Yao had a bad first half because he sat with foul trouble. We used up so much energy in the comeback the bottom fell out in the 4th quarter. The good thing about playing the Suns is a 17 point lead isn't safe, for them. With a full team, I bet we would have kept rolling and blown them out like two seasons ago, when we won by 20 after trailing by 14 midway in the 3rd quarter. A fully healthy Rockets team is the ideal antidote to the Suns. I hope we face them in the playoffs.
You could be right about Head being the best choice for Barbosa, but I don't agree he is easy to take away half court or not. Having him play after the Bell suspension really changed the dynamic for the Suns from PJ view--presented difficult challenges for his Lakers to match-up, and Barbosa is better than he was last year. After Nash and Amare he IMO is the 3rd challenge; Marion (I agree with both your takes), Bell, Diaw are much easier to control by playing fundamental individual d. Well I wouldn't take too much from those regular season games. Yao is a beast for the Suns to account for. And I strongly believe he versus Suns centers is our high percentage option over Tmac versus Bell. Yao doing well offensively also makes Amare work (and maybe press himself). I think the trap is Tmac gets hot and takes too many quick jumpers. Tmac (or say Kobe) can win some games by outshooting the Suns, but not series that way. I think our bread and butter should be deliberate, inside out and through Yao 1st. The Suns may be athletic but they have not developed a seemless defense with quick traps, unpredictable doubles, and overplaying passing lanes the way say the Mavs are. Yao should chew up the basic Suns d.
I think you put a match up zone on them now i know what ur thinking, theyll kill us with the threes, but that defense worked on a very similiar team, the 1991 LA Lakers when the bulls did it to magic johnson and beat them
I disagree. I think we're just as good at controlling the tempo as Phonix. We are talking two very different tempos, but we can slow games down the same way Phoenix speeds games up. Patience is the key.
Durvasa is right in that we play smallball better without Yao than with Yao. But that doesn't really matter because no team can match Phoenix with a small ball line-up, no matter how close they get. Yao Chuck Battier T-Mac Alston Off the bench: Deke/Jake, Wells/Snyder, and Head. We go with an 8-man rotation, tell them it will take incredible mental strength to patiently pound them ALL game long and hit the boards harder than ever. The thing is, I believe this team has tremendous mental strength. Fact of the matter is, Amare has improved as a rebounder, but it's not hard to keep him off the boards. Nash is a horriffic rebounder. Raja is mediocre. So if we're pounding them like crazy on the boards, they will be forced to play a bigger (and slower) line-up of Amare, Kurt Thomas and Marion in the frontcourt. At which point, we STICK to our gameplan and do what they do to us... Beat them at OUR game, not their game.
how to beat the suns: play Tmac at point put bonzi at shotty g put shane at small f put chucky at pwr for and yao at 5 have shane gaurd nash have mac guard marion basically offense will be mac brings ball up dumps down to yao on low block clear out, backs down gets doubled kiks out kick back into bonzi on high block rinse and repeat
I disagree. That series was practically played without any defense , precisely because Popovic tried to match their small ball. The tactic did not work , because he often played a line-up of parker, finley , ginobili, bowen and duncan... After Duncan gets beat no one else is there to block the shot. when someone is driving down the lane you in such a crucial moment... and you have a small line-up on the floor things like that are more probably going to happen. Contrast that with the Miami approach, I distinctly remember Dirk getting stuffed quite a lot when he drove to the rim because the Heat played a balanced lineup. Dirk is only an average penetrator but if you let guys like Ginobili or Finley become your second defender , he virtually becomes impossible to stop inside. In my opinion, popovic really blew it for the Spurs because he somehow refused to play Mohammed or Nesterovic who were contributing in the regular season.
