Why do we struggle so bad against OKC and LAC? Is it the coaching? Our point guard? Our lack of a bench? Less star-power compared to them? Just being in our first year together? What must the Rockets do to compete with these two squads? The road to the Finals will inevitably be blocked by one of those teams. Is it even possible in our current state? What moves in the off-season must Houston make to tip the scales? Give me some hope; I know many of you know more about the fundamentals of this game than I do and I could use some reassurance.
We won against them this season and the losses are not that horrible. For example yesterday we didnt have dwight and bev. They also have more experience as a team so as of now im not worried. When Parsons gets out of his slump, tjones shows up consistantly and Lin contributing significantly, we should be good.
A. They are both really good. B. They expose matchup problems for Houston. This league is all about match ups and both the Thunder and the Clippers (especially the Clippers) expose the 1 and 4 position for the Rockets. There is no one in the NBA that can stop Blake Griffin this year. He is a beast. With Bev out, CP3 basically owns the Rockets too. Likewise, Westbrook, Durant, and Ibaka are obviously a handful. And between Perkins and Ibaka they have the ability to neutralize the Dwight Howard effect. I think aside from that, the Rockets have the tendency to just stall on offense when they're not getting getting free points on the break. These two teams (and I'm going to add the new and improved 17 in a row Spurs to the list) force Houston to play in the half court. They keep their turnovers down, don't allow the Rockets to get on the break, and force the Rockets to actually execute a play in the half court. The ball stops moving and the Rockets either resort to Harden iso or Howard in the post. That won't cut it in the playoffs.
That's debatable. They just own us match up wise. Griffin & Ibaka always destroy Jones with rebounds & their point guards are just better than ours. Not to mention CP3 & Durant love destroying us. Also, Harden usually plays bad against those teams.
Not the entire picture, but they make hay off our turnovers and cause us to have more than even our high average. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I am betting the points off of turnovers are highly in the opponents favor.
I think it is a few things. 1. OKC and Clippers are high-scoring teams. They can score as well as the Rockets if not better. 2. Defense is comparable for all 3 teams. 3. OKC and Clippers have athletic, physical front courts who can lock down the paint, nullify Dwight and Jones' athleticism, and make it more difficult for the Rockets' guards to drive the lane like they like to do. 4. OKC and the Clippers are also good rebounding teams. The Rockets this season have given up a lot of offensive rebounds. They give up even more against these two teams, and give them more chances to score. Basically, they are very similar teams to the Rockets, except they are a better version of the Rockets.
It's cause their stars show up to the games against us while our stars don't. Harden and Dwight both have been very ineffective vs these two teams.
There's really not much to debate. They have better records than us and haven't lost to us. Seems like we can conclude with a pretty high level of certainty that they are better basketball teams.
This team fullly healthy is better than any team in the NBA. We've had 17 & 19 point leads against each of these two teams this season, we just need to close it out. Our stars just need to play better against them.
a) Their defense is very good. They can guard our fast break offense, close the paint and run our guys off the 3pt line for out of rhythm 3pt shots. b) We need to play better defense. We need to play their defense style against them. Clog the paint with twin towers (and rebound!) and make perimeter players run their guys off the 3-pt line. We need to make them shoot more mid-range. If they still win then they're just a more talented team. But I don't think they would win. Shot charts: Clippers Spoiler The shot chart says 3pt defense was good yesterday but we didn't guard the paint well enough. Dwight would have made a difference but I think they need to learn the Doc Rivers style of paint clogging. Rockets Spoiler Something similar applies to OKC
pretty much this. they force rockets to shoot the 3 ball which isn't necessarily always going in. the rockets need to move the ball better to beat their defense to get better looks at the rim. i find that they start to go iso once they cant hit shots and thats when the rockets slowly lose the lead if they have one, or just keep bleeding pnts
Who did we win against this season out of OKC and LAC??? And to say their team has more experienced so you're not worried makes little sense -- that's why I AM worried. You're essentially saying they're just better teams right now (they are). Now if your goal is how Rockets do in some other yr okay...but I care more about one season at a time. And to say we'll be good once TJones and Lin get a lot better is just....like what? Haha. Yeah we'll sweep the Heat once you know, all our players play on two levels higher in skill and determination. Cool, easy peasy. More importantly, um, Parsons is in a slump? Sorry, his 28/2/9 on 19 shots last night must have confused me. Your comments make me wonder...do you even watch Rockets games?
But on the nights we played these teams with Bev as starting guard, we still lost so your argument is invalid.
There's always a chance and the playoffs are a different season, however, before the Bev injury I thought OKC and Thunder were worse possible match-ups. Now, those two teams would be an absolutely horrible match-up. Its not impossible for Rox to beat either one of those teams in a series and I still don't trust Clippers in the playoffs. Until both of their stars CP3 and Griffin can show they can get the job done in the playoffs, I don't know why so many people are so gung ho to jump on their bandwagon. But to beat either one of those teams you need at the very least competent pg play. With Lin's inconsistent ass getting the bulk of minutes at the point, that could be a disaster against these two teams. Also Tjones and Dmo have to man up as well when playing these teams. Both have been weak against these two. Asik is the only big who has played well against these teams.
