I told you, I told you, I told you (aka Gm 5 strategy)

I was wondering the same thing but I think it had to do with Adelman wanting better ball handlers to protect the lead which is why he went with two point guards.

 

THIS IS OUR COURT!
THIS IS OUR GAME!
THIS IS HOUSTON!
YOU NO MORE MAKE IT HERE,KOBE!
WANT ONE GAME BACK? SHAWN WILLNOT AGREE!
WE GONNA CELEBRATE HERE ON THURSDAY!!!

 

This appears to be a no win situation for Adelman. There have been tons of post criticizing Adelman for not using Yao more, such as threads complaining how the Rockets' offense goes cold or bogs down when Yao wasn't in. Now there are people complaining he uses Yao too much.

 

Your point 1) We need to double Kobe off pick and rolls and also send someone to cut off hits drives as soon as he faces up. The Rockets are tremendous at rotating and we can accomplish this w/o letting Gasol "get his". If Gasol picks, send Scola or Landry or whoever is guarding Gasol at Kobe and let Gasol roll.. then, send whoever is guarding Odom to cut off Gasol before he gets within 8 feet of the basket, preferably Hayes or Landry. Then rotate as quick as possible if they try to kick out, with the man covering Kobe rotating last.

2) I think the key to this point is to let Brooks be the decoy in Game 5, thus becoming the open guy at the end of the play with an open 3. How? Shade comes, pass to either Wafer or Lowry, who will immediately shoot an open shot or fake a shot and drive. Thus, Lowry and Wafer become what Brooks was in Game 5, getting to the rack and getting easy shots. The key here is that Wafer has to play smarter than he has been playing, looking for a pass or a pull up or a quick stop and pop. Our offense needs to understand that in order to be efficient, we must act quickly and at the first opportunity.. Bulk offense is good offense for the new Rockets!

 

Two different things. One is to reduce Yao's minutes and manage his playing time better, such as not play him for extended stretches. The other is while Yao is on the court, pass him the ball if he gets the position down low and pins his defenders, and/or run more plays for him, so he can be more effective. These two things are hardly mutually exclusive.

 

Regarding my response to 1)) above, I see a problem with leaving Odom and having Gasol, a good passer, heading up a 2 on 1.. which leaves me to two choices we can make here: entice kobe to take a jump shot.. or 2) Battier can keep up with Kobe.. thus.. use battier's lateral speed to shade him all the way to the hoop and rely on help defense when he gets within 5 feet..

If that doesn't work, well, guard everyone else and let kobe get his.

 

There have been several posts criticizing Adelman for sitting Yao for long stretches such as after game 1 of the Portland series.

 

Agree. Honestly, I don't know how he can "win" this argument. He kept Yao's minutes under 34 per game during the regular season (33.8 mpg, I think). These are Yao's minutes during the playoffs, according to the official source, Clutch:

Portland
24
31
36
44
40
41

LA Fakers
40
26
40

http://www.clutchfans.net/stats.cfm

The assumption (I remember a quote that went something like this, from someone in the organization, but don't recall where I saw it or who said it) was that Yao's minutes were pretty low during the season, so he'd be able to play more during the playoffs. As you can see with the above numbers, his minutes did go up. In particular, he played 40 or more minutes for 4 straight games, had the 26 minute game, and then his last game, with 40. The thing to remember about the last game he played was that, according to Yao, he was hurt in the first half. He was coming off a 26 minute game, and a day off (except for practice). So there were several days between the long stretch of 40+ minute games, and the game in which he was hurt, without another (for Yao, I guess) "high minute" game.

So yeah, how can Adelman win? Limited his minutes during the regular season, played Yao a lot for 4 games, but he seemed fine, and then he's hurt after several days not playing, except for the 26 minute game, then he's hurt in the first half. Repeat, what's Adelman supposed to do? Deke was out. Yao was playing well and basically pain free. I just don't see what Coach A did wrong.


And what to say just a great OP from jopatmc, along with several good reads from some of the other members. Can't wait for the next game!

 

Couldn't agree more with you, OP.

One thing for sure, it's gonna be an extremely tough game to win in L.A. Prove us again that you can win again in LA, Rockets!

 

I look for Artest to play better, too.

 

Haha yeah, no doubt! Thank god he didn't cost us the game yesterday.

 

Fixed that up a bit for you.

