Did the Rockets start running the football to kill the clock too early?

I agree completely. I think that it is our offensive ineptitude that has let other teams get back into games more than bad defense. When he have a stagnant offense we suck. I dont know if this will be an issue going into the playoffs since it usually happens against bad teams. But I'm very worried about our tendencies to become stagnant from time to time. Even if we are not hitting shots, we should always be moving the ball and getting good locks. Which has not been the case for more than I feel comfortable with.

 

Playing a fast, turnover-prone, "high-variance" style of offense (their normal offense) is a bad idea when nursing a lead with minutes to go, IMO. I'm fine with them slowing it down. They need to learn how to play better at that pace. Its not like they don't have good offensive players that are smart enough to execute plays in the half-court..

 

I dont have the stats to prove it, but i think that we tend to turn the ball over more when playing a slower/half court/ ISO game. By turnover, i dont necessarily mean a bad pass. A horrible shot is just as bad and can also easily lead to a fast break. Also i can even count the amount of times that our player has tried for a foul and ends up either on the floor or complaining to the ref. Either way they take themselves out of the defense and usually the opponent scores easier. Also a high risk high reward turnover often leads to the ball being passed out of bounds, allowing our defense to set and be more efficient.

 

now i ain't no fancy coach and would wear a tie if I was,but the best way to run down the clock would be a kneel down i.e giving bol to big man, dwight.

 

If rox wants to play slow? Just give it to the big man.

 

Problem with that is timing. Too early and they double of force Dwight into a turnover.

 

If it weren't for two boneheaded plays, one by Harden for the turnover and the other by Lin to foul the 3pt shooter, we'd have won this comfortably. The odds that either happen is low. That both happened is really a one-time deal.

I'm quite sure if there's one team in the NBA that understand when to lower variance through clock-killing, it would be the Rockets. This is the very definition of what analytics bring to a basketball game. And the Rockets have one of the best analytics department in the NBA.

 

I second this. I think slowing it down can be the correct course.

 

FIRE McKubiak !!!

 

There are going to be games where slowing the game down backfires. More than anything we just need to stop making dumb mistakes. Lin fouled a 3pt shooter late in the game that gift-wrapped them 3 points.

In the Suns game, "running the ball" gave us no issues at all.

I know it was a failure early, but when we're up late, we may want to trot out the Twin Tower lineup again for rebounding/rim protecting purposes.

 

Fire Kubiak!

 

The timing to slow down the game was just about right. Save for chances of fast break or wide open shot, it was logical to milk some clock starting around the 3 minute mark with a lead of 7 - 10. This should be part of textbook and automatic in every player's mind, no instruction from coach is needed.

 

I like the analogy. Every good team needs to develop a "running" or late halfcourt game to really be great. This reminds me of the suns spurs series years back when the spurs had that extra dimension in being able to play fast and slow. With Dwight improving his ft form, i think we are beginning to see the beginnings of a true halfcourt threat from our team.

 

just simple math, reduce opponent possession is a very good strategy during 4th with a sound lead. say the point differential is 10 so it require 4 FGs to level it, it means your opponent need 4 more successful possessions than you to win/equalize. assume both teams play carefully no TO occur, so you both have equal possessions, and assume at the crunch time your opponent get so hot that they score on every possession while you play at the normal level score once every 2. how many total possessions they need to catch up/reverse? 8, for they score on every possession and you only score on 4 of your 8. so you can win just by cutting remain possessions down to 7.

if you can maintain the lead on a slower pace then it's perfect to play this strategy, that's another upside Dwight brought in together with half court offense. so it's another good reason why it's important to keep his hand warm and utilize him in crunch time, and it's important for him to fix his FTs so opponents cant get extra possessions by hacking him. even he make 1/2 FTs opponent still milk time by shortening our possessions, actually they easily double their possessions by using "our time", hack a Dwright does much more harm than it looks. Glad he just fixed it and a 10 points lead finally really sound like a 10 points lead in recent games, because no hackadwright=no more extra possessions=no more extra opportunities for them.

 

oh missed the key point: cutting remaining 8 possessions to 7 means you must start the clock killing with 4 minutes remaining or even earlier, assuming one of yours and your opponent's possessions together cost at least 30 seconds. so it's not to early to start it on 2-3 mins, it's actually already too late.

 

Half court offense is all about the Xs and Os, otherwise it turns into an isolation play. You said it, we have good enough players but do we have good enough plays?

 

I'm all for slowing it down for the last shot when we have the lead just as long as it doesn't end up being an iso. More than 10% of Rockets possessions are isolations, that's almost as often the Rockets run the PnR.

 

Although it might not be good for spacing, if Harden is just going to dribble down the clock then chuck up a contested 3 pointer, we might as well have our best rebounders on the floor

 

I assume they like the Spurs model which is nothing like what we do now.