Why overthink it. Howard on Aldridge. Beverley on Lillard. Asik in the middle.

Yes, we won. But this is the playoffs, htown, the playoffs. This is a different season. This is when the physical play gets ramped up tremendously and the officials aren't going to call all the scrum action under the basket. You've already seen it. They let a lot of contact go down low and in the paint while they are "emphasizing" all the ticky tack screens on the bigs on the perimeter.

During the regular season the Jones/Howard lineup went -31 against the LaMarcus/Lopez lineup. Believe me, Portland knows that. After game 1 of the playoffs this matchups are now -35.

Portland knows this and McHale had better recognize it. If he doesn't make a defensive adjustment on the Aldridge/Lopez lineup combination we will go home early.


Whichever team that wins the war in the paint is the team that will advance.

 

The went -31 nd we still won 3 out of 4 sir. We didn't lose this game because we started Jones at the 4 period. We lost because our Superstars didn't match Portland's Superstars production.

LMA shot 54% scoring and snatching 18 rebounds
Lillard shot 47% scoring 31 points and killing us in Over Time

Howard shot 42% scoring 27 points , snatching down 15 boards and went a whooping 9 for 17 (Costing us the game) from the freaking foul line.

Harden shot a horrific 28% scoring 27 points and knew he was ice cold and still settled for jumpers when we needed him to attack the rim. Dude Portland didn't have any rim protectors because they fouled out. Go to the rim and either get foul or make a layup. Because we all know that Harden is one of the best finishers in the game.

If you don't see that we lost the game because of our Superstar's performance then I don't know what to tell you. LOL

 

Don't know if I would have started Asik or not. At this point in the season that could be cataclysmic to what degree of confidence Jones has gained by playing with the big boys all season.

However....what I would have very definitely done would have been to pull Jones after the second Aldridge offensive rebound and putback. That would have been enough for me. I would have had Asik on Aldridge every minute the rest of the way irregardless of foul count. I'd have forced the Blazers to have to try to foul Asik out by going to lamarcus. I would not have went back to Jones in the game against either Lamarcus or Robin Lopez.

And then if Asik fouled out, I would have gone with either DMo or Powell on Aldridge and told them to play him tight and hard and not let him bump them down into the paint.


I for sure wouldn't have rolled Jones out there the rest of the game on LaMarcus or Lopez after the second offensive rebound and putback.

Understandomendo?

 

Htown...why did Harden go 8 for 28? Go through his shots. Tell me which shots he shouldn't have taken and what he should have done instead since he's the reason we lost.

And all of a sudden 9 for 17 from the line from Howard cost us the game ..... when all season this is what Dwight shot from the line and we won almost 70% of our games!!!!!!!!! With him shooting that crappy 9 for 17. Now his crappy free throw shooting is costing us games!!!! Tell me what adjustment can Dwight make to his free throw this morning to ensure that he doesn't go 9 for 17 from the free throw line again tonight?


Don't you see....we can't adjust those things. What we can adjust is defensive scheme and matchups. And we can adjust the offense to provide Harden a better array of open shots.

So, here's what we can do. When they are fouling Dwight in hack-a-Dwight...and Dwight has gone 2 for 8....we can leave Dwight in knowing that he is due to hit a couple.....instead of taking him out and letting Lamarcus throw Jones through the hoop along with the basketball. Or we can give Dwight a breather and bring in Asik to man the middle defensively instead of just letting LaMarcus toast Jones (another given that we cannot change. We cannot all of a sudden overnight make Jones a quality defender against LaMarcus capable of limiting his backdowns and forays into the low blocks. But we can change the matchup and make LaMarcus work a lot harder.).

Here's something else we can do: When Portland goes double smalls...we can go double smalls up top and not have Parsons trying to defend Lillard.

Here's something else we can do: We can decide NOT to play any of Parsons/Garcia/Jones defensively against Lamarcus since they are simply too small, too light, and unskilled to even slow him down from getting to the rim. (here again, we cannot change their size, their weight, or their skillsets at this stage of the season. There is no body stretcher in the training room that will turn these guys into 7 footer that weight 250 lbs.)

