This is nothing like the rockets from mid-season. When they stopped playing 'under 7 seconds' offence i thought they are coasting. But man... that game was so painful to watch. It's so predictable what move they going to make..
I'm surprised the ball still had air in it after all that dribbling last night. Also surprised we didn't pull out soccer cleats and switched sports after dribbling it off our feet so many times.
Did anybody mention the use of time outs? Everytime we get a momentum going, Kerr calls a TO. Kills our scoring momentum. For some reason, we keep coming out of TOs sluggish and can't score while GS comes out a new team. It's a problem of motivation.
I feel like the Rockets are too preoccupied with getting a switch and attacking Curry. I understand the logic but at some point you have got to go to what got you there and that's the Harden/Paul--Capela pick and roll. Hasn't been used enough, it's always a perimeter guy setting the picks. Harden and Paul need to attack the Donkey and get him into foul trouble. They can't get scared because he's a good defender, go at the mf'er with the ******* play that won you 65 games.
Yeah, agreed the failure on offense, missed lay ups some uncontested and some contested, lots of turnovers and Curry exploding in the 2nd half contributed to the huge blow out loss. Regardless the Rockets need intensity on the defensive end for 48 minutes though they are having big problems on offense as well that impacted their defensive effort. On the defensive end if Harden or anyone else is defending Curry, he should not let Curry just blow by and then swipe, he needs to chase him down, if help defense shows up and slows Curry's drive the trailing defender might be able to make a play. On offense, well you can see the Warriors defense most of the time have a good idea what shot the Rockets are going to take before the shot is attempted during the possession. Harden and Gordon ISO's are mostly a step back three, drive to the rim for a lay up or a kick out to the corner shooter. Paul ISO's are mostly step back three, drive to the paint for mid range shot or a kick out to the corner shooter. A few times the play might be different but this happened very often in Game 1 and 3, the Rockets were more crafty in Game 2. Green, Durant and Looney are waiting at the rim for Harden and Gordon and stepping out from the rim to guard Paul. Mostly 3 or 4 players on offense are just standing around unless they get a pass. A few tweaks to offense and less turnovers might make it much harder for the Warriors to shut down the Rockets offensively. Capela needs to be involved more offensively, whether rolling to the basket or lobs. Green, Looney and Durant leave their assignment to contest any shot at the rim. Harden and Gordon may have to use that effective pull up mid range or short range jumper a little more that used to be in their arsenal until they were being instructed to avoid that shot on their ISO's. The only ISO on Curry should not just be by the 3 pt line, Curry will chase his man when beaten and try to guide him into Looney, Durant or Green. Rockets may have to consider some post ups now and again 10 to 15 feet from the basket on Curry or whoever and read the defense whether to score or pass, unfortunately for the Rockets Durant has been very effective on ISO's in that range. Rockets don't necessarily have to try to switch every time if Curry is guarding Paul or Gordon, just give them the ball and let them run the play. Of course as has been mentioned many times on the GARM to Rockets need to get into their offense earlier and a little more movement off the ball. Throughout the 65 win regular season the Rockets have been able to adjust offensively when dealing with a different defense or defensive strategy, they need to keep doing that again to have a good chance to win this series. Sorry, this post was longer than I planned.
