Is anyone worried about Howard during the end of the game?

IIRC, we didn't hack a Dwight in the last game. We did it in our second matchup against the Lakers.

But knowing McHale, he'll probably roll with Jones at Center in crunch time. God knows he loves small ball in the fourth quarter.

 

Not really no, can't hack him in the last 2 minutes and his defense is worth more on the defensive end, than his ft% costs us on the offensive end.

 

How is it different from when Asik was the starting center?

And please don't say that hack-a-sik doesn't work just because in that one instance he managed to come through

 

Sub in Asik? But I think McHale with go with his favorite small ball lineup.

 

If they're hacking Howard late in the game it means that we have the lead and the other team thinks that they can't stop our offense.

Dwight's FT shooting is only a problem if he makes shoots than 50 percent. If he can work back up to 60-70 percent it's not much of a problem at all.

 

Means Rockets are leading near the end of the game, bring it on.

 

No......I say let Dwight get out there and figure it out. He is our franchise center....screw sitting him down in key moments.

We all saw how that cost the Spurs.

 

It's a good problem to have, it means the opposing team is afraid of our team.

 

We are the most statistical team in the league. HELL no we're not going to roll with D12 in crunch time.

 

Good thing we have the option of subbing in Asik if Howard is missing them lately.

 

Is there really any proof that hack-a-whoever even works? I mean, Howard was a tad below 50% FT last yr, but I assume he can get to around 50% since his career FT% is closer to 60% than 49% or something.

That means you get 1 PPP or better in most of these instances. That's usually better than if they DIDN'T hack you. The other team would have to go on a tear while you make 50% of FTs, or if you're just a ridiculously bad clutch FT shooter. Per nba stats, Dwight's clutch FT% is 51.1%, so he'd get 1.02 PPP if they are hacking him, even in clutch situations. I'm okay with that (ex: 1 PPP puts Harden as top 5 PnR player in the league).

 

And to put Asik's OKC FT% into perspective while he was being hacked...he made ONE more FT than his season % would have predicted. One more. Just saying.

 

you know how i know that you didn't watch rockets' last game of the season?

we didn't use hack-a-dwight

this has been discuss before on another thread

 

1 PPP and his defensive prowess is fine.

 

who doesn't know what u said?
Lock!

 

Van Gundy commented in the playoffs that hack-Asik didn't work because players tend to get in a rhythm when you put them on the line repeatedly. I don't know if there are statistics available to back me up on this. The other issue is, as we saw during the playoffs, you can't run against a team after they miss a free throw. Dwight is able to get back after bricking a free-throw, and the other team must run half court offenses. Hopefully the Rockets don't have to play the Warriors in the playoffs.

 

this is actually something I have been quite worried about for some time

asik is much yougner so I can see his FT improving but Dwight has been in teh league for such a long time, I dont think he will improve his FT shooting that much more

maybe we should bring in Yao to teach him

 

Why? Are you afraid of the Dwight Bogut double hack?

 

yes we did, not in the last game though