How the Rockets can counter Lu Dort's defense. In-depth film study

No you nailed it.

 

Great thread and the type of stuff I love to read.

 

What was the Rockets’ offensive rating while Dort was in? I saw online it was something crazy like 96.1. But based on what I saw, harden wasn’t really nein

great work! Really appreciate your in depth analysis.

watching it again, it’s apparent how Harden was missing the pop option off the pick and pop. That’s pretty strange.

 

Man....this kinda shows how Harden isn’t one of the elite elite greats. Like, we weren’t scheming to get someone off of Dream. Jordan, Bird, etc....they wanted to bust your best defender ass. Kobe too. It really didn’t matter bro.

He’s still historically great though. Just not on that level great.

 

Harden put up 38 without any scheming.

If he gets the calls, even just the blatant noncalls (counted 4), Harden is approaching a 50 burger.

Playing with 5 fouls also made him play timid on offense or defense.

 

Hell ya they were! You think Jordan wasn't trying to figure his way around Mad Max? Rudy T and Phil just didn't go by the philosophy of "they'll adjust to us" . They figured **** out as soon as issues came along. They adjusted and did necessary tweaks instead of telling your team who is on a cold shooting streak to keep shooting the 3 35 more times.

 

So you want him to "play harder clap clap clap"?

 

McHale's coaching adjustments were legendary.

 

If Russ isn't there why not throw Tyson in there to run a couple Clint Capella plays. He's available and if anything he might be useful to just get physical with Dort. You think Cp3 isn't out there playing physical and doing every little dirty thing in the book to win? Let Dort run into the chandler wall and eat a few dunks.

 

Stop the madness!!! Harden had 38 points 7 rebounds and 8 assets
How is that a shutdown? Those are career numbers for most. We need to find better things to talk about, IMO.

 

Another great post, @foggy94.

It seems to me that Dort is in Harden's head at this point, with Harden focusing a little more on trying to solve that riddle than in finding the best available option during any particular offensive possession. He's too smart a player to give into it totally, but in Game three it appeared that he was determined to raise his game against Dort from the first two games—but in those first 2 games he focused on making the best play, and we got the right team outcome.

 

Dort only played in games 2 & 3.

This is not on Harden, the rest of the team not named Green also have to contribute offensively.

Like they did in Game 2.

 

move seen him post up more times this series than I had all year. And each time I think, that looks really solid.

harden is crafty af. I think he could be one of the best post up guard scorers of all time... if he wanted to. MJ/Kobe level? Not with turn around shoot over you mid range no. But with crazy moves, spins, floaters, yes.

I guess I just really think this will work. Admittedly it’s not as efficient as threes. But it’s not for the whole game. Just to mix it up. Get Dort in foul trouble, etc.

 

Totally forgot Dort wasn't in that first game. I hear you, but I still think Game 3 Harden was a little too focused on solving Dort.

I wonder what Game 3 would've looked like with a healthy Russ in the lineup. They don't have enough quality defenders to deal with both of them. CP3 can't keep up with Westbrook.

 

I think you’re forgetting how much of a major pain in the ass the Mid 90’s Sonics were to Hakeem and our Rockets. We schemed the **** out of everything until there was no more scheme left. Remember the whole premise behind the Barkley trade was to get by the Sonics.

Agree with you on Harden though. All those true elite greats have 1 if not multiple rings. I don’t know how anyone can say otherwise but I can prob guess a few on this board that think he already belongs with them. He’s got a long ways to go starting with getting by Dort.... since Dort is now a thing apparently.

 

Rockets win this easy if any other Rocket not named Harden or Green step up offensively.

Everytime Harden sat, OKC would close the lead.

The Rockets bench underperformed for the 1st time this series, especially Rivers and McLemore.

Completely AWOL.



This is great info.

Harden putting up 38-8-7 and everyone screaming he was stopped. LOL

Rockets were +7 when Harden on the court and -17 when Harden sitting for 13 minutes.

Everyone pointing fingers at the wrong culprit, 2nd unit needs to do better.

 

Frankly beating Dort feels like an exaggerated obstacle. OP shows in his article: even with missing all the open shooters, harden was pretty great offensively. Would be a career night for many stars. Not denying Dort is excellent, but we’ve seen it before. He is guarding Harden the way Tuck used to in Phoenix.

Does guarding harden more effectively make you way more likely to beat the Rockets? If so, then everyone that doesn’t have a Dort is screwed. This is not that effective, they barely won. We are missing our 2nd most important player.

Doesn’t look like it’s going to go all that well for OKC unless Westbrook hurts our efficiency on both ends which is unlikely imo.

In fact, I’m pretty excited for Westbrook to guard Dort. Feel like Russ can chase him around and make him look miserable on offense.

 

Dort effect is being slight magnified.



RoCo setting slip screen, Dort must roll with him. PJ not much of a threat to slip when screening.

 

Inverted PnR with Harden as screener.

 

More from foggy on the PnR and inverted PnR.

Should keep going to this play until OKC prove they can stop it.