Play hard - make shots

Making their shots would be nice but it seems just like last year really...gotta play a perfect defensive game and hope you have just enough offense. Or there's guys you need offense from but in reality you're not gonna get it from them (Hayes, Mutombo, Battier at times, Rafer, hurt McGrady, rookies Landry and Brooks).

They havent hit free throws all season, and after one game they haven't "turned it up" for the playoffs. I'll conveniently blame playoff jitters for some of the erratic performance..

Its role players needing to play over their heads. It'd be nice to have Rafer if nothing else be there to put people back into their regular roles.

There's a difference between highly emotionally charged and out of control, and Scola at times was close to the second....you still have to execute plays and focus on the tasks at hand. Driving to the rim too soft and missing and attacking it too wild is the same thing. I guess though a choice between lackadaisical and out of control I'd have to choose the 2nd...

 

The bottom line is that Utah has control of this series, not even considering the Game 1 win.

If they play to their full potential, they win the series even if we play to our full potential.

The only way we have a chance of winning this series is, like DD alluded to, by outhustling this team along with playing closer to our potential than them.

With Yao, the talent level is much closer and may even be in our favor. Without Yao, we have to hope for the Jazz to play below their potential.

 

Sometime in the 3rd quarter we had a lineup of Novak, Landry, and Brooks etc. That is not playoff quality talent.

 

That's fine. He should have instructions not to shoot the ball unless he's got a clearly wide open jumper or he's two feet from the basket with no defenders around on a breakaway.

 

I agree. Brooks' ability to penetrate is unparalleled on this team. The problem is he just isn't playoff-ready yet. He should get significant time in at least one more game to prove that he can make things happen.

I also agree that we need to attack the paint. I have agreed with this point for the last 2 years. The problem is, as I suggested earlier, I don't see this changing overnight.

 

McGrady attacks the paint about once per game. He'll get knocked to the floor, and he lays there in pain like a little girl. Then he'll go back to hoisting up contested 3's and fadeaway 18-footers.

 

I thought we started collapsing when Deke went out

Rocket River

 

I don't like the way you stated that, but I agree.

I don't think it is a lack of heart or intelligence on the part of T-Mac. I think it's just his body breaking down and he can't do anything about it. He isn't a lemon just not that Ferrari he used to be.

 

You know his body is breaking down when he can't take Kyle Korver off the dribble. Never thought I'd see that.

Also, another thing I noticed was that McGrady would drive into the paint and instead of initiating contact and getting to the line, he'd kick it out to Jackson or Battier for the 3-pointer. Because T-Mac is no longer aggressive, he doesn't put any pressure on the defense.

 

There is a reason why those layups are missed its called long,taller,stronger atheletes. DD, ur my man 100 grand and all, but even the simplest of people can see this team plays hard and with passion. This is what we've been talking about all season, the lack of finishers. let me go into it a little more from a personal perspective.

I went to college 6'4 and a pretty good finisher. Had go leaping ability and could finish in a variety of ways. 1st preseason game came againstone of those club basketball teams that had lorenzo charles and some more guys that played in the nba. Playing summer ball and being a bit undersized, i've learned to play against bigger longer players. 1st time i beat a guy off the dribble, mr charles put my shot in the cheap seats. After that, everetime i went to the hole, i was trying to create something to get a shot over bigger players. I know is d1 college ball, but it gave me a perspective and respect of how good iverson is. there is a reason why iverson and gordon are unique players. To be that small and have the ability to score over taller,longer players is incredible.

Go to the rox, all of our frontcourt players are average or below average size/length. Except for landry, none are explosive near the basket. So when longer players contest them, its not a natural reflex. They have to create ways to get the ball over and through the longer players because they cant jump over or thru those players. Hayes and scola always have to find ways to make layups. They're not explosive or long so they have to rush or trick the defender. Guys that can finish dont pump fake or head fake 6 ft from the basket. They just power up and either dunk it or lay it up. Its been a problem all season and as long as we're playing against long players, those guy will struggle.

 

We end with the same amount of rebounds. but 39FG% vs 52FG% is the difference.

Make FT and layups and we will be ok.

 

If his physical situation cant cope with an nba season and gameplay of 4 12 min quarters every game, he should be traded.

And I totally agree, everytime mcgrady falls to the floor he does the "I am hurt and its painful" act and starts throwing his 30 foot 3 pointers. While james and kobe will finish the next drive with a dunk in someone's face.

 

I think Bobby, from his post game interview last night, is going to start driving to the bucket a lot more in game 2. He needs to make Deron play defense and test that injury. Aside from that, yeh, he needs to start hitting shots.

 

Very good points.

You can't just make players something they are not.

People think our guys are just missing shots. It's not that simple. With the personnel we have, it is unlikely that we will just start "making shots" like the OP suggested we need to do.

And, I agree, I don't think it is a matter of not playing hard. It may appear that our guys aren't doing so, but I don't think we have any bad seeds on this team that don't give it 100%. Especially when you have guys like Shane, Luis and Chuck.

This is just a matter of being undersized and undertalented compared to Utah.

I do believe we can win this series, but it is not in our control. We need Utah to have off stretches and we need to play over our heads for much longer stretches.

 

utah is just better. and there's no reason why they would play less hard. it's futile.

 

That's the problem with Brooks. In traffic, he can't finish because he's forced to put up an acrobatic shot just to get his shot off. Too many bigs in the lane. Same with BJax. Francis at least got away with being smaller at 6'3" in his heyday because he could play above the rim. We are just too small right now to go against teams with big front courts and big athletic guards.

In order to get your shots off against bigger teams, you have to run Adleman's offense to perfection and get the backdoor cuts and open shots.

 

to beat utah you must win the rebound contest.
the rox fell early BECAUSE of rebounding. it was the key to our 3rd quarter comeback.

you are right though, fg% was obviously a significant problem.

 

Rebounding is why I was completely amazed that Adleman pulled Mutumbo out at a key juncture of the game. Rebouding is the one thing the Deke excels at.

 

we have 4 rookies (including Novak since he almost didnt play last season) in our rosters, and it is their first time to play in playoffs. They need time to accumulate experience.