Why don't the Rockets execute in the last few minutes of the game?

Our offense is heavily reliant on 3-point looks coming in early offense and goading the defense into committing a foul. Generating the sort of high-efficiency shots we're used to is much tougher against a more experienced team that's locked in defensively and forcing us to score in a half-court situation.

 

It would be much better to just make Harden shoot a mid range shot which he can get at any time. A lot better than what we've been trying to do in late game situations at least... Any shot is better than a turnover.

 

throw it down to yao, if he can't get a good look..then the shooter has an open j.

 

i dont care what the statistics say..

we need midrange in this offense. why didnt mchale implement ONE pindown play for harden ALL YEAR??

 

Funny, watch OKC's possessions and you could ask yourself the exact same question. You could actually say the exact same thing about 95% of the teams in the league (Spurs are an exception).

Were Durant's possessions and Ibaka's shots really off of good ball movement and offensive sets?

People do this at the end of games because A) they have an ego and think they should be the man (i.e. James Harden) and B) it is a much more effective way to manage the clock.

Ideally you would want to have a superstar who initiates his sets at 10 seconds instead of Harden's 5 seconds. That is the only problem that I can see with our end of the game situations - that Harden independently waves off screens (see both of the Portland losses early in the year for this...) and initiates waaaaaaay too late. He will pass the ball to someone with literally 1 second on the clock, he should just initiate 5 seconds earlier and give them that same ball with 5-6 seconds to do something.

Harden just has a really big ego in my opinion. He doesn't play defense and he blames others for what are clearly his mistakes (last night yelling at Francisco after throwing the ball to Rusty Hardin in the front row 4 feet from Garcia was a prime example). The thing I like about Lin is that he doesn't berate other players for his mistakes.

This playoffs will be good for him to slow his roll and figure out that we need him to be a complete player in order to contend.

 

This. Add the fact that ball movement on the perimeter becomes predictable and you get turnovers and long bailout shots. This offense needs player motion on the baselie and on the weakside. For the life of me I don't understand why we McHale doesn't run Harden off screens to free him up once in a while.

 

Howard would help immensely.

It's not a matter of needing someone (in this case, Howard) to post up on the low block and create his own offense. It's needing a big man with the explosion to catch lobs and make things happen around the basket.

In my opinion, the biggest problem we have in closing minutes is that whistles are much harder to come by. Harden's game is dependent on drawing contact, and even when he draws it, he doesn't always get the whistles late. Moreover, when he gets doubled, Asik can't make the defense pay. It takes him too long to catch the ball, gather his feet and elevate, many times leading to blocks or fouls (many of which aren't called).

For the first 45 minutes of a game, defenses aren't going to play with the level of aggression they do late. Takes too much energy and fouls add up. At the end of the game, though, they're closing out on us everywhere, including with their big men on drives. They're not worried about Asik rolling to the basket because their guards can handle him on switches (i.e. defend the bounce pass) and it's well known that he can't handle lobs. Even if he does get it, fouls usually don't get called late around the basket.

Combine that with the fact that both Lin and Beverley are subpar 3-point shooters, and the spacing is all sorts of ****ed up. It's basically playing 3.5 on 5. Having a big man that could roll to the basket and make defenses pay for their aggressive switching would do wonders. Asik can't do it, and the only guys who can in spurts (Smith/Jones) are liabilities on the other end. Howard would do wonders.

 

Is the OKC Thunder playbook really all that different?

 

Morey and his analytics hate mid-range jumpers

 

Not a fan of the offensive system, but the problem is we never deviate from it. Its too easy to guard. The defense can ignore over 10 feet of space between the three and rim.. They know we wont dare try a midrange jumper. If a player jumps in that area, its to pass 99% of the time. Its a lot easier to play D when you can predict the future so well.

 

Poor coaching.

 

Yeah, I bet James's 2 TO's and Chandler's TO were totally because they didn't get them to throw 2 hand chest passes or do more dribbling drills... Probably the way they drew up the plays in the huddle, right?

 

No kidding...getting blown out to go down 0-3 and "we are ok guys."

Seems like we are always ok. I am all for nurturing young players, but geez, let them have it every one in a while. Wake them up.

 

We rely on the three ball and the foul a lot during the first 46 minutes. The teams lock in on the three point shooters to ensure that no one gets a shot. Refs also tend to hold their whistles during the last two minutes. This gets our guys out of rhythm, and causes turnovers. We need a low post scoring option. A guy that we know we can throw the ball down to at any moment and there is a 60% chance a basket will happen.

Harden is great at getting to the hoop but when the team can just hack him and no foul called his main weapon is taken away.

We need Dwight or Pau on this team by next season.

 

So things were not fine when he said that? It was the first half of a 48 minute game in which we came back and had a chance to win. How were things so bad that he had to personally attack them for their effort/defense?

Let me guess, you want the "Master of Panic" SVG to be our coach?

 

Personally attack them? There are ways to let them have it without being abusive or personal.

when you go down by 20 right away in a game, when the momentum had shifted a lot in your favor, things arent fine. Especially when their star was on pace to score 60 points and your team is in foul trouble. Using the comeback as a way to excuse it is in hindsight.

 

My guess is that this is a coaching strategy. In crunch time the ball is going to Harden. Unfortunately Harden is not consistently up to the task....yet.

 

Because they are young with hardly any experience