No, this is not another sina rumor.. calm down .. I am getting exceedingly tired of the old Scola-Mac pick and roll every single time Tmac touches the ball.. it seems like we don't run anything for Tmac other than stupid pick and rolls.. for a smaller player, pick and rolls are ideal. for late in the game situations, pick and rolls are ideal. but using it excessively is just r****ded.. Tmac cannot score or "let his will take over " or whatever you wanna call it with 2 guys hanging on his waist. He is only left with 2 options: 1. pass the ball to an under pressure player and reset the offense (since we don't have good rollers to the basket other than Chuck Hayes) and 2. everybody's favorite: fade away 22 footer that goes in & out, breaks the rim, or go in when he is hot (very rarely as of late) .. he has been criticized a million times for not driving to the basket, but if you think about it, how in god's name is he gonna take it to the basket with his defender and the pick n' roll help defender on him? which gets me to my point: we should iso Tmac frequently in the game and let him do his thing (that's of course if he approves of being isoed, which I don't think there will be a problem there) .. and no, iso isn't meant to be taken literally here, I mean the baketball term, isolation that is .. when he is isoed and we have shooters spreading the floor, he will have a lot of room to drive to the basket and make stuff happen instead of settling for the outside shot. That was basically his whole game back in Orlando, top of the key isolations and he would just get by his defender with his quickness and smoothness.. now please don't tell me "he has lost a step" , he hasn't lost anything IF he doesn't make himself believe that he "lost" something.. The dude is still quicker than 90% of the defenders.. heck, AK47 once said in an interview that Tmac is the toughest player to guard in the league (yes, Kobe was in the league when AK said that) .. please Rick, iso Tmac more.. and while we're at it, let's stop playing mind game and start playing the guys that were meant to play: me and you and Adelman and everyone knows that Francis still has "it" and this B.S tendinitis, which almost every professional sports player has, isn't the reason why he can't play.. and no, being past his prime isn't the reason either. and the Mike James guy, we know what he wants, he wants his minutes, he wants his respect.. he is a nutcase and a d!#khead, no doubt about it, but you took the risk when you traded for him, you gotta live with it.. start playing him.. enough Rafer already, he has bricked shots more than Kim Kardashian has screwed random guys.. I like the Brooks guy, but in certain games (see: Deron Williams), he can't match up well with the opponent, that's when you play James.. I liked this game, I wasn't expecting a win without Yao, and I am content with the margin of the loss.. I was glad to see Battier hit shots, I loved watching Novak in that stretch in the 3rd quarter.. but we didn't keep going to him, and when Sloan made the adjustment, we didn't, and we paid for it..
Why would you do that? To watch him dominate the ball and shoot off balance jumpers? Yeah, that is a great idea...wait he does that already. DD
It seems people want to keep blaming our offense, just like game 7 last year. Offense in the fourth quarter wasn't the problem then, and it wasn't the problem tonight either. If you allow your opponent to score 37 points in the fourth quarter, you don't deserve to win the game.
It seems like all the good teams figure out ways to adjust to us and we rarely are able to adjust in response. That may be coaching or it may be that we don't have enough scoring threats. The Rockets would be served well to have another perimeter player that can score consistently, whether it is shooting or driving or both. It could be a PG like Parker or Bibby or an offensive-minded swingman to replace Battier. It could be a PF. Maybe Scola will be the answer. The bottom line is that as good as players like Shane, Chuck and Rafer, to an extent, are at doing the little things, we need to replace one of them with an offensively-capable player. A consistent third option in our starting lineup is what this team needs to go to the next level. We need to have a player or two that can do the little things, but 60% of our starting lineup can not be this offensively inept. It's really amazing we are even a mediocre team with that many offensively-challenged players getting regular minutes, often at the same time. It is a testament to the abilities of Tracy and Yao that we are ever even mentioned as contenders.
