Its not the points and I've said before, all points aren't created equal. Now i know alot of you posters don't believe that, but its true. There were high leverage moments when the rockets could get a shot or at least a good one. The heat turned up the heat and the offense couldn't create a basket. Now when the rockets play against lesser defenses, this wouldn't be a problem. Against the wizards or teams like that, they fall asleep and get undisciplined in close games, but good defenses don't and that hurt the rockets. I know the same crowd will not believe me, but go back the last 3 games and see how many wide open transition 3's battier and martin got compared to tonight. Pics are worth 100's times more than my words.
If you don't care about +/- then open your eyes and watch the game. The only ebb of the game came when Brooks was running the show. Adelman had to put Lowry in and move Brooks to SG. It was such a non-factor that we just magically crapped out 119 points out of our asses. Nice of you to only mention the 43% and not the 40 FTAs. Because FTs are NOT generated from our offense. Thanks for the insight.
In this game it isn't. But in some games it was, especially early in the season. Giving up wide open 3s after wide open 3s to no name players.
He put Brooks in to play with lowry because they need more than 1 guy who could creat off the dribble. I'm watching the game again as we speak as I always do and I'm counting almost 0 transition baskets for martin. Battier got 1 earlier and that was it for him. Martin thrives on such plays and lowry creates those for him, but tonight, it wasn't there at all.
Yeah, mistakes can happen, but an open 3 is still better than a layup, neither AB nor Kyle is great on perimeter defense, Kyle is too slow of foot laterally, and AB is too light.... But they both player pretty good D in their own ways.....what they need is support at the rim.....and right now...Hill is it....but he sometimes is slow to react due to his lack of playing time. It is getting there but we need patience, it would help if we had a shot blocking Center though.....I really like Hayes, but man, I can't help but wonder if Jeffries could not do the same and provide a taller guy at the rim. DD
Brooks doesnt fit well with the bench, as you yourself have stated, Lowry does. But that doesnt matter right? Because you think Lowry is a better player and deserves to start.
Do you know how to watch games? Lowry got 7 assists in 23 minutes for a reason. Miami was the # 1 team in defending 3 point shots, they make a collective effort at defending 3s. That creates some problem inside even though they have plenty 7 footers, and that's why Rockets got 40 FTs there. Lowry took what defense gives, if there is no open 3 point shooters, score inside and score in transition. That's why he got 7 assists and several pass right under the rim resulting FTs. Offense was fine with Lowry. Offense was fine with AB too.
In additional to the numerous free throws our offense got us, we also only turned it over 6 times and nabbed 16 offensive boards. Looking at only FG% really undersells how effective the offense was. In fact, the only team to score more points per possession against the Heat's defense all season was Boston on November 11th. Really, offense was not the problem.
Open 3 is not necessarily better. Many of Wade's layups are high degree of difficulty, not many players in this league can finish those shots like Wade. But a decent 3 point shooter can kill you if you leave him wide open for a couple seconds. AB/Martin play better defense nowadays, at least they try harder now. They were beyond terrible at the beginning of the season. Guess Lowry's emergence is a wake up call for AB.
Good defenses take away your strengths, and Miami is a GREAT defensive team. Yet we still put up 119 points up their asses because we found other ways. I get what you are saying with the leveraged moments. There are leveraged moments on defense as well. Like the And 1 that Jordan Hill gave up to put them up 10 with 3 minutes to go because he is too dumb to rotate over. When we needed stops in those leveraged defensive moments Dwade shredded our rotations and there was noone at the rim to stop him. This is why, again, I repeat myself, the biggest reason why we lost was from a lack of an adequate paint defender. NOT because of lulls in offense. See look, AB is off the hook!
[QUOTE=choujie]Do you know how to watch games? Lowry got 7 assists in 23 minutes for a reason. Miami was the # 1 team in defending 3 point shots, they make a collective effort at defending 3s. That creates some problem inside even though they have plenty 7 footers, and that's why Rockets got 40 FTs there. Lowry took what defense gives, if there is no open 3 point shooters, score inside and score in transition. That's why he got 7 assists and several pass right under the rim resulting FTs. Offense was fine with Lowry. Offense was fine with AB too.[/QUOTE] The refs were actually generous to the rockets tonight for some reason. Anytime chuck hayes gets more free throws than lbj and bosh, you know something is going on. I wasn't saying Miami didn't do the due dilligence, I'm saying that this is going to be a problem for the rockets against good defensive teams. Just like with the tracy and yao support guys, teams will crowd martin and run battiier off the line. When that happens, the offense hits a lull big time. Its not his fault, its his nature for lowry to penetrate to pass vs penetrate and pass or score. I really like rondo's game and when he struggled in the past during their first title run it was because of this. Thats why he was replaced alot by sam and house. I think lowry and brooks played well enough for the team to win tonight, but the rockets were just out manned tonight.
If that is what you got from my posts then please re-read all of them. I do not post that often. Lowry should start because he allows our most efficient scorers to have more shots. Oh, and for defense.
The refs were actually generous to the rockets tonight for some reason. Anytime chuck hayes gets more free throws than lbj and bosh, you know something is going on. I wasn't saying Miami didn't do the due dilligence, I'm saying that this is going to be a problem for the rockets against good defensive teams. Just like with the tracy and yao support guys, teams will crowd martin and run battiier off the line. When that happens, the offense hits a lull big time. Its not his fault, its his nature for lowry to penetrate to pass vs penetrate and pass or score. I really like rondo's game and when he struggled in the past during their first title run it was because of this. Thats why he was replaced alot by sam and house. I think lowry and brooks played well enough for the team to win tonight, but the rockets were just out manned tonight.[/QUOTE] Chuck Hayes got more FTs than LBJ and Bosh means Miami's game plan was stop rockets 3 point shooting, the kick and shoot. They had to give up something else, that is leave Hayes right under the basket. What "problem against good defensive teams" are you talking about? Scoring 119 points against one of the best defensive team in NBA is a problem? Rocket didn't have much trouble scoring when Lowry was on the court tonight. Your posts don't make sense here.
The previous post was a mess. Chuck Hayes got more FTs than LBJ and Bosh means Miami's game plan was stop rockets 3 point shooting, the kick and shoot. They had to give up something else, that is leave Hayes right under the basket. What "problem against good defensive teams" are you talking about? Scoring 119 points against one of the best defensive team in NBA is a problem? Rocket didn't have much trouble scoring when Lowry was on the court tonight. Your posts don't make sense here.
Everey team in the nba know and have an order in which they defend the rockets and in no cases is the pick your poison chuck hayes getting 8 ft's. I don't care what defensive design you have as a a team, the end result will never be either give up a transition 3 or hayes will work you under the rim.
An objective analysis of tonight's game showed that Aaron did a better job in the half-court set at setting up his teammates (not to say Lowry did a bad job, he was fine as well). AB makes the same passes Lowry does and he has proven it these past couple games. 20 points and 9 assists (with zero turnovers mind you) is pretty good for a guy who has zero court vision like some of you say.
I think both AB and KL make each other better, AB has gotten better as a floor general and KL has gotten better as a shooter. All great for the team overall. DD
