ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Grizzlies 11/13/2007

please do not force feed yao the ball if he is fronted like v. the bobcats. that was the main reason why our offense sucked. when we do that, everybody just stands.

if yao is fronted, if we want yao to have the ball, let tmac run the side pick and roll w/ him.

other than that, move tmac around and let him create a play (either to shoot or draw the double and pass).

 

Yes, it's true sometimes the Rockets play down to the level of their opposition. I wasn't able to watch the Bobcats' game but a 6-1 team being pushed to the edge like that by the Bobcats' is either a matchup problem, off game, playing down to the level of competition, or any combination of the 3.

I say the Rockets play well. Shane gets his usual welcoming.

Game will be closer than it should, but not scary like the Charlotte game. 102-91 Rox on top.

7-1 sounds sexy, make it happen team!

 

Make it 7-1!
This is a must win if Rockets wants to stay on the top.

 

The way to beat a front is always the same. If there is no backside help, just lob. If the backside help is from the other big, flash the other big to the top of the key, pass it to him, and then have Yao spin into the lane and lob. If the backside help is from someone else, then reverse the ball quickly and that guy has a 1v1 opportunity, or run a P&R, drawing more help and letting that guy get even more open. Or the ballhandler can simply drive to that side since Yao's defender is now not a help defender since he's fronting.

Bringing Yao to the elbow simply bails out the defense, unless we quickly shift him back to the post and get him the ball before the defense sets up the front + help again. A pick and roll may work but it may result in contested jumpers for McGrady rather than attempts at the basket for Yao.

 

I say we go and beat the crap out of the grizzlies!
Yao can ditch 30 points and 15 boards.
Tracy can score 30+ points and give GAY a lesson.
*^_^*

 

Also watch out for TOs by Rudy to Luther.

"Gay gives Head the ball."

 

Rockets vs Grizzlies matchups

..C: Yao Ming 7'6", 310 lbs............ - VS - Darko Milicic 7'0", 275 lbs.

PF: Chuck Hayes 6'6", 238 lbs....... - VS - Pau Gasol 7'0", 260 lbs.

SF: Shane Battier 6'8", 220 lbs...... - VS - Rudy Gay 6'9", 220 lbs.

SG: Tracy McGrady 6'8", 223 lbs... - VS - Mike Miller 6'8", 218 lbs.

PG: Rafer Alston 6'2", 175 lbs....... - VS - Damon Stoudamire 5'10", 174 lbs.


Favoring Houston:
- None of their big men can stop Yao
- No one on the court can stop T-Mac
- No one has the strength to stop Bonzi down low
- James can post up/drive on smaller guards

Favoring Memphis:
- Lowry's (6'0", 175 lbs.) and Conley's (6'1", 180 lbs.) speed will blow by any of Houston's guards
- Hayes' size disparity against Gasol/Darko
- Rockets force outside jumpers, and Miller's a big threat from three

 

Rox win big if either shane,james,or bonzi has a solid night. On the other hand if the bench remains as of late, i see Yao or Mac leading us to 7-1 by a modest 10 pt win.

 

The rockets need to take this game seriously despite their record. We will see how mature the team is with this game. Every game after this will be a tough one!

 

yao is too slow for the lob. we tried that a lot in the first quarter v. the bobcats and yao couldn't get to the ball or the bobcats got there first. it'll result in turnovers most of the time. adelman said the same thing: if this happens, PLAYERS NEED TO MOVE. so either then go to tmac via screens or something via movement or do the side pick and roll.

a side pick and roll yesterday resulted in 4 dunks for yao. in that side pick and roll, no one seems to rotate to yao, where hayes' man should have. so in that case, pass to yao if there is no rotation, pass to hayes if there is rotation.

but we need movement. the reason we really sucked offensively was that our offense remain stagnant when we tried to pass to yao when he's fronted (which we did a ton last yr under JVG and that's why yao struggled mightily v. these types of defenses).

so it's just more movement: either involving yao via pick and roll, or go to tmac via a motion offense.

this offense is becoming more stagnant lately b/c we've gone to yao a lot and ignoring the motion. outside of the bucks game, we have not gone over 90 pts at all when yao has done better (weird but true).

but i think the motion offense is sacrificed to get yao more acclimated to the offense.

but if we don't return to the motion offense, it's going to be a struggle where our offense is the same as last yr.

