BTW i guess you know how to read so: http://stats.nba.com/featured/sportvu_matchup_data_aldridge_2014_04_24.html#hou-por It's on official NBA website.
He got dumped on 22 pts in 20 min by LMA ... I don't get yall's point. Granted LMA was playing out of his mind, this thread is about how to guard him to slow him down. Clearly, I mean, how is not that obvious Asik single covers LMA is not working. You may argue nobody on this team can single cover LMA, including Dwight. FINE. But don't pull bogus stuff like LMA was 6/14, which was not accurate, to make the point that Asik is doing fine against LMA.
90% of this board? ... sigh ..., no it's actually 90.567% of this board, gee. You must know everybody on this board. Did you not see LMA made 7-8 baskets not 6 as claimed by NBA.com against Asik?
There is no guarding LMA, he is the greatest player in NBA history. He's just been holding back the last 8 years, with his 53 TS%
The pick and roll was on Parson, not Asik. They switched. Parsons let him go. Can't put that on Asik. That's 6 for 14. You can go to the game video and count 8 of LaMarcus' 10 misses was against Asik. 3 fouls were against Asik. That's another 5 points. That's 17 points on 14 shots. That's pretty watered down efficiency. LaMarcus scored 26 points on 14 shots against everybody else. I don't know what your point is here. But if you are not accepting that Asik is the only player on this roster that can defend LaMarcus I don't know what to tell you. Maybe 2 more games of his torching everybody else will prove it. I don't know. LaMarcus is a superstar. You don't stop superstars. You make them less efficient. Asik is the best and really only player we have that can water down LaMarcus' efficiency. When you contrast all the possessions LaMarcus used against Asik with all the possessions he used against Dwight and Jones there's no comparison. Dwight is flat-out bad in pick-and-roll coverage. LaMarcus is great working off the pick because he can roll or flatten out and shoot the J. Dwight is clueless on stopping him. And Jones has NO CHANCE to stop him. Once again....Asik is the only player on this roster that can defend LaMarcus Aldridge.
Is that the 3.32 play you are talking about? Did I not count it? Which else PnR was on Parson not on Asik you verified? You gotta be kidding. BY WATCHING THE GAME, you think Asik can single cover LMA? If LMA is a type of player that can be at best contained 20 points on 14 shots in 20 min, this thread just wasted a lot of Clutch's space.
In today's game, Chris Bosh & Kevin Garnett are probably equipped to slow his outside game down. Duncan in his prime maybe. Hakeem could definitely shut him out as he had the bulk of Duncan & the quicks of KG. On the Rockets roster, D-Mo might be interesting to see. D12 isn't bad either--it's just the risk of foul trouble to consider.
What I said was....Asik is the only player on this roster that can defend Aldridge. Read into that whatever you want. Ideally he needs some help mixed up in there but it can't be blanket doubles. Has to be situational doubles. If you will go back and look at all the video of us playing Portland last year and this year you will discover that Asik more often than not does very good on LaMarcus one-on-one. LaMarcus has been super hot the last 2 games but really it was contrasting games for him. The first game he was 12 for 17 in the paint!!! And he was only 5 for 14 outside the paint. Now this second game he was something like 13 for 20 outside the paint and 5 for 8 inside the paint. Asik did shut down a lot of that paint action and force him into tough jumpers. Unfortunately LaMarcus was red-hot and he nailed several impossible shots out there. But remember the averages. Over the last 4+ seasons LaMarcus averages less than 44% from midrange. So midrange and beyond is where we want him taking the bulk of his shots. He'll come back down to earth at some point out there and have a few dry streaks. But what we can't afford to do is let him go ape ---- hog wild in the paint. The only guy that can minimize the damage he does in the paint is Asik. And the ideal setup defensively is still having Asik take him high with Dwight helping down when Aldridge attempts to drive around Asik. Unfortunately, despite the fact that we saw the TT for substantially more minutes in game 2 than in game 1 we still did not see enough TT out there against LaMarcus and Lopez. McHale still ran Asik out there with Dwight when Portland had TRob in the game and McHale still had Jones out there for too many minutes alongside Dwight such as at the beginning of the game when Dwight was killing Lopez and we were giving it all back on the other end with putbacks and all sorts of wide open looks for Aldridge. 1. The only player on this roster that can defend LaMarcus is Asik. 2. Jones cannot defend either LaMarcus or Lopez. 3. Dwight cannot defend LaMarcus but he's great on Lopez and defending Lopez allows him to roam a bit in the paint and help. 4. The Blazers' defense is totally ignoring Jones unless he dives into the paint. They are laying back and convoluting the paint, leaving Jones wide open outside. He's useless out there. And this is the biggest factor in Harden's lack of production. Watch the video and see it for yourself. oh and The only player on this roster that can defend LaMarcus is Omer Asik.