Here's something else we can do: We can make sure that we put Asik on Lamarcus and make LaMarcus work hard and water down LaMarcus' offensive efficiency.


Here's something else we can do: We can run some screens offensively that force the Blazers to switch LaMarcus onto Dwight and put LaMarcus in the defensive hopper against Dwight down low, forcing Aldridge to give up the bunny or foul Dwight. We can use screens to make this happen and if Portland doesn't switch we can beat them with the cutter.

Here's something else we can do if Asik gets into foul trouble: We can run Casspi out there against LaMarcus. Tell Casspi to bump and grind him as much as possible, take the foul if he has to...and then park Casspi in the corner offensively so he can nail the open 3's offensively that will open up the floor for Harden to get to the rim much easier. Because Jones cannot nail that 3 ball and he won't take it. Instead his defender is in Harden's (and Howard's) lap convoluting the paint area. (That's something else we cannot change. We cannot make Jones an efficient 3-point shooter this morning.)


Now there's just a partial list of things that we can do to slow down Lamarcus and Portland's offense which scored 122 points against us in game 1 while we scored 120. But harden's shots...we can't change whether or not those go down. Same thing with Dwight's free throws.

 

Those are some very valid ideas but again Harden cant settle for jumpers in crunch time, especially when there is no shot blocker in the paint. He took an ill-advice three when we were only down 2 points with plenty of time left in the game. Then on that last play he picked up his dribble and took a contested mid range jumper.

And Howard have to man up on his free throws. We seen him do it several times this season. He missed 2 then made 2 but turn right around and missed 4 in a row. Yes I agree, McHale should have taking him out and put Asik in the game.

Scoring is not an issue because we scored 120 it is our defense. We have to do a better job communicating with one another out there. They also have to hard double LMA. Did you see when Howard did start going off the Blazers hard double him forcing him to pass the ball. We also should have hard double Lillard instead of letting him go one on one against Beverely. Get the ball out his hand and make someone else beat you.

Pimp Jones didn't take a three point shot in that game, so why are you bringing that up.

 

I posted this idea on another thread but got no response, so I'll try again here:

Whether or not the Rockets should go with the TT at other points in the game, why not go with the TT when the Blazers try hack-a-Howard? If you don't go small and sub Howard out in those situations, then rebounding and defense are all that matters. They might even consider playing with a super defensive lineup of the TT, Bev, Garcia and Parsons until Stotts stops hacking.

At the very least, I think it's an interesting idea and would like to hear people's opinions.

 

Bottom line is, McFail failed to do anything to stop Adridge. He talks about maybe using the twin tower. But 48 points by Adridge is not enough of a clue to use the twin tower? What a joke this coach is.

 

who else would you want on lillard? lin? LMAO

 

Can you think of another PG that you would rather have for defense? There are a lot of great offensive PG's, but can you name a better defensive PG?

The only name that is ever mentioned is Chris Paul. He does play passing lanes better and gets more steals that way. He also flops more and gets more fouls called against the other player.

Maybe Rajon Rondo? I can't really talk much about him because I feel like it has been a really long time since we have seen him playing well.

But as far as on-ball pressure, Patrick Beverley isn't perfect and he makes mistakes and there are times when the opposing player does get by him, but right now in the NBA there isn't another PG I would rather have if you are only looking at defense.

 

Beverley commits fouls off of being too aggressive sometimes but we need him to disrupt their offense. He fills that role better than Lin.

 

I agree with a lot of what you said.

But seriously? Casspi on Aldridge? And Casspi can "nail the open 3's"?

Do you want Aldridge to score even more points in this game? Because he would if Casspi was on him.

I haven't seen Casspi reliably nail open 3's since the beginning of the season.

 

I'll give you that. However, we can go back through every game this season, won or loss, and find a shot or two that Harden shouldn't have taken. Can't we? So...there's no real difference there.

Friend, Howard can't "man up" on his free throws. He is what he is. He can work on his free throw shooting during the off-season for like the 11th off-season in a row. But at this point in the season (and likely his career), he is what he is at the FT line. He's not going to be able to change that percentage. The coaching staff ain't going to be able to change it. And a voodoo doll, toilet paper, and matches won't change it either. His free throw shooting is a constant.