 

Yao is NOT too slow to catch the lob if there is no backside help. I remember last year if the defense would simply front without backside help the lob would be extremely effective and Yao would get the ball in position to score. Only freaks like Shaq can be quick enough to get the lob even if there is backside help, and even then he commits offensive foul quite a bit trying to do it.

If there is backside help, the defense is giving up something else, and that needs to be exploited.

The offense only looks stagnant because our shooters are shooting very poorly. Rafer is shooting poorly even by his standards, Battier isn't getting many shots at all, and Mike James is struggling to hit the rim on his shot at times, and McGrady isn't shooting well either. This will change. I think we saw that all the excess movement just resulted in a lot of turnovers and the shot quality didn't get any better.

 

True, but also take into account that the role players (minus Bonzi and Battier) for the most part have been a major disappointment, starting with the shooting of James and Alston. The fact that we're using the same starting lineup is a disappointment in itself because it forces Rafer to shoot. Scola still needs some time obviously. Head is what he is. Snyder, Francis, Brooks, and Landry barely made appearances (if at all). Novak is gone.

Right now, we're just trying to win games and survive this brutal month. If we actually tried to run this motion offense non-stop for the sake of repetition, our record would probably be around 3-4, and that might be a little optimistic.

There's no better way to survive than to pound the ball in to Yao and let T-Mac do his thing.

 

Yes. The problem is Chuck Hayes is not capable of exploitation. Luis Scola is though, and once he gets acclimated into this offense and the NBA...

 

again, if we go to yao in the post, the only shots we can get if he passes out of the double teams are PERIMETER 3pt shots. so if we have zero movement, we're going to be like last yr => a team that depends constantly on the jumpshot. those teams won't advance very far.

that's why we need movement. but since adelman has shelved all the movement for tracy, the plays we're running are either isos for yao, isos for tmac, or the pick and roll. and outside of the pick and roll, it's hard to get shots near the basket.

even yao isos => fallaways or jumpshots.

right now, we're winning with defense. our offense outside of the first 2-3 games have been EERILY similar to last yr. isos for yao, isos for tmac, mix in a few pick and rolls (but to the side), and take a lot of 3pt shots.

i think we won't be at our best offensively until we re-incorporate the movement for tmac. our offense is the most unpredictable when tmac is unpredictable. notice we score the most points when tmac leads the team in scoring.

i don't mean to say we win as tmac scores b/c that's not the case. i don't want tmac to shoot 30 times like he did in dallas. but when we incorporate the movement for tmac, it's harder to key on him and thus he attacks the basket MUCH MUCH easier. as a result, he wreaks havoc on the defense and thus he has more angles to pass for easier buckets (the side pick and roll with yao is another type of movement).

but when we try to go to yao a lot, the shots that the rest of the players get are JUMPSHOTS. it's hard to move around when yao has the ball b/c u want to give yao the space to work.

again, right now we are winning with defense, the same way we won last yr. our offensive effienciency is getting worse every game. coincidentally, the movement decreases every game.

we have to get back to that.

 

i agree adelman has shelved a lot of his offense just to weather this month. but again, when you depend on the jumper, you die by the jumper. fortunately, our D has actually been even better than last yr.

 

Meanwhile, our defensive efficiency is #3. When Yao has it going, our offense may not look smooth but we are winning because we have ground the game into a slowdown match and thus the opponents will have trouble scoring as well i.e. we're playing successful JVG ball. Honestly, JVG ball isn't so bad since we now have Mike James and Bonzi who can create for themselves which we didn't have last year.

