He was 5-14 hitting his jumper. I'll take that any day of the week. He got his points backing down Tjones/Parsons/harden. Absolutely TT is the best strategy against Portland.
U act like some of those weren't offensive rebounds and on howard. Parson nor harden should ever be called on to guard lma. As I said before, jones wasn't in the game when lma got the game tying tip in. I suggest the over reaction birds needs to rewatch the 1994 playoffs vs the suns. KJ had back to back 38 pt 12 asst games. Let's not for got the 40 pt 10 sst game in 95. The rockets won those series because they shut ainge,majarle,ceballos,and all the other guys down. Lma isn't good enough to beat the rockets by himself. He's a hell of a player,but you can't give 31 to lilliard and then let mathews and batum get theirs to. The reason for non double was to shut everyone else off,but guys still got good looks and free trips to the rim. Keep saying this, 1 rebound and the rockets are up 1-0
thank you DD for that comment on asik and 5 fouls. We have 2 all star centers...one of them can afford 6 fouls no problem, and that would be the bench player sad sad L. Please be a rockets blowout tonight and send the blazers home crying
There is no question that LaMarcus is a great player and will score in the paint against Dwight one-on-one. But......LaMarcus won't score in the paint against Dwight (or Asik) one-on-one (much more the combination of both guys) as often and as efficiently as he will score in the paint going against Jones and Garcia and Parsons one-on-one. There is no question that LaMarcus is a great player and will score off his tremendous high-release silky smooth jump shot when he goes against Asik one-one-one facing up from 17 feet. But.....LaMarcus won't score on that silky smooth high-release jump shot nearly as often or as efficiently having to shoot over Asik as he will when he shoots over Jones or Garcia or Parsons. Sometimes I think some of you are being willfully blind. Either that or you haven't watched enough games.
Can switch from 2-3 to 3-2 zone if their shooters get hot, and at least it's a game adjustment! Old schooled NBA coaches like mchale have no idea what zone is, because zone used to be banned in NBA...I bet he will still stick to what he did in game 1 in Game2 and cost us the series!! Zone is an option and double teaming LMA with one big and one small is another, which can force LMA to lose his space or stop the ball, disconnecting him with lillard, and forcing them to make predictable passes! We can do a lot more than just throwing different guys at LMA playing one on one...that's just passive and lazy coaching!!
It seems that the initial plan was to stay on the shooters when Aldridge has the ball, and only help (with Dwight preferably) when Aldridge gets into the paint. Work a few times but it seems that the help was late in many instances. Another part of the equation is offensive rebounds-- for a guys like Aldridge the offensive boards often end up in high % paint opportunities. So even if you do an OK job defending the post-ups and 1-on-1 offense, you still get killed if you fail to block him out when a shot goes up.
I've watched lma since college and aau. What he did to the rckets,he's been doing. Say what you want,no player,including asik or howard can defend his quickness or his quick release. If you give lma jumpers,he will take them and knock them down at a high rate. Metrics says those aren't high % shots,but for lma,those are high quality shots that he will hit at a high clip. Kenny Smith used to always say on sirius how frustrating it was to guard KJ. Rudy T conceeded the mid range shot by having the pgs go under th screen and allow dream to sink in the paint. This was done to kill his penetration and cut off majarle,ainge,and the other guys who benefitted from his penetration. Guess what? He still avg 26 and 12 in 94,but majrle avg like 10ppg and they won the series. The rockets to win the series can't give up 31 to lilliard and wes,batum combo their avg and give up 46 to lma. The stategy in the playoffs are the stars cancel each other out. Harde and howard vs lilliard and lma = 0. The rockets are or will win this series if jones,parson,and lin > matthews,batum,and lopez. In the end,1 rebound the rockets didn't get lost the game. Even after the great game by lma, on the miss, he got the rebound over one of the best rebounders in the nba. Started ot with a 6 pt lead and after a frantic play,lma drained a long 3 over a dpoy.
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Aldridge is finesse. You guard him with bulk and move him. Don't physically let him be where he wants to be. Simple really.
Double teaming him is the wrong idea. Because he is finesse he can pass, he is smart and he is hard to steal the ball off. He would do good outlets. I don't even watch him and I can say that with confidence. It's really that simple. You put a big body on him and you accept what he gets. Keep the other 4 players elsewhere. By big body I don't mean Asik, I mean like Chuck Hayes, Boris Diaw. A thick mofo that can still move well.
