Why did we stop driving the ball late in the game?

only wafer and lowry did it relentlessly.

ab doesn't do it enough (and doesn't finish well or draw enough fouls under the rim);
battier almost never do it (sans the 2 drives he did in game 1);
ron, idk...

late in the game, adelman goes back to his starters - which do not include lowry and wafer.

all their bigs have 5 fouls when there were 5 minutes to go, only ab drew the 6th foul on oden. yao didn't get to post up. this is a missed opportunity in the 4th. could've won the game by attacking the rim more in the last few minutes of the game.

 

that should be a good question for Artest who was the only player can drive on the court.

they were in complete panic mode after Blazers hit some big shots.

Adelman should have called a timeout and stress the issue.

 

Agreed. This one is on Adelman and his boys. AB is never a good starter material. Give me one shot-first all star guard who is afraid of contact, there are none.

When Lowry and Wafer drive, good things happen, they either score or go to the FT line, or pass to the open man, see Scola's first few shot attempts in the fourth quarter. It was unfortunate he didn't make it but they are usually money.

When AB drives, he usually throw a floater up in the air or get blocked by a player or the bottom of board or dribble circles (and sometimes he can't finish the circle because he would dribble out of bound). For Artest, though he can score, he's too slow and doesn't demand much help from 4 or 5 position to cover him.

When the entire front court of the Blazers got five fouls of each and stopped fronting Yao in the fourth quarter because of foul trouble, I thought the game was over. You let Lowry and Wafer attack the rim or you could also pass to Yao to get points in the paint and most importantly, you could foul out Blazers entire front court in a minute. Instead, Adelman brain farted, and made sure his boys get on court and shoot fad away 3 pointers and dribble circles. And of course, Brooks never looks to pass Yao the rock. Adelman, you just took out your best three offensive options in that situation when game is on the line, wow...

And what happened to the time outs he kept mentioning as the key to win in the first game. If you pat yourself on the back because you think it was a key to win, how about stand up to take some blame because you didn't call time out on time in game 2 to keep Brooks and Artest in check.

 

you said it all! I was cursing Rockets for not bring back Lowry/Wafer and take advantage of it whole 4th quarters.

 

Because we took out Lowry and Wafer... They need to be on the court with Yao so their drives can counter the fronting defense... it puts yao in position for an easy rebound or a pass off for an easy dunk... Makes sense in my head but I'm not the coach so what do I know?

 

It's so much easier said than done..

 

right. but how about at least try?

 

To get to the other side

 

the coach thought Artest was a star and would do the same thing.

 

yeah, i was wondering the same thing....

 

Why? Because Brooks and Artest were put into the game, leaving Wafer and Lowry stuck on the bench wondering what they did to deserve being benched.

 

As soon as Wafer went out, and Ron came back in the driving stopped.

And the game went from being tied to Portland winning.

DD

 

I think bringing Brooks in was the correct decision since he is a better shooter but I don't agree with the benching of Wafer. We always need a driver out on the court that can take a foul and Wafer and Lowry are pretty much it for this team. We should have had Brooks/Landry/Yao/Battier/Wafer in there. Nothing against Artest but he's not that clutch.

 

5 stars, no doubt.

 

I was pissed that they quit driving in the 3rd quarter. Once Wafer got in the game they started but they better get a healthy dose of it Friday or we don't win. Yao needs to take the mentality of driving in for a foul, Landry too. Too many wasted opportunities to even the paint up when Yao went out.

And yes, Shane needs to drive more, also. I don't get it but it seems too easy. We are killing them with speed.

 

Best q and A

 

Adelman timeouts aren't necessarily a good thing and it's obvious that he doesn't really stress adjustments during them but rather pats his players on the back and tells them he loves them, win or lose.