Not trying to be picky here but doing a better job communicating is not going to change LaMarcus' 1 on 1 dominance of every player we have on our roster sans Asik and Dwight. It's also not going to change the fact that Robin Lopez is too big for Jones to handle on the glass.

And you can't hard double Aldridge and then hard-double Lillard. I totally disagree with you there. Doubling players in the NBA is the first step in the rolling cesspool of death. Especially on a team that shoots the 3-pointer as well as Portland does.

Jones doesn't want to take a three-point shot because he has no confidence in that shot. And his teammates don't want to pass him the ball when he is open in the corner because they have no confidence that he will make that shot. And the opponent does not defend Jones out there because they want Jones to get the ball and shoot it out there.

Take a look at this video. Specifically go to 1:12 and roll it. This is a microcosm of what happens with Jones spreading the floor. Perfect spread. Watch the pick-and-roll action and the reaction of Aldridge on Jones. Aldridge cheats inside leaving Jones wide open for a look that Jones doesn't want nor does Harden want. And justifiably so. Play continues, Lin gets ball and drives it, Aldridge completely ignores Jones, doubling on Lin's drive and Lin completely ignores Jones too..because Lin knows that's not the shot we want. Lin knows he's better off to throw up a shot at the rim against the double team instead of throw it out to the corner to Jones.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/R_s1S1CEBTY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


This happens over and over and it is going to happen even more frequently in the playoffs than it did in the regular season. Because playoff defenses know the numbers, they're all trying to win, and they're all playing the percentages.

We cannot change Jones' nor DMo's inability to hit the 3-ball. Because we cannot change it we have to figure out how to live with it. That means we can't park Jones at the 3-point line because is simply going to pack it down low and make it more difficult for Harden, Lin, and Parsons to drive. The play action has to change. And the matchup needs to change.

 

What drives me crazy is that if we were so open to the idea to play Howard and Asik together in the playoffs why not practice it in the regular season? Now rotations will be screwed and ball movement will be anchored.

 

I agree. I hate doubling players. It almost always leads to the breakdown of the whole defense.

However, there were certain parts in that game where we absolutely should have doubled LMA. Whether it was by poor lineups in the game at that time or by poor rotations leaving a mismatch on him, there were times in that game while I was watching it that I was certain that LMA was about to score. The times when Jones was on him, or Parsons or Garcia, I just knew that he was going to back his way in and score.

Anytime when a player has his game going the way Aldridge did in that game, and you have a poor matchup on him (which is our entire roster except Asik or Howard), you have to double. You have to get the ball out of his hands. I don't care how good their 3 point shooting is. I know that doubling will leave other players open.

Maybe in this next game, Aldridge's offense won't be clicking the same way that it was in game 1. And maybe Asik won't get so many silly moving screens called on him and he will do a fine job of slowing down LMA one on one. If that is happening, don't double. But don't stick Jones on LMA one on one at the end of a close game when Aldridge is going off, and do nothing but watch as we all knew he was going to score again.

 

You do realize that the coach is Kevin McHale?

 

I'd just like to see us take the strategy that the Blazers used. Attack the star (Harden) and make them expense energy on D early. Make them uncomfortable.

I'd like to see some plays ran for T-Jones to put pressure on LaMarcus. Bev and Lin should attack Lillard early since he's nearly as bad a defender as Harden.

 

The way to attack LaMarcus is to screen him to death until he switches to Dwight then get Dwight the ball. Jones can't really attack LaMarcus because he can't shoot outside.

 

Basketballholic when I say hard double I don't mean every play. Im talking about mixing things up instead of trying to guard LMA one on one every freaking time. As far as Lillard he was hot in crunch time so hard double him and make him get off the ball or prevent him from getting the ball. Make someone else beat you. How many times have you heard that phrase in the NBA before brother?
When Dwight got going what did Portland do, I will tell you , they hard double Dwight and made him pass the ball out.

LMA shot 54% with us guarding him one on one. We have to throw different looks at him.

 

I'm not sure about TT but something should change about how Houston defends LMA. You can't let a player like LMA score 50 points. He is not Durant or Lebron.