The Spurs could've easily won that game and the series would not even have gone that far if they did not try to match Dallas' small ball. The previous seasons, they really had Dallas' number. Basically, if you have a lineup of parker, finley, ginobili, bowen and Duncan.... Devin Harris will go nuts inside and Dirk will take it to the hole every time. Again that is why that was such a high-scoring game and that is why Devin Harris became the celebrity he was at the time. Against the heat's balanced line-up , Harris suddenly was a non-factor. But Avery Johnson should be credited also, he transformed Dirk from a three-point shooter ( mainly Don Nelson's training) into more of an inside player , posting up , spotting up closer , and driving when the opportunity presents itself.
do anyone put in account that the suns have a 7 man rotation and they play thier starters 40+ minutes a game that they might ware themselves out b4 the playoffs.
It hasn't hurt them the last two playoffs. They just lost to better teams. If either Kurt Thomas or Amare had been healthy against the Mavs, the Suns would have been in the Finals last season. The prior season, the Spurs were just better any way you look at it. But there are a few people who partially blame fatigue on them losing to the Mavs. I disagree. Lack of depth in the front court did them in.
well.. you need speed to defend the Suns, unless you can get them to play at slow pace which is a hard thing to do. Suns are FAST.. Yao, Mutombo, Bonzi, Juan, they are going to have tons of trouble chasing guys like Marion, Amare, Barbosa, etc..
you mean back in the illegal defense days when match-up zones where not allowed. I think you are confusing an excellent rotation defense with a match-up zone. Ehsan, Saying we need more speed to beat Phoenix, imo, is not about how we use that speed on offense; it is because we need it for the defensive end of the court against them. We also need better natural rebounding, because they spread you so much, we can't team rebound like we usually do.
It would tire them out if they played defense. But since they don't.... I am much worried about a short Rocket rotation because of so much effort put in on defense. Other defensive minded coaches (PJ, Riley, Popv) use deeper rotations and only play their stars over 33MPG. I think we can get away with one slow footed big, but not two. Yao should be paired with Hayes or Battier as the PF for the most part. Howard and Deke's minutes would be less this series, you don't want Howard to have to play Amare or Marion. Howard can play Thomas or perhaps here and there Diaw.
I agree with that assessment. Also, Last season was the coming out party of Desagana Diop. His shotblocking presence inside was the reason Steve Nash could not penetrate as effectively as before. Against Erick Dampier the previous season, Nash was unstoppable and lit them up for 40 plus on consecutive nights. The presence and intimidation of a good shotblocking center can never be discounted. On the other hand, the Suns lack of depth in the front court virtually opened up things for Dallas' penetrating guards. This has been Avery johnson's philosophy ever since he became their coach, there has been more emphasis on penetration. Also recalling the 2005 playoffs, we really got beat on the penetration of their guards. I don't know if it would've worked for us but teams have played two centers before to effectively shut down penetration. The early Spurs days of Duncan and Robinson, and Even Stan Van Gundy's stint with the Heat where he played Shaq and Zo together show that a superior frontcourt can dominate defensively. Basically when duncan and robinson played together, if Duncan got beat, robinson was there to cover for him and vice versa. Same with Zo and Shaq. At least during the 2005 playoffs, I felt we could've tried playing Yao and Deke together and see what happens instead of getting blown out by 30 because guys like Darell armstrong were driving past yao and there was no secondary shotblocker. But this would not be feasible against the Suns because they shoot well outside.
You guys have a better handle on the Barbosa problem now? He may present more problems for us than Terry or Parker. Last night was no fluke, the guy is such an efficient scorer and smooth natural athlete. We don't have a good option for him, maybe Snyder.
The fact of the matter is we don't have the personnel to keep in front of quick perimeter players. Snyder isn't going to help and neither is V-span. We're just going to hope that Tmac and Yao's greatness overcomes our role players' deficiencies.
SIZe!!!! That is one thing that I noticed in this game even with Yao Ming on the Court we still looked short against their starters! IMO In this game we played very little defence, infact most Phoenix shots were open clear looks at the basket.Is it that we didn't or we couldn't?