All I've seen with the so-called "motion offense" is Yao standing at the elbow waiting for cutters to break open and people running around like chickens with their heads cut off and not getting open. Not only has it been mostly ineffective, it also causes turnovers, and these turnovers are worse than Yao getting stripped in the paint since they usually result in fast breaks for the other team. What Adelman said may well turn out to be a euphemism for going to Yao less. Yao has played the best when the team is committed to feeding him. Don't we want him to be more dominant?

I'd rather see the new version of Gundyball we've been trotting out rather than our poor quality motion offense.

 

yes we do. but if you depend on the jumpshot, you will EVENTUALLY die by the jumpshot, regardless of how your defense is.

bonzi is not a jumpshooter => but he has taken a ton of 3s recently b/c he can't penetrate or move. mike james has take not penetrated as much as i would think he would ever since the first few games. i haven't seen battier in the post (which would only happen if yao is in the high post) so he can get his shot going. i have not seen tmac scoring as easily as i would like (we're using tmac like last yr => ala he's taking TOUGH jumpshots. the jumpshots he took in the first few games were jumpshots off of a screen/curls where the defender is not right in his face).

obviously we want yao to be dominant. but we want a balanced team. we want easier shots. we want the offense to be unpredictable.

even if we have bonzi and mike james, but if they're resorted to jumpshots => it does not matter. a team that lives by the J WILL die by the J.

but again, adelman has stated he's shelving a lot of the motion to get yao involved. as yao gets more comfortable (and he played a lot of the high post v. the bobcats) operating at the high post while sitll mixing it up w/ his low post, i expect the movement to return.

but b/c scola/james/battier/AND yao are not picking up the motion offense as adelman would think (only bonzi and tmac know how to run it), he can't risk that in this tough month.

but we're not going to win in the playoffs like this, trust me. as long as we have rafer/james/bonzi/tmac chucking up a lot of jumpers (and yao doing fadeaways/fallaways even in the "low post"), we're not going to win. our fg% is in the bottom 10 of the L. the reason we still score is b/c of our ridiculous offensive rebounding.

again, we're thinking of playoff success here.

 

and trust me, i'm not a pessimistic dude despite we're 6-1.

this is what adelman has said repeatedly the last few wins. though we're winning, the offense is not even CLOSE to where he wants it to be. he def. wants more motion and hopefully we will see that.

 

If by motion he means what we were trotting out the first 3 games or so i.e. Yao standing at the elbow like a stiff while McGrady jacks up as many shots as possible, then I'd rather take Gundyball. The difference is that with the other offense Yao is completely excluded while with Gundyball McGrady still gets plenty of touches, like yesterday when he had more shots than Yao.

 

again, you're looking at STATS. if u WATCH the game, A LOT of yao's shots that he created on his own the last few games have been either jumpers or fadeaways. the dunks/layups he has gotten => from the penetration of the guards or via the side pick and roll.

the shots that tmac has taken ever since the first few games (though he takes shots), but they were the shots similar to under JVG => tough shots.

again, we're not seeing the screen/curls for tmac. when he takes shots off of those, the defenders are usually not right in his face. when he takes jumpers standstill at the top of the key or off a pick and roll, the defender is in his face.

so there are "easy" shots and there are "tough" shots.

again, yao has been doing GREAT at the high post the last few games. don't let the first 2-3 games FOOL you b/c he needs time to adjust. and he probably still does. but he's improving RAPIDLY from the high post.

trust me, if u want JVG-ball, you'll see more of tmac and yao doing 90% of the work. if the role players make their jumpshots, our offense look good. if they don't, it looks like the last few games.

but when u depend on the J => chances are you will lose a few playoff games by the J. that's always been the case in the history of the NBA. and that will be the case if we keep being a jumpshooting team.

the reason we wanted another coach from JVG is that we want a more efficient, unpredictable offense where we DO NOT depend on the J.