It was the primary problem. I don't care how well we execute our "Adelman" offense, you can't just expect to score 38 points in a quarter with it. That's how much we would have had to score just to send the game into overtime, because the defense sucked so bad. 30 points should be plenty to win a game, when the score is practically tied heading into the final quarter.
That is true. When T-Mac took ball and did not share the ball, what would you expect? He took 30% shots of the team. I am wondering why we need PG in this team if T-Mac sticks to ball so much? The ball needs to move for our team to win the playoff spot and pass the first round. If other players couldn't touch the ball, I wouldn't expect high level of the team effects on defense. That is exactly what happened in the fourth quarter.
We really needed Deke to clog up the middle defensively. Then we needed our perimeter players to play good help defense which I think our players forgot how to do tonight.
30pts should have won the game but the D like you say was the key for this loss. I don't why RA didn't stick to the lineup in the end that won a game in Portland?
Same as Yao, actually Tmac also has a cold, although it is not as serious as Yao's. I think Tmac did ok tonight.
Exactly, no players are designed to play "defense" only. No involvment in offerense definitly imply no defense effort. That truth has been proved many times. Today it is just reverified. When I saw T-mac started jump-shooting before his teammates came back, I knew it would definitely lose the game. As T-Mac said, why "he needs to change"?
Ok, here goes... When someone dominates the ball on offense ala Tmac the rest of the players stand around and do not get involved, and thus they get lazy, and this permeates the team and their effort level decreases on both sides of the court. So, when he is over there chucking, the rest of the team is watching and then on defense their effort will wane as well. When players are engaged, ala touching the ball and feel involved they work harder all over the floor. Now, I am not blaming TMac for this loss, but all those missed Free throws, and lack of playing as a team really hurt. The didn't run Novak around screens for a shot once in the 4th quarter, all they did was Iso Tmac and run the high PnR, and for the most part, Tmac settled for jumpers. It was a recipe for disaster. DD
this: then this: ummkay.. We couldn't run Novak around screens because they were switching everything on him and they had harpring right on him, that's exactly when Adelman should've taken him out and went small to create another match up problem.. oh, and FYI, high PnR doesn't count as isolation.. Tmac wasn't iso'd a single time in this game.. Adelman always had someone come over and bring his defender with him to guarantee us a jump shot from Tmac.. there's no way in hell Brewer, AK, or anyone on that damn team could've stayed with Tmac 1 on 1.. he would've taken them right to the rim (if he wanted to, and if we ran iso's for him, iso's as in him at the top of the key and shooters spreading the floor.. notice I said shooters, and no, Rafer the Wafer isn't considered a shooter) .. The only one who could prevent Mac from driving was Derek Fisher because he is quicker (which is why Mac started shooting over him in the playoffs), but guess what? the r****ded flopping ugly shot Fish is not on that team anymore, which means that Tmac could've murdered them if we iso'd him.. all it takes is determination on his part all it takes is utilization on Adelman's part I am not sure about the first one, but I know for a fact that the latter is lacking.. so until I see some iso's for Tmac and see him still chucking, I will give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he has the heart of a champion (yeah right..) ..
They didn't run him off screen in the third quarter either. All his perimeter baskets came off T-Mac high PnR plays. His man would help off him, and McGrady got him the ball. In the fourth quarter, Novak's defender stuck to him ... which gave McGrady more room to shoot (which he did, shooting 5-8 in the quarter).
I agree with the thread creator, an have been saying this since before the season (anyone remember the topic dsoung posted for me where I explained the difference between Orlando T-Mac and Houston T-Mac>). When T-Mac is in an iso 18ft out on the wing, he tends to be a lot more agressive on the drive due to the angles, and that is where his jumpshot is its most effective. It also promotes better shot selection when he catches the ball within 20ft or so. The pick and roll crap needs to go...it stalls the offense and doesn't take advantage of T-Mac's scoring. Use T-mac as an offensive option, not the offense.