 

did anyone mention bynum? now that yao is out we have no one that can guard that fool.. look for him to be a lot more aggressive.. i know he's been crap in this series and i hope he continues to be but they've got to be crazy not to play him more now that yao is out

 

Is that not true for basically any basketball team?

 

I'm not sure I agree with this "Kobe is going to drive all night" strategy the OP is suggesting. I watch the Lakers fairly often and, frankly, I don't really remember a game this year where i've seen Kobe do that. Much less against a defender as good as Battier. We've all seen him take over games and go through stretches where he gets to the rim fairly easily, but not over the course of an entire game. Kobe is too comfortable working his mid-range game and lurking on the perimeter to do otherwise at this point, IMO.

I'm not really worried about Kobe. If he keeps shooting pull up's, fadeways and turnarounds it goes without saying that we can live with that. I think that's precisely the way he'll continue to play. I'm sure he knows even despite the great defense and high degree of difficulty he's still shooting something like 60% on those mid-range shots. And Battier is smart enough to stay out of foul trouble. To build on what A3PO was saying earlier: Battier's defense is both in-your-face yet also "safe" enough to stick with him and not sacrifice position in the event Kobe tries to drive. Honestly, is there another defender out there better suited to defend Kobe than Battier? Win or lose, NBA teams are going to scout videos from this series closely for the keys to slowing down Kobe. Plus, it's becoming abundantly clear (for those that didn't already know) that Kobe doesn't drive anymore. The numbers reflect this. His Hot Spots reflect this. I don't expect Game 5 to be any different.

What worries me (as others have already mentioned) is: where is the offense going to come from? 99 points without Yao is impressive but let's not lose sight of the fact that we were carried by unusually great shooting performances. We shot 29 three's. You could argue Battier basically won the game for us in the first quarter with his hot shooting that was largely responsible for our 22-7 first quarter lead that had this soft and mentally weak Lakers team hanging their heads. The flip side to this is: what if he doesn't start the game 4/5 from downtown? What if we weren't hitting everything in sight early on and let the Lakers hang around? Can Brooks, who has proven to be about as streaky as they come, play like this again? Is Artest going to come to Game 5 with his head screwed on?

There's a lot of variables there. It goes without saying we can't afford a bad shooting performance and expect to win the game. With Yao and T-Mac gone, we're lacking in players that can legitimately create their own shots and offense so I 100% agree with the OP's point that dribble penetration via Brooks/Lowry is going to be absolutely essential to putting points on the board. The catch is it's pretty obvious Fisher is getting torched so you know the Lakers will counter with more Farmar. Farmar showed the ability to stay in front of and slow down Brooks in Game 3. This is an obvious adjustment to expect. Another point is we have to play physical without getting into foul trouble. This will ultimately lead to us winning the battle on the boards and negating their size advantage with Gasol/Bynum/Odom. If we're allowing position and getting beat on the glass we're doomed. Simply stated: we'll need to rely on our defense to keep the score low and hopefully frustrate them, but this game (and series) will come down to our ability/inability to put points on the board.

 

as long as brooks can handle the extra pressure they put on him and doesnt turn the ball over, we have a chance to win the game

 

As to Game 5, I've been thinking about it and I can see Adelman going mad scientist here.

With Odom out, we might see the Lakers go big with Gasol and Bynum. I can see us countering with Brooks, Wafer, Battier, Artest and hayes. Spread the floor with 4 guys that can bury the three, and hayes neutralizes Gasol. You might even see us use that lineup with Lowry instead of Wafer because of how well the Brooks Lowry tandem has worked.

Indeed, I'd like to see Brooks run all over the court, curling around screens to receive the ball on the move. He can stop and pop, or take it to the hole for himself or dish to others.

Alternatively, I would like to see Adelman force Kobe to guard Artest, and then punish Kobe in the low post. Force him to spend energy. A lineup of Lowry/Artest/Landry/Scola/Hayes would be fun. Odom is a mess and Landry can keep up with Walton. Unless Artest is in foul trouble, i'd give him 3 minutes of this to punish Kobe on the low block, and then muscle him on defense. Let's see if that punk ass beotch has enough legs to finish in the 4th quarter.

 

Luke Walton is the biggest joke. I'd leave him wide upon for 50 threes 100 jumpshots, let him take all he wants. He can't make any.

 

Interesting that in this entire post you didn't mention Gasol. He's going to be the biggest key of the game. I have a feeling he will explode.

 

artest has to make good shots and get out of this funk he is in right now.