[Clutchfans] Dwight: Defensive woes "starts on the perimeter"

Thank you. Can't believe people are ragging on Lin. Lin played Isiah better than Chalmers, Parker and a whole bunch of other guards in recent games. Parsons has a tough assignment on Gay, Gay has been lighting guys up and playing efficiently. All Parsons can do is try. Harden's whole approach was putrid, he was way, way, way, way worse than Parsons and Lin played solid D tonight.

 

Can someone explain why no one on the Rockets stopped anyone from going to the basket after their pick and rolls tonight? You have to at least show and deny/hinder entrance into the paint & drives to the basket.. or attempt to contest their shots a little bit sooner

Also, as JayG mentioned, even Fredette was taking it at ease to the rack when he came in before Jeremy came back in to contain him.

Lin and Harden both still struggle with losing track of their perimeter player and/or sagging off too much, giving up open 3s.

 

Psst... assists are made by OTHER players being able to make shots. While some of the credit goes to IT for making the pass, a significant portion goes to the guy actually making the bucket.

And credit for that goes for the most part to the guy that's supposed to be defending the guy making the bucket.

And Harden is rarely, if ever guarding the "good" player. It's why the excuse is rarely made for Harden. Harden wasn't guarding IT, or Rudy Gay, or Demarcus Cousins. He was guarding the 4th and 5th scoring options on the team...

 

Isaiah is one of the top 2 players on the Kings and he is averaging 19 points and 6 assists on the season. One could argue those are all-star numbers. Lin did as good a job as he could, he was giving EFFORT, fighting through screens like a mad man and trying to contest. You have to give credit to Thomas as a player, he is a pretty damn good scoring guard. You need to contain guys like Thornton and McLemore, who are less adept at scoring. Harden did not show up tonight defensively.

 

I'm gonna correct you a little here.

Dh12 was being overpowered by Cousins because Dh12 kept trying to step out and help on D. I was at the game and saw from pretty good seats the absolute prison-raping we took. Lin, Harden, and Parsons and Brooks were horrific on D. Dwight can only do so much.

 

If no one will hold Harden accountable and always make excuses for him, then this team will always have its inconsistency. If this team will allow Harden to from time to time to have free reigns to be lazy on D and selfish on offense then this team will lose whenever Harden is having one of those lazy and lathargic games.

What else would you expect? If his in 40min+ and have high usage while in the game....you basically live by and die by Harden.

He is such a talented player, I just hope the coaching staff is able to elevate him to the next level

 

The difference is, how many times have we all wondered to ourselves, is James even TRYING on D. Pretty much every game, or every other game. Of course the perimeter D needs to get better, but a guy like Chandler and Jeremy, you know and see they're trying.

 

It starts with McHale.

The man is not a quality NBA Head Coach.

 

Lin is this team's 6th man. Harden is supposedly this team's franchise player. Expect way better than what you're currently seeing from the latter.

 

perimeter d is dead league wide unless you're one of the three tru' superstars.
bev gets caught behind picks just as often.
people have to come to grips that we've never defended the PnR , not even during the jvg days. It's meant to put you in a catch 22.

But guess who else couldn't stop the pnR tonight? the guy people are saying was 'unstoppable' tonight,thomas, who shot terribly for the no. of shots he took.
5 of his assists came from thornman and rookie not being guarded. Lin was hitting the lane at will which caused thomas to get frustrated giving lin that extra shot to the grill.

when our PG makes that brick on a transition t, turnover on a post feed attempt and gamble on a Defensive mismatch, people don't twice about pointing fingers.

 

and now apparently in the other thread, the game thread "Fredette is a good player..." and Thornton is not I suppose

It's not even all about tonight, this has been a issue for the entire season for the Rockets. Random wing players and PGs can and will just go off on us. It doesn't even matter who you are.

And no one is singling out Lin either.

I'm talking about every PG, SG, and SF on the team. The issues persists when Harden is not playing or is on the bench

 

For the most part, Lin and Parsons do all right/even good.

