Look, you are making this story much bigger than it really is. The Jazz just had an outstanding shooting night (which happens once in a while). They shot 54.4% from the field and 58.8% from the 3pt land. They made only 17 attempts from 3pt range and hit 10. The Rockets made 28 attempts and hit 9, which is not bad, but was not enough. The Rockets made 48.2% from the field, which is nice but not enough. In short, they had a scoring night that did not result from better than usual game. They just scored 17.5 pt over their usual score. Houston also scored more than what the allow in average. Believe it or not, Harden made 1/4 of Houstons FG attempts (83) but also scored above team average percentage. Casspi who scored with the highest percentage made only 8 attempts.
exactly, i follow lots of knicks' games. when Melo goes into iso mode and attacks, his four teammates can only stand still and watch, just like Spike Lee on court side. it is an ugly and losing brand of basketball that Rockets should never emulate. the more Melo scores, the more the degree of effeciency drop. that's how they lost 9 in a row!
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Watching all 18 shots by Hayward - great night for G. But ohh my goodness James Harden is a miracle defensively and not in a good way.</p>— David Locke (@Lockedonsports) <a href="https://twitter.com/Lockedonsports/statuses/407892203713732608">December 3, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
it is not that simple. defense is a five-men effort. If you are the weakest link, not only the player that you guard against can pound on you, your other teammates will also be taken advantage of since often they have to cover for you, allowing their opponents room to operate and mount attack. The inevitable result: pourous defense as a whole.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Good god. RT <a href="https://twitter.com/johnschuhmann">@johnschuhmann</a>: I'm a big fan of the James Harden hand slap after getting burned on defense: <a href="http://t.co/qZEFVYjsms">http://t.co/qZEFVYjsms</a></p>— Zach Harper (@talkhoops) <a href="https://twitter.com/talkhoops/statuses/407898167305179136">December 3, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That's not even remotely in touch with reality!!... 1. Stats show that our D level is MUCH better with Omri on court. He is the only player that features in EVERY ONE of our top defensive performance lineups. He's also the only player missing from ALL the worst defensive performance lineups. 2. If you refer to last night, Casspi's guys (Williams, Evans) were the ones that were kept to low scoring and low %.
We came out slow and it cost us the game. Had we put the forth the same effort in Q1 as we did in the other 3, this would have been a win.
Yes, Breitbard is correct in this one. If you go to basketball-reference.com and look at the advanced stats and rank it according to defensive ranking, Casspi comes in third after Dwight and Asik and tied with TJones. http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/HOU/2014.html Interesting why this urban legend keeps piping up from time to time. Would it be much to ask to check the stats before this kind of statements?
does he not use the same feet on offense? Euro-stepping and driving through multiple defenders, finishing with dunks? But for some reason on defense, the feet hurt? I guess the feet only hurt if you dont have the ball in your hands.
Was Dwight in foul trouble last night because the utah players were going right pass him to score and it looked like he could of blocked some of them.
He's not knifing through defenses the same way as last year. The euro step hasn't looked as effective.
did you see that dunk? His feet are more than capable of moving to guard the likes of Gordon Hayward. We're not asking him to stay in front of John Wall here.
