Now that the Fakers have made their adjustments, replacing Bynum, who Yao dominates, with the quicker Odom and fronting Yao with Gasol instead of playing behind him, we need to make our own adjustments to stay ahead of the Fakers in the series. I do not believe we can beat the Fakers without making any further adjustments. We have seen enough of our offense with a fronted Yao to know we will not score enough points to beat the Fakers. We have seen enough of Yao defending Gasol to know we cannot keep them from scoring enough points for us to win. Below are my analysis/suggestions: 1. Get Gasol or Odom out of the game to get Bynum back in so we can utilize our best player more effectively. Gasol knows he is not a great paint defender so he shies away from contact to avoid picking up quick fouls. So we need plays to get penetration AT Gasol, from his side. Pick and rolls with Gasol's man (Yao most of the time) is one good option. Yao can pop from outside, roll to the basket or the ballhandler can take it at Gasol to try to draw a foul or get an easy bucket because Gasol doesn't commit to contesting shots. Even if we turn the ball over a couple of times but we get Gasol in foul trouble we will have lost the battle but won the war. Then Bynum will have to check in and we will have the advantage for the rest of the game. 2. Hack-a-Odom. Odom has been a horrible free throw shooter in this series. He shot 62% from the line in the regular season. We need to exploit this to get him out of the game. When the we are in the penalty and Odom (some fans call him Lamar Doom and I like that nickname so I'll call him that from now on) is on the floor we need to Hack-a-Doom. That's one way to stop the Lakers vaunted attack. No more fast break points. No more Kobe. 3. We absolutely have to simplify our offense. Too much thinking on offense, especially since it's not the strong suit of two of our starters, caused us to repeatedly turn the ball(game) over. The reason we gave up 111 points is not because of our defense, but our offense. Turnovers=fast break points for the other team. Our half court defense was fine; but we were constantly in transition defense and with Yao's slowness we will always be deficient in that area. If we don't turn the ball over, we play a half court game and pace and Fakers cannot run. I guarantee if for the rest of this series the pace goes back down we win the series. In conclusion, we absolutely cannot afford to not make adjustments. If both teams go in with the same game plan for upcoming games we won't win the series. Phil Jackson has made masterful adjustments after Game 1 and now it's our turn to dominate at home.
The key adjustment is to start Hayes to counter the Pao/Odom 5/4 combination. We want Hayes taking Odom and that leaves Artest on Ariza, where he can help off on Kobe and him and Hayes can switch on Ariza and Odom. The Yao/Scola combo is not going to work against Pao/Odom. If LA goes back to Bynum/Pao, then we can go with Yao/Scola to counter. But as long as they are going to run with Pao at the 5 and Odom at the 4, we've got to downsize and get more quickness out there. That leaves Scola and Landry coming off the bench, a pretty potent twosome to go with Lowry and Wafer. DEAR RICK: PLEASE PLAY HAYES IN COMBINATION WITH ONE OF YAO OR SCOLA WHEN LA IS PLAYING PAO AND ODOM TOGETHER!
1. Issue an Amber Alert on Aaron Brooks. Where did he disappear to tonight? I understand the Lakers made a more concerted effort to contain him after he wrecked their defense in Game 1, but come on. Aaron's played against long and tall players before. He should be able to compensate for that. He can't stop attacking. That's what creates opportunities for Yao and Scola. 2. Establish Yao or exploit the mismatch. We did this effectively against Portland. I don't know why we sucked so bad tonight. Was it just that Scola missed the shots tonight that he was making against the Trailblazers? We need to fix this fast. 3. Free throw lessons for Carl Landry. He used to have such great touch shooting the ball and he was a solid free throw shooter. Tonight it seemed like he was a consistent 50%. He might get hacked more often the next game if he's on. Problem is that he's not the star that Odom is so he won't get as many calls.
1. Turn the ball over less. Cripes, 19? Really? After 16 the game before? PROTECT THE BALL. 2. Yao picking up fewer silly fouls. 3. Yao positioning himself like he did in games 4 and 6 of the Portland series. He's back to how he was in game 2. 4. More Chuck, less Wafer. Most of you probably will disagree with this point, but his +/- is off the charts for this series so far. He has been a game changer and Von isn't playing so well (and having personal issues).
Wafer can't handle the annoying pest of Vujafag..he has gotten under his skin and there's nothing he can do about it.
We CANNOT lose the rebound battle AND getting kill on fast break. Is it just me or do the LA players reach in, A LOT? It seems like they snap everything and only get call 10% of time.
Composure. Don't get emotional and stick to the game plan. It's just 1-1 and we are in good shape. We just need to take care of our business on the home court.
I'll start with make Gasol play defense. Frankly, that's all there to it, oh, and the fast break thing.
Where is wafer? I cant see him in the 4th quarter. Whats wrong with him? injured? Everyone knows that Wafer=energy. We need him! Where is him????
turnovers was the most glaring thing of the aforementioned changes needed. it really killed our momentum and gave them easy points.
Move the ball when Yao is fronted ... Scola should have an elbow distance jump shot everytime. Very disappointed with the ball movement today ... AB, Lowry, and Artest need to stop trying to make something happen on the strong side of the court. They also need to stop shooting 3s so early in the shot clock w/o running the offense ... yes I am looking at you AB. Control the tempo better. No more stupid fouls Yao. Also be more assertive in the box than you were tonight.
Pay attention....he was escorted out by the President of Basketball Operations for the Rockets because he was mouthing off the Adelman, DM followed. Apparently our hero Von Hawk has some serious personal issues....WHO THE HELL GETS TOSSED OUT OF A PLAYOFF GAME BY HIS OWN COACHING STAFF?
what happens if all the players on a team commits a really hard foul, lets say a flagrant 2? would they all be ejected? or continue playing? hows that for adjustments and strategy??
ab has low ball iq.sometimes,yao pass out the ball and finally got good position,brooks never repass to him,just shoot 3's.if his 3's in,he is ok.if he can't score,he is useless.like this game,he takes our most shoot 15 times,only make 5,and with 2 ast.we damn need upgrade our pg next season.
Again, what the hell is up with the substitutions? Scola and Yao were basically out there giving next to nothing offensively and getting killed defensively. Hayes and Landry come in and Hayes turns into a one man zone completely killing the Lakers offense while Landry is just sucking up offensive rebounds and putting them in. What does Rick do? Goes back to Yao and Scola so they can take that Rocket tie (that Landry and Hayes got them) and turn it back into a 12 point deficit before he thinks about maybe putting the guys who are playing well back in. The "Hayes has no offense" excuse means zilch when the guys on the court have no offense either and are getting killed defensively.
