I know this board likes to talk about offense and how Cat takes to many shots, and Yao doesn't get enough touches, and how we don't pass the ball enough. However, I really don't think that is our main problem. If you look at the last three games we scored 109, 83, 105 points while shooting 44, 43, and 45 percent which isn't bad at all. OK the Clipper game was bad on both ends of the court. Now lets look at our defense for the last 3 games. We let our opponents score 114, 94, and 100 against us while shooting 46, 48, and 44 percent. That doesn't tell you the whole story. What is really sad is we are letting opposing teams perimeter players light us up during our losses. These are the points opposing starting guards and small forwards have put up against us in the losses. Pacers 20,19,9 Sonics 20, 11, 18(payton had 18 assists) Suns 20,14, 27 and a combined 25 assists Mavericks 28, 15, 8 (not count Dirk as a SF) Clippers 15,14,2 Portland 12,14,4 Kings 20,14,21 Hornets 14,19,25 Grizzlies 25,21,6(gooden) Clippers 27,13,4 What does this say about us. We lose all our games because of weak perimeter defense. When you let guys like Jwill, and Andre Miller light us up, we have no chance of winning. We need to find a way to improve our perimeter defense without trading Francis who is our weakest defensive player. Well its probably a tie with Rice and Moochie. I really don't know the answer, but I am sure this is our biggest problem.
rockbox, Thanks for the refershing thread. Great topic. Mobley has actually played better D this year than I remember him playing in years past. He is still sporadic in that department, but overall, Im satisfied. Im at a loss as to why Francis' defense is so poor. I mean, its borderline insulting. Francis has no clue with regards to defensive fundamentals. Almost every time his man drives to the hole, Francis will just turn his body and do his best Manuel "Manolete" RodrÃguez impersonation. Did anyone else notice that at the end of the Clippers game that Francis actually committed himself to playing D on Miller and actually drew 2 offensive foul calls by staying low, spreading his feet and staying between Miller and the basket? I definately noticed it. This tells me a few things: 1) Francis has the athleticism to play good D (obviously) 2) Francis has the knowhow (fundamentals) to play good D and 3) Francis, when he wants to be, CAN be a good defensive player. In the end, I think that Steve's problem is one of the things. Either he is too tired too excert a whole lot of effort on the defensive end due to having to carry such a huge offensive load and taking such a pounding from his play in the lane or hes just dogging it for no good reason. Personally, I would lend more credence to the former rather than the later. Just another reason why its not always beneficial to have Steve taking 20+ shots a game and playing over 40 mins. If we get his mins cut down a lil and give other players a bigger role in the offensive, maybe Steve will show us what kind of defensive player he can be.
I don't think he's tired. I think his rebounding average would be much lower. And he seems to be going for offensive boards even more frequently in the 4th quarter. Maybe part of it is that he is so lightly built. He isn't built like Marbury or Baron Davis. Maybe he is trying to avoid physical contact. He isn't really the type of guy to get up real close to a guy and out- muscle other guards. Even on offense he isn't very phsyical, except when he's driving to the basket and getting thrown to the floor. Although I don't really think that's it. If he was trying to avoid physical contact he would drive to the basket so much.
Codell, you are so right. The issue is all Steve. First we have a great defensive frontcourt so we do not need Francis straying from his man. Stick with him. Second, Steve can lighten up the load by passing the ball. Way too many times he does not pass out of double teams and then does pure nonsense with the ball. In the last game there was a pick and roll play and he could have passed to Ming for a dunk. It is frustrating for me and I am sure it is for his teammates too. Third, play him less. All that happen when he plays 40+ minutes is that his quality of play per minute drops. Play him no more than 35 minutes. He will have less opportunity to get involved in all kinds of wayward plays. Rudy is such a softee, sometimes I wish we had a no-nonsense coach. There are other problems too, but dealing with these Steve issues would be a big help.
exactly, I dont think he is tired. It is just his style of play, because of how his body is built. wow. Thank goodness for a new thread topic. I was getting tired of seeing the same crap over and over.
I don't think taking too many shots has much to do with it, but I do agree with limiting his minutes to 35 minutes a game. The only problem is his backup is Moochie who isn't any better on D than he is. To tell you the truth, I don't know of very many good defensive backup point guards to trade for. I wish Hawk was a better ball handler because he would be perfect for the backup point guard spot.
<blockquote><hr>What is really sad is we are letting opposing teams perimeter players light us up during our losses.<hr></blockquote> yeah, but consider for a second that Person and Jones, and to a certain extent Williams, got unconscious with really little way to stop it....at least with little way to stop it without giving up something easier. I'd rather be beat by Person and Jones going unconscious than giving up layups. Overall, our defense is solid; we just need to continue focusing on it as a main priority. Oh yeah, and it would help for Francis to learn to steer or delay his man a little bit better...but that might never change. Oh well.
wow...sorry about that...I dayzed out and thought about Yao when I wrote that. Francis, He does carry a huge load on the O end. I dont think his defense is atroscious. When ever he commits himself, he usually either forces a missed shot or turnover. And there are alot of made shots by over pointguards where there is nothing u can do to stop them because of a unique fade away...like Nash does. Francis is a great player, as long as he is commited to the defense and chasses after his man instead of letting him blow by him making a teammate pick him up...which breaks apart the defense. Mobes has always pleased me with his play, even though he does jack it up alot. In some Rocks games, we are lucky to get the shot off and have a chance at it going in, other wise turn it over.
