Just curious why McHale has our guards going over the pick every time, letting Barrea have a free run into the lane. The guy is a 5'10" 42% career shooter. He's a third string point guard for a reason. Make him shoot over the defense! On the other end, Barrea can't guard anyone without flopping or fouling. Use Harden as the point and just go right at him. Barrea's drtg is worse than Jason Terry this year. Stop making this career bench player look like an all-star.
Well apparently he's a cross between Isiah Thomas and Micheal Jordan. I can't believe we let that tall dwarf do us like that. Shameful.
Against an elite PG I'm all for starting Corey Brewer to help defensively. But we shouldn't have to do that against Barrea. I don't see him being near as effective on Tuesday.
While McHale has made some decent moves like playing Capella over Dorsey, this is another fail on him. He should take this option away from them by doing several things that are options to him, as you mentioned some: 1) Go at him on offense, especially in the pick and roll. Whomever he ends up on should just dominate and shoot over him. 2) On defense, double and get the ball out of his hands, as well as go under picks to remove him from driving into the lane PERIOD. 3) Put a bigger defender on him if necessary with Ariza or Brewer and let Harden guard Ellis. 4) Have Nick guard him one and one and smoother him the entire game when he is in and never even let him get an easy pass to get the ball, while letting our other four guys do all the rotating and switching their assignments. No way this scrub should be a part of beating us if we have any hope of playing the other teams good in this playoffs.
Moving Harden to point doesn't mean that Barea has to be matched up with Harden. This isn't like a video game (don't mean to sound rude). Ariza for example has been guarding Monte (SF vs SG).
The key for an offense is to get into the paint. Barrea is quicker than our guards and can easily penetrate. Plus, Josh Smith was getting destroyed in the pick and roll. He was in the wrong spot many times last night, leading to wide open shots. Plus the Rockets were not shooting well at all, and it seemed like every miss led to a fast break the other way and the Rockets did not do a good job at getting back on defense. There were many things the Rockets did not do well last night. They should make the adjustments and come out ready to play at home on Tuesday.
The fact that we're having to discuss ways to stop JJ Barea is embarrassing in and of itself. McHale has been decent with game-to-game adjustments this year so we'll see what they do, but they absolutely must do something different. Whether it be switch less, bigs hedge harder, or go under the screen, just do something. If he continues to roll with this kind of pick and roll defense, it'll continue to kill us. I would also throw Nick Johnson out there for 8-12 minutes at least to give him a different look. NJ is a zero offensively, but offense isn't the problem right now.
I'm not as worried as most people are re: guarding PGs in this, and later, rounds. We have a very versatile team, defensively speaking. Ariza was able to efficiently D up CP3 a couple months ago. I think we'll start G5 seeing if Berea falls back to the mean. If not, and if Terry/Prig are the reason, then well throw Brewer and Ariza at him. I know he wouldn't play, but I'd love to send KJ out there and tell him: "you're only purpose on this floor is to stop JJ Barea." Would be some fun stuff to see.
Haha looking at how we handled Barrea I'm curious to how we will handle CP3 next round... WOLVERINE PLS
The problem with this is that with his small puppy dog size, the flopping he does works so well against bigger players. Hence the offensive fouls off of picks. He flies like 20 feet from being tapped. It's truly amazing. Also, I hate his face.
If you go with some big lineup combination of Harden, Ariza, Brewer, TJones, Smith, and/or Dwight with Barrea on the floor then you have an advantage on him no matter who he guards.
You could put JJ on Ariza then. He sells his flops well enough that it could stop some of Ariza's already average drives to the basket. Most of the time Ariza is looking to spot on for 3's so that shouldn't be too hard to guard.
I would do this and then just abuse and embarass him every time down the floor until they take him out of the game. If anyone tries to help, his man will be free to attack. If any of Harden, Ariza or Brewer can't beat and abuse Barrea one on one consistently, then they wouldn't be in the NBA..but of course they all can.
I saw it a bit during game 4, but I'd like to see us attack JJ more by doing the following: a 1-2 pick at the top of the three point line to switch Barea onto Harden If you can't stop his penetration, make him work on D. Force Carlisle to adjust or pull him out of the game
JJ was the change of pace guard on the Mavs '11 Championship team. He played a big role in the Championship....that's why they lost him to free agency. He was a scrub in Minnie....but Carlisle know how to use that little pip-squeak and JJ knows the Mavs system. This is where Wolverine would have a meal of a smaller dude...but JJ would still get his against him too because he fits so well into the Mavs system.
