This defensive strategy is designed to make everything MDA loves difficult to do, and allows bad habits like taking 15 seconds to start the offense or taking too many mid range jumpers. The other thing with MDA is he's now very conscious of pissing off superstars, and Paul/Harden (in interviews) struck me as feeling "yeah we should do it fast but also the way I've always done it". This is where ego comes in, rather than mental toughness. Paul and Harden can play fast at an elite level. Are they willing to put strategy over ego? We're not in trouble right now, but at some point maybe we need to put pictures of Blake Griffin and Dwight Howard up in the locker room to remind these guys what happens when you are stubborn about strategy. It's not about mental toughness. It's about controlling your ego. Dwight did not want to control his ego, and he would be ok with it costing him trophies. The pace has been annoying for months, but can change overnight. And might have to change again depending on who we play next.
beard/cp3/ego all took too many possessions pounding the ball with not even 1 other rocket touching it, ending up in a brick or turnover. multiple times the guy wide open in the corner (usually ariza) was ignored as well.
I thought our weakness was team assists and few people making plays other than those 2 or 3 mentioned. If they have weaker games with Turn overs this whole machine is going to stutter. That is exactly the reason I was not confident despite the 65 winning season. The flaws were evident. You got Harden who has not proven himself to be Jordan or Hakeem IN the playoffs, an older CP3, Capela who is still too young, bunch of role players who can take over games but can also vanish every other game. Big injury factor.
they just need to wake the F up on both ends of the court. usually not making that extra pass doesn't hurt us because beard/cp3/ego can easily finish in the paint anyways. but harden was getting no calls when he got hacked and ego just looked terrible on drives. pringles has always been subpar at in-game adjustments, but between games now he'll make the necessary changes.
Getting no calls has been a constant in the last 3 playoffs. That is a normal they have to live with. They are lucky not getting hostile calls like the calls we got when we played the Mavs in 2005. Those calls just eliminated us completely. Win not because you are a No 1 seed but win with heart and because you play the best playoff bball.
thibs was forcing the drive this game and harden had only 4 FT attempts 7min into the 4th that's directly attributable to the league assigning marc davis to this game
I would do the same, forcing the jump shooters to shoot..... Thibs knew we were not shooting all that well the whole series. Try to stop Green and keep an eye on Gordon and Capela. It's either slow the Beard/CP or slow the role players and survive Harden's scoring game (or bad night).
I'd like to see Ryno back in the starting lineup. He's our best shooter and he provides much needed spacing . I love Tucker's D but he's a liability on offense.
Agreed. It's a sad state of affairs when coaches adjust game strategy by who the officials are rather than by what their opponent is doing. Hate that. I can't remember the last time I thought the officiating wasn't a significant impacting factor on the game.
Tale of the tape Rockets................................................T-Wolves 45-81 for 45.7% (FG%)......................45-90 50.0% (FG%) 15-41 for 36.8% (3P%)......................15-27 55.8% (3P%) 39 rebs...............................................41 rebs 18 ast..................................................29 ast 10 TOV................................................7 TOV 4 stl......................................................9 stl 3 blk.....................................................3 blk Discrepancy in assists stand out. Nine more FG attempts by T-Wolves. Same amount of 3P’s made on far less attempts. My assessment is that the Rockets should have made more shots to have up’d the assist total. Easy to say, “just don’t miss shots.” Defense was sluggish. Let the T-Wolves do whatever they wanted. You have to take away something. Rockets didn’t take away transitions, 3-pointers and shots in the paint/at the rim (we’re too easy). Wiggins 20 points KAT 18 points Butler 28 points Teague 23 points Rose 17 points Unacceptable.....have to shut down 3 of those players to 12 or less points.
we just have to make some simple adjustments... Unfortunately, for MDA, 'adjustments' just means playing harder - clap clap.... smh...
the camera was panned directly on marc davis during pre-game warmups for about 7-8 min nonstop on the league pass feed. he was doing his stretches at halfcourt in between a crowd of people. one of the video guys moved slightly into his 4ft radius of space while setting up, and marc davis shoved him in the back of the ribs literally like it was a stray dog on his lawn. the guy is just dripping with little b**** ego
