I want to point out how wide open this jumper shooting freak is. I just re-watched the first quarter from the 8 minute mark until about the 5 minute mark and look at how many wide open looks he gets. Note the time on the bottom. This is beyond ridiculous, they need to learn to guard against the pic. In many of these cases LMA is setting a pic and either Howard or Asik will switch off from LMA to guard the potential roller to the basket while the defender on him also has his eyes on the ball leaving LMA wide open. I would rather take my chances with getting beat on a pick n roll than leaving LMA for a 85% jump shot.
this has been the rockets' defensive strategy against basically every team all year long and it's absolutely infuriating. they either switch immediately or the guy guarding the screener will show hard - except they show so hard it's basically like a double team on the ballhandler and the screener is free to do whatever he wants. i don't understand why we don't have another plan on defending the pick and roll besides the 2 extremes of switching and what amounts to double teaming the ballhandler.
Rockets are just not crisp on their defensive rotations. This isn't anything new. What's scary is if they finally get this fixed at the expense of giving up layups tonight if Portland makes the passing adjustment. It's not like the Rockets have been great at defensive execution the last few years. Don't expect them to suddenly be good at it. The best you can hope is for Portland to be off on their shooting.
I'm sorry, but when the guy just got off for 46 points on you and right away in the first quarter he's left wide open multiple times, that's just poor coaching. You can pick the lesser of two evils OK, LMA is shooting a scorching percentage against us, I think we should keep our focus on him and not the ball handler. Maybe the ball handler gets an open route to the basket, maybe he doesn't but LMA wide open almost guarantees two points.
I agree. If it was a consistent situation throughout the whole game, I have to put the blame on the coaches. It is Mchale's job to make sure this will not happen again in game 3 and after.
While it's appalling that he's consistently getting those open shots, what's just as questionable is having Howard come THAT FAR away from the paint on Portland's pick and roll. Howard should NEVER be that far away from the paint let alone from Aldridge. This is game planning at its worst.
well, you see, we're definitely sending double teams, you know, what can i say, L.A well he is just shooting before the double team gets there. Lamarcus is just a homerun hitter.
these pics obviously exploit a huge problem of ours. but LMA also made a lot of incredible tough shots. turnarounds, fades, over OMER or DWIGHT...incredibly impressive. I'd like to see those screenshots as well. Obviously we're playing with fire, but LMA has GOT to slow down eventually. his numbers werent THIS good over the course of the year, in fact he was one of the more inconsistant shooters given his # of shots this year. or maybe im blind, these stats mean nothing, and some players just step the f up in the playoffs. regardless, i foresee a TON of LMA FTs tonight
How about him only making three 3's all season and then making two on us in the first playoff game? What a joke. I've watched both games but wasn't aware that he had 5 wide open shots within 3 minutes. That's really discouraging to know...
"Paging Tom Thibodeau, Mr. Thibodeau please report to the Houston Rockets as soon as possible, your party is waiting inside the Toyota Center."
I love how in the 4th pic, the closest player to Aldridge is.....Lopez... [facepalm] What is so infuriating about these pics is that all this was happening during DH's monster 1st quarter. Effectively making it meaningless.
