There is only one player on this roster that defend Aldridge effectively. Make up all the little smart alek names you want. Doesn't change this fact.
Bingo. Asik made him force really tough shots and turnarounds that happened to go in. The only thing more than that you can ask for is to double team him off the ball. On the other hand, they should attack him and make him work a bit on defense. I don't know if it is my perception last game but it seemed when he had to check DH, he had a few rare misses on offense.
You can't be serious. Playoffs are a whole different animal. D-Mo would get destroyed even easier than Asik and Howard. The 1 on 1 defense against LMA has been pretty damn solid. And for those calling for him to be immediately double teamed, I would agree if Harden wasn't totally incompetent on defense. Unless Harden magically develops a brain that knows how to play D, when we double, Harden is gonna get lost and leave Batum/Matthews/Mo wide open from deep. All 3 of those guys shoot very efficient playing at the Rose Garden.
This may help the discussion: I gathered some stats about LMA against the Rockets in Regular season, and his performance with various players on/off court. Green/red highlighted cells are places that stood up to me as good/bad stats by LMA when player was on court, in comparison to the rest of the players, or to the par level. (Plus, they looked as if they may be significant even in light of the small sample) Yellow highlighted cells indicate a very small sample in the line. Small sample makes it hard to discuss the bench data, but lineups with Asik & DMo seemed to lower LMA's FG%, and Garcia's presence had the opposite affect. Lineups with Asik, Casspi & DMo (in this order) seemed to be good for outscoring Blazers' lineups that included LMA. Looking at starters, lineups with Howard were better than par, whereas lineups with Jones (very much so) and lineups with Parsons (to a lesser extent) were below par.
Because he shut him down last night? Are you smoking crack? Its a team defensive effort that slows down a player of that magnitude when he's in video game god mode. Bryon Russell couldn't stop Jordan one-on-one, Tony Allen couldn't stop Kobe one-on-one, Ewing couldn't stop Hakeem one-on-one, and Asik sure as hell couldn't stop LaMarcus Aldridge one-on-one last night. However, yes... Asik and Dwight have the best CHANCE at defending LMA one-on-one and slowing him down a little, but your are truly off the reservation if you think its not a team effort to slow down a super talent like LMA when he's in the zone, and its just as simple as taking out Jones and playing Asik. Last night was the most obvious evidence to show that. ASIK GUARDED LaMARCUS ALRIDGE, and IT STILL DIDN'T WORK. Why are people here still thinking that Jones is guarding LaMarcus Aldridge in this series & Asik & Howard aren't?
Just remember this he is a JUMP shooter....he is hot now but he WILL NOT KEEP ON SHOOTING LIKE THIS...
"He won't keep shooting like this." "This won't keep up." "He won't keep shooting like this." "This won't keep up." "He won't keep shooting like this." "This won't keep up." I guess y'all will keep saying this hoping it comes true (before the series ends)! :grin:
QUIZ TIME! When the Blazers Pick & Roll with Aldridge, what is the #1 thing they want to do? Is it maybe A) Set up a shot for Aldridge? or B) Set up a shot for Aldridge? or is it C) to set up a shot for Aldridge? This is magical! All Portland has to do is set up a Pick n Roll and *POOF* Aldridge turns invisible! 11 of the 18 buckets I saw were open jump shots, sprinkled with a few free lane jog lay ups. Making a 7' guy invisible is impressive. Good job Rockets & coaches!
One thing we should learn from yesterdays game is, you shouldn't change your game based on your opponent. Let him score 50, in the end Portland scores about 105 points, so score 110, run, attack, hustle, screen, don't wait after rebounds, be aggressive, scare the **** out of them, don't be soft, don't forget you are the talented team of the series.
Don't remember how often Terrence defending LMA in regular season. But in 1st game Jones did pretty good job on him. Yes, LMA, scores 46, but 15 of them he brought in end of regulations (after hack-a-howard collapse) and OT. All other time that night TJ complicated his shots. My point is: give a TJ chance to guard LMA more, he's enough fast and strong, doesn't miss LMA near perimetr. Asik will help him, give a rest, but first option must be Jones. May be Omer would have been better. But we can't play Asik on permanet basis, cause we need TJ's offense. Today he sat more than half of 4thQ, and it was bad, cause he was one of two player who brought points. No need double team. We fail it. We even can't makes right switch after PnR. And probably someone will make open shots if try to double LMA.
