You know what the problem is? They were making shots and we weren't! It is just that simple. If Tmac was making shots, if we have shooters like Reggie, Kerr, or Horry, Suns' playing out of position will get themselves killed every game! All they did was swamping Yao once he catchs the ball and force him to pass out for an open shot. We were missing those shots all night! Had we knocked down 3 trays in a row at the begining, they wouldn't have dared to play the game that way. They were also shooting light out. Our missing shots help that. I still remember that 4th quarter we played them last year. We were shooting lights out and they couldn't get the running game going and they couldn't buy a basket. So the bottomline is, the defense against Suns starts from your offense. Last night, we sucked big time on offense.
Good post! This kind of games differentiates a good coach from a great coach. Almost every time we play Lakers and Suns, we are out-coached.
The suns sent 3 players to yao every time he touches the ball, one guy would simply glue himeself to the back of Yao. We got countless open looks from the very begining. Any decent perimeter players in this league should be able to knock down those shots. We did it in that 4th quarter last year and we outscored them 20 pts in that one single quarter. That should've been the case every time they give you open looks on perimeter. I bet Suns' plan was to DT or TT Yao at the begining and see if our guards can make them pay. We couldn't and they just kept doing it.
Man, IMHO, we were flat because the players got lost at the right beginning which might have caused huge damage to them mentally. That got to have something to do with coaching. It looked to me like JVG didn't know all suns can shoot 3s.
JVG needs to shake up the starting lineup. Maybe go with Yao, T-Mac, Stro, Bogans and Alston. When the score was 17 to 5 in the 1st, game was over. Surround Yao with some athletes and see what happens. What does JVG have to lose. If he doesn't make a move, then he is just completely stubborn and Les Alexander needs to reconsider the coaching situation. Go young and athletic.
i saw the same thing you saw. but we tried to get the ball to yao.the smaller players swarmed him.. it was a nightmare for a coach. trust me
We just split two games on the road against two playoff teams. That, I can definately live with. And losing a blowout on the eve of the all-star break? Yeah, and I'm sure all of us put forth our best effort right up until 5:00pm every Friday too. These guys are human. Incredible athletic ability and huge bank accounts don't change human nature. They've dealt with a lot of injuries this season, but with Hayes and Bogans they've added some bench strength. Alston is now doing exactly what he was brought in to do. Barry is coming back into the rotation. Yao has been producing like we've all hoped he would. McGrady is a superstar who will have superstar numbers when all is said and done. JVG has more talent on this team than previous teams he's coached into the playoffs. For these reasons and more, I, for one, will definately be watching the Rockets every chance I get. A relatively healthy roster for 30 games will give this group a chance to build chemistry and for the role players to learn their roles. Whether they make the playoffs or not, these 30 games will be important for the future of the franchise. I suppose it's fortunate we don't play the Suns everynight, but I remember the Rockets tweaking their lineup after winning two championships specifically to deal with a Sonic team that soon after shipped Kemp to Milwaukee and retooled their roster. With free agency, injuries, roster turnover, coaching turnover, etc. the way it is, the Suns today won't be the Suns tomorrow.
This happens every year with a team like the Suns.They always look unbeatable in the regular season.But give a team time to watch tape of them and they figure out how to beat them. Their weakness will be exposed in the playoffs.
Nightmare????? Move Yao out from the basket about 3 feet. Tell your players to space properly and when their man leaves them, dive for the bucket. Nightmare???? Take out slow, flat footed Juwan, and run the pick and roll with Rafer and Stro right to the rim. Run the pick and roll with Yao. Take the ball to the rim, create contact, force the contact on the interior. Nightmare???? Put Yao and Stro down low and run TMac off a double screen down there sending him up to the high block. Then he can catch and shoot the little 16 footer, or dribble penetrate, or dump the ball back down for the dunk. Nightmare Put in Hayes and crash the boards. Realize we are gonna give up some FB points, do not overemphasize shutting them out in transition but emphasize a balance between getting back and having more than 1 guy on the glass. Nightmare??? Don't fire up 3 pointers, when we only have one guy that is closer than 12 feet from the bucket. Nightmare??? Emphasize ball movement and do not allow any player to stand and hold the basketball. They've either got to move and dribble it, shoot it, or pass it, forcing the Suns to have to react. You can slow the tempo down but still be moving fast. Slow down is not TMac dribbling down the clock at the top and everybody standing around. The slow down we want to run is with the ball constantly moving throughout the 24 second clock, forcing the defenders to wear down or give up the easy buckets. Move the basketball on them the way they move it on us. Psychologically, they will think they are doing their job when they allow a play to break down and let us get off an easy shot because they want to get the ball back faster. Nightmare???? On defense, get out on the shooters when they get hot and force the ball out and force them to dribble drive. Yeah, they're gonna get some easy buckets. Put in Deke when they start going to the hoop and make them shoot over him. Take the dribble penetration away from Nash as much as possible. We'd rather have him score 30 on jumpers and not be distributing than score 20 and get 12 dimes. Force the other players to handle and drive. Pick up Nash full court. Pressure the ball out of his hands up high by doubling him out high. Then pressure the shooters to dribble drive. Put them in their least favored position. Nightmare????? Coach man. Do your job.