I agree that Jason just went wild because it was Friday the 13th. And Person and Jones were just hot. But what about Miller? He got tons of layups.
HeyP, I agree with the fact there is really no way of stopping a player that is just feeling it, but it seems like every point guard in the league does it to us. Also, I think we can let one perimeter player score 20+ points against us, but we need to stop the other 2 from doing the same. The point guard is the last position I want to score 20+ points on us because it causes defenses to collapse on him which means wide open shooters somewhere on the floor.
exaclty. that is why players must stick to their man...that is when they are playing man defense not zone.
Slow it down. When we were holding opponents scoring down, we won. We played smarter, more under control, in a slow tempo. Dogg the opponents, tip balls, work the clock down. Make them work, make them hurt. Put some D on the floor at all times.
I've never been a fan of slowing down because all it does is make the game boring. We held the Clippers scoring down but they still shot a great percentage and kicked our ass. What I want them to do is to force teams into taking low percentage shots like long jumpers with a man in their face. Don't get me wrong, I think our defense is greatly improved over last year hence the improvement in our record. But I think that has more to do with Ming, Cato, and to a lesser extent KT and Griffin. We still need better perimeter defense. It seems like we are still playing the matador defense except Yao is there to clean up the mess sometimes.
rockbox and easy and Uprising, I agree that Miller beat us with penetration. Also, Williams produced the game winner on just driving 30 feet straight to the rim. I also agree that this is a reason why Francis must stop working so hard on offense. He must get the rest of the team involved to help keep him a little more fresh. It just seems that there are very little choices to be made when trying to stop a PG who can get a step on your PG. You have to steer him, and the whole team has to be in synch how to provide help D without giving up something else. It's got to be pretty hard to achieve. Personally, as explosive as Francis is, I don't think he's got a quicker dribble to the rim than Parker, Miller or Williams and Nash and other smaller PGs. And look how Francis is able to get a step on them. To me, (and I don't mean to absolve Francis), it is about sustained team focus and communication. It's tough. The best the coach can do is explain where they are beating you and change up the defenses if need be. But in the end, the players have to communicate and execute. Sitting down either Francis or Mobley is admitting defeat. We can play team defense with them on the court, as long as they remain fresh.
" ...as long as they remain fresh." When are they going to do that when they're leading the league in minutes? It's the same old story. Mobes and Francis play too many minutes. Why? Because Rudy doesn't sit them down for a blow. Why? Because no one on the team can back them up?? Bull****. I can't believe we can't do without them for 10 minutes a game. And if they keep going at this rate they will break down. This is right up there on my list of "Things Rudy does that baffle me." Why does he play them so many minutes? Because they WANT TO?? Who's in charge? It sounds ridiculous to even ask the question. Every once in awhile you have to play someone heavy minutes because of match-ups/injuries, but if you play those same players heavy minutes every game, then you have a problem. We have a problem. Thoughts?
When comparing with the other teams, you may find that many key players usually check in for around 40 minutes. Even older player like Payton is averaging 40.8 min so far. I believe SF is as tough as Payton, but may be lack the defensive concentration for all 40+ min. KH
The defense definitely has been the problem during this mild slump. It has been all too obvious, we're losing because of our defense. Our individual defense has been average all season except for cat, hawk, and yao. Where we are slumping is on our team defense. The scrambling and rotating has really slowed down. Hate to single out but Rice has really looked terrible particularly in rotating. The other problem for the Rockets has been like always, pick & roll defense. Our guards almost never fight over the pick and Our guards and big men are almost never on the same page. IMHO this has to be coached....has it been? These two problems have been the death of us. The PG's have been tearing us up because of these two things. The good thing, is that these areas have been better in previous games, so it would seem consistency in effort and energy on the defensive end is what is needed. As far as pick and roll defense, we have to get on the same page, including the players on the weakside. It's not one player's (SF) lack of man to man defense that is killing us, it's a collective team defensive slump. Hopefully they turn it around today against the Pacers. Yep, I'm hoping we have an ugly "85 to 80" game because if we try matching shot for shot, we are foregone losers. It's the low scoring, intense defense, ugly offence games that the rockets will win consistently. Defense wins games.
The reasons why Francis and Mobley play so many min. are: 1. We are playing a lot of close games. 2. The only backup guard Rudy trusts is Moochie. Hawkins is OK, but he is more of a 3 than a 2. 3. Small ball. I agree that playing them less in the regular season is better in the long run. But to do this, we need to play better team ball and perhaps . . . cough. . . cough . . . trade . . . cough for a reliable veteran guard . . . cough . . .oh, I'm choking!