Im sorry , but Howard was brought here for a reason, let him guard LMA and then Asik. If they cant do that then we deserve to lose the series. For the love of God, keep tjones as far away as possible from LMA, please, no more near 50/20 games
Howard was guarding him, and Asik, and Parsons, and Garcia, and Jones, hell we even tried Harden at one point... it didn't matter, he was lighting everybody up! [youtube]gWoTuAS2uxg[/youtube]
I know McHale wants to shorten the rotation as much as he can but I think throwing D-Mo out there to help give a little more size in certain situations might be worth trying. I mean he's been in the rotation this season for a reason(and that's not his offense surprisingly). For all his faults, when him and Asik played together off the bench they really were a formidable defensive duo on the front court when Dwight/Jones were out. Rather than jumping the gun to go small early and often, why not just go back to the rotation that the Rockets had so much success with during the stretch of games after the new year when everyone was healthy??? IMO i think McHale jumping the gun to go TT and small ball (with SF's and SG's guarding LMA mind you) doesn't speak well of how intimidated he is with this match-up. Have some confidence in what has got you to this point dude, and don't let yourself get out-coached trying to pray for lineups with supposed "variance". You have variance in having the ability to play the talent you have in versatile situations, and the depth you once had when everyone was healthy.
Basket #1 Inside position on Jones, offensive rebound putback. 99% field goal percentage on that shot Basket #2 Ditto Basket #1. Just went right around Jones for the offensive rebound and putback Basket #3 Turnaround fadeaway jumper on Asik (44% shot). Basket #4 Pick and roll finish off DWIGHT! High percentage hoop. Asik playing weakside. This play should have had Asik in the pick-and-roll action because he should be bird-dogging LaMarcus and Dwight should have been waiting underneath. Basket #5 Pick and pop action against Dwight. Dwight fades way off into the paint, Lamarcus wide open for the 18 footer. Jones playing against TRob. TRob went around Jones and had position for the putback if the shot didn't go down. Basket #6 Aldridge posts up Jones and backs him down into the paint for the 4 foot jump hook. Dwight holding Lopez off the glass weakside. Basket #7 Once again Aldridge backs down Jones and throws a 5 foot running hook in over Jones with Asik trying to come help late. Basket #8 Aldridge backs down on Asik with Asik essentially giving him a step, Aldridge spins across the paint with a jump hook. Small ball lineup for Rox. Portland playing LaMarcus and TRob together. Basket #9 Lamarcus with corner jumper off Lillard/Lopez pick and roll action at the top. This was a total mismatch. We had smalls in the game around Dwight. Dwight was caught in no-man's land trying to stay close to the paint, gave up the wide open corner J to LaMarcus. Once again Lopez wide open underneath for the putback as he just walked around Bev/Parsons with his size. Parsons trying to defend Lopez in the pick and roll (dumb). This is why we have to counter Lopez/LaMarcus with Dwight/Asik. Basket #10 Larmarcus posts up and turns and hits a short jumper over .... Garcia. Once again we were playing 4 smalls with Dwight. Dwight having to take Lopez leaving Garcia hung out to dry on LaMarcus (dumb). Basket #11 Same thing as #10 except with Parsons on him. He just grinds Parsons down to the rim, Dwight is having to stick Lopez. Dwight tries to come over and help at the rim. No contenst. Basket #12 Same things as #11 except with Jones. He just grinds Jones into the paint, up fakes and goes underneath for the layin. Once again, Dwight helping late because he's having to hold Lopez off the glass. Basket #13 Lillard beating Parsons (dumb matchup) to the rim, forcing Dwight to help, Lamarcus slices in and dunks it home off the feed. Once again, matchups. Portland has 2 point guards in with Batum, LaMarcus, Matthews. That's a big, 2 pgs, a sg, and a sf. We're playing Dwight, Lin, Jones, Parsons, Harden. Somebody is going to have a mismatch. And it was Lillard at the top (not only dumb, but stupid). Basket #14 Jones again. This time Jones is the 5 and 4 smaller guys out there with him. (we're moving from ridiculous to sublime at this point). LaMarcus just shoves him into the basket. Basket #15 Another putback. Portland dominating offensive boards down low. Dwight in with 4 smalls. Basket #16 Aldridge tries to shoot jumper over Dwight. Dwight blocks it. Ball comes out. Lamarcus chases it down at the 3-point line, heaves it, Dwight with token resistance out there. Shot goes down. Luck ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In Game 1 we did try just about everything. Just about every possible lineup against Portland. Just about everything. Except...... one thing...... We did not try Asik and Howard against LaMarcus and Lopez and we did not designate Asik as Lamarcus' defender. We still haven't tried that one. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/z0IFNcYpKzg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I hope he starts Dmo on him, or Dwight and Asik. As long as we dont see the Dmo, Asik, Casspi, Garci, Canaan lineup (barring garbage time), we should be fine with Dmo on LmA for some mins. Jones should come off the bench this game.
would u guys trade dwight for aldridge? we would have asik, alridge, parsons, harden, beverly pretty big front court
We did if I remember correctly, but it was short lived. LMA was in the zone last game, he scored on Asik twice one on one with good defense from Asik. But yeah, I rather Asik guarding LMA, but one thing to note is that TJones need to step up more on the offense end and make LMA work hard on D. Wear him out, like how they wore out Harden. Same goes to Lillard, Bev/Lin need to keep attacking him. He will get in foul trouble.
