Tonight versus the Raptors: Howard Shot Attempts: 1st Period: 6 2nd Period:5 3rd Period:1 4th Period:0 OT: 0 Seriously, what is going on? We start off well with lobs and PnR in the first quarter, then we just go into isolation play for the 2nd half. Is this intentional? It's been happening all season, so it's no coincidence.
He shys away from touching the ball so he doesn't get fouled. Its mental thing for both him and the other players on the team.
Same thing happened in Orlando. He doesn't demand the ball because he lacks the confidence he will hit even 50% of his free throws. It is the same reason the Rockets do not call plays for him late. Also he can be prone to turnovers. Ideally Harden is getting to the basket and setting up Howard for easy dunks or hitting open teammates in the corner for 3's. Rockets need to figure this out. They are going to have to get the confidence he will hit 55% of his free throws or the Rockets will be closing out games without their best defender, rebounder and finisher at the rim.
If Howard is unwilling to touch the ball in the 2nd half, then sub him for Asik. Nearly the same rebound ability and we don't have to worry about hack-a-asik as much. We can't be playing 4 on 5 offense.
This is simply not true. You watch the game and you can easily see he is doing the exact same things as he's doing in the first half by sealing his man, sticking his arm up and looking for the ball. We simply are not giving it to him. I said it in the game thread. Two straight games we have fed him and built a double digit lead in the first half. Two straight games we have simply ignored him in the second half and the other team has come right back.
yep. I can understand if there is a considerable drop off in the 4th qtr because of his FT woes, but there is no excuse in the 3rd.
Can't say with any certainty, but I think what may be happening is that teams make adjustments and either we a) fail to counter because we are still in the learning process of playing with Dwight or b) the coaching staff does a poor job and simply doesn't get the team to make adjustments. I'm hoping it's more a than b. Hopefully as the season goes on the team will be more aware of what's going on over the course of the game. Become more disciplined and machine like. But that comes from experience and chemistry.
Unless it's late in the game, it doesn't entirely matter that he hits his FTs. Just getting the opposing bigs in foul trouble and getting the team in the bonus early has a lot of value on its own. There's no question the wings have to do a better job of consistently looking for him on offense. I realize his post-ups aren't pretty, but in general the results are a net positive.
They can't foul him every time if he gets the ball a lot, unless their big men are able to accumulate more than 6 fouls.
