Ah yes.... the player's stats who is inflated by garbage time...... So these are the consistent type of posts that earn you a Yao Ming status on rep.... How CF has went downhill....
problem is that harden doesn't know how to dish off when he attacks the rim. he either gets a turnover when he does pass off or gets called for a charge. he has trouble dishing off in traffic.
Win game 4 and the complexion of the series changes greatly. This is playoff basketball, you are dealing with a small sample size and things can change. The Spurs had the Clippers facing elimination going into game 6 in San Antonio. The Grizzlies down over a dozen less games than the Warriors, yet they have spanked the Warriors in back to back games and have stolen home court. The Warriors are in the same spot the Rockets are (if Harden is getting criticized then Curry sure as hell better as well after crawling into a fetal position & Draymond Green admitted the Warriors didn't prepare for Conley, and assumed he wouldn't play... Great coaching). Just wait until after game 4 for the sky is falling. The Rockets may lose, I don't know... But I do know losing 2-1 in a best of 7 isn't THAT bad...
Harden needs to shoot more. Get yourself going first and then get your teammates involved. There's no reason he should be shooting less than 25 shots per game. When all else fails which it has in the losses just go Kobe style and shoot everything. I can live with losing if it meant Harden failed by missing shots but it's a hard pill to swallow when he doesn't shoot enough and it's not like he's crashing the boards offensively. Speaking of which he and everyone else needs to create second chance opportunities by hitting the offensive boards. Can't make a shot if you don't shoot it.
Yep. The only game we won had to do with DJ being in foul trouble and late in the game we started to hack him and forced Doc to take him out. His him protection stops Harden and thus stops our defense that is so dependent on Harden. This is where we REALLY miss Dmo. Had we had Dmo then we could play rosters of Dmo with Jones/Smith to really spread the floor and get him out of the paint. Going small and spreading the floor and getting him away from the rim to give Harden clear lanes is what we should really be doing.
I'd say Harden should sacrifice and act as a decoy for the offense. So he is being doubled, he should post up or do his side pnr with Dwight like he used to do vs POR. Or even off ball, he should be moving around the court. I'm sure defense will be shifting depending on where he is. That can lead to openings for his teammates. Right now, he's just standing on the perimeter and we are not able to get their defense moving.
Ariza isn't strong enough to guard Blake. He'd have the same problem Jones or Smith has x2. Their front court is way too much for us to handle on both ends of the court. That's why we have to get DeAndre out of the game. They've tried everything against him and it has not worked. Our only success against the clippers comes with him out of the game. To me, we have to not just attack the rim which has be problematic. We have to attack Jordan. And that starts with Harden. Harden is the NBA's number one drawer at fouls. He must attack Jordan and get Jordan to foul him. That is our only chance. Harden can't be afraid of his blocks. Instead of going away from Jordan and trying to shoot over him, Harden has to make contact with him on his drives. Jordan is a disciplined defender. It will not be easy. but we dont have many other options. Attack attack attack. That's what Harden has to do. Attack and not be afraid of Jordan. Either Jordan dominates us that way, or he dominates us by changing our offense so much we lose anyway.
How to win the next game and perhaps the series. Agree. Try to get Jordan in foul trouble. We are just the team to do that. Harden driving and with Dwight's quickness around the rim should do it. If not foul trouble hack a Jordan. Also maybe try KJ McDaniel if healthy on Rivers or Reddick. In reality we probably win or lose as usual if our streaky three point shooters hit and the Clippers win if their better three point shooters stay hot.
For me its play better D on the perimeter guys, they are killing us. Make the clippers big guys beat us instead. I would rather see Blake go off and get his while we pay more attention to the perimeter guys like Crawford, Reddick, Rivers, Barnes, CP3.
Agree, but your not going to stop CP3, you have to make sure none of the secondary players has a big night or rockets won't win. DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE.
We won't be able to foul him out, he's too good for that. Chances are slim, but nothing else seems to work so why not try. What we can do is make him defend plays where he has to do more than just stand around and wait. We need more Dwight pick n rolls, a lot more. Brewer, Harden, Smith need to attack with conviction. They get too disheartened when their shots get blocked. They need to keep going at him relentlessly too. I think if we try both these things, we'll have a better chance. However, I think we're playing against this year's NBA champions now that Paul is back and we are not the most talented team in the league, nor the best coached. Both our superstars are performing as well as 99% of other superstars in the playoffs. We're just not good enough to be without D-Mo and Beverley and be coached by McHale - who is a great motivator, but come playoff time that becomes less valuable than X's and O's.
We have no clue how to defend the PnR. Griffin and Jordan getting wide open dunks opens up the outside shooters. When Reddick and Crawford get into rhythm, it's a lost cause no matter what we do on the offensive end. McHale made good adjustment on defending Griffin getting the ball. He has yet figured out how to stop the PnR. Our team defense is atrocious in general.
