Who did LMA score 46 against? I admit I seem to be wrong from the first game (small sample of course), since this thread was questioning Jones' offensive contributions. Basketballholic's concerns seem to be confirmed, because LMA torched us out there.
The 46 was not a problem - Harden and Howard sucking balls, especially in the first half was a bigger issue. You can give up a lot of points to one player - but this was a complete team breakdown. DD
LMA is going to torch most defenders out there. His effectiveness almost matches that of Dirk. In that reason, we shouldn't shun TJones even though there are defenders out there who matches more effectively than him.
With all due respect, Zergling, we're going to have to play Twin Towers more to put these guys down. LA/Lopez 19/38(50%) from the field and 12/17(70%) from the line for 52 points 26 boards 4 assists 4 turnovers 3 blocked shots Dwight/Jones 15/31(48%) from the field and 9/17(53%) from the line for 39 points 28 boards 3 assists 2 turnovers and 6 blocked shots. You can point to several things for the loss here. The biggest one being we had no answer for LA. We actually did have an answer for LA but Asik got in foul trouble. LA got all this going even though he started off slow. Jones nor Dwight can check him. We only have one player on this roster that can check LA. And that is Asik. All that being said..down the stretch they went to hack-a-howard and crawled right back up in this thing. Why McHale took Howard out is a mystery to me. He left Jones in there trying to man the middle on Aldridge. Jones is a much worse defender and the same piss poor free throw shooter Dwight is. That was stupid on McHale's part. Might as well just start the game over with 5 minutes left because that's what happened here. And we're lucky Portland didn't win it in regulation. Zwerling, Portland with everything against them tonight, the officials taking the game away from them, on the road with Lillard not having any playoff experience, both of their bigs fouling out......they beat us tonight. You understand that? They beat us on the road with everything going to s... for them out there. They're not going away. We're not going to run off and leave them. We are in danger of losing this series. McHale is going to have to pick a direction here. He's either got to commit to getting Asik on Aldridge and shutting him down or he's got to commit to having 4 shooters on the floor and hope to outgun the Blazers. If he does neither....if he continues to run the Dwight/Jones connection out there for 30 minutes side-by-side...we're gonna lose the series. Aldridge and Lopez are too big for Dwight and Jones. It's as plain as the nose on your face. Terrence Jones - I will give him his props. Boy played his butt off out there. He did all he could do. He played hard. He overachieved. But.....it wasn't good enough. Jones is neither big enough nor skilled enough to contain LaMarcus Aldridge. And we are either going to have to water down Aldridge's high-usage efficiency or we are going to have to outscore these guys. Jones won't be able to help us do either one. Once again, Jones' best matchup on the Blazers is when they bring in Thomas Robinson off the bench. That's when Jones should be in there to matchup with TRob. I'm sorry we disagree on this one but we do. This game was all going our way. We were at home, the officials were giving us the benefit of most of the foul calls. We all knew we were going to shoot a ton of free throws in the second half. Bev was tearing Lillard a new a..hole. And low and behold...Portland wins it. We can't hold Lillard down forever. We can't hold Aldridge down forever. But tonight Aldridge just got everything he wanted. It was way too easy for him tonight. We either have to bring in TT to water down Aldridge's efficiency and neutralize Portland's size or we're gonna have to go with 4 shooters around Dwight or Asik in hopes of outscoring them.
From previous games this year, DMO seems to do as well as anyone (and certainly better than Jones!) guarding Aldridge.
I actually disagree. I saw the Portland-GSW game towards the end of the season. David Lee is known as a terrible defender. Nevertheless, LMA got completely different shots on Terrence Jones than he got off Lee. All LaMarcus shot in the GSW game were fade-aways and long twos - I can live with those. Against Jones, LMA just backed him down and shot a close-range easy shot. We should not guard LMA with Jones. But I'm going to defer to the other thread on guarding LMA now, since this thread was not originally intended to cover that - though that seems to be the pressing issue.
Completely unfair to put the loss on Jones not being "good enough". It starts with our all-stars and while Dwight was a lot better in the 2nd half, he was terribly inefficient in the first half. Meanwhile, Portland smartly exploited Harden's terrible defense and he wasn't able to make up for it on offense. On top of that, hack-a-Howard changed the direction of the game. Despite LMA going off (and I don't think we should expect him to average 45 a game against us in the series), we had this game won with TJones playing a significant part in that. Then there's the ridiculous officiating with the phantom tech on Beverley being the cherry on top.