You think coaching is that easy? Yao is not effective far from the basket. It's been a long time since he made his jumpers consistently from 15 feet out. If you pull Yao too far out of the paint, Suns won't need to DT him, and because Yao cannot drible, not around these quick midgets, there is little he can do out there. If you send Yao deep in the paint, Suns sent 2 3 players around him and the paint is so crowded that your passes are often deflected and even if a pass is not deflected, guys like Swift, Howard, and Wesley are likely to fumble the ball in crowd. The only sensible thing to do was kicking the ball out for open 3. That was what was tried but they couldn't make those shots. End of the story. Besides, when they are shooting like 60% from behind arc on volum shooting, I doubt it matters how Yao plays. We didn't give them many fastbreak pts. They had a hot shooting night and we had an icy cold one.
We still cannot guard p&r which Suns runs perfectly. So it is moot to say take away their penetraition or perimeter shooting. At this moment, not being able to guard p&r, the only way to beat Suns is to bet on their perimeter shooting. Making your own shots always help because it is harder to make jump shots when you fall behind, for any team!
No, last year, they looked veru much beatable to me, even in the regular season. We beat them twice on their court! We totally kicked their asses in those two games.
If you move Yao out 3 feet, he is now out about 10 feet or less from the basket, still plenty close enough to be deadly. Yao can nail that jumper, all day and all night. The reason it's been a long time is because he shoots about 1 a game from beyond 10 feet. Besides if you send yao to the paint and 2 or 3 Suns are there, then he should just drag them right to the lip and let the open man drop right into the FT line area and kill them with that short jumper. If Yao is at the rim with 2 or 3 defenders on him, there is at least one guy and most like 2 guys that are open and can dive to the high post for the high percentage wide open jump shot. You're making the Suns sound like the 72-10 Jordan Bulls. They ain't.
With 2-3 players around him, Yao cannot put the ball on the floor, all he can do is to either kick it out, or trun around to shoot a jumper with hands in his face. He did shot that turn around a few times but didn't make many. You also have to consider that these Suns players are quick runners, and they recover position very quickly. Any pass to much inside the arc is unlikely get open looks. I don't think the Suns can compare to the 72-10 bulls. But we ain't the jazz either. We don't have deadeye shooters. Our players are slow, no one except Tmac has quick release.
Come on man. I didn't say put the ball on the floor. And everybody knows, you could have Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis running, and they can't run as fast as a thrown ball. That's why I said, back him out 3 to 5 feet further outside of where he was in the low block to help create the spacing so that we can effectively dive to the rim for the layups. Lame response.
I read an article that quoted Larry Brown after his last games with the Mavs, he said that in the 4th qtr he saw Dampier, KVH, Stackhouse, Daniels and Harris on the floor running up and down the floor crushing the Knicks and he realized that was their 2nd team. The real problem is how do we upgrade our talent to compete with the top teams in the league like the Mavs and Suns that have more shooters than you can shake a stick at? I marvel at the Suns that after losing JJ and Q they have not missed a beat, they pick up Bell and House as free agents and get Diaw and picks for JJ, they have not only built a team for the present but their future looks bright as well. I also love what the Mavs have done with their team.
Well, you must believe that most coachs in the league are as incompetent as JVG, because they have same trouble with Suns as we do. Diaw gets to play 5 because Suns have found out they can get away with that. Don't tell me that Yao is the only C who has a huge size advantage on the Suns. The fact remains that we do NOT have the players to play the game you proposed. Swift and Howard have TERRIBLE hands. Wesly, Head, and Rafer cannot get a layup unless it is a fastbreak.(have you seen Wesley and Head drive into a crowded paint? It is UGLY) How do you expect us to play like the Kings a few years back when we don't have that kind of player? I am not saying JVG has no weakness, but he IS a NBA coach while you aren't for some reason. Last night, the problem was with our shooting. had we knocked down shots like in the Clippers game, everything would've been different. We blew away Suns last year in that 4th quarter because Barry, Sura, Wesley, and Tmac knocked down 3's again and again when Suns focused on Yao. And that is still the way to beat them.
Most coaches do not have a 7'6" skilled big man and a 6'9" do everything swingman who can score from anywhere on the floor. By the way, there have been many coaches that have beaten Phoenix, some of them by isolating Nash with the ball, some of them by denying Nash the ball, and some of them by forcing Phoenix to defend. I have never said nor do I believe Van Gundy is incompetent. I have said and I do believe Van Gundy is hard-headed and has a tendacy to try to force players to play in ways that accentuates their weaknesses instead of their strengths. Him and LB are a lot alike in that regard. We can't afford that at this point in the season. He's had 2 1/2 seasons to get the roster to his liking. Now, we've got to go with what we've got for the time being and play to our strengths and the coach has to help strategize us to the playoffs, not blame the players for their lack of effort, desire, etc. etc. etc. It's time to step to the plate. Van Gundy could use some flexibility in his coaching to take him from being a very good coach to a great coach.
God I love your posts! It sound like me screaming at the TV. Why use Yao every single play like a Ewing clone? Recently I saw him float down the lane from the top of the key and catch a pass and score! He can do it. He has so many aspects to his game that are not being used. His usage by Gundy is 99.9% predictable, and the Suns know that. And I am still asking why in his first four years with pesky guards and the center all over him has he not even once accidentally knocked one of those guards on their tails while he spins to his left to the hoop? 7'6" with an elbow about 6'-6" high and his weight of about 315 will knock a guy 6'4" and 200 lbs a good distance on a spin move. There is a reason small players leave certain big men alone. Yao is not one of them.
