I think the biggest change in the second half was that Howard took up guarding Blake Griffin and stopped him cold. Griffin was relegated to outside jumpers and did not post up against Howard. In the first half he was unstoppable, but Howard shut him down singlehandedly though they went to a double team when Howard was out on Griffin. This took him out of his sync and saved the game for us. Dwight Howard is really playing at a dominant level. His defense is changing the pace of the game and is skying over people on the pick n' roll. He does however need to get out of the post...its simply not his game and never will be.
Actually Ariza on Griffin was an awesome adjustment in the second half....slowed him down cause he couldn't just drive by him. He did a good job fronting Griffin as well.
Howard, Ariza, Harden... as long as they don't play power forward they can guard Griffin, apparently.
Ya Ariza played him well too. Doubling him also helped a bunch... Imagine that. For as hot as he was in the 1st half we stopped him cold in the 2nd.
We made good adjustments but I think fatigue was also a big factor. Doc wouldn't take him out cause he is the whole offense
I am just glad that McHale made adjustments on defending Griffin in the 2nd half. He didn't wait until Game 3 when we could be down 0-2 like last year!
On one hand...props to McHale for that adjustment, as well as doubling Griffin. On the other hand...everybody who knows anything about basketball knows that those two adjustments should have come WAYYYY earlier. McHale is capable of making good adjustments. He just executes them far too late.
Having Ariza front Griffin while Howard/Jones protected the rim was the key adjustment in the second half. If we're going to continue to do that after CP3 comes back, that means we're going to need Brewer to play out of his mind defensively while guarding Paul.
