Honestly, why isnt Beverly shutting down Ellis? At the very least, he should make Ellis work for his points. Might as well put in Lin, at least he can provide some scoring punch. If beverly could've have limited him to to 18-20 points, we would have won. It's on you Beverly...
I think they just don't have a good defensive system in place. On top of that, the players have not bought into playing D at a high level like some other teams.
I don't think anyone on our team was going to stop Ellis last night. Beverly played his as good as anyone could have without fouling him and he shot 70% from the field. Ellis always goes for big numbers against us no matter who is playing him. Beverly played him tough but Ellis was in a zone the whole game.
Harden and Lin are not to blame. Their defense has been suspect from last season and that's been known. I blame our defensive specialist Beverly and Dwight. Oh, and Tmac too.
Dallas was the one team where Twin Towers lineup actually worked against Dirk and Dalembert. I'm surprised McHale didn't try for even a minute. T. Jones was doing an OK job scoring, but his defense against Dirk was nonexistent.
It Has to be McHale and the players Because Dallas defense is not loaded with DPOY players and we proved that they have a very hard time stopping the Rockets offense.The problem is their headcoach calls for a zone defense at the right time to slow the Rockets long enough to steal games.You just have make stops when they are needed the most.If you do that you win these kind of games.Not for 48 minutes,just the right minutes.You see this is the time when pretenders are exposed and for the second time on national tv,almost forgot about the escape in NY.You got it ,Ya have to put on yo bigboy pants to win these type of games and championships.Kobe said it and Dream did it (93/94)
Dirk is the greatest shooting power forward ever and he's 7 feet. And when he's "on" he's pretty much unstoppable. That lost was in no way on TJ... Dirk is taller than Howard (McHale is almost taller than Howard) _ he would have shot over him too. Dirk is a guy you just have to put one player on and hope he misses and try to shut down everyone else...
Our defense sucks. People laughed when I said McHale was a defensive-minded coach who just needed the right personnel. Well, we got Dwight, best defensive center, along with Pat, a pretty darn good perimeter defended, in the lineup, and our defense still sucks so those people who laughed might have been onto something. It's accountability, McHale has to hold everyone accountable, start yanking/benching players ala Popovich-style, and make them play the way they need to. These 4th quarter busts aren't going away until we figure out how to play team defense. We got talent but talent can only take us so far if we consistently get outcoached, outsmarted and can't figure out how to fight back. This is a top-down problem, everyone shares in the blame.
Harden and Lin are to blame ----> because they only had one turnover between the both of them. The Rockets don't win when both of them are taking care of the ball...Lol.. But yea, if Beverley can't guard anyone _ he doesn't need to be on the court. And don't forget about Parsons as well. He does not get a pass. But I will say Ellis is a hard player to cover. He's been lighting up just about everyone this year and he has a darn good coach directing him... Something the Rockets don't have...
Why would you say McHale was a good defensive coach...? What do you see in his background to make you come to that conclusion.
I don't think it was really on Beverley, at least not alone. Ellis wasn't going to town on him in iso situations, but was rather running pick and rolls, double screens, etc. with the Rockets deciding to switch on these because they didn't want to leave Dirk alone when Dirk was the screener. Beverley, in fact, ended up defending Dirk on several occasions and I recall Dirk draining a J with Beverley stuck close to him (but couldn't really stop the 7'' Dirk). The switching tactic worked a few nights ago vs. the Knicks in the 4th quarter when Bargnani was too often left open off pick and rolls with Ray Felton early in the game. Bargnani and the Knicks didn't do much damage off pick and rolls after the Rockets employed switching. Didn't work vs. the Mavs since Dirk and Ellis are more talented and made their shots (some of which were contested). One thing I noticed was the Jones couldn't really do much to affect Monta Ellis after the switch was made, nor did he (or anyone else) really slowed down Dirk. It could be simply be a matter of two talented offensive players having a good night, but it could also be that Jones is simply too green to play really good D against top offensive players. Carmelo Anthony also went off on the Rockets with mostly Jones guarding him. Jones has talent, but he is not even 22 years old yet and hasn't played much at all in the NBA. Jones may well be the starting PF of the future, but if the team is going to contend right now, it would be beneficial to have a good veteran out there. And this is true for much of the rest of the team-- a lot of young and inexperienced players.
Yes, background and mindset, he was a defensive type of player. Also, from interviews, previous seasons to now, he obviously favors defense over offense (defense drives offense, or however you want to put it). Always thought he needed the right personnel and for players to buy in; our players are young he can still influence them if he can figure it out.
Nice post... I agree with what you said. But why are you leaving out Parsons...? McHale used TJ on Rudy, Melo, and Dirk _ where is our defensive stopper Parsons at and why is a young player with limited experience getting the hardest defensive assignments...???
McHale seemed more like a dirty player on defense in my opinion...Lol.. And during his prime playing days teams where putting up video game scores, everybody was scoring. I seriously believe McHale only got this job because Morey wanted a puppet. I do believe he's a player's coach tho but would be better served with a group of veterans instead of young guys who need on court discipline and guidance.
