There is simply not any defensive discipline on this team anymore. I love Aldelman for this team, but we sorely miss the defensive mindset Van Gundy instilled in this team.
Well, we were missing our 3 best perimeter defenders. Brooks-Martin may be tolerable defensively, but Brooks-Martin-Budinger is a disaster.
Exhibit A of why Martin, Brooks, and BUDINGER can't play together. That's not to say that Budinger is a massive defensive liability, but having Ariza's length on the court would surely make the Jazz think twice about throwing the ball across the court every possession. If people undervalue on trait of Ariza's, it's his ability to not only sneak into the passing lanes, but the THREAT of Ariza picking off a pass sorely hinders a team's ability to pass the ball willy-nilly. If Ariza was out there, the Jazz would not have been able to drive, kick-it, drive again, and kick-it for an open three because Ariza would have stolen or deflected the ball somewhere in between.
The game was well out of hand by the time that barrage of 3s came, that was more the icing on the cake. Notice that even in the first half, jazz had a 10+ point lead mainly from WIDE OPEN 10-15 footers, open layups from backscreens, 5 FOOT postups with no contesting of position, etc... The game was lost well before the 3 pointers came.
Yea, they are definitely not the guys you have out on the floor when the team needs a defensive stop. However, I still believe the defensive tenacity has lessened the more we progress from the Van Gundy era. The entire team has to buy into defense even without our best on ball defenders.
That's because other teams don't leave them wide open like that on 3 point line all game long . Dwill got wide open looks, Okur got wide open looks, even Korver got wide open looks.
First, even though martin had a great offensive game, wes matthews pretty much negated that with his production. Second, having ariza/battier wouldn't make a difference since it was deron williams absolutely abusing brooks, you could see the light come on deron's brain about 3 minutes in that brooks COULD NOT STOP HIM at all, and he proceeded to just abuse him.
Got nothing to do with that, contrary to popular misconception, defense is not just about effort and will, it requires a skillset as well, and we just don't have enough players with that skillset.
It was a 13 point game with 12 minutes to go before the Jazz hit 3 3 pointers to start the 4th quarter. The Jazz only scored 17 points in the 4th period after that. Try to spin it against the Rockets starting backcourt all you want, but you dont hit 14 3s, including the first 3 shots of the 4th quarter(one a shot clock buzzer beater) without hitting a very good portion of them before you get to the 4th quarter. And the whole team was missing rotations. Scola, Hayes, Martin, Brooks, and Budinger. Sorry buddy, but you can't try to pin this on the guards.
I don't know how much Bosh would help. Toronto is one of the worst defensive team in NBA. He is a great scorer by average defender at best.
Wes Matthews negated Martin? What the hell? 18 points =/= 33 points Deron had 13 assists. The Jazz had ******THIRTY-SIX****** assists tonight. That means they passed the ball a ton. That means that the ball was in the air a lot. That means easy pickin's for Ariza.
you make it sound like the game was close until they hit some threes. The halftime score was 70-59. And Martin and Brooks as absolutely going OFF in he first half, they could not have played a better offensive game in the first half.
That's why play offense only get you nowhere. You need good defensive players to make the team balanced. Lowry/Martin/Ariza/Scola/Yao would make the team a lot more balanced than AB/Martin/Ariza/Scola/Yao. Three good offensive players and three good defensive players.
aaron is never gonna be deron or nash, those guys could be HOFers that being said, who does aaron have around him that he can feed the ball to get him 20 assists? Nash, particularly in PHX, has been surrounded by some of the games ELITE finishers. He just has to toss Amare or jrich the ball in transition and its a dunk every time.
There is a reason why they made more 3s tonight, because our defense is at high school lvl.. If a historical 4/13 Jazz team could humiliate us like this, consider what a good 3 point shooting team could do to us...
I agree with you on that, but it starts with the mentality. The skillset can be taught. Whether or not certain players value and apply the skillset is the question that should be raised.
Yeah, and Williams missed the easiest shot he had all night. ALl the Jazz players were hitting the shots they were getting. Wide open, hand in face, turn around, fade away, whatever. They were nailing them. You are correct that the Rockets were down by 11 at halftime. They lost the 3rd quarter by 2 so that means when the 4th quarter started they were down by 13. Isnt that what I said? Then it begins with Williams nailing a shot clock beating 3 with Brooks in his face and then 2 straight 3's that basically ended it.
You got it backwards. It was Nash who make those guys look better on offense. A lot of guys got career highs in FG% when they played with Nash.
DID you even watch the game? Most of Matthews and Deron's points came in the first half, which was there the game was lost.