Harden and Howard sucking balls has to do with spacing DaDa. Spacing. When we go up against teams with double bigs like Portland and OKC, etc., we struggle in those games because they have 2 bigs in there that basically ignore Jones and focus on Harden and Howard. For the life of me, I don't know why you and others can't see this. It's very basic. Lopez has a good 4 inches on Dwight. He bothered him every possession in the low blocks. We're not playing the Bucks anymore. This is the Blazers. Another hungry playoff team with really good players on it. So, if we're not going to have spacing and it's just going to be a scrum game in the paint with the perimeter guys just scrambling around looking for shots/penetration then we've got to get Asik's 7-foot frame in there. And if we're gonna create space for Dwight and Harden to surgically operate then we've got to get 4 shooters in there.
The ridiculous officiating mostly favored us tonight. I'm sorry to disagree with you. I'm not putting this loss on Jones. I'm putting it on McHale. McHale is the guy who decides who plays. I told you I thought Jones played valiantly. I thought he played as well as he could possibly play. He can't do a thing about not being 6'11" and at this stage of the season he can't do a thing about his inability to space the floor for Harden and Dwight to get rolling. He played as well as he could. But it wasn't good enough. You say it's completely unfair to put this loss on Jones. I'm not doing that. But there you go putting the loss on our 2 best players. We're gonna need Asik to defend Aldridge in this series. Neither Jones nor Dwight can even slow him down.
Aldridge hit some ridiculous shots tonight. Shots that nobody can defend. He is 7' tall and shoots the ball over his head. Shake his hand and move on. Howard and Asik did not check him much because they were in foul trouble but it would not have mattered. Great players do things like this. Harden will play better and Aldridge worse. Harden shooting badly had nothing to do with Jones. Stop the nonsense!
McHale should have put in a TALL lineup at the end of regulation to secure the rebound. that means asik jones howard.
It's simple you front LMA with Tjones long arms with Dwight ready to go on the lob. Also pull the chair from Aldridge when he attempts to bang his way into the post . Switch up the D and trap some time as well with d12. Our defensive strategy was way too simple!
Here me out on this one. I think twin towers will work with Lin as a starter. We've never saw it with 2 playmakers in the game together. Lin and harden should be able to find ways to create. Harden was forced to try to do everything with tt out there, bev isn't a playmaker This will also help Help us with Lillard. We can clog the paint and force lma to take Asik/Howard & Lillard will have to settle for jumpshots because he can't finish inside that easy.
That means Lopez is loose at the rim. Jones does not have the physical tools nor the mental tools to deal with Aldridge. It's very simple. Yes, sometimes guys like Aldridge are going to get their. But you all have seen the video. If we put Asik on him, Asik will water down his efficiency considerably over time. It's already been proven. Asik has the quick feet and length to get up on his shot and bother his shot while still having the ability to move if Aldridge tries to fake and drive. Once again, here's the videos for you to look at one more time: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/z0IFNcYpKzg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/BY1H6Rwwbz4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Now....last night...Asik got whistled for those stupid screening fouls and got in foul trouble. Then McHale went away from him in the second half. I am supposing that is because Dwight was in foul trouble as well and we needed Asik to be available when Dwight had to come out. However, the fact remains. We have no other player on this roster than can handle LaMarcus other than Asik. None. Not even Dwight. Dwight is not nearly as good defensively when he steps outside the paint area. And contrary to what Shaq said last night, Dwight isn't 7'1" tall. He's basically 6'9" tall with long arms and great springs which make up the height difference. But he's simply not as good defensively outside the paint area as Asik is out there. We need Asik to defend LaMarcus.
Also we struggled with rebounds the whole game especially the first half. Asik & Howard have to man the boards, clog paint, Lin & harden will create !
This is true. LMA scored against everyone who tried to defend him. Too bad Asik got three fouls on him in three minutes when they went to twin towers. LMA is a great Power forward and he had a great game. As the announcers were saying last night. TJones just doesn't have the size or experience to contain LMA. Unfortunately, the Rockets don't seem to have anyone that contain him. It will be interesting to see what the Rockets try next. I would expect DMo and Powell to get a shot at LMA next.
Dude it had nothing to do with spacing. Harden settled for jump shots instead of attacking the rim. Howard needed to take his time instead of rushing things. We all seen what both players did when they finally settled down. Harden attacked the rim and made some shots and during a stretch Howard was going to work on the block. Another thing Howard missing all them freethrows when they went to that weak as* Hack-A- Howard strategy. Cant nobody on this team stop LMA period. Asik had his chance and dude went to freaking work, Howard took a shot at him and dude went to work and Parson undersized tried to check him and dude went to work. We all know T.Jones wont be able to stop are contain him. That is why our Superstars will have to match his production. Jones did a tremendous job getting a double double, that is all we need for him as well as other ROLE PLAYERS!!!!
Dude Asik couldn't stop him either so what are you talking about. Asik got three quick fouls and you are on here talking about the officiating favored us, no the heck it didn't. You couldn't even breathe on LMA bruh.
