They swapped the PnR coverage. They're not really helping or trapping. I noticed they basically let Harden waltz to the paint after picking off Kawhi and they wall up in the paint. Harden needs to go right into the defense for dunks. He doesn't need to euro step because the big man is not even attempting to guard him in space. They also need to get more drive and kick game going. Other than that I would use the lineup with Harden at the 4 when Lee is in the game. We know Harden wants to sink to the paint so just leave on somebody who won't ahoot 3's
Need to start Gordon instead of Bev. The offense is too easy to defend without a secondary creator. There's just no need to give Bev so many minutes with Parker out.
If the refs do not start calling obvious fouls in the lane we can either start hitting our threes or start pulling up for mid range shots. There is not much else we can do. Our game is predicated on the refs actually calling blatant fouls. That being said, I believe this game will be officiated correctly the next game do to the NBA wanting this to go to seven games.
Too much whining and complaining. WHAT the reason why they are complaining is BECAUSE the REF's are determine to not give Houston the calls period.. I will agree that with Harden NOT taking over the game and kept making BAD passes is not helping. Our bench has not step up only in game one.. I am getting so I HATE THE NBA we had to put up with this BS with the Lakers were the league team. The last thing I agree this series is OVER... we needed to win both home games, REF's+Bench+Harden(bad passes) = 5 games houston season over.
BigMaloe speaks for me too. It ain't over It ain't been pretty. We all knew or shoulda knew the Spurs were not gonna give up. Now we don't give up & its on us RocketFans to not give up either. I personally feel we got it in us. This board is not just a bunch of guys & girls sitting around shittalkin. We don't make decisions for the team, but we can give the team support, DO NOT SURRENDER. It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees. We are the Heart of Redation. Believe in yourself & the world will believe in you, Never underestimate the Heart of a Champion.
Yup, clear case of "Gotcha!" refereeing. Danny Crawford knew that was a **** call, but he wanted to send his message home. **** everything about that call.
Lots of good answers here, but this is the best one. Because Houston REFUSES to shoot mid range shots, the Spurs are basically closing out hard on shooters and planting bigs in the paint. When our shooters get the kick out from a Harden drive they are doing what worked in the regular season - hard pump fake, take a few dribbles to get a help side defender to commit and hit the next open shooter when the help arrives. The difference is the Spurs aren't sending a help defender and instead are sitting on those shooters regardless- they are saying, "we bet your 3pt shooters won't be able to hit enough shots in the paint against our bigs"...and it's working. Take the average 2nd half Ariza possession, Harden drives and kicks it to him, he hesitates to shoot because the defender is closing out so hard and when the defender flies by him on the pump fake, he takes a few tentative dribbles towards the paint, clearly looking for the next 3pt shooter to pass to but none of them are open. That gives the bigs enough time to get good paint defense rotations, and even gives the close out defender enough time to get back into the play. Credit the Spurs for A.) recognizing our 3pt shooters aren't good rim runners, and B) having that type of help discipline because I think most players would automatically try to help prevent a mid range shooter in that instance and these Spurs players are sticking to the game plan. ....so what to do? One option is spend the next practice working on mid range jumpers and have the 3pt shooter pump fake to dribble into a comfortable 2pt mid range shot. The Spurs are going to give us that all day. Another option is to freaking cut whenever the 3pt shooter is forced off the line. We never do this and we should because it allows a player to get a running start at the rim and if a clean pass is delivered, they will get to the rim when the big is out of position. Right now San Antonio's big are reading the action and getting in good position to defend the rim against the first pass after Harden but if the ball is moving fast enough on weak side cuts, they will no longer be in a good position(more paint buckets, more fouls on their thin big rotation, etc). I also like the idea of allowing Harden to shoot more mid range shots coming off screens as there is clearly a free space between the 3pt line and the free throw line available for Harden. Along those lines, I noticed Harden and Bev were definitely using a lot more running floaters to get a shot up over the defense. Finally, last option and certainly a HUGE gamble is go REALLY small and play Anderson at the 5, Ariza at the 4, and some lineup of Gordon/Lou/Bev around Harden. That forces the Spurs bigs to guard the 3pt line in a way that they don't have to with Capela & Nene in the game. One other point to mention - while this is clearly one of the best Houston teams in a while, our rotation doesn't have a ton of playoff tested experience and it's really showing right now. I hate to use the term, but guys like Anderson and Lou are ******** the bed right now when the spotlight is on them. I'm not sure what you can do about that, but it's worth noting that Harden and Ariza and Nene are really the only guys with a lot of experience playing deep in the playoffs. Also worth noting that this team has been frustratingly inconsistent pretty much the entire 2nd half of the season - doesn't feel like we are playing "bad" so much as we are playing like we have been playing the last 40 games or so which is fine when you got crappy teams mixed in on the average regular season night, but when your playing a team like the Spurs or Warriors, it's a different circumstance.
This is called a travel on everyone not named LeBron or Kawhi: http://www.nba.com/video/2017/05/05/0041600233-sas-hou-play9
Realistically , hire a new coach . Dantoni isn't getting any better and POP is going to out coach him . Our shot is variance and making shots vs the Spurs who can more effectively game plan , adjust , and execute strategy . How about we stop talking about taking what the defense gives us and actually take it ?They gave us the lob last night and neither our playmakers nor coaching staff recognized it . How about understanding what the Spurs did to counter our lineups and then putting players on the floor that can counter that ? We're getting out executed and out coached . D'antonio's "philosophy" as well as moreys is a statistical approach . This works incredibly well in the long run . In the short run , against someone who understands the game , you need more than that .
Unless things take a 180 and our guys ( Lou , Ryan) start hitting shots we HAVE to find another player . We can't play Ariza in our small ball lineups AND expect him to guard kawhi ... In fact we need to take what we've seen from the last 4 games ( 1 reg season) and stop pretending Ariza can even slow him down . We all went in the playoffs thinking Ariza was our best perimeter defender ... But it's just not working vs Leonard . So far , objectively , Gordon seems to be our best Kawhi defender ... For real . He's stepped it up on that end in both series and I think we should believe it . Frankly , we can't let Gordon guard him the whole game , he doesn't have the stamina . We need to start throwing multiple defenders on him . Please give Dekker a shot . He did really good work in the regular season on other wings ... It's not like kawhi can possibly draw more fouls . SA's bigs torched us last game . Clint is a man and does fine , Ryan does OK but if Aldridge starts becoming a real player again the series is going to quickly go out of reach . I don't think we can play nene and Clint together , so once again we have to find other options ... ONCE again , Dekkers size and athleticism could make life difficult for gasol or Aldridge ... Especially if used creatively . Mike is blowing this series because he isn't playing Dekker because he can't shoot .... He needs to realize that neither can Ryan right now ... Trevor is showing his age , and we need to mix things up if only to make kawhi act differently .
Dantoni specifically pointed this out in his presser after game 4. After calling for the hack a roberson and now seeing this i actually think the rockets might be reading my posts haha....let me dream ppl. Great game by gordon as well...he is gonna be huge going forward
