Ime Udoka says Rockets 3rd quarter defense an "embarrassment" vs Blazers

The first real funk of the season which culminated with the East Coast swing.......

The problem is not the record, it is the bad basketball the team has been playing in the last weeks.

The below average basketball product that has been put on display....... for fans to watch.

The abomination of a bench sans rookies that the GM put together.

 

Without Tari Eason, Jabari Smith and Jaesean Tate this team is in fact on par if not worse than the Blazers/Jazz.

 

I doubt Bari and Tari will shoulder Defense to be Number 3 Defense again......they have let go of the Rope.

Now it is likely outshoot the opponent or it is a loss.

 

Yeah, I didn’t love the rotations either. I thought the 2nd unit was the one who initially built a lead. Brooks was killing us with either silly fouls or bad TOs and by the numbers Jalen had a good game but the misses were more than just misses - they were super bad possessions. Credit to Portland for hitting 100% of their tough shots down the stretch but we would have won that game by taking care of the ball, getting good possessions(no hero ball as Udoka said), and making Portland work for it off ball. They got into all their plays way too easily - no one blew anything up, we just kind of let them run their offense.

 

Jabari and Tari are their best defenders in space. Even better than Dillon. He doesn't have the mobility Jabari does. We'll be fine when they come back. But without a real SG and backup C we're still a .500 ball club.

 

When they come back, the season has like 39-40 games left, it is already going to end sooner than later.

You can chalk it up as a good season but boy, some of that basketball is not pretty.

 

I don’t understand the defense on that bank shot 3 possession. FVV was watching the court but was late reacting to Grant cutting to the 3pt line. He should have clearly seen the only person open was Grant and went to cover him rather than guarding nothing.

FVV was effectively doing nothing on that play. It looks like that’s how Ime planned it. He should blame himself for that play and for not having Amen in instead of FVV.

It looked like FVV could have immediately fouled too but maybe he was too far. Amen probably would have had the extra length to at least foul or athleticism and recognition to go cover Grant when he was cutting to the 3pt line.

 

You say that but it’s not like the presence of Holiday is making defenses adjust. Amen pushing tempo however….



Let Fred hold some of the weight here. His funeral paced, no variety, below average iron fist offense and shot chucking is killing us. They ran that trap zone look at him over and over and he couldn’t figure it out. Not exactly the veteran hand we needed. Maybe uh, 45 minutes a night isn’t doing him any favors?

it’s not doing Jalen, Jabari, Amen any favors either. If we’re being honest it’s only helped establish Alpe.

 

Amen was in the game on the last play.

And I think the reason FVV looked like he was guarding nothing was because he was guarding the 3-point line, in the equivalent of a nail position for the arc. And so he was just waiting for all the baseline action by POR to play out and someone to come to the arc for him to pick up, rather than chasing and risking getting screened.

That’s was just a ridiculously lucky shot by grant,,,,a fading bank shot.

 

Time to bring in Bill Belichick for an interview.

 

Yeah that was head scratching.

1. He gave Grant too much space for an easy inbound pass
2. He had to rush to recover and almost fouled Grant. Very risky regardless

That was either a bad design, or bad execution, or both.

 

Fred reacted too slow. As soon as Grant took off, he should run to him and try to block his path to the 3pt line. He was still looking at the corner when Grant was already at the 3pt line.

 

Look at Boban's angle, He is defending a lob pass, lol

 

Can't blame fvv for that play. There is a reason why it was a bank shot. Because it was a luck shot. Can't be angry at defense for a luck shot.

 

Umm...the Rockets starters have been getting their butts kicked routinely for about a month. The bench's big problem is that Tari is hurt. Even without Tari, the Rockets were +8 in regulation when last night's starting lineup wasn't out there. I fully expect the Rockets non starting units will go back to steamrolling other teams routinely when Tari is out there provided he comes back healthy.

Edit: The bench has been a little rough without Tari at times lately. I'd say the bench the GM put together includes Tari and the rookies. I look forward to the bench in about a month or so as the rookies are getting better, and I'd like to see the chaos Amen, Cam, and Tari create for other teams' non starting units.

 

True but the starters were also the best starting unit with a huge +- until as you said one month ago.

 

Sengun + Jabari + Tari is such an amazing future front court. Amen, Cam and Jalen can get to the paint so easily. If they develop these guys well, we won't need to add much more than FVV and a backup C.

 

And the Rockets were winning then. The change has been the starters (most notably Jalen Green falling off a cliff outside of few games) and Tari being out/playing hurt. When the Rockets have a positive plus/minus with the starters, the Rockets win. When the Rockets starters have a negative plus/minus, the Rockets usually lose even when Tari was going crazy.

Until the bench starts causing the Rockets to lose games that the starting lineup outplayed the other team's starters (I'd guess the bench has won about as many as they've lost), they aren't an abomination (or they are an abomination along with the starters). When I watch games lately, it seems like Rockets get behind, bench cuts lead around half, and then Rockets starters usually lay an egg to start the 3rd quarter with the occassional completely dominating the other team in the 3rd quarter.

 

The abomination is not what a below average bench has accomplished....

The abomination is that you put 3rd stringers and masquerading them as 2nd stringer......

And sell it to the normal fan ...of whom will buy that ish.

Act like Tate and Landale are great bench players.

 

The hell with this guy. You're the embarrassment, Ime. 4 minutes in the 2nd half for Amen? Amen works to prove himself to you and you keep him glued on the bench. But hey enjoy your little butterball pg trying to defend a 6'7 shooter.

Was that dramatic enough?
see y'all next game.