The Rockets stop running the offense in the fourth, sometimes, because they take their foot off the gas and get a little overconfident. Good teams play a consistent 48 minutes of defense, like the Rockets did tonight. When the game's on the line all teams kick it up a notch in intensity but the idea that NBA teams consistently only turn it on the fourth is ridiculous. That's a good way to get yourself into a 20 point hole after three quarters. At that point, what's the point of even playing the fourth? What you can't seem to understand is that with Adelman's motion offense the whole team is the playmaker. Keep the ball moving, keep cutting hard without the ball and the Rockets will be fine.
You seriously think teams play at the same level intensity in the first 3 quarters as they do the last 3 minutes of a close game? i don't really know where you derived the notion that this works. bibby had to explode for adelman's teams to take off in the playoffs. everyone knew c-webb crumbled under pressure and the interior defenses suddenly weren't so porous in the 4th. this is like common standard knowledge. even reggie miller and marv albert touched on the need for a playmaker in the playoffs, briefly in the 1st quarter.
What part of "when the game's on the line all teams kick it up a notch" do you not understand? No, if you actually watched the Kings you'd know that they'd get a bunch of guys to step up. They were never the same team after Bobby Jackson got traded. You may not like the motion offense, you might not like the balanced scoring. But you're not the coach, and so long as Adelman's the coach the Rockets need to follow his direction and do what he says. That's why this team has taken off since T-Mac left.
Thats not true. YM's efficiency just got much better in the 4th quarter when play against Portland the day before yesterday! He has been much more clutch this season.
uh, that's the whole point. i didn't claim teams don't play hard in the first 3 quarters. my point was that there is some variable of intensity that can be differentiated between earlier in the game and crunch time. unless this is some kind of exercise in semantics and the term "notch" doesn't mean what i think it does, you're basically making my case for me here. i have no idea how the trade of bobby jackson has any relevance to this discussion. my frame of reference was during their peek when he was on the team. and no, it was pretty well documented that mike bibby came up HUGE for them down the stretch in the playoffs. peja was a known choker as was c-webb. talk about revisionism on your part, this was basically common knowledge narrative during those years. ummm ok, i guess if this is your rebuttal, sure, i'm not the coach, let me go ahead and log out of clutchfans and cease all discussion. brilliant, you have me sold!
So in other words your point is that the Rockets shouldn't force the ball in to Yao in the last three minutes of close games, as compared to the entirety of the fourth quarter or the last three minutes of a blow out? I actually agree with you. Don't force the ball in to Yao. Play the offense and the ball will just end up in Yao's hands in a good spot on the floor naturally. Kind of like Brooks' assist to Yao in the circle tonight for the slam over LeBron. Go back and actually read what I wrote. "No, if you actually watched the Kings you'd know that they'd get a bunch of guys to step up." In context does that maybe imply that Bobby Jackson was one of those guys who stepped up? My point stands--when the pressure was on the Kings stepped up as a team. Bobby Jackson was a huge part of that and he wasn't even a starter.
Well good then, that was easy. Again, my point is simple. Every team needs a direction. The coach provides that. So long as Adelman is the coach the team needs to fall in line and follow his orders. Maybe you don't like the idea of the motion offense. Maybe you don't like the idea of the balanced attack. That's irrelevant to the question of what the Rockets should do--so long as Adelman's in charge they do what he tells them to do. To beat a dead horse, T-Mac couldn't do that and the result was drama and distractions. And while you may not like the motion offense Adelman's sold on it. He's got a better than .600 record lifetime and with the Rockets so I think I'm going to go with him over you.
The entire premise behind this thread is the closing minutes of close games... Did you seriously think I meant to avoid him for the entire quarter? That play was an example of what they need to try, but in the context of a close game. Instead of standing around trying to force it in to Yao when he's being fronted, let Aaron drive in and dish it off. That's my whole point. Sure, he stepped up. Sure, the whole team stepped up and played great. Relevance? None. We're talking about the closing minutes of close games. They almost ALWAYS ran pick and roll for Bibby. The whole talk was how Chris Webber seemingly ran away from the ball but they had Bibby to bail them out.
Huh? I get the sense you haven't even grasped the basis of this discussion. Who said I don't like the motion offense? It works great for 3 quarters. Who said I don't like the idea of a balanced attack? Talk about some terrible strawmen you've just constructed. Once again, I don't give a damn what they do all game. They can run the triangle offense for all I care. the focus of this thread is the closing minutes of close games when the team has completely crumbled. my thread is an exploration into solving the problems the team has faced and potential solutions. i have no idea when game strategy became taboo on the basis of not being the coach.
Your point is that the motion offense, for some weird reason, suddenly stops working in the fourth quarter. Then the Rockets need to go back to playing iso basketball with some star perimeter player. Garbage. If the motion offense can be stopped by intense defensive play then why would it be effective for even three quarters? An elite defensive team could simply shut down the Rockets for all four quarters, not just the fourth. That's as ridiculous as the idea that Yao can be shut down by fronting defenses. If that's all there is to it then why not just front him and be done with it? He should be averaging 5 points a game instead of 20.
Yeah, or keep whipping the ball around the perimeter to get the defense off balance. Or post up Artest or Scola. Or let Lowry penetrate. Or get the ball to Yao inside, let him kick it back out and repost. Or let Yao kick the ball to Wafer/Barry/Battier after the defense collapses on him. Etc. etc. etc. The Rockets don't need a superstar closer. The whole team can step it up and any number of games this season has shown that. Yao's a huge weapon, maybe the biggest brick in the wall, but he's not the whole wall. And I remember a lot of close games where they had multiple guys step up to get the win. Bobby Jackson used to be huge and he wasn't even a starter--sixth man of the year. Also it's not like Peja and Weber never closed out close game.
Why do you think JVG asked that same question aloud earlier this year? If you don't think Yao can be shut down by fronting defenses, I have to wonder how many of our games you've watched the past few years. He's been completely taken out of the game anytime anyone does it. If there were a legitimate rationale as to why teams don't do it more consistently, don't you think Jeff of all people would know?
lol, ok. i'm in a good mood too now with the winning streak, but good luck with that. let's try and be reasonable. if you can give me one example of a team winning a championship (other than the '94 rockets) of a team winning a title without an all-star ball handler, you get a prize. billups is an all-star, by the way. if you think peja and webber closed out close games, i have to assume we're not talking about the same basketball team. the whole story on the kings was how bibby carried them in the clutch. i don't know how you missed this unless you're writing your own script as you go along here.
i gave 3 reasons earlier in the thread. it takes too much energy, not having the right personnel (quick, long athletes), arrogance. that they don't do it all the time isn't dispositive of the fact that it's completely effective when applied. and its being applied in crunch time.
Correlation is not causation. Championship teams are usually made up multiple all-stars and considering there's five guys on the floor there's an excellent chance that one of the guard spots is going to be filled by an elite player. The knock on Weber and Peja was that they became invisible in the playoffs, especially Peja. As usual the conventional wisdom is only half true. I was a big time Kings fan and while Bibby was a big part of the team he was not the go to guy that you make him out to be. What you really don't understand is that while Bibby was a willing shooter he got those open looks at the basket because the team ran the motion offense consistently.
Yeah, like tonight obviously. Your reasons are ridiculous. Yes, fronting Yao takes a lot of energy but Yao expends an equal amount of energy wrestling with his defender. Do you really think "arrogance" is something that's tolerated in the NBA at the coaching level? Coaches and their staffs are professionals and they're paid large sums of money to win. Believing that they're too arrogant or whatever to front Yao is laughably ridiculous.
