They will all start making reservations in Cabo,Cancun, or where ever they go to when their season is over! They know the Rockets have turned the corner and there is nothing they can do to stop the inevitable butt whooping that is coming their way! We haven't even played our best games yet!!.. GO ROCKETS!!! ....... ....... .......
A jump shooting team is what they are. They are going to miss open shots, that's how jump shots work. And personally I thought the Rockets could have done a much better job countering smallball. I thought Lopez punished us much more than having Batum or Wright be their PF and Aldridge their center. So what if Mo freakin Williams went off on us? We had variations of Lin and Daniels on him. We can do a better job than that. Mo won't have a better game this series. I think these Rockets have gotten a feel for how to react to the whistles. If the game is being called loose like the first two games then you can't just let Aldridge maintain his Halo. When he's on defense you gotta go straight at him too. The refs still feel guilty for how game 1 went. Now they are calling fouls on Aldridge. His fatigue definitely affected his shot in the 4th quarter and OT. If the game is called tight, then penetrate nonstop. Harden has shaken off his jitters. Dwight has shaken off his jitters. Parsons and Lin are the last ones, but there were glimpses last night. We NEED to maintain that killer instinct. We cannot forget the indignation we felt in games 1 and 2. Mo Williams flagrant fouling Beverley. Aldridge knocking knees with Beverley on the moving pick, then Lillard exploiting his injury to win the game. Freeland and Lopez bear hugging Dwight. Aldridge putting his tricep into Lin's face on the block attempt. Wes Matthews grabbing and holding nonstop. And b****ing, my god the b****ing. I think this years Blazers are the whiniest team in the playoffs. We won't forget.
this is an excellent post. i would think stotts moves away from the smallball lineup and plays lopez a lot more minutes in game 4. he completely changes their defensive sets by shutting down the paint, and on offense his shooting and rebounding are keeping our defense honest.
if i were portland, i would go back to attacking harden on offense every play. they got away from it last night, but its the best way to: 1) get points, and 2) tire harden out so he has another crappy game. i would also go back to running LMA off of pin downs so he can get open for Ft line jump shots like in games 1 and 2. TT defense can't guard that. they aren't quick enough to keep up with LMA on the move. game 3 was all post ups or spot up shooting for him, which helped us and the TT's.
I don't give a damn what they do, as long if Harden goes off for 35 points or more, game over for Portland.
Nothing. The rockets and blazers are just evenly matched teams. It just come down to executing at the end.
Offensively go at our two weaknesses; James Harden and defending the screen and roll. You can milk this all day.
They would now send a defender to check Daniels. But that would only give more space for Harden and Lin. I think Parsons will also have a bounceback game. But pls can we give Daniels more sets and looks?
Poor Portland. beaten by a rookie unknown. In order to beat us, LMA had to go beasting. I think their morale is shot that they will just lay down and die. (I wish)
Our small-ball lineup did not play well against theirs? There were times during the game last night that we were playing Beverley, Lin, Daniels, Harden and Howard. That is 4 guards and a Center. True, I think that lineup got outscored more than it didn't, but it was also the lineup that came up the crazy game-winning shot for us. GO ROCKETS!
Did you notice everytime that Lillard saw that Harden got stuck defending him, he immediately drove to the basket for a layup. Every time. It was at the point where if I saw Harden was on Lillard, I would think we would get lucky if he only scored 2 points instead of getting an and-1.
I don't know what Portland is going to do, but I know one thing for sure... Houston needs to completely change their philosophy on defending the PnR. Watching LMA's defender hedge the screen and leave LMA wide open every time is the stupidest thing ever. The person playing the ball needs to overplay the screen and force the ball-handler to go away from it. That allows LMA's man to help if they drive to the basket and recover if they pass it to Aldridge. Hedging the screen isn't working at all.
Portland kept Lopez on the bench, and got away with guarding Dwight with LMA for nearly all the 4th quarter and OT. They've gotten away with that in brief stretches... but them going small was a direct counter to keep Asik off the bench. Despite the knock the TT get around here, they do vastly improve this team's patchy perimeter defense by clogging up the lanes... and before the 4th quarter, Portland had a tough time getting any points in the paint. If they decide to keep going small, time will be to start having Dwight force LMA to expel more energy on defense, and possibly get him into foul trouble. While LMA is long, his only defensive move is to swipe DOWN at Dwight when he's going up for a shot... a lot of refs automatically call that a foul (and they clearly missed an obvious "slap" of the hands last night). I actually think they're more effective, defensively with Lopez/LMA on the court... but if they feel they can get more scoring opportunities going small, while attempting to hold their own on defense with LMA on DH12 for an extended time, then that SHOULD work out for the Rockets (either with more DH12 scoring opportunities, or more fouls on LMA, or more energy used up by LMA).
Hedging the screen works when the rotations are done correctly. It isn't their "plan" to leave LMA wide open... somebody is supposed to rotate to him and force him to make a pass. Also, LMA (while a great shooter) seems to be more automatic when he's shooting his fadeaway from the high post... his pick/pop shot was only going in when he was totally wide open (and even then, he rushed a few up that missed last night).
add covington the lineup too....TD and Cov along with howard being doubled teamed should leave one of the 2 guys open for 3s
They will take Daniels into the post and force him to defend...possibly Mo Williams. On defense they will have someone stick to Daniels. I'm focusing on Daniels because he was the biggest change in game 3. Don't get me wrong...I'm not saying he was a difference maker I'm just saying they will be prepared for him next game. I don't think much else changes. If I was them I would have put Lopez back in the game. They do well with him in the middle.
for the love of god and all things that are holy on defense they need to stop trapping/flashing howard and asik at top of key 3 point line. All it does is negate TT, gets howard or asik out of position, and creates pretty much another pick for the guy with the ball. if you are portland and you see this you immediately have a wide open lane with no big man to guard interior. gets lopez more involved. STAY HOME. I have never see that trapping create one single turnover or disruption in my life especially since howard and asik do it but go through the motions. It's the most annoying thing ever and basically helps the other team. Separate of that when double teaming aldridge it needs to be immediate and with a small player. Again we need TT staying in paint and negating the garbage that is lopez. Lopez is having way too much impact simply because our strength of TT can's stay home. I am okay with asik out of aldridge too but even more of a reason to have howard stay home and box out the neanderthal that is lopez. Wouldnt mind some zone here and there to disrupt aldridge. Wouldnt mind some minutes for garcia on batum. possibly give parsons a little less minutes. When playing small ball if possible sit TT and have jones at center. He is not an outside player. Pnr howard/harden to death all day. keep trashpi, hamilton, dmo sitting. get ball out of lillard hands don't let the guy dribble all over town. That is getting old too. watch for the flop on batum, and williams. I think bev his hurting more than he lets on and we need to bring his minutes down. I am not a LOF but lin should be getting slightly more minutes and bev slightly less due to bev being hurt.
Hmmmmmm. Taking Daniels down low. Hmmmmmm. That one rings a bell. If I were Stotts I'd definitely work on that.
