ClutchFans Game Thread: Thunder @ Rockets 10/19/2009 (PRESEASON)

Battier needs to continue to keep looking for he's shot . with yao and mac, he tended to go inton he's shell, but now he s looking somuch better on offense

 

What a game. C-bud and Lowry stepping up big time. Ariza still a disappointment and the last spot goes to Pops. Hands down.

 

Rockets offense looked like a top 10 team tonight.

We played a team that was ranked in the top 10 for most points allowed last season.

If the Rockets can avoid the top 20 teams in fewest points allowed, they are on their way to a championship.

 

nice game, granted okc isn't a very good team but good show nevertheless. 10 assists from Lowry and nice passes by chuck hayes. Definitely how this game turned out. Let's go get the mavs now!

 

But wait. OKC has two, TWO, 7-footers in their rotation. Plus a 6'10 Nick Collison. Surely, they must be at least a better defensive team than us.

Right?

 

True, but their Scotty likes to play a smaller lineup that spreads the floor with small forward 6'9" 235 lb Jeff Green at PF position. Jeff Green hasn't shown the ability to defend big man, but he is in there for his 38.9% 3pt shooting not rebounding and interior defense.

 

the 7 footers on the thunder's roster suck ass though.


krystic used to be good on the nets, but i have no clue what happened to his game nowadays.

 

The Rockets struggled early with their team defense, but did a much better job in the last 3 quarters. At the half, OKC was shooting like 57% from the field. The Thunder finished just below 43% for the game and never broke 20, after scoring 33 points in the opening quarter. I also think that the Rockets fast pace action took its toll on the Thunder. We kept pushing the ball up the court and our 2nd unit never let off the throttle. Our moving offense took too much energy to defend and the balance scoring was almost impossible to stop. Chuck Hayes led the defense, but everybody did a good job of helping or rotating on the open shooter. I keyed on David Andersen, even though he didn't have a good night shooting, I noticed him doing a good job of double teaming the ball. He may not be very smooth, but his hard working effort was very effective in stopping the movement of the ball.

 

A pattern that has been evident the whole preseason is the crappy first half defensive performances particularly in the first quarter. I assume this is a matter of not having set rotations so I won't worry now, but I hope this team isn't plagued with this during the season.

 

The thing I really, really, really, really like about this year's team is we EXPLODE down the court after a made basket against us and we immediately go into the offense looking for the easy shot. If you remember in Van Gundy's days, Jeff would be on his horse constantly after made baskets or rebounds wanting Rafer to run it up and begging his guys to run up. The problem was he wanted them to run it up and then run the clock for 15-17 seconds. He didn't teach them how to look for the advantage and get the early easy ones back. Adelman has a whole different philosophy. There are more times when we let the opponent go at the rim instead of fouling and slowing the game down and we turn around and ram it right back down their throats with Chuck jumping out of bounds and inbounding quickly to Brooks/Lowry who then race it up and get the layup back or the foul or a wide open high percentage jump shot. This is the definition of uptempo basketball.

Watching this game last night, OKC would get a bucket, and they would be literally running full speed back to the defensive end to try and stop us running up their backs. Man, when you do that to a team for 4 quarters, it wears them down big time defensively, takes all the starch out of their legs, they can't defend worth a flip in the 4th quarter, and their jump shooting percentage goes down the tubes in the the 4th quarter because their legs are dead. When you combine this style of play with a dominant big man next season when Yao comes back, we are going to be deadly. This is the same basic style that the Kareem/Magic Lakers teams used for 5 championships. A dominant halfcourt presence surrounded by track stars. This is the vision of where we are headed and as long as we maintain our defensive integrity with guys like Hayes/Lowry/Battier/Ariza, etc., we are going to have a lot of success.

 

Part of it is due to the defensive rotations. But I am okay with giving up more points early, letting the opponent go, and staying out of foul trouble. Especially with this year's squad, we cannot afford to get locked down in a halfcourt battle and run up foul count in the first half. Our best defense early is to run like h... and run the opponent's energy level down. Then you come down in the 2nd half and start grinding away defensively, guard more closely, get down to WORKN IT with Hayes/Battier/Lowry/Ariza, etc.

Foul count is probably one of Morey's under the radar stats. When you get an opponent in the bonus early, your offensive efficiency goes way up. When you get yourself in the bonus early, your net offensive/defensive efficiency goes down as you can't take as many risks. How many times in past years did we get into a game and either Yao or Scola had 2 fouls in the first 5 minutes of the first quarter and were riding the bench for the rest of the half? We can't afford that. The smart solution is to play racehorse basketball the first half, run down the court after a made basket and get it back quickly and force the pressure back on the opponent to come back down and do it again. Yes, we are essentially trading baskets, but we're still working the opponent down. If you every played basketball, you understand the pressure that it puts on you when, after you make a basket, you have zero time to relax but have to immediately get back and defend as soon as the ball hits the net. That constant pressure finally takes its toll offensively. And then the opponent looks up and they are staring at a defensive monster with Battier/Hayes/Lowry/Ariza/Pops and a very gritty Scola/Landry all rolling at them. I think our 4th quarter defense is going to be even more intimidating than last year's team.................as long as we run teams down in the first half. Where it will not work is if we allow ourselves to get locked into the slow down game in the first half and start jogging the ball up and running the offense from the top like every possession is the last possesion of the quarter/half. When you see that, you will see our chances of success going down the tubes as we are allowing the opponent to rest defensively and save themselves for the 4th quarter, keep their foul count down, etc., so they then have the energy/fouls to really expend themselves down the stretch against a smaller opponent.

 

Did anyone see Hayes take the pass from three-quarters court, dribble all the way up the middle of the floor, then dish to Landry for the dunk? How many big men in the league can defend like Hayes does then are able to dribble the ball up against a pressing defense and get the pass for the assist? You can count 'em on one hand.

 

Ariza shot well tonight. 16 pts on 50 percent shooting (Most of the time stayed within the offense. And had 3 steals, 4 turnovers.

 

good read. nice effort

 

Ariza was only a "disappointment" because everyone thought he'd be the next tmac from now on

 

good win for the rockets. good defense good offense. lets hope we can do this on a nightly basis

 

There are none like Hayes, but Hayes isn't a big man either. He's a little fella.

 

Clearly everyone dreaming. I was excited mainly about his defense that he proved he can be the king of steals.

 

I don't think everyone thought he was going to be the next tmac. There were just as many if not more comparisons to Artest. Ariza would replace Artest's role as a top defensive player, but would be 3rd in the offensive pecking order behind Yao and T-Mac.

There have been numerous comparisons and articles that compared the free agent swap to a trade and Ariza's role to Artest's role.

 

Nice write up. Lettuce for you.