"Not the same group"

What is my position exactly? I'm questioning your position, and your interpretation of plays. You are the one with the conspiracy theory, which makes you the more likely culprit to wearing agenda-colored glasses.

My position, as many others here, is I don't see us icing-out Howard. Even if Ariza makes that pass, versus an open drive that he sucks at, the play started with Harden correctly swinging the ball in transition to the side that Howard was setup at.

And why you not respond to my triple-threat comment in your first screen grab. Still ignoring that, and you're the one who posted it for comments.
And why are you still afraid to show the game clock in your screen shots?

 

Some things aren't worthy of a response.

 

I wonder if Dwight has lost his hops

 

It's cool. I prefer you never respond to me. And at least you know better. I'll continue posting possessions in other games (as well as MEM) that put conspiracy theories into question. And I'll post when we flat out missed Howard, too.

Please don't bother responding.

 

Third play at POR.

Some will yell at Harden for not passing to Howard here, but I'm pretty sure most will say that it's a clogged lane and we don't want to go to Howard in those position. Pops would likely say pass along perimeter, which is what Harden does.

Pass to Ariza who does the two-man game with Jones for a dump into the post. Jones arguably gets fouled, play is getting busted, but he gets it to Ariza swing to Harden for a wide-open three (swish).

After Harden passes to Ariza in this photo, Howard just wonders around do nothing ending up 17' from the basket rather than getting rebounding position on the weak side. It's like he wants to do a PnR with Harden with 3 seconds left on the clock.

Would you pass to Howard here?




The Shot -- Why is Howard watching from 17' away when he was weak side and Harden got the ball with 3 seconds left? There was no pick opp here?

 

He still has them I think. It just takes him longer to jump off the floor now...

 

Oh Noes! 2nd possession of 2nd Q v POR.

Lawson perfect bounce pass to Howard in transition who takes it all the way for a slam. This is proof that the rest of the team ices Howard, since Lawson is the new guy stuck on the bench. He beautifully drew the double coverage to make the transition pass to a trailing Howard.

 

Very next play, Lawson goes back to Howard who is directing traffic at the key, and wide open at the free throw line when he gets the pass.

Turnover this time.

Howard attacks the heart of the defense.



Howard spins in traffic and passes out to Brewer, but behind him for a Turnover.

 

3rd Possession in a Row going to Howard with Harden sitting and Lawson/Thornton in.

Thornton with the Alley-oop. Slightly off target?? Howard rims it and POR ball. Would younger Howard have gotten that? Did he time it wrong?

Good play

 

4th play in a row to Howard. I won't bother posting picture. Right block low post, Howard eating up Portland. Howard dives to his left to the rim, wrapped up for a foul.

 

5th Play. Harden back in. A few passes with no open look for Howard; Harden misses an open three.

Then 6th play is this. They wait for Howard to get position on weak side with Lawson. Swing to Lawson who gets a great entry against fronting defense for this look by Howard.

Guess what he does.



He inexplicably ices out himself by passing to freaking Brewer in the corner for a missed wide-open 3.

Worrell sighs with "He passes up the dunk shot." He brought the ball down, rather than staying high and finishing???? And he still had time for a dunk.

 

some context on the screenshots from the grizzlies game

1 james at the elbow, pick and roll with dwight
dwight sets a great screen for the pick and roll and tony is caught behind him. gasol contests the play and james tries to set up a 1 on 1 with gasol. memphis sends a good double team and he turns it over for a layup at the other end.

2 trevor in the corner, catch and drive
trevor runs to the corner and catches the ball with a step on his man. he has to make a quick decision, and he tries to do a catch and drive. he cant do anything with it and resets. after the reset, james and dwight run a pick and roll, james sends a good pass and dwight spins past one defender only to get blocked at the rim by tony allen. tony allen does the mutumbo finger wag play.

3 harden on the block, post
harden is in the post and a second defender slides over from the free throw line, so he tries to spin to the baseline. with very good timing, gasol leaves dwight and surprises james. there is no way james does anything productive here and he resets. after the reset trevor does a catch and drive from the corner and scores.

4 harden at the elbow, pick and pop with jason
james come off a pick and pop with jason, and as he comes around there are 5 defenders keying on him. all 4 of the other rockets are open but the passing lanes are well contested. the easiest pass is to jason who is wide open for 3 but misses.

 

I saw that and couldn't believe it. What on earth was Dwight thinking?

 

now you're discussing Dwight as a decision maker. I'm not for Dwight as a decision maker and have never been for that. I'm talking about Dwight being put in position to finish only.

On the one play where he passed to the corner, that's understandable. Look at the contest. But the plays I'm pointing to are plays where we could get the ball to Howard if we actually threw it to him, high, on a lob, at the rim. He don't have to make decisions with the ball then. Just throw it down.

 

Two plays later,
Here's why you can't trust screen grabs that make Howard look open.

Rockets set up a triangle strong-side with Howard, Ariza and Lawson. Too clogged, so Lawson swings weak-side for Harden and Jones to work. Shut down, so Harden passes back to Lawson without Ariza, and now we have Howard and Lawson doing a corner PnR ... nice twist by Bickerstaff.

First Howard rolling...



Several in this thread say, Alley Oop Lawson, he's open. And Lawson does, too.
Pass is already in the air.



But is he really open??

Here's how quickly help defense can recover. Screen shots do not necessarily make someone open.

TURNOVER

 

That was a dunk. He had no business bringing that ball down as low as he did. That was a beautiful pass over fronting defense that Yao always finished, and DMo would, too. No one passes the ball to the corner.

Understandable passing to Brewer for a three?? Really?? Change your argument much to suit the facts?

 

^

That was a good play that will work the overriding majority of the time. And it was questionable whether Harkless got him on the arm. IMO, that's a foul.


NOTE: Harkless can cheat off Terrence to help on Dwight because Terrence is not a threat to catch-and-fire.

 

It was understandable in light of the CONTEST!! And Brewer is historically OK from the corner.

 

We must see two different things.

Whilst I am not on the bandwagon of accusing Harden iso-ing out Howard - Howard gets in position an awful lot to receive the ball, and just flat out doesn't get it.

Just look at him seal his man near the basket on runs down the floor. I've lost count how many times Harden and others stare at him contemplating life, only to go in another direction - and Howard walks out of the key arms flung extremely annoyed.

 

Nice evidence. I will say that there are times when Harden is obviously not finding Howard at times when he used to find Howard last year. I don't think it's as overstated as many here are trying to make it.