the hell off the court.
Well...look at December. We were well within the Top 10, and absolutely blitzing teams. Maybe that was playing above our heads and our real shooting is somewhere in between now and then, but it's still inexcusable for us to be this bad, and it's been 2 months. I'm resigning myself to the reality that this is what we can expect going forward. We'll see.
My conclusion is that in December we turned the corner and the team built up a ton of chemistry along with that. Since then? Too many boring wins and then they became complacent. Sort of like Conan after he found success and riches! But the Rockets will rise again. Sometimes, success can be your own worst enemy.
There were far too many occurrences last night where a Pacer only had to beat one man to get an unabated path to the basket. Neither NeNe or Capela slide over quick enough to force the ball back outside, and it allows the opponent to get into position for an offensive rebound on the weak side, or an easy basket. Anderson is completely useless when he's not hitting his shots, and it's starting to affect us on both sides of the court. Guys like Gordon and Williams are basically turnstyles on the perimeter, so there's nothing stopping the other team from getting the ball where they want it to go.....especially when you have an aggressive, athletic guard like Teague or Ellis getting to the basket with ease. \ I will also say that for the first time, I was pretty irked by Harden's complete lack of intensity last night. I usually defend him, and his demeanor, but last night was a prime example of this team needing some FIRE. Guys like Beverley and NeNe have it, but they are limited in how much they can influence the team. It HAS to be Harden who brings the grit and determination every single night......I know it's not in his personality, but if you want all the glory that comes with a $100 million contract, then this responsibility comes with the territory. No more defensive lapses....no more asinine turnovers.....and no more plays where you look like you simply don't give a ****. I don't want to see you shimmying only when your shot is on.....I want to see that attitude ALL the time, on BOTH ends of the floor. Westbrook has all but taken the MVP from you at this point.....show us that you give a ****!
