This has been the single greatest weakness of this Rockets team under McHale. Nowhere else in the NBA do defenses allow such spurts without either calling a timeout or intentionally fouling to slow the opponent's momentum. I'm sick to my stomach watching these patented runs where we just stand around like deer in front of headlights. I'm not here to rant, but this is our Achilles heel and it needs to be fixed or the Rockets are going nowhere. I've now seen 3 full seasons of this and I really can't sleep at night feeling good about the Rockets even after they win like tonight knowing this will continue to come back to bite us time and again. God help us!
i agree with op. it doesnt matter if you win, this should be 100% unacceptable. i dunno the math but its seems like more often than not rockets will either play down to their competition, or get lazy as hell aafter a big lead. instead they can play 3 quarters of high level basketball, than the rotation players can sit the 4th qtr. i hope when the team is healthy and chemistry issues are gone, they dont do this crap.
when an opposing team goes on a 16-0 run, I think it's safe to assume that it is at least a much of (if not more) an offensive issue than it is defensive.
Despite holding the Kings to 43% shooting. Hmmm, I guess having a defense means the other team doesn't score at all.
Sounds like you are better suited to watching competitive bird calling or competitive knitting. Or maybe post this in one of the many threads related to coaching....
Coming into tonight we were 24th in defense. We had a better effort tonight especially in the 2nd half, but c'mon man, we've been bad.
Um, yeah exactly. Did you watch those three games? The defense was incredibly bad, multiple threads were started about it. We played well defensively in the 2nd half tonight as well as the Thunder game, other than that we've been pretty bad IMO.
LMAO The kings are 1-6 and are staring at the lottery like almost everyone expected. Good. I guess we held a lottery team to 43%. And only one. Nice try to close your eyes and ignore the elephant in the room.
Wait...it doesn't matter if you win? I haven't seen the participation trophy the NBA gives out. Have you?
No, it doesn't because it's ultimately bad habits being built. Those same bad habits are exposed against teams that we cannot afford to do that on.
It's all we have to go on now, we've been bad. There are signs that the defense is getting better, hopefully we keep improving.
Yeah, this is the Rockets in a nutshell. A 16-0 run is bad, but not horrifically bad. This is basketball. However, the Rockets playing to level of their competition, good and bad, is consistent with what I've watched in the past 3 years since I started watching them again. It's also amazingly common in all pro sports, which is something I really don't get. You'd think by the time you reach the pros, you'd have recognized that the teams that always beat you have it turned on from the very beginning of the game and keep it up throughout. And all the good coaches demand that level of effort. No coach worth their salt lets their team diddle around for half the game before it's time to start taking things seriously. I keep forgetting to watch the Rockets this season, but I also feel no great affinity for comebacks and close games. When the Rockets start trouncing the opponents they should trounce, my memory will probably be better.
All these runs are mostly due because the bench brigade has got no identity, yet. Last year, the band of brothers with Brewer, Smith and Terry actually gave us a big boost they came in. Remember that? I understand Bev, D-Mo, Jones and at times Howard's absences has thrown the presumably potent bench off. Still, McHale needs to challenge whoever is coming in to play better collectively. Having Jones and Bev coming back soon should help prevent those crazy runs by the enemy.
I would argue that its not just the bench, though. If you notice that during these runs, the offense starts taking a lot of bad, low percentage shots - mostly long, contested jumpers. For whatever reason, the offense gets into a funk where passing and movement stops, and everything becomes 1-on-1 ISO basketball. What ends up happening is that the opposing team gets the rebound from the missed shot, leading to easy buckets in transition. Obviously there needs to be improvement in the Rockets transition defense, but a little bit better decision making on the offensive end would significantly reduce the damage done by other teams during these runs. Regarding Jones and Bev, I would also say that those two are responsible for a lot of the poor shot selection that we often see. Bev's court vision is below average at best and his passes have historically been either off target or a second too late (or both), leaving the recipient in a poor position to make a good play, while Jones often times is so slow to decide where he's going that defenders are able to catch up with him to contest his shot and I haven't seen that he can consistently make a good pass when he does gets pressured. At least, that's how I see it.
