The same guy who slowed Payton down in the 4th - Joaquin. I just wish Rudy had put the Hawk on him in the third, before the game was out of reach. If we had put ball pressure on them and given them less time to set up their offense, we might not have lost.
The way our guys were sagging off their shooters, it almost looked like we were indeed playing a pseudo zone. I think our defensive philosophy is what hurt us more than intensity. At times, our defensive scheme had 2, sometimes 3 guys collapsing on Payton when he drove the ball. The way we played him, allowed GP to kill us with his passing because the collapse allowed their teams wide open shots. Also, we played GP tight on the perimeter, which made it easier for him to get around his man and creat havoc in the lane. In the end, would have it been better to play an individual zone on Payton but man to man on the rest of the team? Id take my chances with GP taking 30 shots and scoring 35 ptss rather than passing off for 18 assists and making his teamates better than they really are.
Please elaborate. I have never heard of this concept. I am familiar with a box and one (4 man zone, 1 man to man) or a triangle and two (3 man zone, 2 man to man) but how does a defense play team zone on Payton and simultaneously a team man to man on everyone else?
I probably shouldnt have said zone. Bad choice of words. One man zone. The point I was trying to make is, I would have like to see us loosen our defense on GP and let him TRY and beat us with his outside shooting, rather than his drives and his passing. Also, play man to man on their shooters (Drobjnak and Radmonovic dont seem the type that can create their own shots off the dribble and Barry probably couldnt get by Mobley or Hawkins if they play him man to man).
The rockets ran into a buzz saw last night, nobody in the league would have beaten the sonics. You had to know it was their night when Desmond Mason made that left handed drive in 4th quarter with Mobley draped all over him. The sonics put on a clinic.
DaDa is dead on with this one. We were slow to react and left deft shooters open--too wide open...our rotations were bad and the foul trouble that hawk and francis got into killed us. IMHO, Steve should have been inserted mid to latein the 3rd despite his 4 fouls. he could have racked up another 4-6 points and kept the lead to the 10-12 range versus 17-20. He was the hot hand and at least would have provided some offense to counter the deft shooting by Seattle. we could have switched him on defense to keep him light on the fouls..... reasons we lost: -lack of defensive intensity in the 3rd -foul trouble to Francis and hawkins -nothing from our centers -Seattle a deft shooting team -Rudy not managing the rotation very well The best part is that it is all easliy correctable . They are 2-2 and have chance to leave here even or one up.....with the injuries and no MO, I am happy with that!
poor game all around. Looks like that will be our M.O. for the season. Ugly wins against bad teams, close losses to mediocre teams, and ass whoopings at the hands of good teams...
The Rox are gonna take awhile to get it together, what with Mo still out, Yao not playing yet, Rudy afraid to play our rookies, etc etc etc.
The fact they were wide open 3 pointers that they were all draining hurt too. We did look stagnant... Give them credit though, and gary especially. A hot TEAM, that came in and took care of business. Yao Ming was a big liability last night. He looked lost. KT and Rice are obviously trying to get game legs. Francis is doing real well, but soon he will have to get the others involved more. Right now he is our only guaranteed O. With Rice and KT back, he needs to start working those options more. Yao Ming has to get some O going too...
