D wins championships forget what you hear about our ability to score... James Harden must improve his planted to the floor like a fireplace defense. Allowing his man to go around him without attempting to stay in front of him is horrible. Also, he was fouled on the last shot and those young refs where horrible. Bottom line, the Mav's shot the hell out of the ball in 4th Qtr from all over. Should have put Chandler on Dirk and James on Calderon. Keep Bev on Monta.
Most of Dallas' shots weren't even good shots. That was basically what happened to Miami in the nba finals, Dallas couldn't miss awful shots. If you force a team to take bad shots, and they keep hitting them, you lose, that's just how the sport works and why playoff series are 7 games long. You may never witness a team hit that many shots in a row in a 4th quarter ever again. It also didn't help that the refs shredded our defense by calling touch fouls exclusively 1 way to close the margin.
Well Dirk is one of the 2 or 3 guys every year who can shoot "bad shots", and they're actually good shots. That's why he's gangsta.
We lost because the coaching staff didn't decide to run double teams and traps at Ellis and Dirk earlier in the game because those two guys were on freaking fire. No one can guard Dirk anyway when he's on and the Rockets don't have a lock down perimeter defender that can stay on Ellis one on one (not most teams do). Parsons had a great start and disappeared and Harden had an opportunity to close the game out and he didn't. Except for Casspi _ the bench didn't do much the entire game and our 6th man of the year only scoring one point didn't help. One game doesn't make a season and young guys have to learn. But going back to last season the Rockets don't fair well against the better teams in the west. That may have more to do with game planning and in game adjustments which leads me to believe coaching is an issue. Can't lose a game like that when Howard was having a monster game in the post...
You expect him to be able to make 50% when he's taking those sort of shots, but their team shot 100% for 6 minutes straight.
Perimeter defense is why we lost & coaching. Mchale has to get the team in a better defensive mind set but honestly we just don’t have those type of players that can really go out there and be a lockdown D man. Bev- plays good D but he is also short so players that are taller can easily shoot over him no matter how close he is. If their shot is falling bev D can be great but they can still hit that big shot. Bev is still the best perimeter D player we have because of his effort, ball pressure and him wanting to stay on his man. Parsons- don’t know what happened to his D from his first year but offense looks better Lin- he tries hard but his problem is he always cheats inside insted of staying on his man, the point blank 3 monta hit early in the 4th he was wide open because lin continues to cheat in the paint, you can’t do that… a contested 2 pointer is better than giving up a uncontested kick out three any day ! Harden- he will never change but it’s not like we can bench him in the 4th, we need his offense and ability to get to the free throw line. He was tired also playing 42 mins. But D is just something that I will never get my hopes up with harden.
Harden and Parsons do the same thing not just Lin. I don't know why the coaching staff allows them to cheat in the paint and try to get steals instead of staying on their man. Howard does not need their help down low.
We lost because we have an incompetent coach who got outcoached yet again. Even an average coach would have us 11-2 with this talented roster
Honestly, given the frequency of cheating off their man and how pervasive it is it makes me wonder if it's a strategic choice built around the presence of Howard. I know that last year they said that packing the paint was an intentional strategy. And I suppose there's some logic to it in that shots at the rim are higher yield that 3 pointers. Though I do wonder if it's merely due to a lack of fine tuning (defensive experience and chemistry) versus strategic oversight by the coaching.
The Rockets lost because Carlisle changed his team strategy and focus and McHale did nothing to counter it. It would be foolish to bet on the Rockets to beat the Mavs in any of their remaining fixtures this season.
yes this is true. Im not asking them to be an elite defender just stay on your man, it will help the team out. I think it’s the offensive mindset of trying to get steals so they can hurry and run out on the break & score. When they should just worry about getting a stop first. What do u think ?
I know the Rocket blew out the Celtics yesterday but this was still a back to back and in a foot race the team playing two days in a row is going to lose. Don't knee jerk. These sort of inadequacies don't happen in the playoffs. Lazy Harden + active Ellis = disaster
This. Dirk is a future HOF *because* he can do that. Once Dirk gets hot he borders on unstoppable. Monte Ellis is similar. The guy is inconsistent as heck, but once he gets his game on there are very, very few people that can stop him from scoring. It is quite possible that it was pure coincidence... IE, our shooters went cold when their shooters got red hot.
I think we lost because we were having too much fun. When it came time to step on their necks, our players just wanted to smile and high five. I'm not putting this all on Dwight, but I think the fun-loving attitude is spreading through this team and it's not conducive to winning.
dirk is going to do that to any one when he gets going. Thast why I would have made an adjustment and tried out TT a few plays if it didnt work then call timeout and go back to jones. That is what coaching is about, you cant just sit there and watch it keep happening just hoping he will miss a shot when a player is clearly hot
Defense Bench Rotation in my opinion the rotation it is so weak by Mchale, why rest the all starting 5 at same time? Why not start the 4th quarter whith Jones at PF and play Casspi at 3, Garsia had a bad game, and Mchale continuos in insist to play the same rotation and not read the game. if a player play like crap in a game, he need to bring another option and not always the same.
