ron artest pick and roll or post up or AB pick and roll those plays were dynamite! yes they made some tough shots and they won't make those consistently, but clearly this is better than force-feeding yao. i think we've found our go-to guys down the stretch guys!! just gotta fix that D.
I didn't think anything was really forced. Ron's shots were open or he freed himself up to get a good look. Smart play with AB on the PnR. Getting Yao out of the key and setting picks is great because for one hes huge and second it frees the lane.
exactly. you saw how much space our guards got or even landry or scola got in the paint to operate when yao is used as a screener on the pick and roll. that opens up so much and allows so much flexibility on what plays to run. before it was either yao get a shot or we shoot a 3. very easy to defend.
so much for this team being in desperate need of a "closer".. some people need to simply reacquaint themselves with the word patience.. this is the second time this short season of the post-Tracy era.. that Brooks has come through for us in the clutch.. and the third time Artest has proved invaluable for this team in close playoff like games.. and hopefully it's been a wake up call to those who questioned our ability to win without force feeding Yao..
Yeh its the same with what was happening to use with Shaq. If you can force the big man to switch to AB hes either going to go past and score, go past and get fouled or the help will come to him and there should be easy pass to a trailer.
yao was 0-3 fg in the 4th quarrter, 1-5 fg for the 2nd half. obviously going to him wouldn't have been a good option this game. artest is the last player in the starting line up i'd want to see as the go to guy in the last couple of minutes.
most fans do not want force feeding yao and think we have a better chance not doing so. we should still go to yao, but as one of the many options. the unpredictability out there is great. we have so many good scorers now. outside of battier, everyone out there was a threat to score 1-on-1.
I think it depends on who we are matched up against. If we play a team with athletic big men it may be a lot harder. We still will have games where we have to go through Yao. Brooks has to show more consistency to become the guy that we go to at the end of games. Artest could be that guy he just has to let the game to him. But Yao still will have games where we have to count on him down the stretch.
you'd sooner go to Battier than Artest.. in a tight 4th.. ? ok... and this isn't about branding any one player as our new "closer".. i think you've missed the point.. unfortunately..
i think i'm a little premature proclaiming brooks or artest as the go-to guys. i'm just saying run different plays for different guys every possession. we went from landry to artest to scola to brooks in one stretch. that's all i'm saying. we have a lot of offensive talent on this team. use it.
Ron Artest learned his lesson!! I told him many times on this board not to go homerun and he listened!! He post up and drive instead than going for the homerun. Had he tried to go homerun at the end of the 4th quarter, he would have killed the Rockets' chances...imo. During that one crucial timeout, i don't know why Rick Adelman not put Lowry in to play defense when it was Phoenix's ball. This is something i hate about his coaching strategy. It's like he goes with whoever is playing well on the court even if they suck at defense and even though Suns' had the ball and you have a chance to put Lowry in to play only that possession. He did put Lowry in at the very end after Steve Nash nailed a 3 with the pick n roll with Brooks playing him....but can't understand why he didn't put Lowry in for the other possession giving a chance.
it's about having more than one "go-to" option.. and staying clear of the potentially inescapable rut we usually find ourselves in.. when we stick to one focal point.. disregarding the variables.. from game to game.. so your post is essentially.. and unintentionally.. in agreeance with the point of this thread..
I agree that changing it up was a good thing for tonight, but then again Phoenix isn't known for it's great defense neither so I think it will be interesting to see if we have our offensive woes down the stretch solved against a better defensive team. But I do think this game gave Aaron confidence because no matter how bad Phoenix defense is Brooks made clutch shots tonight so it was a huge confidence booster. Artest can be that guy if he post up more, I think he falls in love with the jumper too much. He is sort of the live and die by the jumper. But I still think down the stretch Yao will be a guy that we go to a lot.
Main reason why we didn't go to Yao in the 4th quarter against the Suns is because Yao struggled to score against the Suns. I really don't know why, I thought he scored on Shaq pretty well in the 2nd quarter. I'm guessing he ran out of gas. Adelman needs to utilize his stamina more properly, that was one thing Jeff Van Gundy did very well in. Yao is one of our closers definitely, there is nothing wrong with mixing it up. We have multiple options.
Not really, I still think we will force it to Yao at times down the stretch. Of course it would be nice if Brooks and Ron could play like this every time or most of the time down the stretch but as of right now I just don't know if that will happen.
i don't think we have a go-to guy. but we have a lot of guys who can score. so that makes the offense predictable. we have to go to yao here and there of course.
Indeed, If they played the same way in Utah. We probably would have gotten the Win. They are inconsistent offensively and streaky. Yao and Scola are really the only guys on this team that you know can put up 15+ points a game and do it efficiently.