Last nights match up vs. LMA on TJ 5-6(83%) on Dwight 6-7(86%) on Omer 6-14(43%) data is from sportVU http://stats.nba.com/featured/sportvu_matchup_data_aldridge_2014_04_24.html#hou-por
Hey thanks for this. Not that I needed to verify whati can see with my naked eye or anything. But it does provide another layer of evidence for all the TT haters and posters that keep saying Dwight needs to defend him and that Asik sucked defending him. That's 6 for 14 with a couple totally ridiculous fade away fall away jumpers that went down while Asik was on him too.
Just stop it with the double team talk. You can't send a double on someone 20 ft from the basket, who's shooting jumpers over a 7 footer. What possible good is it to bring a shorter player over to help? He isn't going to affect the shot, LMA can shoot it over Asik and Lin just as easy as he can shoot it over just Asik. All you do is give them a potential wide open 3, or layup and at the very least you make it more likely for an offensive rebound when you get out of position like that. Asik should be #1 option, DMo should be #2. Dwight needs to protect the rim and rebound. Even though you may still suffer nightmares of Dmo's awful rookie year defensive rotations, he has grown into a solid defender. His defensive rating is near the tops of the team. He's drawn more charges than anyone on the team despite playing limited minutes. And as The Jabberwock showed in his post, so far he has contributed to LMA's worst shooting percentage against us. Adjust the PNR strategy Hard hedging cuts off drives to the basket by guards. We usually would rather give up midrange shots than guards attacking the basket. Portland should be the exception. Lillard is a great shooter, but he is very mediocre when it comes to finishing around the basket (47%), and is really poor in the 3-10ft range (34%).(Lillard's shot chart) LMA is one of the best midrange shooters in the game at 44%. (LMA's shot chart) When LMA sets the screen we should not hedge. Let the guard chase the guard, force him into the paint where Howard the 3 time DPOY can do what he does best. (Defending the rim, not chasing jumpshooters!) Make LMA work on Defense If LMA is playing center, give the ball to Howard and let him work. If no Howard, we should be relentlessly attacking the rim. If Lopez is playing center and LMA is guarding Asik. Asik needs to push his weight around on Alridge and just keep fighting for rebounding position. If LMA is gurading DMo or TJones we need to attack him on PNRs and maybe a few isolations. In the post for DMo, face up for Tjones. Other small things (Regression & Fatigue) LMA attempted less than half the amount of FGs at the rim in game 2 as he did in game 1. Going from 13 to 6 is a big improvement for the Rockets D, even if it wasn't easy to see while he was draining long jumpers at a ridiculous clip. LMA shot 13/19 from outside the paint for 68%. His average on the year is 44%. I think it is logical to assume that LMA's shooting percentage is not sustainable and he will start regressing. I think he is going to tire out as the series goes on, and he'll be less effective in the 4th quarters. These were LMAs plays in the 4th quarter. (He didn't check in until 6:31) 6:09 LaMarcus Aldridge misses 19-foot jumper 4:58 LaMarcus Aldridge makes 2-foot two point shot (Wesley Matthews assists) 4:00 LaMarcus Aldridge misses 16-foot jumper 3:01 LaMarcus Aldridge offensive rebound 2:59 LaMarcus Aldridge makes layup 1:46 LaMarcus Aldridge lost ball turnover (Chandler Parsons steals) 1:20 LaMarcus Aldridge misses 0:44 LaMarcus Aldridge misses 21-foot jumper He missed all of his jumpshots (5 shots) and made a layup and a dunk.
Say what? Have you seen LMA's shot chart? http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/shotchart?gameId=400553099 1/3 20 feet+ 4/5 from 19 feet 1/1 from 18 feet 1/1 from 17 feet 2/2 from 16 feet 1/1 from 15 feet That's a LOT of shots inside 20 feet where you could be doubling or threatening to double at least for the purpose of ball denial or forcing him to pass. We shouldn't be doubling him ALL the time, but it would be nice if we were doubling him SOMETIMES.