Ok, I respect quality stuff like this. Thank you. I will say this Asik did all he could on LMA, and some of the shots by LMA were flat out ridiculous. That said ... this is the playoff we are talking about and we just lost two at home. If there is any hope of winning this series, or at least get some respect, we need to at least win a couple of games against the Blazers. I simply do not agree that we should continue Asik on LMA one on one in the next two games and hoping LMA will cool down on his own. That is just ludicrous. But Asik needs help ... and we should put DMo in to see how he works against LMA. The problem with Asik, or rather TT, is also on the offensive end. Having Asik in there with Dwight, oh well, no need to rehash it. Is Asik the best defender on this roster against LMA? Who cares? All I know we need to slow down LMA and Asik alone isn't likely going to work based on previous two games. As I said, I am mad at Jones too, but given this is really his first year ... he is trying at least. I agree LMA getting paint points and putback points is absolutely the worst.
The offensive problem we have with the TT is no different then the offensive problems we are having right now with Jones in there with Dwight. Jones is being completely ignored outside of the paint. Even his own teammates are ignoring. He doesn't want to shoot it. The Rockets don't want him to shoot it. None of us want him to shoot it. But Portland is begging him to shoot it. Might as well run Asik in there and control the boards and have better defense. And if we aren't going to do that then we need to go small with 4 legit shooters spreading the floor.
Everyone can be guarded. Do you remember Ryan Bowen? Who in the wild dream will put him on Dirk? Remember Chuck Hayes? Shorter than most 3 but plays super defense. Defense is about hassle. Make the opponent do what he does not like to do. Use D-Mo and deny the pass to LMA. Once he had the ball, guard one side and make him drive the baseline with our big waiting. Sure someone else from Portland will score, but you don't want to give LMA 40+ any more. I would play Lin more. Lilard may score more but it will make LMA shoot less. Plus Lin has offense too which evens things out. Defense is designed. Offense needs creativity. Design traps for LMA. Once he misses a few, his game will be very different. Others will score. OK, who's going to have the consistency LMA had? Right now just make changes. Howard and Asik do not hassle thus can not play defense on a great player. Why Beverly can take people out of their sync? He hassles. McHale is not a good coach. In the interview during the game he said we could not send double team fast enough because LMA shot fast. You cannot double team by reaction. When the throw-in setup is initiated, double team. If Rockets play the ball they play all season long, they can still win this series. Just don't play through Howard. He cannot pass and his condition is not good enough to throw dunks for extended period. He settles to baby hook very fast and does not make a lot of those. Others will stand watching. Use Howard for rebound. Whoever guards LMA needs to deny the pass and make him drive without fouling. Let the bigs to commit some hard foul. LMA is actually pretty soft. Man I miss Chuck Hayes so much.
Dude is a jones hater extreme. Lma was dropping jumpers in asik face and drawing fouls. That dude make stuff up. I'm almost certain if asik was having so much success mchale leave him in more. Jones hardly guarded lma last game and he dropped 43. Asik played half the game too.
