http://basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=751 [rquoter] ... 2. Who Scores for Houston? Last week, I phrased the Rockets' season as part of the debate between usage and efficiency. Tonight, usage won. After a solid first quarter, Houston had a terrible time getting good shot attempts on a regular basis. If not for whistle-happy referees who sent them to free throw line 29 times (and called a combined 53 fouls, nearly even on both teams), the Rockets might have struggled to crack 80 points. Luis Scola had a forgettable evening, scoring three points, and no one stepped up to replace his production. Things got especially bad when Aaron Brooks, who is emerging as Houston's go-to guy on offense, was out of the game. Nobody else on the team scored more than 12 points. In part, I think the Rockets are hoping that Rick Adelman's offense may create opportunities. That may be the case later in the season when the team is sharper, but it was not tonight. 3. Don't Count Out the Rockets That last paragraph aside, Houston was still within six points in the final two minutes. Why? As we saw during last year's playoff series against the L.A. Lakers, the Rockets refuse to admit when everyone else has conceded their defeat. A lineup of Brooks, Kyle Lowry, rookie Chase Budinger, Carl Landry and David Andersen did in fact put 31 points on the board in the fourth quarter, making a game of it. In his debut, Andersen demonstrated the advertised soft touch from the perimeter, though the physicality of NBA play in the paint will be a challenge for him. We also saw this unit run more, something Adelman hopes to do this season. Mostly, though, Houston just outworked a Portland team that put things on cruise control a few minutes too early. That, more than anything else, has become this team's trademark. 4. Greg Oden? The Portland big man certainly stayed busy all night long. There's a palpably different air of confidence around Oden this season that even extended to his pregame address from center court. However, Chuck Hayes tested Oden's developing post-up game. Even giving up six inches at 6'6", Hayes battled Oden in the post and earned a complete victory. Oden did not score until a follow dunk in the game's final minute. That's not to say Oden had a bad night, even with seven turnovers. He anchored the Portland defense with five blocks and something that will not show up on the stat sheet, his improved ability to step out and defend the pick-and-roll. Add in 12 rebounds in 26 minutes, and it was an effective outing--even if it caused us to check Basketball-Reference.com to see if any player in NBA history has ever gotten a rebound-block-turnover triple-double (it's never been done, for the record). ... [/rquoter]
Joel Przybilla had 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 5 less TOs than Oden in 16 minutes facing the same Houston "Bigs". Oden was not so great.
But, if you watched the game, you could see Oden was dominating the paint, although his stats isn't that impressive.
No, he wasn't dominating the paint when Chuck was in there. When they went to Andersen at the pivot, then Oden dominated the paint area. Yes, he got around for some blocks and intimidation, but our guys did a terrible job penetrating and kicking and/or using the fake to get Oden reaching. We were not patient enough.
I have a feeling that David Andersen will be rather important to the team's success. His perimeter shooting is needed to create space if the team's penetration game is gonna be effective. Also, his post offense is rather underrated.
Henry Abbott blogged the other day on what he called "The Winston Theorem" (after Wayne Winston, former Mavs analyst). Apparently, really good offensive teams tend to employ a at least 4 outside shooting threats. Having a big who can hit that perimeter shot is a big plus to an offense. So I tend to agree with you.
I agree with Winston. Remember when JVG spent the whole 05/06 season kicking himself for not brining Scott Padgett back? Padgett is a flawed shooting 4, but was nevertheless very useful for reigniting the offense whenever it stalls by giving TMac and Yao more space to work. In 06/07 Battier played that role when he spent time at the 4. You give up rebounding and muscles, but gain spacing. Adelman has tended to opt for "real bigs" at the 4 and 5-- can't blame him because Yao/Scola/Landry/Hayes/Mutombo were effective and crucial to defense and rebounding (JVG had Juwann Howard in place of Landry and Scola)-- rather than use a "spread 4" even when he had Battier and Artest (and Novak for a year) as options. I think he might have to re-evaluate things if the offense continues to struggle with the normal lineup. The good news is, now that Andersen is on the team, you don't need to bring in a tweener forward to get shooting in the front line. Even if Andersen is not quite a good NBA defender, at least he is a real big.
I tend to agree. We had LOTS of trouble finishing at the rim against Oden. He probably had one more block then the official sheet counted (according to a replay on the league pass broadcast, which was from portland). So all in all, Oden had 5, maybe 6, blocks, plus numerous other "intimidations". In a game where we were down by only 6 late in the fourth quarter, the 10+ points which Oden's defense and shotblocking kept off the board make a huge, huge difference, even if his offense was lacking. In fact, one could argue that the only thing which enabled the rockets' 4th quarter surge was the foul trouble that sidelined both Oden and the Vanilla Godzilla.
True. Though almost half of those blocks were Oden's, Pryzbilla and the blazers' wings were beasting as well. Given our size, and the fact that we no longer have Yao to tie up opposing bigs, this could be a theme for the rockets this year. Of course, I think this game also demonstrated the formula for dealing with this problem: keep attacking, attack quickly, go right at shotblockers, exploit their tendency to go for blocks to get offensive rebounding position, and get them in foul trouble.
Przybilla also racked up more fouls in less minutes, indicating that Oden's foul trouble was more likely a combination of Houston's game plan and the refs specific focus that night, instead of being a symptom of an unimproved awareness. As a Portland fan I have lots of respect for this Rockets team, and feel Hayes did a great job keeping Oden from getting deep position, which was what really limited Oden's touches. But overall, I'm not at all worried about Oden.
