Apparently, the Rockets bench is sneaky good at trash talking http://uproxx.com/dimemag/houston-rockets-behind-the-bench-james-harden/2/ c/o of reddit
I don't know where this idea came from that Roberson is stopping Harden. Playoff Harden was destroying Roberson before today.
The rockets bench was very disrespectful, however, Robinson has been talking trash and this put him in the spot light. Which will crush his confidence for the next game. Every time he touches the ball the crowd should holler out "FREE THROW"!!
Even when we had Dwight and people wanted to make rules for it, I was completely against it. You are in the damn NBA. I don't want to hear excuses of my hands are too big, I'm too strong, I have knobby knees. Get in the gym and practice. If Yao and Boban with their massive hands could shoot 80% from the line than there is no excuse.
I think it's a bad strategy personally. I don't like giving free points at 50%. Especially given the Rockets struggles to score down the home stretch and rebound a damn FT to take advantage, but it did work generally tonight due to a rythm change. Though I think technically the lead was a wash during the period of strategy. We expanded to 5 but it went right back down to 2. Pretty sure we started it with a 3 point lead.
It took him off Harden and forced them to adjust their defensive assignments. I'll take that when he's making 1/4.
To those saying they didnt like it; Roberson shot 2/12 FT. They beat us in all other shooting metrics. This won us the game in my opinion. Kudos to MDA for doing something he doesn't personally like to do.
Normally I would agree. It was always stupid and just terrible math when people hacked guys like Josh Smith, Terrence Jones, and even Dwight Howard (and now Capela). But the thing is that Roberson has been nowhere near 50%. Even for the season he was barely over 40%, and here in the playoffs, I don't think I've ever seen a player more visibly shook than Roberson is when he's at the FT line. He's now 2-17 from the line this series... That's less than 12%!!! It would have worked ****ing brilliantly if we could have secured that rebound on his first trip, but overall, it still worked well.
Didn't Harden said he is a rhythm player? Make sense to use the hack selectively, especially on the road or when playing small ball.
Agreed. We absolutely could not stop them on defense. This was our defensive stopper last night. Bought us a few possessions worth of points.
Did you just use Dwight and Shaq in a post that is trying to tell guys to 'just make their free throws'?
And he will be worse moving forward. Nick Anderson was a 75 percent free throw shooter before the finals... he never recovered
Yesterday was a masterful execution of an annoying play...the intentional foul WHILE LEADING! i dont know the actual statistics, but it would be a good topic to research...To me it seems that teams who intentionally foul their opponents while ahead often times maintain or build their lead. We were able to get Roberson off Harden down the stretch of the game.
Harden did struggle mightily against Roberson during the regular season. But aside from Game 4 and some first quarter issues, Harden's had no trouble scoring in this series. Roberson makes him work, but he's still getting his points.
Yes. I know Dwight and Shaq are the poster boys for Hack an X but the reality is Hack a Shaq wasn't that effective...Shaq has 4 rings and an MVP. Dwight has been to the WCF and the Finals as the main man (an co-main man) on the team. If the Hack an X worked on them they wouldn't have the success they have, just look at De Andre Jordan and now Roberson. Stats have proven that hitting your fts at 50% would render the Hack an X ineffective over time, and both Shaq and Dwight have been able to do that so honestly Hack a Shaq and Hack a Dwight really is just a case of perception over reality. It may have worked in a couple of instances where Shaq and Dwight were hitting below 50% but when they were making fts at their career average people who tried hack an X against them just lost.
