Looking back on the season, this team was so different from Rockets teams of the past because they prided themselves on focusing and getting big defensive stops. I had been trying to figure out why that had been so lacking this series and I guess losing these two guys is as a good reason as any. Both of these guys hustle their behinds off as well as play stellar defense.
Right. If you told me we have to lose D-mo and Bev for Chris Paul to be hurt I would probably take that . Im on the fence about them helping enough to win the series but they need to have pride tonight.
Rockets could survive a bit with Bev going down. Donatas going down was the killer though. Rockets would be much more competitive with just DMo in, let alone Bev. Really sucks and the media has completely glossed over those two important injuries too. We are facing an almodt completely healthy Clippers team.
Yes, when Ariza is forced to guard ball handler he can't play passing lanes. And passing lane steals was our and Ariza's bread and butter during regular season.
Idk about DMo playing against DeAndre or Blake. Yea DMo would give us a great post option, but how effective is that against a center much bigger, longer & 10x more athletic. Defensively we'd be worse with DMo and that's not even a question. We REALLY miss Patrick Beverley defensively, offensive rebounding & grit
Just skimmed through 9 pages of thread and not a single member touched on the biggest reason DMo would have made a difference in this series, more so than other opponent we could have faced. He is the only player on our roster capable of attacking Griffin and making him work on defense! Of course Howard could punish him in the post, but they're going to guard him with jordan. Having Dmo post up with Howard on the weak side block forces Griffin to play defense, potentially having him in foul trouble, in addition to expending energy playing 1v1 post Defense, arguably the most tiring activity in all of basketball. Dmo's value comes not from spacing the floor with 3's(albeit this is also something James would benefit from) but from posting up the 2nd best interior defender on their team, while being a solid enough passer to find Howard, causing a whole mess of problems for their bigs. A premier PG defender wouldn't help against a team with CP3 on it? Maybe my reading comprehension is extremely poor, or maybe my sanity has left me for the afternoon in pursuit of other things that aren't reading and accounting.
I'm pretty sure Griffin would dominate D-Mo just as he did the Spurs front court and T.Jones. D-mo is not the smartest player when it comes to picking up fouls. The only positive would be that he'd be a post-op option as well and force Griffin to play defense.... but lets not confuse D-mo has being the missing link to making this team that much better than the Clippers. Sure, they probably look better than they have thus far... but the ultimate outcome likely the same.
DMo's size and strength would be a big problem for Griffin, believe me. And DMo is deceivingly quick too. Dwight and healthy DMo would be a nightmare to handle. Let's just hope that DMo is patched-up well and wait one year.
It would still be best to put our best defensive PF on Griffin, especially since that is the same guy who could make him work on the other end of the court. Just like many things, it's not any one factor that makes a difference, it's the combination of many factors. Adding DMo and Bev back to the team would help the team in many different areas from strengthening the starting offense and defense to bolstering the bench. It would improve so many different areas that I think it could make a huge difference in how this series would have played out. That said, it doesn't really matter because we don't have DMo or Bev and we're stuck with Jones and Terry starting which is why we have no chance of seeing the WCF.
Lord help this boy please DMo had trouble with Tristan Thompson vs Cleveland, he'd definitely have trouble w/ Blake. His overall defense & rebounding sucked before he got injured and its no question that DMo gives us nothing defensively against the LAC frontline
Like I said, they'd be better... but not 25-30 point loss better. The Clippers are also playing at an elite level (which isn't always the case with teams you face in the playoffs)... meaning with the Clippers playing their best, I don't think there is any team in the league that can beat them in a 7 game series.
Part of the 25-30 point losses was that the team gave up, if they were more competitive with a much better defensive starting lineup I don't think they get to the point where they give up. That alone could make the 25-30 point losses into 5-10 point losses or even wins.
I agree that DMo is missed in this series. He was the one constant against the Clippers this year. He struggled earlier in the year against big centers like Jordan, but he figured them out by the end of the year and was posting up everybody with success and hitting the 3 when the bigs gave him room. He's my favorite player so I'm a bit biased, but I know what he brings and the Rockets are certainly missing it right now. Message to McHale - no more intentional fouling.
Dakota is correct. Not sure how it is comforting to pretend everyone on the organization from owner to players are stupid gutless lazy etc.
Yeah, right. DMo gives us nothing defensively against LAC Ask your doctor for different prescription, this one seems not working.
DMo draw 4 offensive fouls from DJ in one of the game this season before LAC. he isnt the most athletic but he could be pain in a** and in PO it could be damm valuable
