Wow, totally frustrated with the coaching staff decision of not putting a longer and better defender on the PG when EVERY TEAM, runs the PnR against Yao and AB. Also, the inability to get to rebound. I would love to hear Adelman's strategy on guarding the PnR role against the top PG's late in the game. How many times did we see Nash shooting wide open jumpers late in the game with Yao squarely planted in the paint. The other interesting thing is that LA uses Ariza (i.e, Battier) to play against the DWill's, CP3's, Tony P, Chauncey B, and Nash's to throw them off their PnR game and do something different. I'd rather have Phoenix trying to post up Dudley in the post against AB, where Yao and Scola are closer to defend than Steve (2 time MVP) Nash or whatever very good PG shooting wide open 3's. We also missed the Tooth tremendously, we would have abused Barnes in the low post. Scola looked terrible tonight, he gets a hall pass.
I saw the Suns do something interesting to defend our Pick N Roll. Right before the Pick, Shaq and Barnes switched, so that allowed the quicker Barnes to guard Brooks and Shaq guards Scola and doesn't have to worry about defending the pick and roll.
Battier and Artest are too slow. Ariza can stay in front of the Parkers, Pauls, and Brooks of the league. Interestingly the Lakers D-League team (also owned by the Lakers) have signed Mickael Gelabale another player around 6-7 (Ariza's 6-8) with a long wingspan and recognised defensive skills. He can also play spot minutes at PG. Perhaps the Lakers aren't re-signing Ariza due to luxury tax?
The pick and roll wasn't what killed us. It was just random defensive mistakes. Like... not getting back on transition D, not rotating to help on some players. And then on the offensive end, I don't know what happened in the 4th but we suddenly just went cold.
Not down the stretch when games are won. The Suns ran strictly PnR with Nash hitting a 3 and a couple of 2's. The same thing everyone else runs with Yao standing in the paint. I like the thought of Scola rotating to Shaq, however, he was too slow or out of position. BTW, we got killed on the boards, it looks like we left our rebounding in Houston.
Alot of things killed us last night. But if you go read what the players and coaches said about the game then you will know what they saw as participants last night which hurt the teams chances of winning. The rockets didn't EXECUTE their game plan PERIOD POINT BLANK. Yao talked about how we didn't EXECUTE. He said they drew up plays in the huddle and came out of the timeout and didn't even run the play. The same thing rafer complained about when he was here and instead like Yao said they come out of the timoutes don't run the play and go ONE ON ONE. This all ron artest. You see the confusion as soon as they come out of the huddle. Ron hijacks the play every time and we wind up getting nothing out of the posession.He doesn't run the game plan and instead like Yao said you get a botched play and we end up with a desperation pick and roll with 3 guys lost on the weak side who don't know what is going on. YAO MING:“When we are not executing the play, we start playing individually,” said Yao, who finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds. “It’s just one-on-one or maybe pick-and-roll and the rest of the three guys on the weakside don’t know where we’re going. We were not organized well offensively and that will cause a lot of problems (if it’s not fixed) in the playoffs.” “I think the last six minutes we didn’t execute well We had a couple turnovers that lead to them getting too many opportunities to get fastbreak points. You can say that is we’re not executing well. Coach called the play and we didn’t do it. When we are not executing the play, we start playing individually – just one-on-one or maybe pick-and-roll and the rest of the three guys on the weakside don’t know where we’re going. We were not organized well offensively and that will cause a lot of problems in the playoffs. RICK ADELMAN:It is hard, but I didn’t think we did a good job when we brought Yao back. We did not do a good job of getting him the ball and understanding that that’s where the ball’s got to go to stop their run. We continued to take tough shots and we have to find a way to get better in that area. but in the fourth quarter we shot ourselves in the foot offensively Ron totally screws up our execution in late game situations, He along with aaron brooks.
I feel like Adelman is always a step late with his adjustments. Whether its making a substitution to stop the bleeding, or just taking a timeout to kill momentum. Hes always late. Hes too damn relaxed. Suns are on a 13-0 run and he's like what the hell, I guess ill let them play.
In the 4th, it wasn't all adelman. If you remember yao was not asserting himself offensively. I know you guys heard Barry and Jackson joking about it in the 4th. He wasnt taking position and just basically standing there (sounds familiar?). And the two instances that he got the ball late, one he reposted and never got the ball back because he couldnt establish position, and then he shot that 19 footer that he missed. And dont 4get about the two blocked shot attempts before that. It wasnt all about the gameplan. Thats when your star just has to take over and DEMAND the ball at all costs and outwork his man. There were no double teams! Yes, the guards do have some accountability in the meltdown, but thats when the big time players need to step up.
It wasn't offense, we gave up 114 points mostly on layups with team shooting 50 plus percent. Check the Suns stats against JVG's teams. It wasn't the offense, 109 points could have beaten the Suns. Give me a break, we also got little out of Scola on the blocks against an undersized Barnes. He should have lit Barnes up.
True indeed, but you know that you will not stop the suns. Maybe not even slow them down.They average 108ppg. They also have a pg that is great at dictating the tempo. I do agree about the scola factor. But remember where scola gets most of his pts.... from the open spots or hustle plays. We had the game won. We lost our heads offensively. We went over 4 min without a basket in the 4th. Yes, we did have some def. breakdowns in the 4th, but not like we did on the off. end. We got stops. We just didnt execute offensively late in the 4th.
How the heck did we stop them in the 3rd quarter?? Our 2nd half defense was pretty good. We only gave up 47 points for the half. Scored 53. Trouble is we dug ourselves too deep a hole. You aren't going to hold the Suns down in the 80s or 90s very often(if at all). All that being said, execution down the stretch cost the team, not only on offense, but defense as well.
I think our defense worked out best. Yao has to stay back so that Nash doesn't just drive past him... plus it means he can rotate to Shaq if Nash passes it to him. If you have Yao come out on the pick... Nash is just going to drive around Yao. And we got the best possible scenerio. If you force Nash to stop and take a jumper under pressure, thats what you want. You don't want Shaq to have a mismatch in the post or a free dunk if we double Nash, and you don't want to switch and leave Nash 1 on 1 with Yao.
Once again, RA goes back to his unathletic front court of Battier, Yao, and Scola, these dudes couldn't jump over a credit card and teams are outworking us. Does the Tooth mean that much to us.
RA isn't the coach who can bring a champion for the NBA team.At least he will not finish it before PhilJackson retired.
