They went to a pick and roll attack yesterday in the 4th with Harden and Howard and it worked like a charm. They really need to run that set more often.
If I'm honest, I kind of felt the way you did yesterday, OP, but only during the fourth quarter of that particular game and only because I'm pretty sure he got 0 touches after the third quarter. Thinking back on it, though, I'm guessing it was deliberate because Howard seemed like he just wasn't quite himself last night. He had some good moves early on, but he still seemed out of it and it got worse as the night progressed - he even hit himself on the head at one point because he was frustrated with his play before the comeback. As others have pointed out, he luckily started just putting all of his remaining energy toward rebounding and defense, which worked out well, but yeah it might have made everything a little easier offensively if he had been locked in and used a little more to sprinkle in some variety and open up the perimeter. In hindsight, it was probably a call made by the coaching staff because they saw that he was making lots of mistakes and it's not as drastic if he's a little off-cue on defense/rebound duty as opposed to putting points on the board. Hopefully he'll be rested against OKC and feeling better, but it's good to know we have others that can pick up the slack when our center's not feeling it. All in all, it was just one game, so I agree that it's not really threadworthy at this point, but I'd be willing to be a lot of the folks berating you might have responded differently if Harden didn't make that 3 to send it to OT. We're a fickle bunch here...
he's great. the offense flows well. sometimes harden is going to have a big game. sometimes it's gonna be howard.
Somebody obviously takes Dwight's nickname too seriously. He should save the world during half-time as well.
You said he should be in the 20s range and he's averaging 18. So scoring 2 more points will make us championship contenders. alright bud
howard has had big games this year too. some games post ups will work. some games you do PnR/perimeter attack. it's another option. multiple ways to win.
Dream didn't close games because he was doubled and served as decoy for wing players to pass off to. Yet other teams respected that Dream could score at will under single coverage and grab key rebounds. He even willed through some double and triple teams when it came for him to beast, but that came with the risk of being stripped of the ball while he was setting up footwork for the pass or shot. Where the falls flat for jaychi is that Dream had a respectable FT% (near or above .700) so he could be on the court without being hacked. Dwight isn't a dream, but he's still pivotal and damn good. Better yet, he still wants to grow rather than staying fat like what Shaq did in the offseason.
The good news is, he's been consistent all season. This game kinda came out of the blue. He might even struggle against the Bulls next game. No worries.
Who cares about all season. You pay max money for games like this. Steven Adams shuts you down? Seriously?
A big part of this loss was Dwight. Like I said in game thread, I was too disappointed in the loss itself but very disappointed with Dwight's lackluster performance. Once the Rox stop forcing it to Dwight in the post, they started playing much better. Dwight against the Thunder needs to be mainly a pick and roll player with minimal post ups, he just hasn't been effective in the post against them.
Not really. This was the only game recently where the Rockets were playing a team ahead of them in the standings on the road and a rookie was guarding their max money big man.
