I've been wondering what would happen if we had Stro and a healthy Tmac against the Suns yesterday. I mentioned in a previous post the way to stop the Suns is to stop Nash and the only player on our roster with even a chance could be TMac. Kind of like Pippen guarding Mark Jackson (Bulls vs. Pacers) back in the days. I would have loved to see a matchup with I think this would have given us the best opportunity to beat the Suns. SNash < Tmac RBell = Rafer JJones < KBogans SMarion > Stromile BDiaw < Yao I still dont understand why DWes is starting over Bogans who I have enjoyed watching and has good size and speed. Wes would be best server coming off the bench as our gunner. Hopefully when Stro comes back the Suns will stop being a matchup problem for us. But what do you think of TMac covering SNash I know both would be worn down at the end of the game but I think it would have given us the best chance to win. Maybe JVG is saving that incase we meet the Suns in the playoffs but I thought it would be interesting to discuss. We need someone that can frustrate the hell out of SNash and long enough to keep a hand in the passing lanes. The games I have seen the Suns lose someone quicker will always pester Nash all game including picking him up full court rotating fresh defenders at him all game long. J
you should hop over into the Quickness disadvatage thread...that is exactly what is being discussed right now...how to stop the Suns. or maybe they can move it into here. whateva
Mac was 1 step slow guarding his man last night. How could you ask him to deal with Nash, who is 1-2 steps quicker than anyone else on the Suns team?
The thing that frustrated me the most was they seemed to stop going inside to Yao. I know he was facing double and even triple teams but he is a good passer and he was drawing fouls. Tracy stopped driving inside to the basket and the team got unraveled when Phoenix started its 3 point barrage.
I disagree I think Nash is quick with the ball but I dont think he has blazing speed. I think a healthy TMac would be able to stay with Nash and make his life hell. However, covering Nash would be a true test (more so than Dirk) of TMac's defensive abilities as it might wear him down. I dont understand JVG's rotational philosophy, too often I think he subs at the wrong time making me scratch my head. J
if your taking into consideration "if tmac and stro were healthy" maybe you should also look at amare being healthy to.
To me, the best D against the Suns is to put Rafer on Nash, and no help WHATSOEVER when Nash penetrates and gets to the hole. I don't care Nash goes for 50, as long as he can't pass the ball and gets others involved, we'll be fine. Nash doesn't want to score, he wants to pass. Let him get his, and leave everyone else dry. Remember, in last year's playoffs, after getting burned horribly by Nash, Mavs, in one game, let Nash score 50 points. And in the end, the Mavs beat the Suns by 20. Force Nash to become Francis, that's the way to go. Otherwise, Nash will create for Marion/Houson/Bell and worst of it all, Stoudamire, and when those guys get involved, it's over for us. We just don't have the offensive firepower to matchup, and we don't have the defensive power to stop them. Unless, we have a Bruce Bowen/Ron Artest type of defender who can shut down guys like Marion. We just don't have a guy like that. Tmac got slaughtered by Marion last night. If Tmac can't stop Marion, no one on our team can. So, KEEP THE BALL IN NASH'S HAND AND DON'T LET HIM PASS.
Also, perform some miracle and get Sura back healthy. Sura can get into the opponent's pg's head with his D. Keep Sura on Nash and make him suffer. Furthermore, use more miracle to get Amare back healthy. When we play the Suns, Amare always wants to challenge Yao one-on-one and ends up getting the crap kicked out of him. He stalks their offense. WE NEED AMARE BACK!
After watching the game last night here is my plan to beat the Suns: Re-choose Sides! We need about three or four of their players, bench players will do, and they can choose three or four from our bench. Bingo, we win. Everyone they bring in is about 6'7' and can shoot lights out. Give them a few of our "shooter-challeged" players, run Nash into a few Ming screens, game over.
They are wide open, and shoot with confidence.......but yes, I would love to have a few of them on the Rockets. DD
why you rolling your eyes? why do people have to rude instead of just discussing a topic? - side note maybe having Amare back would be better for us as it would provide a better matchup for Yao instead of chasing shooters out to the 3pt line. (which he really doesnt do anyways). Yao seems to match up well with Amare and does well against him maybe this could help us by giving someone other than a 3pt shooter take a shot. J
That's exactly what I was telling my bro who is a Suns fan last night at the game. Why let everyone else get wide open threes with no pressure at all? Let Nash get his and dry up the threes. The threes are killer and drain you out emotionally when they are being rained down on you. The other choice is to deny Nash the ball in the backcourt and/or trap him at halfcourt before they try to run the pick n roll. Nash is just amazing though and should win MVP again!
I like this idea, one change I would make would be to send ONE help defender. Not the whole team collapsing into the lane, just whoever is closest, then have our PG immediately go cover whoever the help defender left.
On defense, I'd put a man on Nash, plus the 2-2 zone. This way, Nash will feel the pressure with the ball, and the zone will be able to prevent Nash from getting into the lane, and the other Suns will have a hard time to penetrate since we don't need to switch, just cover the zone. The disadvantage is that the outside shooting will be there for the Suns to take, but I'm willing to live with that. I don't believe they can beat us in a 7 game series by outside shooting only. On offense, unless it's a clear advantage for the fast break, we should alway run the clock on every possesion, and work he ball inside to put their defense on their heels. This will make it hard for them to fast break, and wear them down. We took too many quick jumps against Suns in the previous meetings, especially TMac. I don't think we have any chance to beat the SUns with TMac shooting 0 FT. BTW, mixed defensive scheme is very common in the international competition, and there were many success examples from that.
Well I do, they have made a believer out of me. They can shoot us out of the gym anytime they want to. A seven game series with the Suns will be over in four. Book it.
Nash is probably one of the most difficult people to guard with or without the ball. He's always in motion and can flat out fly with the basketball. Not to mention his layups are so awkward, they're impossible to block at times, but they somehow manage to go in. So he blows by you and gets a funky layup you probably won't defend, and if you do, he can pass the ball better than 99% of the NBA.
if amare is healthy yao doesn't have to guard marion/diaw. doesn't that make us better? just defensively our matchups are much more decent.
James Jones is probably more confident shooting the 3 than he does a 2 pointer. He's not that great a shooter when he steps in from the perimeter. Eddie House, T-Mac or someone like Lampe should be in his face, when he's attempting to shoot a three.
I'd like to think we could steal one, but 3 out of 3 so far this year makes me think there's no way in Hell we could beat them in a seven game series.