Since Harden has become a Rocket, we all see it with our eyes. He doesn't even try/saves himself for the offensive end.

Definitely need him there, but McHale definitely gives Harden a very long leash.

I've never really been on the fire McHale bandwagon but I'm starting to lean that way.

 

But JayGoogle, you also gotta watch HOW James' guys get their points. That's what's frustrating.
There's a reason why James' defense against Reddick went viral and made a joke of him. If he was getting scored on even while putting a hand to their faces it's one thing, but thats not the case.
His guys backdoor him for easy dunks, he leaves his guy wide open trying to get a steal, he slaps his guy instead of moving his feet, etc. Simply laziness and lack of awareness and/or interest.
The other perimeter guys might slip up here and there but not even CLOSE to Harden. To suggest such a thing is simply trying to deflect any blame from the ~star. I sure hope McHale isnt babying him as much, he needs to learn now while he's still young before he turns into an Amare Stoudemire.

Isiah has been averaging 21 POINTS his last 10 games.
He's been playing fantastic since moving to the starting lineup.

Yay he got 10 assists, guess where he got those from? Easy clean looks Harden's guys got.
Just like the first Clippers game where half of CP3's assists came from just passing it to Reddick who would be wide open.
And let's not act like James' guys are all-stars.
How many bums have gotten career/ season high against him?

 

If anyone is defending Harden's defense this game then you really don't know basketball. Harden's 1st half effort was autrocious. You don't think Morey, Mchale, Sampson and his team mates are calling him out behind closed doors??

Harden really tried to make up for his lacklustre effort on D by going twice as hard on offense. Even Bill and Clyde were call him out on his D and chuckling on there commentary

 

Disagree, because a PG is able to get easier assists if he's controlling the offense without must resistance. A lot of the credit goes to the PG...that's why PGs assists are consistent no matter where they go, because a guy like Paul can get into the lane when he wants to and dictate the defense when he wants to...unless the defending PG gets in his way.

If anyone attacks your paint then someone is going to be open, you can't let guys just penetrate. As Phil Jackson bluntly put it "Basketball is all about penetration." stopping that penetration is basically the defense job. It is NOT always a one man job either.

Depends...Harden was guarding Ellis for a lot of the year, any wingman on GSW, this excuse is never made for Harden.

I know, because I spent a night trying to explain to people that Redick is actually a good player but according to so many people that night it was "How can you let Redick score X amount of points!?!"

 

Harden deserves a lot of heat for his overall performance in the 4th quarter which was awful. But Dwight ain't free of guilt himself. Cousins badly outplayed him in the final minutes including that offensive rebound and putback that gave the Kings a 1-point lead. And there was a sequence in the last few minutes where one of the Kings guards had a layup and foul where the Rockets basically walked down the floor and no one bothered to pick up their man on defense, leaving a wide open path to the basket.

The Rockets as a team are not taking these games seriously. They're lackadaisical to start out. They don't put any effort as a team to play defense. They waste possessions with stupid turnovers and ISO-ball. And their execution in close games is inconsistent to say the least.

And frankly we're way past the point of making excuses. There was no reason whatsoever for these guys to come out tonight and take the Kings lightly. Sacramento destroyed them just a few weeks ago, and just this past week defeated Miami in OT and damn near knocked off the Spurs in San Antonio. Don't tell me no one on the Rockets was aware of this. Something is missing mentally on this team. I don't know if it's strictly due to bad coaching(McFail HAS to go if they're serious about winning a title) or if it's also a lack of maturity with the players, but if they don't get this sorted out soon, they're gonna be facing the very real prospect of finishing the season BEHIND the g-ddamn Phoenix Suns!

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Read between the lines of these post-gm interviews &amp; you get the picture: Harden needs to start playing some defense. <a href="http://t.co/uyXfUA5maC">http://t.co/uyXfUA5maC</a></p>&mdash; ClutchFans (@clutchfans) <a href="https://twitter.com/clutchfans/statuses/418231950927597568">January 1, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Yep! Sure thing.