One area of Rockets B-Ball that has been on my mind since the Kevin Martin trade is how the Rockets defend the Lakers. Scoring against the lakers is much less of a problem as the Rockets have Aaron brooks vs. Steve Blake/Derek Fisher and a large array of other offensive attacks(Kevin Martin, Yao, Scola, and deep bench) that can be spread out over 48 minutes. Front Line: Yao Ming and Scola to start with Miller, Hill, Hayes, Jeffries off the bench. I see the Front Line match ups potentially being a problems at certain points over 48 minutes, but otherwise a plus overall. I personally would like to see Adelman start Hill, Hayes, or even Jeffries against Pau Gasol and then let Scola go Video Game God Mode against Odom. Wings/SGs-Kevin Martin, Shane Battier, C-Bud, Courtney Lee This is where I see the majority of the problems. Shane covers Kobe and which leaves Kevin Martin with Ron Artest. This where I hope to see team defense play in, as Ron will have his way with Kevin Martin over part of the game. I think at this point Adelman will choose to have Ron Artest play around with Kevin Martin on the perimeter and use double teams to throw him off when he penetrates. The Lakers have added Barnes, which helps out with their depth. Point Guards- Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry The Lakers have Derek Fisher and Steve Blake along with Shannon Brown, For the most part they are easy to handle and I'm pretty sure Kyle Lowry will want to guard Kobe due to boredom. Anyways these are my thoughts as of now Discuss
If Martin's defence is in any way better than that of last year, I don't think it will be as bad as you think. You've got Yao vs Bynum = advantage Yao Scola vs Gasol/Odom = advantage, honestly I think its a toss up. You could say advantage for Gasol, but its close. Battier vs Kobe = advantage obviously Kobe. But Battier will keep him in check. Martin vs Artest = advantage Martin. Artest will give him fits defensively, but I think Martin will have the advantage with his quickness and his ability to draw fouls. Brooks vs Fisher/Blake = advantage Brooks and its not even close. The bench is really where our main advantage is. Miller, Hill, Hayes, Jeffries, Budinger, Lee, Lowry, and PatPat. We're pretty much stacked at every position. The Lakers main backups are probably gonna be Blake, Vujacic, Barnes, and Theo Ratliff. Theo Ratliff is the freaking backup center LOL. Can't wait till the tip off on October 26th!!! Oh and nice thread BTW.
Agree with you on everything except scola vs gasol. I love scola and think he is a great offensive threat, but i consider gasol being a lot better than scola. Scola is going to have a lot of problems defending gasol. The biggest threat is scola picking up early fouls. vs the lakers, like someone else has said, i would prefer having hill start at the pf position. I think with hill's length, speed and leaping ability, he has a bigger chance of defending gasol more effectively. bring in scola when odom comes in for bynam and have scola abosolutely distroy odom.
Agree on everything but the 4. Scola has the ability in any given game to outplay Gasol, but over a 7 game series, his size/length becomes a bit too much to deal with. And Odom is just head and shoulders above any of our backup bigs. Our key is that we have the size advantage at the 5 to even out the disadvantage at the 4.
A key thing to remember now is we have a team that should cause the Lakers' fans to start "Defending the Rockets" threads. This team has a lot of dynamics that the Lakers will have to account for, and they'll be using energy to stop us as well, it won't just be an outmatched Rockets squad that has to pay superhuman attention to defense in order to stay close. IMHO, of course.
Scola vs. Gasol/Odom is a huge advantage for LA. Don't kid yourself. Shane Battier doesn't "keep Kobe in check" either.
I agree 100% when you break down matchups like this Rockets appear to have a huge edge. The problem lies in the fact that the Lakers though not seemingly at an advantage (I believe this is true against a good amount of teams), are so long, and grab so many rebounds because of this, which is where their edge is. The KEY to Rockets or any team beating the Lakers, isn't matchups, it's keeping the rebounding game close, I don't think you will be able to beat them very often, but if you can keep it close, you will win due to the ability to take away the Laker's biggest adv.
Are you really giving Yao an advantage? Yao is coming back from a huge surgery and is only going to play no more than 25 minutes. Sure Bynum is overrated and is terrible at times, but I really don't see any of our other players being able to guard him or keep him off the boards. Also Battier isn't going to do anything on Kobe anymore, those days are done. Plus Gasol/Odom is a HUGE and let me say that again HUGE advantage for the Lakers. I love my boy Scola but Gasol/Odom combo is just too much for him.
Uh yeah Yao gets the advantage!! I'm pretty sure most people would agree that Yao (when healthy of course) is the best center in the league. I'm not even sure Bynum is ahead of Howard. Remember in game 1 vs the Lakers, Yao gave Bynum fits. Bynum had to sit most of the first half due to foul trouble. And sure Bynum has his days, but he's nowhere as consistent as Yao. Don't underestimate Yao, don't do it. And yeah I agree that the advantage for PF goes to the Lakers, that's why I said in my earlier post they probably get the advantage. I guess I should have clarified what I meant. Scola/Hayes/Hill/PatPat could all be used to defend Gasol/Odom. Don't undervalue Hayes' defense. The guy was holding his own against centers last year! Plus, it appears he has slimmed down and gotten stronger. That is why I LOVE this Rocket team because we have sooooo much depth. So overall yeah, Gasol is better but we have the weapons to try and contain him.