It's rather easy to defend one player when the rest of the players aren't hitting their open shots or capable of creating for themselves. Clips can pack the paint since we don't have any 3-point shooters that scare them or any other team. I'd hack Jordan all game long. We have bodies in Pap, Dorsey, and Johnson to pick up fouls. Jordan has been the most important player and his presence is killing us. Howard hasn't been able to do much against him offensively (don't tell me Howard is scoring x because a lot of his points are from alley-oops). If Howard can have a good offensive game from the post or the perimeter players hit their open 3's, then we have a good chance.
Maybe the solution is from past playoff series: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...clippers-deandre-jordan-away-from-the-basket/ Seems that Golden State had the same problem we did, and what they did is use Jordan's man to set the pick to free up the driver. Seems that we need a scheme using Howard on the PnR starting much highers, and if Jordan stays back and they use another player to trap Harden around the pick, it should open some one up for a trey. Or take howard out and use Jones who can hit a 16 foot jump shot. This is where our lack of mid range shooters could be hurting us the most.
The refs are shutting down Harden. Last game he drove like, 4 times in the 1st Quarter and got hacked/blocked every time and they swallowed their whistles.
We need to attack the basket and look to make interior passes. Jordan is a natural rim protector and he will challenge everything at the rim. Turn his aggressiveness into liability. The drop off pass to a big man is there almost every time. Just like we get killed whenever Dwight goes to challenge a shot and nobody covers him, see if the Clips have the discipline to rotate under the basket. My guess initial guess is no, although I consider Doc a good enough coach to get his team to make that adjustment if necessary. Even still, Blake for all his athleticism is a terrible rim protector I have full confidence Dwight/Josh/TJ/Capela can finish over him or whoever else might rotate to cover our bigs when DJ challenges a drive. Also we need to run the 4/5 pick and roll to get Dwight post opportunities against the smaller Blake. Dwight has looked pretty good in the post making quick moves and going up strong. This could be a huge opportunity to slow the game down a bit. Even if Dwight misses, those short rebounds won't super-charge the Clippers transition offense in the same way that misses from deep will. As far as Harden is concerned, he has to play through the no calls, and the misses. He can't lose focus and let his effort wane on defense just because he is struggling offensively. I want to see him go to the rim EVERY single time with the intent to make a drop off pass to a big, lay it in, or reset by doing the "midget dribble" Nash/Parker/Barea use when there isn't anything available. Teams who scout us know the "bailout" is the blind pass to the weak-side corner three and they tend to sit on it. As far as his ISO's are concerned I will give credit to Redick for not going for any of Harden's fakes and playing him tough. We need to run the 1/2 pick and roll to get a switch up top and see if Harden will have any luck against a gimpy CP3. Also, we can't play TJ and Josh together anymore. Neither of them are giving us the rebounding or rim-protection we need against the Clips. They are killing us at the rim. Josh and TJ are good "secondary" rim protectors a la Aminu but they can't anchor a defense or deter guys from penetrating. They get weak side blocks when the driver is worried about somebody else. If you are driving against us you are aware of Dwight's presence but you might not notice TJ/Josh coming from the weak side. Guys driving against TJ/Josh straight up can make the adjustment to finish either over or around them. One of Dwight or Capela needs to be out there every minute. Our PFs are too small and their athletic gifts are negated by DJ's own superior athleticism. As far as our perimeter D is concerned, we need to run like hell to get back EVERY SINGLE TIME WE SHOOT REGARDLESS OF WETHER WE THINK ITS A MAKE/MISS. Harden, Ariza, Brewer, Josh are all guilty of this. Worse yet, they aren't even crashing the boards like Beverly used to. They are literally just standing there ball watching. Terry/Prigs have often been the only man back against 2 on 1 Clipper breaks. One thing I hate about the way we play defense is we don't funnel everyone into Dwight the way San Antonio or Indiana do with Duncan/Hibbert. We gamble and go for steals leaving us exposed. Although I don't personally agree with switching a small guy onto Blake on all pick and rolls I understand not wanting him to get free for dunks. If we are going to put a small guy on him like Ariza or Harden they need to be told to overplay him toward his left hand so when he spins back like he always does Dwight is there waiting for him. Talent wise the Clippers are about even with us, heck their top 5 guys probably are even slightly better than ours BUT the real difference is that their top guys each have a specific role and they stick to it. Redick will NEVER iso, DJ will NEVER post up, Barnes only hides on the weak side. We need the same type of structure on offense to have a chance. I'm all for shooting three's and getting layups but when Trevor launches a three because his man went under a screen with 20 seconds still on the clock thats not a good shot. Thats intentional. Nobody on our team should have permission to shoot off the dribble other than Harden. TDLR: Go Rockets!
