As Feigan's game story says, the Rockets offense stagnated when the Kings went into a zone. I've seen them struggle with zones previously, too. Is it a matter of lack of familiarlity with a zone offense or not having the correct personnel? Novak was great in the last possession, but I thought he was rather usless in the 5-6 minutes before that. Given the Rockets personnell, they may hav ebeen better served to go with a rebounder to exploit the difficulty for a team in a zone to block out. Novak's range did not prevenet the offense from stagnating until the very last possession..
I agree, we needed a rebounder in there. Landry was way off, Scola would have been a good call, he can find the holes in the zone and exploit them. I think we would be fine against the zone but McGrady was so off tonight he couldn't punish them. Great idea by Theus.
It was stagnant because Adelman had the wrong players in the game. Bonzi does not have a consistent jump shot. I was at the game and I was flabbergasted that Scola sat on the bench in place of Bonzi. I also thought Scola should have taken some of Chuck's minutes in the fourth.
So, we needed another rebounder, and someone who could defend Artest. I think that means Chuck should have been in the game.
Title is misleading. You mean Zone Defense. When Theus had the Kings go into Zone, we couldn't hit a shot because we kept forcing the ball into the interior or missed a bunch of three pointers. Zone is an offense killing defense. You break zones by finding the seams and penetrating - ok we didn't do this so well Or you bring in your Zone Buster - Novak
There was one possession in which they were playing zone, Rafer had Novak wide open to his right, and chose instead to force the inbounds pass to Yao causing a turnover. That potential 3 pointer by Novak could've sealed the game earlier. Instead, Ron Ron comes back and takes the lead.
I remember that. Rafer, at times, has tunnel vision in the fourth quarter. He only looks to get the ball to Yao and Tracy when there are other, better options around him.
Adelman put in the right crew of guys, but the crew played it the wrong way. From now on, space the team, put Yao down low, let Novak play an inside-out game with Yao Ming. The guy's shooting is a zone breaker, so draw defenders out to yourself, push it back in and whittle your way to some easy points off cuts. Or, if they do not defend you (you= Yao or Novak), put up a shot. Long-story-short, RA played it right because we won.
The zone offense was used to remove Yao and TMac fromn being a threat. Someone else must pic up the pace to punish them, either shooters or cutters.
Adelman nearly screwed the pooch last night. You have to put a guy at the FT line that is a triple threat. Someone who can shoot, drive, or pass.... Scola playing last night would have meant the team wins by a comfortable margin. You have to exploit the holes in a zone defense and Scola is our best option at doing that. Adelman almost gave away the game. DD
This is one of those rare times where we agree. If we had lost the game, you could have pinned the tail on two donkeys: Adelman and Tracy.
It was pathetic display watching three kings surround Yao and they still try to force the ball inside. When they have three people surround a player, there got to be at least one or two open options! rotate the ball to the open man and knock down the shot!
I did not see where Scola was going to make a difference on defense especially when he got himself in early foul trouble and lost his rhythm. The Kings were too small and fast for him.
Didn't you hear Coach's response. He thought Novak was running all over the place when he would have been better off just staying in one place behind the arc so that it would be easier to find him. Novak will get that rather quickly with more minutes. People still don't get that Novak's on court experience is very limited but he is showing improvement even on the defensive end and will get better and his teammates will get better at finding him on the court. Especially after last night the guys will become more aware of Novak on the court. There is no denying he is a sharpshooter and teams still don't understand completely how bad he will punish you for leaving him open.
Artest ripped us a new one in that last quarter. I would've left shane on him or something. Granted we had given up our 5 fouls with what...6minutes left? Artest missed a good amount of FTs so I woulda tried to make him take more badshots/possibly more FTAs than have tmac guard him and get bulldozed (which happened). During the game thread I posted "where's landry" and someone replied "he's 1 for 7" yeah no sht, I'm well aware of that but he had 5 offensive boards. His presence would've at least minimized our offensive deficiencies and put a little more life and hussle when we needed it. Granted novak DID win us the game after sitting out there like a lame duck for the last 4 minutes, I honestly felt that having landry or scola for that matter, would've never resulted in such a close win.
