We shot .450 from the field, .500 from the arc, and .875 from the line, and managed to lose at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers with Andre Miller only playing 28 minutes and none of them during the game deciding stretch. That shows we can't stop anybody who can be described as an "NBA franchise".
Scar, we are missing our entire starting lineup except for Mobley. It was pretty much our bench and Mobley against their starters. Im just glad we shot as well as we did. What is up with KT's play? Lately, he has not been playing that great at all. If he would have had one of his good games last night we would have beat the Cavs.
I realize that. I am not blaming the effort so much as saying we just have a lot of sucky players out there relative to the comp--especially in terms of big people. However, it looks to me when Stevie comes back we can win a lot of games by out offensing other teams, but I don't see anywhere on the horizon where will will have the elite caliber defense you need with it to be a championship contender.
That tells me, therefore, that the problem isn't getting open shots, but rather that the complete lack of motion in most of the offensive sets is resulting in cold shooting. I'd be intrested to see the fg% on the open shots where someone like Walt or Oscar come off of the triple screen at the top of the key, as opposed to the open shots that come off waiting for open shots off of double teams from ISO's, or open shots resulting from that half-hearted version of double-high with the two ball screens that they've been running lately.
DanaB, Don't you think KT is seeing more help d. Hopefully this will go away when Francis returns. He is back to missing more layups again. Ottomaton, Moochie is doing pretty much everything half-hearted it seems. I saw Willis, Walt and Moochie destroy Phoenix in a 15 point 4th quarter comeback running the double high post. The idea is to put Francis/Mobley in the corners and allow a 3 man game in the center of the court. I love that, but like you, it is inept right now. Also, from my seats we ran Oscar about 5 plays coming around weakside picks. He had 2 baseline moves on the left of the basket from posting up. He likes that running shot going towards the baseline!!!
Not so much half-hearted just snake bit...they are starting to believe they aren't any good and it is showing...they were so anxious to get over the hump and take their first lead last night and missed 3 in a row.......their hearts are there their minds are not
BING-FREAKIN'-O! Thanks oeilpere. You nailed it perfectly. Oh, as for the requests, those are all interesting thoughts. I'm not sure how much patience I have to chart every shot for games, but we'll have to see how bored I really am!
Jeff, I will agree that no system will work without the proper execution. Now as for has the team not being able to shoot, I can't totally agree with you on that. This team as one big problem and I have been saying this since last year. They don't play as a TEAM. I will say that they did miss some open shots, but at the same time some players took some bad shots. Forcing shots when you are not in a groove is not helping anyone, especially your own team. For example: I saw Walt get a rebound "Which means the 24 Second Clock was re-started" and then go behind the 3 point line and force a 3 point shot. Although he was open, it was a bad shot. Work the ball around and get the easy shot and that way you can get yourself into a groove. But what these guys are doing is just being plain Selfish. If you go back and look at the stats for last night the main person who was hot was shut down in the second half. Not by Cleveland but by his own TEAM. Torres was hot last night and he had to fight to get the ball. As a team you have to recognize the player that is Hot and not about your own STATS. Torres should have had a minimum of 23 to 25 shots, with the way that he was shooting last night. But at the same time the Person who is hot has to recognize when the Defense adjusts. That means passing the ball around for easy shots. Now I may not blame Rudy for the execution of his game plan, but I will blame him for not getting guys into the game that will recognize what is going on and that will execute his game plan.
Jeff: I completely disagree with you. If the Rockets ran a system in which the point guard ran down the court and shot the ball from midcourt, according to your system, would you not say that they got an open, uncontested shot? The problem with the Rockets' offense is that they are not getting high percentage looks. It doesn't matter if they are uncontested or not. When you're shooting desperation 3's with less than 2 seconds left on the clock, it doesn't make a difference if you're open. The Rockets don't have premiere shooters so they shouldn't be chucking up ridiculous amounts of outside shots.
So instead of shooting open 3's or outside shots we pound it inside to Cato, Willis, and Thomas. Rudy is trying to make the most of a bad situation.
Yeah, unfortunately with the new rule changes, guards and forwards are forbidden from scoring in the paint, or offenses creating open shots within 18 feet of the hoop.
