Here's a relatively simple rebounding chart I made up comparing the first 4 games of the playoffs to the regular season rebounding percentages for the players that have played so far. The bottom line is we have to rebound better and the guys that are playing the most minutes have the most effect on the rebounding percentages for the team. By the way, Bev's rebounding percentages for the regular season were 4.3/10.8/7.6. So you are right, we are missing his rebounding. Look at the numbers of JET and Pablo. But it also appears to me that Ariza, Harden, Smith, and Brewer are the main 4 guys that need to pick it up right now. Dwight is dominating both ends of the glass. Terrence is giving us about the same production on the glass as he gave us in the regular season. Last night's game killed these numbers. We looked pretty good up until then. Dallas choked out Dwight last night and nobody picked up the slack. Dwight's numbers were way down and everybody else's were basically the same. Which basically means somebody else has to step up here. You can't expect Dwight to drop 20%, 30%, 50% rebounding percentages every game to win. Dwight has to got to be at the top of his game. But even then we've got to have the other guys (Smith, Jones, Brewer, Ariza, Harden) step up and get more physical on the glass. Remember, this is Dallas in the first round of the playoffs. Dallas was 29th out of 30 teams in rebounding differential during the regular season. And they're playing without Rondo, Parsons, Brandon Wright, etc. now. Memphis was 15th out of 30 teams in rebounding differential during the regular season. And then after Memphis, GS, SAS, and LAC were 21st, 13th, and 22nd respectively in rebounding differential. We were 16th during the regular season, coming in right behind Memphis. So, we're headed to a second round series against Memphis down a couple key players in DMo, and Bev. And while DMo isn't a great rebounder he was a big body that could occupy space and opponent rebounders with his size. Bottom line: The guys around Dwight are going to have to get more physical and aggressive. Can't drop the whole rebounding load on him every game and expect to win a championship.
I personally think we're making a mountain out of a mole hill. Dallas didn't wanna go out be swept. We close this out game 4. We gotta remember that Dallas got winners on their team with NBA Rings regardless so we played about as bad as we could and only lost by a dozen. The ball will bounce the right way on our home court just like it did for Dallas in Game 3
We are when it comes to Dallas. But we gotta take them out tomorrow night. Or we're in trouble. And tracking the trends, rebounding is critical. We're barely beating Dallas and they're a relatively poor rebounding team. It's only going to get harder against Memphis.
The playoffs is a battle of adjustments. They couldn't adjust till game 4. We stay home on the rebounds and we will win the boards - we are way more physical team and will be able to manhandle these guys on the boards. They got too many long rebounds because we were playing transition ball. We need to mix it up tomorrow and close it out and watch the battle between Spurs and Clips.
