Good point. In have started to have second thoughts about the hack a'Dwight tactic. It is actually good for the Rockets. Dwight is shooting 55% from the line. If Dwight is fouled, the "field goal" % per possession stays at 55%. That is generally good enough to win games. On top of that come the other goodies like the opponent team does not have fouls to give, the other players get to line as well, foul trouble etc.
I think one thing in the Rockets' favour that isn't really talked about is how both stars have been through long playoff runs. Harden has been to the finals, albeit as a 6th man, and so has Howard. The rest of the team, save a few, have played in at least the first round. That should help them keep their composure when the ball goes up. Contrast that with Portland - only one of their stars has seen the playoffs and he got whipped in the first round. Their supporting cast does not have any experience at all aside from Batum and Mo Williams (I may be wrong here but I could care less I'm not a Portland fan!). Here's to a dominant game 1 from the good guys! Let's go Rockets!!
My guess is that they will all have a strong input. That will actually be the big surprise of the playoffs. Who will play and how much depends on the matchups.
It's still an effective tactic when the Rockets are ahead and the opposing team wants to slow the clock.
I'm following Dallas-Sours game. At the half time Dallas leads 44-43. The Spurs have shot only 20% from 3PT (2-10) both by Ginobili. However, without Parker the Spurs would rise a white flag already.
It's a Liger compared to the regular season and it definitely weeds out the pretenders from contenders. you can't just get hot like in the nfl.
SA just barely outlived Dallas after Dallas went stone cold in shooting the ball. Dallas lead by 10 in middle of the 4th quarter.
Great observations. We need any one of our shooters to show up every night or it's going to be a long and painful post season
Just finished watching the OKC-Memphis game. What a game! Memphis was in control all the way. OKC was very, very lucky to make it to the overtime, which resulted from Durants 3PT prayer and Perkins last second put back. They are now tied and one more team lost the home court advantage. The East goes much more according to the script, but the West seems to be loaded with talent and tough teams. Anything is possible.
Yes, I liked the MEM-OKC game. BTW - I beg to differ about the east following the script... Pacers? Bulls? Toronto? Both EC and WC now have 3 out of 4 higher-ranked teams losing their HCA. Interesting playoffs! I DO hope they get less interesting for us... Let's make 2 Ws in a row to regain the advantage we deserve.
Looks like LAC is getting the expected 1:1 tonight. CP3 has a bad shooting night so far (1/6) Griffin is really killing the small Warriors tonight (Mostly from the FT line), and Jordan has 4 blocks on them already. Too bad. I'd love to see them out of the way...
It was a surprise to me. Yeah the Pacers are struggling but to lose against Atlanta? I thought they would make it out of the first round. Atlanta is a little better than the Lakers in the west.
I think McHale needs to look also at the OKC-Memphis tapes. Memphis did some very effective adjustments from the last game (by the way, they were better than the result also then). Westbrook continues to struggle from the 3PT (1-7), but OKC did not react. Conley struggles fromthe 3PT as well (0-3), but they brought in Mike Miller to take care of that (3-4) and Beno Udrich, who was a game changer with his energy (14 pt in 14 min!!). OKC shot more but with lower percentage. Memphis passed the ball much better.
What do you think about the Clippers-Warriors game? The Clippers thrashed the Warriors by 40 points differential and their starters played just 30 min (or less)! Why did they lose the first game?
