I'm not sure what the Rockets need to do about Aldridge. Maybe nothing too drastic, but maybe just close in on him quicker. Is he really going to score that many points again? How many of those point were off of Blazers offensive rebounding? I did mention in another thread that Dmo would help Howard/Asik on the defensive boards because of his length. We can't allow Portland to get those offensive put backs.
I think we should use up DMo's six fouls on LMA. DMo should just grab onto his ankles and hang on until he fouls out which will be about mid way through the first quarter. I am still working on plan B.
Here are a few ways to guard lma. 1. When lma gets the ball in the post, give him a "soft" double team, make him pick up his dribble and pass it out to the perimeter. 2. Sag off robin Lopez. Help out on lma in the post. I can live with Lopez taking the mid range jumper. 3. Front Aldridge in the post. Make him work hard to get the ball in the post. 4. At the end of the day, make someone else take the shot, other than Aldridge. If we can do this, rockets will have a good chance to win.
LaMarcus will score 40 again if we try to defend him by running Jones out there for 36 minutes in combination with Parsons and Garcia also taking turns not being able to stop him and we don't have Asik defend him for substantial minutes. He may actually hit 50 the second time however. LaMarcus will only score 40 with Asik defeding him for substantial minutes by taking up a huge volume of possessions which will detract from Portland's offensive efficiency enough for us to run away with the game. And most likely if Asik is run out there on LaMarcus...he'll throw up about 15-25 on a high volume of possessions and a relatively paltry shooting percentage.
2. IF you sag off Lopez, Lopez goes to the rim for the rebound putback. Lopez is very seldom gonna hang around 12 feet and shoot a brick jumper. 3. We don't have the right combo to front Aldridge. He'll leak low and finish the oop. 4. Like I said, Aldridge is 42-44% outside the paint. Let him shoot all those shots he wants to shoot.
So... let me see. What did we see tonight. Asik on LMA. Ok, that was a nice adjustment. Unfortunately LMA was white hot and was hitting his shots after that. Ball denial? Nope. Double teaming? Nope. Pushing him out to 20 feet? Nope. Space adjustment to threaten inbound passes and double teams? Nope. I'm shocked that LMA lit us up again... shocked! I miss Sampson.
'ouuft, tough shot lma.' 'wow nice stepback.... tough shot though' 'I mean that was a great contest from Asik, right?' 'fkn can't even breath on this guy' 'are we going to double?' 'don't worry he'll cool off' 'okay he'll miss the next one' "WHY THE FK IS HE WIDE OPEN?!?!" 'WE'RE TRYING TO DOUBLE BUT HE SHOOT TOO FAST' - McHale
You obviously double team him, but our coach is the only dude on the planet that thinks you shouldn't...
Its hard to double when he's catching a shooting. Any space and he's knocking shots down. Again, you can't give up 18 and 15 to mo williams and dorrell wright and expect to win.
LMA is fresh in the 4th quarter because he doesn't have to defend much against Asik. Why not put in a 7-footer like D-Mo that play offense and move his feet quick enough to stay in front of him?
We need to play D-mo for the mere reason that we're shorting ourselves by not. I think with 3 seven foot defenders rotating through him, it will be tougher for him. Also Jones is too small and nobody is boxing out LA on the rebounds when Asik isn't in with Howard. And we need to throw a double every now and again so he doesn't get hot like that too.
its funny how mchale didn't even try to double team this guy just to see if it double teaming on him works. just letting this guy work on single coverage is just pathetic. even stots doubled dwight howard a couple this past two games
i was wathcing first take and even screamin a smith pointed it out. mchale should know better how to defend aldridge since he is the best power forward back in the day when he was playing with the celtics. he should know what defense works against aldridge for that reason.
When a guy is hitting fade away 18 footers over the out-stretched hands of 7 footers in his face..... There is no guarding him. LMA shot the ball like Hakeem. Heck it might even have been better. Point is, no one can guard him right now. No one.
In the past 2 games has LMA really needed to play much of any defense? Maybe, just maybe, putting him in some PnR and having him play defense could slow down his offense. It seemed to work against Harden. And then there is this SportUV thing that said LMA is a poor PnR defender. Too bad our offense doesn't seem to like to do much of any PnR. There is also the problem of who would be the picker. Coach need to figure out that, but maybe DMO is worth a try.
