The Reason We Beat Miami and Should The Style Continue?

agreed, offensive rebounds are somewhat fools gold. get back on d

 

Did not watch the game, but I'm pretty sure it's the same as always when Dwight can't play - midgets put in more effort (compared to no effort when Dwight is available) on defense.

 

Transition D has been awful this year because we go for that offensive rebound.

DD

 

Great post Don and I have to agree. I heard a post game interview(forget who it was but I think it was jb) who said the gameplay was to keep Miami out of the paint at all costs. They were selling out to protect the paint in Dwight's absence. Stated that Miami scores most of their points inside the paint and they aimed to deter that.

If you look at the box scores you can see the defense was much much better after the first quarter where they scored something like 22 points in the paint. They did make a few early second quarter 3s but slowly started settling into their season average of very inefficient 3pt %.

Obviously this was a game plan designed directly towards a certain opponent but I wouldn't mind focusing on it more like you said. Although it won't work as well against better shooting teams. With Dwight we don't have to focus on protecting the paint as much with our wing players. It hurts tho because when Dwight rotated we are weak defensively at the 4 spot.

Last year we emphasized defense at the rim and on the 3pt line and this had a good defense. Smith and Dmo helped last year with protecting the paint at the 4 so his loss hurts.

But we still aren't protecting the 3pt line well enough at all. And we are not in the passing lanes disrupting plays and getting turnovers nearly as much as last year.

 

an example of some GOOD coaching by JB for a change. Hope people notice.

 

To be honest, there were many games like this we lost earlier this season where we moved the ball well, had open shots, but just missed them and we didn't defend. The offense is fine, we just need to replicate what we did defensively the last 3 quarters.

 

While it's all good points, for me it was simply making shots and at least effort on defense for about 2,5 to 3 quarters for most players.

 

Good thread. Zach Lowe agrees with your premise:

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/1...se-left-offensive-rebounds-cutting-room-floor

He also points to the Rockets as one of the worst culprits:

It's also unclear if extra scavenging for second chances is the reason some of these teams hemorrhage fast-break points. The Suns, Kings and Rockets of the past two seasons have all fallen into the category of teams that chase offensive boards and suffer for it on the other end. They also all have terrible habits. Houston's floor balance has been awful all season; corner shooters just chill during James Harden drives, so that if he misses at the rim, four Houston players are below the foul line -- a recipe for fast-break death. The Suns loiter around the paint. DeMarcus Cousins is constantly lollygagging in transition, and the Kings have been a mess for a decade.

 

Clint Capela should sit - that's working.

Rockets fast-breaking is better when Dwight and Capela are out because Harden, Smith etc are better at initiating off the rebound.

Dwight and Clint suck at outletting. I forgot who but somebody put togehter a long post about this a month ago or so, but it seems to be even more prescient now.

 

that was me!

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=271645


Last's night game was good but there was still a huge problem defensively for this team. The Heat got a lot of easy looks inside and thoroughly outrebounded the Rockets yesterday usually thats a formula for disaster.

 

I think one guy maybe should go after offensive rebounds - preferably the guy who's man is getting the defensive rebound - and everyone else should run back.

This is a good temporary solution though given our issues with transition defense. I feel like it might have even convinced the players to look for higher quality shots knowing we're bailing on the offensive rebound.

 

Good defense in the seconds half

 

Reason we won?

meh, Rockets are 6-0 when someone is suspended.

 

one game cant say too much. imo it's the defense that made a diff. last night. it was a little better, esp. the transition d.

w/ dwight and capela not playing, we'd lose the rebounding battle. it's to be expected. it's not a "style". rather it's a specific game plan to get back quicker on d.

our offense in comparison isnt the #1 issue. it's been the defense; of the lack thereof. all season long.

 

I was looking for this a couple of weeks ago when howard was sitting and Smith first came back.

Seemed like what was happening was exactly what you wrote.

 

The team had a high shooting percentage, especially from 3 (which leads to more offensive rebounds typically).

No Dwight, no Capela, high FG%, and one would expect fewer offensive rebounds.

It was classic small ball, and worked last night.

My personal view is that the bigger story, stylistically, is how much better a fit a guy like Smith is with Harden than Dwight is.

Even though Dwight is on paper the better defender, even defensively someone like Smith is better.... or for whatever reason seems to work better.

 

We give up way too many offensive rebounds, especially when Dwight's out. I believe we are the 6th worse team in the league in opponents offensive rebounding. We gave up 13 last night, 2 more than our average.

So frustrating to play 24 seconds of good D, then have some little guy like Wade sneak in and get an easy put-back. Opponents are definitely being coached to do this. Happens all the time with us and it's always a momentum-killer.

 

Small ball

Smith at center worked last night. Trade Howard go small and run run run!!! thoughts?

 

Good Post. Rox might be better off if Howard should be rotating in and out of the lineup frequently to keep the flow going and not bogged down same with Capela...just my opinion tho.