One thing I've noticed about how teams are playing the Rockets...

Say what?They doubled him like 60% of the hawks gm.

 

uh the doubles were all over the place on tmac tonight. but what worked for atlanta was that their great athleticism allowed them to rotate on tmac better when he does the pick and rolls or screens.

not every team has this kind of athleticism.

 

I recall T-Mac being doubled the whole first half, then on and off in the second half.

 

Well, they were all over him tonight. It actually seems like he's been double-teamed more so as of late.

We really missed Landry's presence inside the paint.

Please Landry, come back soon... but not too soon.

 

Good point. Joe Johnson is also a very strong defender, and that showed when he defended Tmac, especially when Tmac tried to drive.
But he did get to the line 9 times (I think).

 

What Tracy are you talkin about, cuz it sure ain't McGrady.

 

they didn't double him in the second half and he burned for 10, then in the end of the 3rd and beginning of 4th they doubled him. Partially this is because the main defender on T-mac got into foul trouble (MArvin Williams) and Josh Smith couldn't afford to get into foul trouble after his 3rd one. This would explain the double teams. Also Mcgrady was killing them passing it out of the double team (ala easy basket Scola got under the basket sometime in the 4th)

 

Felt like they doubled Tmac all game and clogged the paint. Rockets didnt hit their outside shots until late in the game.

 

tbh we didn't have as many open shots tonight as we usually do, and the double teams on McGrady didn't come immediately, they waited for Tracy to commit to trap him so it wasn't as obvious where to pass out of the double team

we need to figure out why the hawks were so effective, cause other teams are going to study the tape

 

I haven't noticed this at all. I've noticed just the opposite actually, teams are doubling Tracy more. Since he's a good passer, this works for us most of the time.

 

They only double off the pick and roll or the post. They rarely doubled from the iso. I think teams don't respect T-mac's first step.

 

Hawks switched the PnR, just like the Rockets do when they have a fast lineup out there. Atlanta is fast and athletic and can recover quicker.

 

I have thoughts that other teams still don't know how to play against this yaoless rockets.

 

I think this game goes to show you how hard it is going to be winning a playoff game or even a game against a good team when our shots aren't falling like it's automatic, and that will happen.

Although we won, this is where we are really going to miss Yao.

 

Did you watch the same game I did?

 

i totally agree with you at this point.

 

The Hawks were effective because every single one of our players couldn't seem to hit an open jump shot. Scola got into early foul trouble and couldn't help set the tone offensively and Landry was out. We had a terrible night shooting the ball, yet we still found a way to win at the end