Stop Roy or stop the Blazers? That is the question

No double teams....play them straight up.

DD

 

co-sign

But maybe in small spurts if Roy or Aldridge starts getting hot.

 

Yeah.. if we double, he'll hurt us with his passing. That's what we don't want him to do.. if we can force him to take jumpshots, we should be able to contain him.

 

We have the adventage. Brandon Roy is phenomenal but come on, Ron and Shane (especially Shane) can take adventage of him.

I'd be more worried about Aldridge. Scola needs to make him work on defense.

 

Whatever we've done to Roy so far this season, keep doing it (aside from open 30 footers to win the game). He's shooting under 40% for the season series, and as their offensive threat that's a hell of an accomplishment for our defense.

However, LaMarcus Aldridge has had his way with everyone except Chuck Hayes, so if I were going to change the way I guarded a particular player, it'd be him. I'd rather not double team him because the Blazers have so many shooters (Roy, Blake, Batum, Outlaw, Fernandez) so it's up to our defenders to really crowd him without picking up cheap fouls.

Aldridge has also caused problems on the defensive end of the court. He's averaged 2.7 blocks per game against us this season. That's way up from his 0.9 average. It's good that he's being aggressive though because it makes him more prone to foul trouble. Get him a couple of early whistles and that could be a huge key for our success.

 

Absolutely play them straight....no double teams. For some reason, when the Rockets rely on other teams to miss shots, they don't. We have the defensive depth to match-up at each and every position one-on-one, so we should use that to our advantage. The Blazers don't have that luxury with Yao Ming, and are going to have to resort to fronting sooner or later, which would mean a second defender having to slide over from the weak side. If Adelman can somehow figure out a way to GET YAO THE BALL when he's being fronted, we have good enough shooters to make the Blazers pay.

 

i think you're over analyzing roy, he's a great player no doubt, but he's not really a creator-type, he doesnt create for the blazers like say, Lebron, or tmac use to do for houston. He can make the obvious pass, but he doesnt have great vision, great passing skills, etc. We've kept him in check for all 3 games, making shoot a lot to get his 20 per, so i wouldnt worry too much about him, or at least wouldnt decide the defende based on him like you're suggesting. Just put BOTH ron and shane on him ALL game so they can dog him and mess up his rythm, and that's all you need to do, it's worked, no need to tweak.

Portland has some very solid one on one players in outlaw, aldridge, bayless, and Rudy. Batum is solid off the dribble as well. Frye's got some post moves too. Really only blake needs to be set up and even he doesnt have to be wide open to let a 3 fly, so he can hurt you anytime as well.

the key is going to be houston's offense. On defense just play them straight up, don't let down the defensive intensity, and that's it.

 

Won't be able to stop Roy. Our pg's are no where near his level.

the plan should be to try to contain Roy. He will get his points though.

bust the front. feed yao quick and often.

battier must be big. artest must be big.

i think bbarry could be the key. i fully expect vwafer and abrooks to be overwhelmed. hope i am wrong.

 

roy isn't a point guard....and barry probably won't play much. Wafer should get his and brooks has actually done well against Portland...

 

Portland's gameplan: Pick and Roll with Roy and whoever is guarding Yao. Its been so effective in all the games Rockets played aganist Portland. Rockets need to learn how to shut that down or Portland will be scoring at will!

 

Yao will be guarded by Przybilla, who has similar range to a guy like Dwight Howard. Running a PnR with him doesn't put Yao in much of a bind at all. If Aldridge or Frye is guarding Yao, their only real size will be on the perimeter shooting jumpers. Aldridge can hit from outside, but it's still better than him taking Scola into the post. So unless Portland's bigs are hitting consistently from outside, it opens up the defensive boards (where the Rockets are great) and the long rebounds fuel the fast break.

 

Contain Roy and Aldridge (even try to neutralize him with Hayes) and stop everybody else.

With the Blazers having 2 traditional centers (Pryzbilla and Oden), Deke should play so that Yao doesn't have to log extra heavy mins and get winded.

I expect the Rockets to win in 6.

 

Totally agree....I expect Deke to play a big role in this series.

 

portland will try to run every pick and roll with Yao guarding Roy. thats what worries me. a good pick and roll will always kill us because yao never steps out.

 

Although I would love to see it, do you seriously think RA will play Deke at all without Yao or Chuck being hurt?

 

Stop or Roy or the Blazers? We can stop them both. Especially if we put Hayes on Aldridge. +7 win margin if we play loose.

 

No need to double Roy. Doubling perimeter players usually isn't the greatest idea in the first place, let alone doubling a tremendous passer/playmaker like Roy that sees everything and can make literally any pass.

We'll obviously need to match Battier and Artest's minutes with Roy's in order to neutralize any switching they will try off the PnR. That way, if they screen and manage to get Shane off of him he'll have to deal with Artest on the switch and vice versa.

As for Aldridge: keep him away from the basket and dare him to take those 15-20 footers he's prone to take. I can live with that since he's only about a 41% shooter from that range despite how many shots he takes from there. We definitely should utilize Hayes during some stretches too. Throw plenty of looks at him, don't let him get comfortable in the post.

 

The way I see it, there are three people that need to be held in check:

1. Brandon Roy. Shouldn't be too hard with Battier/Artest rotating on him.

2. LaMarcus Aldridge. I don't think Scola and Landry can take him, honestly, so I expect to see Chuck get some significant minutes in this series.

3. Travis Outlaw. The guy is a shooting machine. He should be seeing Battier/Artest a lot, too.

Reduce those 3 players' effectiveness, and the series will be a snap.

 

With Ron and Shane being on this team it would make more sense to play Roy straight up.