After watching the first quarter of the Mavs vs Rockets game, I think we may have a weakness to the full court press. With only 8 seconds to get the ball across our guards will have to be much more careful about how they get the ball across mid-court. I saw a few stupid passes that either caused a turnover, or could have caused a turnover. Am I being overly concerned, or is this a legitimate concern? If it is, don't we have the speed to overcome a full court press? I'm sure Rudy will figure something out to counter this tactic, since I'm sure it will be quite common with the new 8 second rule. B
For as long as I can remember, the Rockets have always had trouble with the full court press, or even pressure by a single guard. When I heard about the 8 second rule, I was concerned too. Maybe Rudy doesn't practice for the FCP? You ALWAYS see our guards taking it across midcourt to a corner, picking up the dribble and fighting to get the pass out of a double team or calling timeout. It does get frustrating. Mooch, Steve and Cuttino have more than enough speed and decent ballhandling. This shouldn't be as much of a problem as it is.
You beat a press by passing. Put your big man at midcourt, pass it to him and the 2 guards streak up the side to recieve the pass back. Boston killed us with the trap last year and beat the tar out of us 1 game. They took th ball out of Francis hands in the half court, and instead of the Rockets attacking the basket, they shot a lot of jumpers. There is reason for concern.
If Kelvin Cato handling the ball at midcourt is part of the solution to our full-court press problem, then we are in serious trouble.
Mav's press was solved in the second half, no BFD. There were no 8 second backcourt violations that I saw. There were four or five times in the first half where the Rocks had to force up a shot trying to beat the 24 second clock. The offensive set they were running was moving the ball around the three point arc, looking to beat the Mavs with a quick pass to their weak side. This strategy did not work.
Rudy's teams have always had problems with the press. I don't know if they practice beating it or what. But, George Karl knew how to beat us and the way he did it was to press us at critical times and to double and triple team Dream with BIG men so he could not pass out of the block. A lot of other teams would use guards or small forwards to try and double team Dream and he would just pass OVER them. Karl knows how to be beat the Rockets or should I say Rudy.
I'm not saying Cato breaking the press, if you've ever played organized ball its called "pressure release". It's like a safety valve, a big target, then the guards streak up the sides kind of using him as a pick. Simple basketball. Karl will love his new legal zones now. I saw them playing a 1-2-2 last night. That will be the defense of choice this year. If played right , it will be hard to score on, plus you don't have to worry about defensive 3 seconds.
I agree with SamC we cannot rely on Cato. But last night the team did a good job of getting the ball past half court.
I don't think we have to worry about 8 second violation exactly, but turnovers due to mishandling to prevent the violation. I saw a couple of times last night where a guard would take the ball to outside of the court and pick up his dribble, forcing a difficult situation. I don't know why a guard would pick up his dribble before half court unless he is 100% sure of where he is passing and does so quickly. Another thing I question is bringing the ball too close to the sideline, unless it may be a strategy to lure teams into trapping us and we burn them for doing so. Is that last possibility giving too much credit to the coaching staff? Well I'm off for the weekend, time to take a break from my intense posting (lol, nothing compared to most of you, but I try to just lurk 99.9% of the time), and maybe, maybe get the Rocks out of my brain for a while. (I'm sure my girlfriend would like me to pay her SOME attention ) B
The Rockets problem with the press is that WE HAVE NO TALL BALL-HANDLERS! It's one thing to have little guys who can handle the ball, but when they get trapped by 6-6 guys, they can't throw it over or around them. It's imperative that we get a big backup SG, someone like Jimmy Jackson. Hopefully, our SFs can provide some relief as far as the press is concern.
